36 billion usd to inr

Diageo Vietnam donates VND3 billion to vaccination program

March 6, 2021 by english.thesaigontimes.vn

Diageo Vietnam donates VND3 billion to vaccination program

The Saigon Times

Jos Duursema, Chief Operating Officer of Diageo Vietnam Limited, has donated VND3 billion to the fundraising appeal “Making COVID-19 Vaccine Contributions with Tuoi Tre” – PHOTO: DIAGEO VIETNAM

Diageo Vietnam Limited (DVL) has donated VND3 billion to a vaccination program initiated by Tuoi Tre newspaper, making it one of the first businesses in the country to join hands with the media to help up to 10,000 frontline workers get vaccinated for free this year.

Jos Duursema, Chief Operating Officer of Diageo Vietnam, said as a British business operating in Vietnam, the company was proud to accompany and support the local communities in every possible way to protect their well-being and promote sustainable development for the country.

“Through partnerships with trusted partners, Diageo Vietnam hopes to secure more opportunities to access effective prevention and treatment for Covid-19, hence empowering Vietnamese people with the freedom to live a healthy and successful life,” Duursema said.

He said the sense of values and purposes guides Diageo’s business operations and social activities on a global scale.

Last June, Diageo Vietnam partnered with the Central Committee of Vietnam Fatherland Front to present the Ministry of Health with hand sanitizer bottles worth VND670 million, alongside its campaign “Clean Serve by Diageo” which provided sanitizing kits and guidelines for more than 315 bars and clubs across the country.

Vietnam rehearses Covid-19 vaccine transport to prepare for mass inoculation

March 6, 2021 by e.vnexpress.net

Two staff of the Vietnam Vaccine JSC (VNVC), importer of Covid-19 vaccines to Vietnam, stand outside a freezer where the vaccines are kept. As required by the vaccine’s developers, British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca and Oxford University, the doses are being kept at a temperature of minus 2-8 degrees Celcius. VNVN had started work to make a freezer and super-cold storage in Ho Chi Minh City in October and November last year when Vietnam was still in the step of negotiating to buy the vaccine. Last Wednesday, 117,600 doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine arrived in Ho Chi Minh City on a flight from Seoul. They are the first batch of 30 million doses Vietnam had ordered from AstraZeneca.

Two staff of Vietnam Vaccine JSC (VNVC), importer of Covid-19 vaccines to Vietnam, stand outside a freezer where the vaccines are kept. arrived in HCMC on a flight from Seoul . They are the first batch of 30 million doses Vietnam had ordered from the company.

A group of staff walks into the freezer. Only those assigned by the firm could enter this area. After the final one in the group has been in the store, the door is closed by another staff from outside.

Only those assigned by the firm could enter and operate within this area.

Part of the 117,600 vaccine doses inside the freezer.

A staff uses a forklift to practice the step of unloading a shipment that has the same weight of a AstraZeneca vaccine package from a shelf and put it on the ground. A VNVC representative said the AstraZeneca vaccine requires the same storage conditions and transport process like many other vaccines that are currently in use Vietnam. However, this is a new vaccine that had been imported in a rush situation to curb an ongoing pandemic, all the related processes and procedures must be carried out more carefully to minimize any possible risks that could happen.

A staff member uses a forklift to practice unloading a supposed shipment of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Outside the freezer, a staff places reusable dry ice gel packs into a styrofoam box.Those boxes will store the vaccine doses temporarily when they are transported from the store to specialized trucks that would distribute the vaccine

Outside the freezer, a staff member places reusable dry ice gel packs into a Styrofoam box. Those boxes would store vaccine doses temporarily when transported from storage to specialized distribution trucks.

Each box will have a certain amount of doses depending on the detailed plan of vaccination for each locality as regulated by the Health Ministry.

Each box contains a certain amount of doses depending on the detailed plan of vaccination for each locality as regulated by the Health Ministry.

Tran Han Tuan, 37, head of the warehouse department in southern Vietnam of VNVC, said the truck is parked 2.8 meters away from the freezer’s door and the maximum time for one staff to carry a box of vaccine from the freezer to the truck is just ten second. Therefore all movements must be especially quick and accurate. We have been way too familiar with this step and have yet to make any mistakes but until today we are still quite nervous because the entire nation is counting on this first batch of vaccine, he said.

