Festive season

Local people perform "xoe" dance, which is significant to Thai people, at the Muong Lo festival last year. (Photo: Le Hai Yen) The festival will take place from September 20 to 25. The highlight of the festival will be the opening ceremony program called “Quintessence from legend” which strongly embraces the cultural identity of various ethnic groups in the northwestern region. A massive xoe dance performance involving thousands of local ethnic people from Nghia Lo township and Van Chan district will form the shape of a ban flower and a terraced field. Hoang Thi Nam of Nghia Lo township, one of the dancers, said, “I participate in the dance performance every year because I love xoe dance. Local people are busy but everyone tries to make time to participate in the dance event because they all love xoe.” A street carnival will take place at the festival for the first time drawing ethnic people from 9 districts and towns in Yen Bai. Its aim is to introduce … [Read more...] about Muong Lo culture and tourism festival opens

Logistics ship to operate in Quảng Ngãi   A modern maritime logistics ship was put into operation at Sa Kỳ Seaport in the central province of Quảng Ngãi’s Bình Sơn District on Wednesday. The Lý Sơn 168 is nearly 46 metres in length and 7.7 metres in width. It has total investment capital of nearly VNĐ32 billion (US$1.4 million). Of this, around VNĐ26 billion ($1.1 million) was borrowed from the Việt Nam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development following the Government’s preferential policies for fishery development. The ship’s design includes fish tanks, a freezer storage system, a seawater ice-making machine and a processing workshop. The ship can carry from 300-400 tonnes of seafood and has a maximum speed of 12 nautical miles per hour.  TUỔI TRẺ (YOUTH) City introduces new poverty guidelines HCM City has adopted new poverty guidelines for 2016 to … [Read more...] about Domestic press highlights

Many provinces in Vietnam have been facing a shortage of pork after the outbreak of the African swine fever started from March this year as the demand for pork increases ahead of festive season, causing the price of pork to rocket. Within the past month, the prices of pork at many provinces have started to soar heavily due to inadequate supply, raising concerns about higher and higher prices as a shortage of pork is likely to continue at the end of the year. Underprivileged families could not afford pork because of high prices so they had to switch to buy food with more stable prices, such as chicken, duck and fish. Meanwhile, in China, the African swine fever raging from last year to the beginning of this year has made the prices of pork escalate sharply. The price of pig has risen to above VND100,000 per kilogram at some places. At a regular press conference held by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on October 14 in Hanoi, Mr. Nguyen Van Trong, deputy director of … [Read more...] about Total pig herd remains at around 25 million pigs

Since the third quarter of 2018, Samsung Vietnam has no longer served as a driving force for Vietnam’s GDP growth, as the company has entered the phase of stable growth and its parent company Samsung Electronics is under pressure from unfavorable global economic environment, according to KB Securities.    Illustrative photo. The securities company projected Vietnam’s GDP growth in the fourth quarter this year to reach 6.95 – 7%, taking the whole-year growth to nearly 7%.  KB Securities expected the disbursement rate of public investment to play a more active role for GDP growth in the remaining months, thanks to drastic measures from the government. Data from the Ministry of Finance revealed the disbursement rate in the first nine months of 2019 was around 45% of the target set by the National Assembly.  Meanwhile, exports are predicted to pick up where it left off in the previous period, thanks to the recovery of Vietnam’s smart … [Read more...] about Samsung no longer driving force for Vietnam’s economy

  HCM City has promised pork prices will not be hit by the shortage caused by African swine fever during Tết (the Lunar New Year) in early 2020. — VNS Photo Văn Châu HCM CITY — The management of the HCM City market stabilisation programme for essential goods has decided not to increase pork prices though market prices continue to rise. In the first 10 days of this month, pork prices on the farm increased by a third to VNĐ60,000 (US$ 2.66) per kilogramme. Businesses participating in the price stabilisation program such as food company Vissan Joint Stock Company are under pressure, but its deputy general director, Nguyễn Đăng Phú, has promised the company would continue to supply at the same price. He said that the price of meat would increase further when the supply of pigs decreases due to the African swine fever epidemic since farmers do not dare breed more of them, he added. To ensure supply and demand of pork do … [Read more...] about HCM City to keep pork prices steady despite supply slump