Foreign auto experts

PANO – The 18-member foreign defence and military attaché corps to Vietnam, led by South African Defence Attaché Colonel Mpiwa Kgotso Abiel, paid a courtesy visit to leaders of Da Nang municipal People’s Committee on April 7th.

During the reception, Deputy Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Phung Tan Viet expressed  pleasure in welcoming the delegates and briefed them on the history and development of the city, as well as its population and socio-economy.

The delegation in a joint photo with leaders of Da Nang municipal People’s Committee

On behalf of the defence and military attachés, Colonel Mpiwa Kgotso Abiel thanked leaders of the city and Military Zone 5 for warmly receiving the delegation. He said that he considered the visit an opportunity for the attachés to exchange information and to learn about Vietnam’s valuable defence and security experiences. The head delegate also affirmed that the visit will strengthen mutual understanding and trust among countries.

From April 7 ^th to 9 ^th , the delegation will pay a courtesy visit to Military Zone 5, visit Engineering Brigade 270, and see some tourism attractions, such as Ngu Hanh Son, Ba Na, and Hoi An ancient town.

Source: PANO/dantri

Translated by Tran Hoai

Bac Lieu (VNA) – The Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu is attracting foreign investment and experience to support the socio-economic development of ethnic minorities .

By 2025, the province will draw official development assistance (ODA) and preferential loans, especially non-refundable aid, for socio-economic development in ethnic minority areas based on demand and potential and on the principle of preserving and upholding traditional cultural identities and protecting the environment.

It will give priority to dealing with shortages of land, housing, and water for daily use among ethnic minority households; and developing agro-forestry and investing in key infrastructure, education, scientific research and technological transfer in production connectivity models via value chains.

Further attention will also be paid to healthcare, child malnutrition prevention, gender equality, and addressing urgent problems faced by women and children.

Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Phan Thanh Duy said the province will work closely with the Central Steering Committee on the National Target Programme on Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority Areas, the Coordinating Office of the programme, and ministries and agencies to identify demand for international investment and ensure openness and transparency.

It will also offer all possible support in terms of policies, mechanisms, land, and human resources to facilitate foreign investment.

Priority will be given in site clearance, vocational training, the implementation of signed international agreements, conventions and contracts, and the expansion of international cooperation, to seek new partners.

Each year, the province will add more capital to build projects, hold exchanges with stakeholders, and raise funds from domestic and foreign sponsors for the effort./.

VNA

Bangkok (VNA) – The Thai government on March 4 unveiled its “ area quarantine ” plan to open Thailand to foreign tourists from next month.

Minister of Tourism and Sports Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn revealed details of the plan after meeting with the Ministry of Public Health and 216 tourism operators.

Area quarantine will be piloted in five provinces popular with foreign tourists – Chiang Mai, Phuket, Krabi, Surat Thani (Koh Samui, Koh Pha-ngan) and Chon Buri (Pattaya). The plan will be operated via 29 travel agencies supervised by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).

Under the plan’s timeline, tourists will quarantine in their rooms for the first three days and then be swab-tested for COVID-19 at their hotels. If they test negative, they will be granted access to the whole hotel or resort until their 14-day quarantine ends. After 14 days they will be tested again. If no infection is found they will be allowed to travel freely through the quarantine area.

Thailand’s tourism has been hit hard by the pandemic. In 2019, the country hosted 39.9 million visitors who spent about 1.9 trillion baht (63 billion USD), or 11.3 percent of its GDP.

In 2020, the number of tourists to Thailand dropped to 6.7 million. The figure is projected to decrease further to 5 million in 2021, resulting in the spending of just 260 billion baht./.

VNA

The command’s representative answered a number of questions of the delegation on the training, combat readiness as well as role of the region’s armed forces in supporting localities to respond to climate change, natural disaster prevention and assistance in easing difficulties for local people, poverty reduction and the building of new-style rural areas.

On behalf of the delegation, Colonel Mpiwa Kgotso Abiel thanked the command for the warm welcome and highly valued its achievements in the cause of construction and protection of Vietnam.