Tran Han Tuan, 37, head of the VNVC warehouse department in southern Vietnam, said the truck is parked 2.8 meters from the freezer’s door and that loading a box takes only ten seconds. Therefore, “all movements must be especially quick and accurate.” “We have yet to make any mistakes, but remain quite nervous since the entire nation is counting on this first batch of vaccines,” he noted.

The back door of the truck will be open in only one minute to receive the boxes of vaccine to make sure the quality of the vaccine will not be affected by the outdoor condition.

The back door of the truck will be opened in only one minute to receive the vaccines to ensure their quality remains unaffected by exterior conditions.

A package of vaccine is taken out of the styrofoam box. On the truck, the indoor unit system would stay ready before the vaccine enters. The entire cargo bed is made sure to meet all temperature standards as in the freezer. It has also met the GSP (good storage practice) and GDP (good medicine distribution practice) standards according to regulations of the Health Ministry.

A package of vaccines is taken out of a Styrofoam box.

Each package of vaccine is attached with a temperature measuring device. If the temperature exceeds the allowable limit (2-8 degrees Celcius), this device will raise alarm, which means the shipment is not eligible for vaccination.

Each package of vaccines is equipped with a temperature measuring device. If the temperature exceeds the allowable limit (2-8 degrees Celsius), this device will raise an alarm, which means the shipment is not eligible for administration.

The truck leaves the freezer. The value of this truck is more than VND1 billion ($43,405). Two of such trucks will be in use for the upcoming vaccination.For now, the plan said 13 cities and provinces that have recorded community transmissions in the latest community transmission wave that broke out in late January will receive the vaccine first. They include northern provinces of Hai Duong and Quang Ninh where the outbreak started, and HCMC and Hanoi. The vaccine will be transported by trucks to localities in southern Vietnam and for the rest, it will travel by plane.On Saturday, the Health Ministry will host a conference on the implementation of large-scale vaccination, nationwide training on receiving, using and preserving vaccines, as well as handling post-vaccination complications. Two days later, those directly treating Covid-19 patients at 18 medical facilities and prioritized categories of people in 13 pandemic-hit localities, with Covid-19 epicenter Hai Duong given the highest priority, will be among the first to be vaccinated. Phan Manh Cuong, director of the health department in Hai Duong, which is now hit hardest by the outbreak, said nine groups in Hai Duong Town and Kim Thanh District will be the first to be vaccinated. The nine groups include doctors treating Covid-19 patients, medical staff taking part in the process of contact tracing, mass testing and those working at centralized quarantined camps. While the production of domestic vaccines is underway, Vietnam has speeded up foreign procurement to inoculate prioritized groups. The government has said it is stepping up negotiations with vaccine manufacturers in the U.S., Russia and some other countries to ensure it could obtain a total 150 million doses to cover 70 percent of its population.

Two freezer trucks, valued at more than VND1 billion ($43,400) each, will be in use for the upcoming mass vaccination. For now, 13 cities and provinces that have recorded community transmissions in the latest wave will receive the vaccine first. They include northern provinces of Hai Duong and Quang Ninh where the outbreak started on Jan.28, along with HCMC and Hanoi.

New regulation on minimum trading lot at HOSE aims to keep small investors away

March 6, 2021 by vietnamnet.vn

Around $200 billion is now in tumult after a succession of days of network congestion and the news about the required increase in minimum trading lot from 100 to 1,000 shares on the HCM City stock market.

New regulation on minimum trading lot at HOSE aims to keep small investors away

Nguyen Giang, owner of The Way Coffee, completed the procedure to open an account at SSI Hanoi Branch after hearing that the HCM CIty Stock Exchange (HOSE) was planning to increase the required minimum trading lot from 100 shares to 1,000 shares.

The reason behind the plan, as explained by Le Hai Tra, HOSE’s CEO, was to ease the overload.

However, this was not good news for many investors, including Giang. Because of Covid-19, he no longer can work as an outbound tour guide, which he did for 10 years.

In 2020, he opened a street coffee shop. However, the third Covid-19 outbreak once again affected his business. Giang then decided to make financial investments as he has confidence in the bright prospects of the stock market.

However, the calculations of the investor may fail because of HOSE’s tentative policy.

If the tentative policy takes effect, Giang will have to spend VND100 million at least for every purchase transaction of VIC (Vingroup), VJC (Vietjet), VCB (Vietcombank) and VNM (Vinamilk).

If buying SAB (Sabeco), he would have to spend VND180 million at least, and ifor VCF (Vinacafe Bien Hoa), he would have to spend VND240 million.

