Dangerous woman world tour

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, teams in group G of World Cup Asian qualifiers will play their remaining games at a centralized venue. Both UAE and Thailand have expressed their desire to host the games, though Asian Football Federation will most likely choose the former since it can fulfill all stadium, training ground, accommodation, Covid-19 prevention and cost requirements.

What concerns Vietnam head coach Park Hang-seo the most is the scorching weather in UAE, where the heat and high humidity could fast deplete player stamina. Park wants the national team to train at a location with similar weather as UAE.

However, because of the pandemic, it will be difficult for the squad to train abroad. Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) will arrange for the team to go to UAE a week early to acclimatize.

The national team is expected to gather for training in May, when V. League is on break. They will have around a month to prepare for the three big games, with Indonesia on June 7, Malaysia on the 11th and UAE on the 15th.

VFF will also propose vaccinating the national team before competing in World Cup Asian qualifiers. Though the first batch of vaccines from AstraZeneca will be administered to prioritized groups on March 8, footballers are not included.

Vietnam is topping group G with 11 points after five games. The Golden Dragons will enter the final round of World Cup Asian qualifiers for the first time in history if they score seven points from three games.

The intensity of COVID-19 has initially “cooled down” in many nations around the world after the vaccination campaign has been deployed on a large scale. However, in some EU member states the situation remains serious and the EU is struggling to overcome the third wave of the pandemic. Contrary to the trend of easing social distancing, Hungary, France and the Czech Republic are the European countries tending to tighten prevention and control measures as the number of infections has increased recently. Statistics show that, while most Western European countries have recorded a declining or stable number of cases, about 100-200 per one million people per day, the figure is at around 300 in France and more than 600 in the Czech Republic.

French Health Minister Olivier Véran stated that in the next four to six weeks, France will maintain a nightly curfew and lockdown measures such as closing pubs, restaurants and museums, in a bid to protect the pandemic prevention and control efforts. Meanwhile, Gergely Gulyas, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff, said that Hungary has decided to extend a partial lockdown with infections expected to rise in the next two weeks. He highlighted that the next two weeks will be particularly difficult as the country must cope with the third COVID-19 wave. The Czech Republic and Hungary have taken measures to increase vaccine availability for the COVID-19 vaccination campaign amidst many opinions arguing that the EU’s licensing process is too slow. Relatively strict control measures in response to the pandemic have also been maintained in Germany. German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently emphasised that Germany is still in the third wave of the pandemic, while a local health official warned that without the maintenance of current measures, the third wave will be extremely difficult, and even uncontrollable.

A major problem currently facing the EU countries is that despite the complicated development of the pandemic, the progress of COVID-19 vaccine coverage in the bloc is quite slow. President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen recently stated that 26 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been delivered and 70% of adults in 27 EU countries will be vaccinated by the end of this summer. However, she admitted the failure in the EU’s process of approving and implementing the COVID-19 vaccination program, noting that the bloc has learned lessons about the delay in the licensing of vaccines as well as the overoptimistic psychology of EU officials about the production and delivery progress of vaccines. If compared with the UK, which has left the “European common roof”, the EU’s vaccination progress is disappointing. While the EU is still struggling with the approval and implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination program, in February, about 30% of the UK population was vaccinated, thus creating a positive effect for the country’s important economic sectors.

To combat the pandemic and soon recover the economy, the European Commissioner for Health recently urged countries to speed up vaccination and accelerate the screening and decoding of the SARS-CoV-2 genome sequence in service of the more detailed supervision of variants. The “EU family” is also expected to study the proposal for a digital vaccine passport (allowing people with a certificate of vaccination to travel freely) in order to facilitate intra-bloc travel and salvage the upcoming summer tourism season. However, this proposal is still under controversy which shows no sign of coming to an end. Meanwhile, the head of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) Andrea Ammon warned the risk of SARS-CoV-2 being likely to persist for a long time despite the slowdown in global infection. According to her, the world needs to prepare for a scenario that the virus will still “stick to” people and experts may have to continue to produce vaccines to prevent the disease, similar to with the seasonal flu.

Given the emergence of more and more new variants of SARS-CoV-2 with a greater danger level, the possibility of having to “co-exist” with COVID-19 is increasing and this is a long-term challenge for the EU as well as for the whole of humanity. This fact is demanding the EU and other countries worldwide to take faster response in pandemic fight and adapt better and more flexibly to soon bring the economy out of the “dark period” caused by the pandemic.

As Vietnam is among the most threatened countries by climate change, the state and people take decisive action, photo Le Toan

The government has promulgated Resolution No.06/NQ-CP on the Action Programme on continuing the implementation of Resolution No.24-NQ/TW by the 11th Party Central Committee on active response to climate change, improvement of natural resource management, and environmental protection.

The action programme, to be implemented until 2025, lays a foundation for ministries, agencies, and localities to formulate and implement their own plans on responding to climate change while strengthening natural resource management and environmental protection.

Under the programme, efforts are to be made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 7.3 per cent below the business-as-usual scenario by 2025, and achieve 5-7 per cent in energy conservation out of gross energy consumption.

