Deadliest catch game

The Vietnam People’s Navy will send missile defense vessels 015 Tran Hung Dao and 016 Quang Trung, currently charged with protecting the country’s south-central coast, to the Games, the Hai Quan (Navy) Newspaper reported.

The two vessels will compete in the “Sea Cup” category that requires the crew to take part in a damage control and rescue training, seamanship, and artillery contest.

Russia had said last month it expects to hold International Army Games 2021 from Aug. 22 to Sept. 4 with 34 disciplines hosted by several countries.

Some 50 countries are set to take part in the International Army Games, Russian news agency TASS said last December.

Vietnam will host Military Medical Relay Race and the second group stage of Sniper Frontier contests for countries in the Asia-Pacific region, Major General Tran Van Ba, deputy director of the Department of Politico-Military Training under the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army (VPA), said last month.

He added the department had agreed with the contest format provided by Russia’s Ministry of Defense.

The VPA sent its soldiers to participate in 11 of 31 disciplines at International Army Games 2020 and “Friendship Without Borders” Festival organized by Russia.

In its third year at the games, Vietnam took home three bronze medals and a champion cup in Group 2 of the Tank Biathlon, beating Abkhazia, Congo, Laos, Myanmar, Qatar, South Ossetia and Tajikistan.

Vessels 015 Tran Hung Dao and 016 Quang Trung were both built by Russia. They were launched in 2016 and had their commissioning in February 2018.

Phùng Kim Quang competes in the National Athletics Championship in 2020. The teenager expects to win a medal at the SEA Games later this year. Photo courtesy of Phùng Kim Quang

Athletics

Thanh Hà

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam have never won a gold medal in the men’s walking event at the regional Southeast Asian (SEA) Games despite having previously qualified for the Olympics in the sport.

Phùng Kim Quang is on a mission to change that.

Walking was little more than a blip on the Vietnamese sporting radar until siblings Nguyễn Thị Thanh Phúc and Nguyễn Thành Ngưng pocketed gold and bronze in the women’s and men’s races at the 25th Games in 2011.

Since then, with better support, Việt Nam have dominated the women’s discipline with four titles. However, the men’s crown is still out of the reach despite three silver medals.

Teenager Quang is the big Vietnamese hope in the sport after recording some outstanding performances at recent domestic competitions.

He is the record holder of the junior tournament and in the top three of the national championship.

Fate

Quang was born in Ba Vì District, in the outskirts of Hà Nội, in 2003.

The naughty little boy loved and played well in all sports such as badminton, shuttlecock, football and track-and-field. After dominating school competitions he became a member of the district athletics team.

Two years later, Quang was among several boys introduced to the walking event, a new sport in the city in 2015. His coach Nguyễn Văn Toản did not pick him at first but when the team did not have enough athletes, Quang was recruited after a second trial.

But Toản, who coached Phạm Thị Thu Trang to the SEA Games women’s title in 2019, gradually found the thin boy was suitable for the sport in which posture is of prime importance while arm, shoulder and leg actions must be well controlled to ensure balance.

After four years in the sport, Quang grabbed his first gold at the National Youth Athletics Championship and a bronze in the National Athletics Championship in 2019.

A year later, the 17-year-old defended his title at the junior 5,000m event and set a new record of 23min 14.21sec, 11 seconds than the old record of 23:14.32 by Dương Hữu Tín of Nghệ An Province in 2013.

“It is a record but I was not very happy. I expected to walk under 22 minutes but the result was more than 23 minutes. I considered it a failure because I could not do it again as I am overage next year,” Quang told Việt Nam News .

Phùng Kim Quang (right) poses for photos after winning a bronze medal together with the champion Nguyễn Thành Ngưng (centre) and silver holder Võ Văn Vĩnh at the 2020 National Athletics Championship in Hà Nội. Photo webthethao.vn

A month later he finished third with a time of 1:37:03 at the National Athletics Championship’s 20km walk.

