TuoiTreNews continues to list the most memorable quotes from high-profile figures in the last year.

>> 10 most memorable quotes of 2011

Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang. Photo: VNN

6- “Honesty is associated with finishing last. Honest people are considered fools”

SGTT, August 8

Doctor Dang Canh Khanh, former director of the Institute for Youth Research, talked about the alarming situation where over 40% of young people said they would not hesitate to resort to dishonesty to get into a good company and get involved in bribery if that brings them benefits.

The said poll by Germany-based Transparency International and Vietnam’s Center for Community Support Development Studies surveyed 1,022 people aged 15-30 and 524 people of older ages in 11 Vietnamese localities last year.

Among these older respondents, 43 percent said they would act against values of integrity for their own benefits, such as being admitted to a high-quality school or getting a job at a well-paying company.

41 percent of young respondents said accusations of corruption wouldn’t matter to them.

7- “If yours is a state-owned company owing money to other state-owned companies, there’s no need to worry about debts. Keep your production lines running”

VNEconomy, September 13

Phung Dinh Thuc, director of state-owned Petro Vietnam lamented about the huge debts borne by the electricity sector. As of September 2011, Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) owes Thuc’s company VND10 trillion (more than US$476 milliion).

In total, the debt of EVN has exceeded VND240 trillion ($11.4 billion) as of 2010, according to a recent report from the State Audit of Vietnam.

8- "Investors must hold their breath but it can be their last breath if they hold it for too long”

Tien Phong, October 22

Legislator Tran Du Lich from Ho Chi Minh City described the difficulty of investors in the context of slow economic restructuring, high bad debt ratio, poor-performing stock market and the sluggish/frozen real estate sector.

9- “Government goals must be few in number. Tens or even hundreds of such goals make them no goals”

Vietnamplus October 31

Dinh Xuan Thao, head of the National Assembly’s Institute for Legislative Study, complained about the high number of national targets set for 2011-2015. Many, he said, are overlapping.

The 16 national goals are estimated to cost VND276 trillion in 2011-2015, up 4-fold against the needed budget for 12 goals in 2006-2010.

Some lawmakers fear that raising such a big amount of money would be challenging when top priorities are to curb inflation and stabilize the macro economy.

10- “The quality of the public bus system is such that I dare not take it. How can I force others to go to work by bus?”

Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang talked about inadequate facilities and poor service quality on the public bus.

Thang had earlier called on his subordinates to use buses in an effort to reduce traffic jams.

Last October, a driver of a Hanoi bus and his assistant were sacked for assaulting and humiliating a passenger.

Just last month, a woman in Dong Nai Province complained to Tuoi Tre that she was beaten by a bus ticket collector who was the same age as her children.

There’s also the issue of pickpocketing on the bus.

Source: Tuoitrenews