To this end, some key solutions are to be taken. Specifically, the government orders ministries and agencies to formulate and implement sturdy policies on shifting to digital economy, and development and expansion of models on circular economy, green economy, and low-carbon economy.

In addition to an increase in state budget in investing into responding to climate change, and managing natural resources and the environment, the government will have a flexible mechanism on allocating the use of natural resources under a market mechanism. Notably, the government will “develop markets for environmental goods and services, the carbon market, public-private partnership models, and green credits and green bonds, as well as mobilise investment capital from non-state sources,” according to Resolution 06.

To enable investors, Resolution 06 stressed that a number of related laws will be revised soon, including the Law on Land 2013, the Law on Minerals 2010, and the Law on Efficient Use and Saving Energy, as well as many other related documents.

Championing the cause

Disaster and climate challenges have become a top priority for policymakers in Vietnam. This is evidenced in national and sector strategies, and these challenges are identified as one of the key pillars of the new national development plan for the next decade. For example, the government approved the National Climate Change Strategy in 2011, and the Vietnam Green Growth Strategy in 2012, which lay out a vision through 2050. Also, the government adopted the Support Programme to Respond to Climate Change for 2016-2020 that supports policy reform, capacity building, and increased investment for prioritised climate change and green growth actions in key sectors including energy, transport, forestry, and water resource management.

Internationally, the government has also championed the cause of the environment, including at the 2015 Paris Conference.

Climate and disaster risks are now recognised as a direct threat to Vietnam’s aspiration to become a high-income economy. Direct and indirect disaster losses are affecting not only the economy’s resilience and sustainability, but also its capacity to maintain rapid and inclusive growth. For instance, rapid infrastructure development in the absence of the consideration of disaster and climate risks is leading to rapidly growing exposure and vulnerabilities to adverse natural events.

“With an anticipated growth of 265 per cent over the next 10 years, annual average direct disaster losses on the coast alone are expected to grow to $4.2 billion a year,” stated the World Bank in its recently-published report on how Vietnam can become a champion of the green recovery.

The Asian Development Bank also said that the rapid expansion of gross fixed capital formation has been unplanned and without consideration of climate and disaster risks, leading to the rapid growth in people and assets exposed to adverse natural events. When all this environmental damage is combined, it is estimated to cost between 4 to 8 per cent to GDP every year due to a combination of direct negative effects on the stock of natural capital, as well as that of indirect externalities on labour productivity and on quality of physical infrastructure.

In addition, development gains could be undermined by the loss of human life; destruction of commercial property, cultivable land, and infrastructure; reduction in agricultural yields and labor productivity; loss of tax revenues; and strained public budgets from spending on relief and reconstruction. For example, farmers in the Mekong region have already recorded declining agricultural yields caused by poor development practices, including water mismanagement and land exhaustion, according to the World Bank.

Changing behaviours

“Vietnam is standing at a crossroads of post-pandemic recovery. It has an opportunity to set itself on a greener, smarter, and more inclusive development path that will bolster resilience to future shocks from both pandemics and climate-related disasters,” said Carolyn Turk, World Bank country director for Vietnam. “The authorities must tackle the environmental and climate challenges with the same sense of urgency as they have done with COVID-19 because the costs of inaction are already visible and will become increasingly irreversible. The recent tropical storms in Vietnam’s central region and rising air pollution in the country’s major cities are good illustrations of this fragility.”

According to the World Bank, two lessons from the successful management of the global health crisis could be extended to the environmental agenda. The first lesson is that the best way to cope with an external shock is to be prepared in advance and move with early and bold actions. Secondly, beyond vision and capacity, the ability to embrace innovation and experiments is instrumental to change individual and collective behaviours, which lays at the root of strategies to cope with health and climate threats.

Ocean levels have already risen 20cm over the past three decades and could increase by a further 75cm by 2050 compared to the latter part of the 20th century. This could lead to flooding of 40 per cent of the Mekong Delta, 11 per cent of the Red River Delta, 3 per cent of coastal provinces, and over 20 per cent of Ho Chi Minh City, directly impacting 10-12 per cent of Vietnam’s population and 10 per cent of GDP, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

By Khoi Nguyen

Minister of Health Nguyễn Thanh Long at Friday meeting of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control. — VNA/VNS Photo Doãn Tấn

HÀ NỘI — Vaccinations using the recently-imported AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine are expected to start on Monday, Minister of Health Nguyễn Thanh Long informed a meeting of the National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control on Friday.

The first batch comprising over 117,600 doses of the vaccine manufactured in the Republic of Korea (RoK), arrived in Việt Nam on February 24 . After holding working sessions with the producer, Việt Nam has obtained an accreditation certificate for the batch from the RoK.

Long said the doses, verified by the ministry, met the conditions for vaccination in Việt Nam.

On Saturday, the health minister will chair a conference to launch the vaccination plan and provide 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 for 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.

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

Five million doses of vaccines, mostly manufactured by AstraZeneca, are expected to be provided to Việt Nam this year through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Facility programme conducted by the World Health Organization, GAVI, UNICEF and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).