Despite his strong effort, Quang who suffered a leg injury, could not surpass senior athletes Nguyễn Thành Ngưng and Võ Xuân Vĩnh at the finish line.

“I was really nervous when competing against such experienced rivals although it was my second time. Ngưng and Vĩnh are my seniors and idols. They have won national and international medals,” said Quang.

“However, I have learnt many things from them. From what they knew, they told me how to get better. Ngưng used to tell me ‘effort does not make success immediately, but if you try hard you will make it’. I have pinned it in my mind and will work harder to get better. I will find success by the end of the road,” he said.

Despite the third-place finish, Quang has been tipped for a big future.

“We will invest in Quang with an expectation that he will bring home regional and continental victories and even further he could reach world level if possible,” said Lại Phúc Lộc, deputy director of the Hà Nội Sports and Training Centre.

“We have set plans to send athletes including Quang to compete in open events in Thailand and Singapore (when the COVID-19 pandemic is controlled). Our goal is that Quang will secure a berth in the national team and have a high result in the coming SEA Games,” he added.

It is a huge job for Quang to vie for the national team slot against tough opponents. Ngưng has won the national title for 11 years in a row along with a SEA Games bronze and became the first and only Southeast Asian walker to win an Olympic berth in 2016. The Đà Nẵng-based athlete has vowed not to retire until he wins a SEA Games gold.

Vĩnh is also a big challenge he has finished behind Ngưng many times. He has even outperformed Ngưng in the SEA Games with three silvers in 2013, 2015 and 2019.

The only thing that Quang has on his side is his youth. He will be 18 while Ngưng 29 and Vĩnh 30 at the coming Games.

“My current result does not push me to the national senior team. But it will be my target now. I will have to improve my strength and technique. I also have to decrease my time because I want not only to be part of the coming big tournament but also win a medal,” Quang said. VNS

More importantly, unlike previous technologies most of which had to be imported, Vietnam has gradually mastered and is now capable of producing 5G equipment, a strategically important step in Vietnam’s development of information and communications technology.

Off to a good start

Viettel was the pioneer in announcing commercial 5G trials in late November with coverage in the Hoan Kiem, Ba Dinh and Hai Ba Trung Districts of Hanoi, where owners of 5G-enabled devices can now use the service for free at a speed of up to 1.5 gigabits per second, far higher than 4G.

Later in mid-December, Vinaphone also announced its 5G coverage in some central districts in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City as well as two demonstration centres so that those without 5G devices can experience the new technological features.

Mobifone also quickly caught up by piloting commercial 5G services in Ho Chi Minh City.

According to some experts, mobile carriers’ rush to roll out 5G services at this time is merely competition between brands and does not precisely reflect what the domestic telecommunications market will look like in the future.

With 3G and 4G technologies, Vietnam was a latecomer, but with 5G, Vietnam is one of the frontrunners. Although the trials are just an initial step in the long process to widespread rollout, the carriers’ efforts have demonstrated the local communications sector’s capacity and readiness to provide the new technologies to the people.

With exceptionally fast speeds, extremely low latency and very high density (up to one million devices in one square kilometre), 5G is expected to revolutionise how society functions in the future, especially in the fields of advanced technology, healthcare, transport and education, laying the foundation for Vietnam to master and apply new technologies as well as succeed in its national digital transformation drive.

Taking on challenges to rise up

Vietnam is pioneering 5G, an opportunity to master new technologies and catch up with the development pace of the world. But its position as a trailblazer means Vietnam cannot learn from anyone else’s experience and will have to find its own path to development. 5G will bring with it tremendous opportunities in the future but there are already also quite a few challenges at present.

First of all, carriers face a risk that 5G-enabled devices have not yet been widely popular with consumers at the time of mass rollout and that 5G business models are as of yet not proven to be effective.

In addition, demand for this technology is not yet very high, making carriers find it hard to balance costs and benefits. However, experts state that if Vietnam wants to develop, it needs to see a radical change of mindset and it must dare to meet the challenges head on, otherwise Vietnam will always be a technologically backward country.

