72nd general assembly session

By Nhung Nguyen – Translated by Thuy Doan

Diageo Vietnam is one of the first businesses in the country joining hands with Tuoi Tre (Youth Newspaper) to help up to ten thousand of frontline workers who work at medical centers, hospitals and centrally quarantine centers in Vietnam, to get vaccinated for free this year.

Having launched at the end of February, following the success of the 1-year long campaign “Preventing Covid-19 with Tuoi Tre”, the campaign aims to raise funds from individuals, organizations, and businesses for such a meaningful and highly practical activity. Through this tangible contribution, Diageo Vietnam demonstrates its commitment to joining hands with Vietnamese people to combat Covid-19, while facilitating safety for local communities in the new normal.

Throughout 2020, Vietnam has marked its name in the global map as a success story of keeping Covid-19 transmission under control and mitigating the pandemic’s adverse effect on all socioeconomic aspects. Strict quarantine and contact tracing measures alongside medical prevention and treatment efforts, empowered by the strong consensus between the Government and people across the country, have proven their values and helped Vietnam make the miracle.

The success of disease prevention and control activities in Vietnam lies in the ability to mobilize extensive resources and connect individuals and organizations under the same cause, which is to prevent Covid outbreak and protect the community. Those noble qualities have inspired companies like Diageo Vietnam to take bold moves and contribute their part.

Mr. Jos Duursema, Chief Operating Officer of Diageo Vietnam said: “ As a British business operating in Vietnam, we are proud to accompany and support the local communities in every possible way to protect their well-being and promote sustainable development for the country. Diageo Vietnam hopes to secure more opportunities to access effective prevention and treatment of Covid-19, hence empowers Vietnamese people with the freedom to live a healthy and successful life.”

The sense of values and purposes guides Diageo’s business operations and social activities on a global scale. Last June in Vietnam, Diageo Vietnam partnered with the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front to present the Ministry of Health with 18,600 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. Under the campaign’s framework, Diageo hosted a much-anticipated livestreaming session, where the brand’s ambassador shared advice and tips to more than 2,000 participants on how to maintain hygiene and secure experience as they serve customers.

PV

Earlier, more than 117,600 doses of the vaccine, manufactured in the Republic of Korea (RoK), arrived in Vietnam on February 24. After holding working sessions with the producer, Vietnam has obtained an accreditation certificate for the batch from the RoK.

Long said the doses, verified by the ministry, meet the conditions for vaccination in Vietnam.

As scheduled, on March 6, the Health Minister will chair a conference to launch the vaccination plan and provide related training for medical staff nationwide in the use and storage of the vaccine, as well as the handling of post-injection complications.

According to the official, priority in vaccination will be given to people at the front line of the fight against COVID-19, including health, army, police, customs and immigration personnel; those working in sectors offering essential services like aviation, transport, tourism and education; people with chronic illnesses or above 65 years old; those living in pandemic-hit areas; the poor and beneficiaries of social welfare policy.

People getting the shots will be monitored via digital health records and receive e-certificates for their completion of inoculation.

Vietnam plans to import about 150 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines this year.

In Gia Loc district in Hai Duong province on March 2, the roads were very quiet even though in a few hours the social isolation order would expire (at 0:00 on March 3).

Somewhere in the fields were farmers who were still doing their daily work. For them, their fields must be taken care of every day.

With more than 93,000 hectares of agricultural land, accounting for 56.5% of the total area, Hai Duong is among provinces with a large agricultural production area. Its main agricultural products are vegetables, fruits, livestock and poultry.

Before the pandemic, the biggest difficulty for local farmers was the connection between producers and consumers. During the pandemic, because of the blockade and restriction of means of travel, the difficulties multiplied.

Born into a family with a farming tradition, like many previous generations, the life of Mr. Do Van Chung (a resident of Quang Bi village, Pham Tran commune, Gia Loc district, Hai Duong) has been associated with the field.