These are very large amounts of money compared with Giang’s investment plan.

However, Tra said the policy, once applied, would bring benefits. It would not only help ease congestion thanks to the reduction of 40-50 percent in number of transactions, but would also better protect small investors.

Nguyen Duy Hung, president of SSI, also commented that this is the best choice for now to maintain the system’s operation.

However, many experts and securities companies don’t share the same view. They have warned that the policy isn’t in line with stock market development and discriminates against small and big investors.

“The plan is unreasonable. It will affect many private investors and be contrary to international practice,” the brokerage director of a HCM City-based securities company said.

The decision to raise the required minimum trading lot from 10 shares to 100 shares in the past once put difficulties for many investors as they could not sell shares. However, the decision was still acceptable because every transaction had value of between several millions of dong to tens of millions of dong only.

But this will be diiferent if the minimum trading lot is raised to 1,000 shares.

V. Ha

Iron and steel exports witness big leap

March 6, 2021 by vov.vn

The nation exported a total of 1,568 million tonnes of iron and steel worth US$1.123 billion during the reviewed period, marking a sharp rise of 71.9% compared to last year’s corresponding period, according to data released by the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

January saw Hoa Phat Group, the country’s leading steel maker, export roughly 10,000 tonnes of galvanized sheet partners to Belgium and Spain, while it also shipped more than 12,000 tonnes of cold galvanized steel to the Americas in February.

Along with construction steel, Hoa Phat Group has also ramped up its export of steel pipes, galvanized steel, and galvanized steel wire to foreign markets.

Furthermore, Hoa Sen Group Joint Stock Company shipped high-value batches of galvanized steel sheet to the United States, Mexico, Europe, and Southeast Asia, with export volume exceeding 100,000 tonnes per month.

Nghiem Xuan Da, chairman of the Vietnam Steel Association, said domestic steel consumption throughout the reviewed period was estimated to have decreased by 30% compared to the same period from last year.

Da believes that although a series of free trade agreements (FTAs) have come into force, such as the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the Vietnam-UK Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA), not many local firms have the capacity to increase exports to the EU market.

In general, the local steel industry faces a number of obstacles due to five further countries, including Malaysia and Philippines which are two of the country’s major markets, conducting anti-dumping investigations into Vietnamese galvanized steel and steel pipes.

Moreover, the European Commission (EC) has recently announced plans to consider extending safeguard measures for imported steel. This comes after the EU on February 1, 2019, applied a safeguard measure against imported steel in the form of tariff quotas, with three groups of steel products from the nation being levied.

Experts have therefore advised local businesses to strive to fully tap into high-value markets such as China and Cambodia moving forward, with China expected to become a billion-dollar export market with many product lines.

Domestic tourism stimulation: March promotions launched

March 6, 2021 by hanoitimes.vn

The Hanoitimes – There are a variety of options for travelers to choose from for International Women’s Day retreats.

On the occasion of International Women’s Day on March 8, many attractive promotional packages and culinary discounts are launching during the month at hotels, resorts and golfs around the nation.

A staycation package within Hanoi is an ideal choice for International Women’s day retreat. Photo: Sheraton Hanoi Hotel.

Sheraton Hanoi Hotel promotes the charm of Hanoi Westlake and gives a hand to push up domestic travel with a staycation package called “Westlake Retreat”.

Travelers will have chance to treat their loved ones on the special occasion with a staycation by the romantic Westlake shore. The package includes a buffet breakfast at Oven D’or restaurant, a special set dinner at the Hemispheres steak & seafood Grill restaurant, a cocktail drink with light snack per person per night at Bar Déjà Vu; and complimentary early check in at 9am and late check out at 3pm as well as room upgrade (subject to availability).

The price for the package is at VND2,400,000++ (or US$103) for single occupancy and VND2,975,000 (or US$128) for double occupancy. A further 10% discount on room rate is applied for any Club Marriott Members. Booking time is from March 1 until May 31; Staying period: from 01 March until 31 December 2021

The Grand Ho Tram Resort & Casino , Vung Tau city introduces many incentive programs, including many gifts exclusively for women on the International Women’s Week around March 8.

The Bluffs Ho Tram Golf, Grand Ho Tram Resort & Casino, Vung Tau city.

Specifically, with each invoice at The Grand Bistro or BBQ Smoke, all female customers will receive a free gift of flowers, chocolate, cocktails or champagne. Group of customers who hold a party to celebrate on March 8 will also receive a 10% discount on the total bill value.

