Vietnam tries ex-trade boss for US garment graft
Daily Times, Pakistan
HANOI: A former vice minister of trade went on trial on Tuesday on charges of accepting thousands of dollars in bribes involving garment and textiles exports to the United States.
The former official, his son and 12 others are the latest among dozens of officials to be prosecuted for graft in recent years as Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party makes fighting corruption one of its major policies.
The main defendant in the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court is Mai Van Dau, who was arrested in November 2004 while he was vice minister of trade, on charges of abuse of office.
Later, he was also charged with receiving bribes totalling $6,000 from textile manufacturers. The firms sought an increase in their export quota allocation above the amount permitted by government regulations. The Southeast Asian country’s textile and garment exports to the United States grew to $2.6 billion in 2005 from $48 million in 2001 after the two countries signed a free trade deal that year, slashing import tariffs.
Dau’s son, Mai Thanh Hai, a former official at the export/import department of the Trade Ministry, was arrested in September 2004 on suspicion of receiving bribes of $35,000, according to state media reports.
Dau’s aide, Le Van Thang, a former deputy director of the Trade Ministry’s import-export department, is among the defendants, the People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City said in a statement. The trial is expected to last 10 days, state media reported. reuters