Chung’s family grows vegetables such as kohlrabi, cabbage, cauliflower, gourd, squash, melon and others, with an average output of about 2 tons per acre and yield VND7-8 million ($300-400) per acre each year.

As Hai Duong was under isolation, the transport of farm produce from Hai Duong to other provinces was affected. Earning his living by cultivating vegetables for many years, Chung complained that he has never faced such difficulties. In previous years, he harvested 4 tons of cabbage and earned VND14-16 million from two sao (1 sao = 360m2) of cultivation area. But he cannot find buyers and is not sure if he can earn VND2 million from each sao.

Mr. Phung Danh Ut, the owner of Ut Them organic melon garden in Gia Loc district, was luckier than Chung as he had signed a melon sales contract with a local agricultural cooperative.

In addition to growing melons in a net house, the farmer also grows kohlrabi and cabbage. Though he was able to sell his agricultural produce, his profit dropped because the prices of agricultural products this year are not as good as in previous years, and consumption is also sluggish.

To solve the problem, Hai Duong provincial authorities decided to utilize IT to boost the distribution of products. Some groups have been set up on Zalo, with the participation of farmers and businesses inside and outside the province. Farmers can advertise their products on these groups to find buyers. Thanks to these “bridges”, hundreds of tons of vegetables, fruits and poultry in Hai Duong have been sold to the market.

In order to fully solve the problem of Hai Duong’s agricultural produce, a delegation of Viettel Post Corporation led by General Director Tran Trung Hung paid a field visit to Hai Duong to observe the consumption of agricultural products in the area.

Based on its strong delivery services, Viettel Post is trying to help Hai Duong farmers to change the way of selling their products by using digital technology. This can be performed through its Voso e-commerce platform.

Viettel Post uses a smart logistics system which delivers vegetables directly to consumers within a short time after harvesting to ensure the freshness of produce. The consumption of agricultural produces in this way will help stabilize the output for the farmer. The value that farmers receive will also be higher thanks to direct access to the end users. This is considered the most effective solution to solve the root of the common “problem” for Vietnamese farmers.

Trong Dat

Vietnamese actor Trần Hạnh passed away on Thursday aged 92. Photo laodong.vn

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese actor Trần Hạnh, who played poor farmers in many Vietnamese films, passed away on Thursday aged 92.

Born in Hà Nội in 1929, Hạnh was a theatre artist and actor in the Vietnamese cinema industry. He was one of the first artists to receive the title of State Artist of Excellence in 1994.

After more than 20 years, he was awarded the title of People’s Artist, Việt Nam’s top artistic award for a living artist – second only to the often posthumous Hồ Chí Minh Prize, on August 29, 2019

He is famous for his roles as a poor farmer or an old man in unfortunate plight, such as the Party secretary in the movie Làng Nổi (Floating Village), father An in the movie Truyện Cổ Tích Tuổi 17 (Fairy Tale of the 17), father Lài in Tướng Về Hưu (Retired General) and father Mai in the movie Hãy Tha Thứ Cho Em (Please Forgive Me).

On the stage of Hà Nội’s Drama Theatre, he played many outstanding roles that won many gold and silver awards at national theatre festivals. His golden age was in the late 1970s and early 1980s during which playing the role of Vietnamese poet Nguyễn Trãi in the play of Lam Sơn Tụ Nghĩa brought him the gold medal at the National Drama Festival in 1980.

People’s Artist Nguyễn Trung Hiếu, Director of Hanoi Drama Theatre, said the departure of famous artists like Trần Hạnh was a great loss to Vietnamese theatre.

Artist Quốc Quân, who co-starred in the film Đời Người Và Những Chuyến Đi (Human Life and Journey) with Hạnh, expressed his admiration for the true, humble and compassionate actor.

“He lived by roles on stage and screen. He just needed to be able to act and it didn’t matter if it was the supporting role or leading role, which was really precious,” he said. VNS