He also said that the visit was a good opportunity for military attachés to Vietnam to exchange and learn more about the Vietnam People’s Army in general and the region’s armed forces in particular.

Translated by Thuy Duong

During his virtual talks with Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh on March 5, Arreaza congratulated Vietnam on the success of the 13th National Party Congress, while praising the Southeast Asian country’s efforts in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic as well as in maintaining economic growth momentum.

Minh briefed on Vietnam’s situation and the outstanding outcome of the 13th National Party Congress as well as the country’s COVID-19 response measures and solutions to promote socio-economic development and ensure social security.

He affirmed that Vietnam supports efforts by the constitutional government of Venezuela to promote political dialogue on the basis of respecting Venezuela’s Constitution and aspirations of Venezuelan people, thus gradually solving difficulties and boosting socio-economic development in the current context.

The two officials focused their discussion on measures to further enhance the friendship and cooperation between the two countries.

The two sides agreed to maintain mechanisms to promote cooperation between the two nations, especially the Vietnam-Venezuela Intergovernmental Committee for Cooperation and the Political Consultation between the two Ministries of Foreign Affairs.

They also consented to increase exchanges between ministries, sectors and businesses, and foster trade and investment ties in areas of mutual interest such as agriculture, oil and gas, health, commerce, culture, and sports and tourism.

The two sides pledged to promote people-to-people exchange and operation of friendship associations.

Vietnam and Venezuela also agreed to enhance the exchange of views on international and regional issues of shared concern, and work closely at multilateral forums of which both nations are members.

Source: VNA

Meanwhile, on the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index made a breakthrough of nearly 3 percent. At the end of the trading session, the VN-Index inched up by 0.34 points, or 0.03 percent, to close at 1,186.95 points, with 270 gainers, 168 losers, and 64 unchanged stocks. The HNX-Index jumped 6.16 points, or 2.48 percent, to 254.1 points, with 137 gainers, 66 losers, and 57 unchanged stocks.

Foreign investors continued to net sell nearly VND500 billion on the whole market. Of which, they net sold VND470 billion on the HoSE. Liquidity remained at a high level with a total trading volume of 819 million shares, worth more than VND18.1 trillion. Of which, put-through transactions accounted for nearly VND1.77 trillion.

The stock market traded with caution from investors after the new General Director of the HoSE Le Hai Tra spoke in the media about a solution to prevent network congestion, which possibly is to raise the minimum round lot from 100 shares to 1,000 shares to reduce the load for the trading system.

According to the HoSE’s calculations, increasing the round lot to 1,000 shares can reduce the total number of trading orders by 40-50 percent, at the same time, it can pave the way for new heights of market liquidity.

Mr. Tra said that that might only be a temporary solution to solve the current network congestion situation. In the future, when the new stock trading system comes into operation, there will be an odd-lot board, and it is also possible to return to the current round lot of 100 units. However, this opinion faced considerable opposition from investors because it will make it difficult for investors, especially small investors. Because they will have to spend 10 times as much as currently to buy stocks on the HoSE.

Another solution to prevent network congestion for the HoSE is to transfer some stocks from the HoSE to the HNX, the State Securities Commission (SSC) has just sent documents to the HoSE, the HNX, and the Vietnam Securities Depository (VSD) on this.

Accordingly, the SSC requested the HNX to promptly accept and receive listed companies from the HoSE, without reviewing their records following the new listing process. The transaction mechanisms, transaction supervision, listing management, reporting, and information disclosure will be applied the same as companies listed on the HNX. The HoSE and the HNX will cooperate in supervising transactions for these stocks to ensure continuity of supervision.

Noticeably, the SSC stated clearly that shares of transferred companies, which are currently in the set of the VN-Index indicators of the HoSE will be removed from the set of HoSE indicators during the temporary transfer to the HNX. At present, SSC will temporarily not consider transferring the shares of companies currently in the VN30-Index.

The SSC also requested the HNX, the HoSE, and the VSD to urgently handle the issue so that enterprises can transfer the transactions of their shares similarly to the listing transfer cases that have been carried out so far. This mechanism will be applied from March 3 this year.