The history of Vietnam’s communications sector has shown that successes have followed the appropriate decisions to embrace new technologies. In the early years of the Doi Moi reform when 95% of the world was still using analogue communications, Vietnam took the bold step and adopted digital communications immediately, resulting in the country achieving remarkable progress in this sector.

Then in 1997, Vietnam once again showed its progressive mindset by agreeing to open the door to the internet, opening a new living space and digital space for each of its citizens, connecting Vietnam with the world and laying a significant foundation for Vietnam to enter into important agreements such as the bilateral trade agreement with the United States and accession to the World Trade Organisation, helping deepen the country’s international economic integration and speed up national development.

The launch of 2G technology in 1993, followed by 2.5G, 2.75G and then 3G and 4G, has brought mobile phones, a luxurious item during the 1990s, to 100% of the population at the lowest possible cost. But it should be acknowledged that when transitioning to 3G and 4G, Vietnam fell behind the rest due to a failure to update policies and the management mindset, a lag in technology and lack of new competitive factors.

The fourth industrial revolution is taking place at a rapid pace around the world and 5G is one of the key technologies in this revolution thanks to its high speeds and low latency, essential to many sectors. Therefore all countries should take advantage of this opportunity and Vietnam is also taking proactive steps to get on-board the 5G train.

Vietnam has certain advantages as it can produce many types of equipment and infrastructure necessary for 5G. The Ministry of Information and Communications has affirmed that mastering 5G equipment is strategically significant nationally and Vietnam is one of the few countries capable of doing so. From now on Vietnam will actively act as a pioneer alongside the rest of the world with regards to technology, helping further stimulate the communications sector, making an even greater contribution to the country’s socio-economic development.

A province-wide ban on mobile karaoke services as well as food shipment to quarantine centers has been ordered by the leader of An Giang Province in southern Vietnam after the locale logged five new cases of COVID-19 transmission.

The direction was stated on Tuesday by Nguyen Thanh Binh, chairman of the An Giang People’s Committee, during his visit to COVID-19 prevention facilities, including control posts along the bank of the Binh Di River in Long Binh Town and the quarantine wards at Luong The Vinh High School in An Phu Town.

The fight against COVID-19 in the province is facing considerable threats as volatile developments of the epidemic have been reported in Cambodia, which adjoins An Giang, district-level officials reported during Binh’s visit.

Tran Hoa Hop, chairman of the An Phu District People’s Committee, said the campus of Luong The Vinh High School has been utilized to quarantine those entering the province from Cambodia since reports of the latest outbreak in the neighboring country first arrived on February 20.

“COVID-19 cases were reported in areas of Cambodia that are very close to Long Binh Town, which seriously concerned us as the topography in the border area here is tricky and harboring risks of illegal enttry,” Hop said.

Tu Quoc Tuan, director of the An Giang Department of Health, stated that the agency has required local hospials to prepare for COVID-19 treatment as the number of infected individuals among the Vietnamese diaspora in Cambodia is soaring.

“Our resolution is sending suspicious cases to COVID-19 wards of our district-level hospitals to prevent them from penetrating further into the country,” Tuan said.

Chairman Binh pointed out that the provinces surrounding An Giang have seen imported cases from Cambodia, which calls for stricter patrols to detect illegal entrances via canal networks.

“Quarantine wards must ensure safe distancing between each room and bed. Food from outside must be prohibited,” he underlined.

“Considering its risk of enabling transmission, mobile karaoke must also be banned in the whole province.”

A form of entertainment that thrives off the crowds at street stalls in Vietnam, mobile karaoke is often run by a duo, one of whom will try to catch attention by singing onto a portable loudspeaker while the other will sell snacks to the drinkers or diners.

They also let singing enthusiasts take over the micro at a certain price.

This is not the first time mobile karaoke has been brought up as a pressing issue by Vietnamese authorities.

On Friday, the Ho Chi Minh City government ordered relevant authorities to crack down on mobile karaoke services following complaints about their loudness at night.

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