The Bluffs Ho Tram Golf offers its service promotion for female clients. Female golfers will enjoy a promotional fee on a 27-hole golf tour at VND3.018.600 (US$130) per person, beer vouchers at Infinity restaurant and 20% discount coupon for services at The Grand Spa.

Especially, customers who born with Ox zodiac (born from 1961 to 1997), will receive a special fee for using around tour of 18- hole-golfing, at VND2,082,600 ($30) per person, other her three friends will enjoy the price of VND3,018,600 ($130)/ person / round.

For busy people who don’t have too much time for long trips or long vacations, a more practical gift for women is inviting them to dine at a luxury restaurant. Pan Pacific Hanoi Hotel offers an alternative way to celebrate the Women’s Day at home with a special dinner at its Chinese Ming restaurant.

The Dimsum feast at Ming restaurant, Pan Pacific Hanoi Hotel.

Its all-time favourite dim sum feast various dishes, including codfish and abalone dumplings, tiger prawn & Japanese scallop dumplings with spicy sauce.

Until March 10, it applies a further saving of 33% and one complimentary plate of salmon salad for any table booking one day in advance. Original price is at VND550,000 ($24)++ per adult and VND275,000 ($12) per child.

On the occasion of International Women’s Day March 8, Sunset Beach Resort & Spa , Phu Quoc Island has accompanied Mytour.vn to organize a game called “Heart Hunting”, with a total prize value of up to VND10 billions ($430,000).

Having a relax on the special occasion for women at Sunset Beach Resort & Spa, Phu Quoc Island.

Participants who join in a 20-second-length game called “Heart Hunting” on Website Mytour.vn and App Mytour.vn will have opportunity to win with 20 vouchers to stay the 5-star Sunset Beach Resort & Spa in ; a special prize worth VND100 million applying for vacations during one year. Other prizes include vouchers for resort’s services using with values from VND30,000 ($1) to VND1,000,000 ($43).

Vietnamese government to support unskilled laborers affected by Covid-19

May 8, 2020 by hanoitimes.vn

The Hanoitimes – The support package delivery must ensure seriousness, publicity, transparency.

The Vietnamese government will support unskilled laborers directly affected by Covid-19 pandemic from May 10, local media reported.

It is expected that as of May 15, the government will finish paying the relief money to beneficiary groups, including revolutionary contributors, social assistance beneficiaries and poor people.

At a recent regular meeting of the Vietnamese government, Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung affirmed that the support package delivery must ensure seriousness, publicity, transparency.

“We have not received any negative feedback from the localities regarding the payment of the financial aids,” Dung said.

So far, 63/63 localities in Vietnam have delivered the welfare packages to the people in need; 40/63 provinces and cities have paid over VND20 trillion (US$855.57 million) for revolutionary contributors, social assistance beneficiaries and poor people.

People in Nguyen Trai ward, Ha Dong district receive government aid. Photo: Thuy Truc

“We have not received any negative feedback from the localities regarding the payment of the financial aids,” Dung said.

On April 24, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc signed a decision to roll out a relief package worth VND62 trillion (US$2.7 billion) to support vulnerable people directly affected by Covid-19.

The package covers six beneficiary groups who would receive financial support in cash during three months starting April.

The funding for the package would come from state and provincial budgets, including savings from regular expenditures for meetings, workshops, abroad working trips, festivals and others.

In addition to direct financial support, workers are entitled for deferral in contribution for pensions and death gratuity funds in 12 months.

Workers could submit application for financial support via postal services, email, and fax, among others, without having to seek certification from local authorities.

Hanoi urgently identifies the beneficiaries

There are three groups of employees entitled to benefit from the US$2.7 billion package, including employees whose labor contracts were suspended, those taking leave without payment; laid-off employees not eligible for unemployment benefits; and workers who have no labor contracts and have lost jobs.

The Hanoi Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has requested district People’s Committees to screen 1.477 million employees entitled to receive the aids, of them 840,000 are people without labor contracts and have lost their jobs. Currently, the districts keep identifying the beneficiaries in accordance with the process and procedures.

Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Hong Dan said that his department has made a written request and guidelines for identifying people affected by Covid-19 for assistance.

In order to identify the right beneficiaries, the city’s authorities will ask the districts to set up a review council headed by the Chairpersons of the local People’s Committee, Dan added.