Another 25 million doses under this initiative are slated to arrive in Việt Nam next year.

At the meeting of the National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control on Friday, Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam said the safety of the vaccination programme should be ensured at the highest level as a task of utmost importance.

“The mass vaccination might have incidents. If we don’t prepare well, the incidents will turn into serious ones,” he told the meeting.

He urged for accelerating the research and production of locally-made vaccines, saying “the process must follow all of the requested steps but must be completed as soon as possible”.

Việt Nam has three local vaccine candidates, one of which has finished the first trial phase with good results and is in the second phase. The other two will enter human trials in the near future.

“If Việt Nam can successfully develop domestic vaccines, we can have enough stocks for the population of 100 million people. According to preliminary information, the COVID-19 vaccine only produces antibodies for a certain time. It is likely that the vaccines must be injected repeatedly every year. This is also an opportunity for Việt Nam’s vaccine study capacity to reach a new level in order to prepare and respond to other diseases that may occur in the future.”

“Vaccines are a long-term solution to control the pandemic globally in six months to one year. In spite of that, we must still strictly follow preventive measures as we have done,” he said.

Đam urged people to maintain their vigilance and asked schools, healthcare facilities, markets, supermarkets and hotels to self assess their safety level and update it on a COVID-19 safety map at antoancovid.vn .

Venues that fail to update the safety level will have their activities suspended, he said.

The Deputy Prime Minister tasked the health ministry, the ministries of foreign affairs, culture, sports and tourism with mapping out plans and creating conditions for those who have been vaccinated in other countries to enter Việt Nam in the coming time while still ensuring safety. — VNS

More than 70 per cent of Việt Nam’s working-age women are in the labour force. Photo ILO Vietnam

HÀ NỘI – With a remarkably high labour market participation rate, women in  Việt Nam face multiple and persistent labour market inequalities, and carry a disproportionate double burden of work and family responsibilities, researchers have revealed.

A new research brief by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Việt Nam shows the COVID-19 pandemic has not only exacerbated existing inequalities but created new gender gaps.

More than 70 per cent of Việt Nam’s working-age women are in the labour force, compared to the global level of 47.2 per cent and an average of 43.9 per cent in Asia and the Pacific.

While the gender gap in labour force participation is narrower in Việt Nam than in the world, it has still stood at 9.5 percentage points (men’s rate higher than women’s) over the last decade.

According to the research brief ‘Gender and the labour market in Viet Nam: An analysis based on the Labour Force Survey’ , uneven distribution of family responsibilities in Việt Nam’s society could be the reason for the disparity. Nearly half of the women who were not economically active in the 2018 Labour Force Survey made this choice because of “personal or family-related reasons”, compared to only 18.9 per cent of inactive men.

The research also indicated that the high labour force participation of women in Việt Nam should not be interpreted as an indicator of equal opportunity.

“Before the COVID-19 pandemic, both women and men had a relatively easy access to jobs, but the quality of such jobs was on average lower among women than among men,” said Valentina Barcucci, ILO Việt Nam Labour Economist, lead author of the research.

Female workers were overrepresented in vulnerable employment, particularly in contributing to family work. They earned less than men (by 13.7 per cent on monthly wages in 2019), despite comparable working hours and the progressive elimination of gender gaps in educational attainment.

Women were also underrepresented in decision-making jobs. They accounted for nearly half of the labour force, but less than a fourth of overall management roles.

“Again the gap women face in job quality and career development stems from the double burden they carry,” said Barcucci. “They spend twice as many hours on household work than men.”

Women spent an average of 20.2 hours per week cleaning the house, washing clothes, cooking and shopping for the family, family care and childcare, whereas men spent only 10.7 hours. Close to a fifth of men did not spend any time on these activities at all.

COVID-19 impacts from a gender perspective

As a result of the pandemic, total working hours dropped significantly in the second quarter of 2020 and recovered through the second half of the year. Women faced the most severe losses.

The total weekly hours worked by women in the second quarter of 2020 were only 88.8 per cent of the total for the fourth quarter of 2019, compared to 91.2 per cent for men.

However, women’s working hours recovered faster. In the last three months of 2020, women worked 0.8 per cent more hours than in the same period of 2019, whereas men worked 0.6 per cent more.

“Those employed women who worked longer hours than usual in the second half of 2020 possibly wanted to make up for the income losses in the second quarter,” said Barcucci. “Such additional hours made the double burden heavier to carry, as the time spent by women on household chores remained disproportionately high.”

The impact of COVID-19 on Việt Nam’s labour market has not only widened existing inequalities but also created new ones. Before the pandemic, there was no difference between the male and female unemployment rate, but a gap appeared from the third quarter of 2020.

“Gender inequality in the labour market is traced back to the traditional roles that women are expected to play, supported by the social norms,” said ILO Viet Nam Director Chang-Hee Lee.

“While at the policy level, the 2019 Labour Code has opened opportunities to close such gender gaps, for example in retirement age or removing the ban on female employment in certain occupations, a much more difficult task still awaits Việt Nam. That is changing the mindsets of the Vietnamese men and women themselves which will, in turn, influence their behaviours in the labour market.” VNS