Free retreats for ministers

Retired deputy minister becomes bank president

February 26, 2021 by vietnamnet.vn

VietBank’s president has unexpectedly resigned and his position has been transferred to a former government official.

Retired deputy minister becomes bank president

VietBank’s chair of the board of directors Bui Xuan Khu

VietBank has announced that Duong Ngoc Hoa resigned from the post of chair of the board of directors on February 23 and the office has been taken by Bui Xuan Khu, who was Deputy Minister of Industry Trade.

Khu became a member of the bank’s board of directors in 2011 after he retired. Later, he acted as deputy chair of the board of directors until he was appointed president of the bank.

Khu is the next former high-ranking official to become a bank president. Le Thi Bang Tam, former Deputy Minister of Finance, is now president of HDBank and president of Vinamilk.

Tam joined Vinamilk in 2013 as an independent member of the board of directors. She has been president of the nation’s leading dairy producer since 2015 and president of HDBank since 2010. She is also a senior advisor to some foreign financial institutions.

A lot of former government officials became businessmen after their retirement. Tran Xuan Gia, former Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Xuan Gia, became the president of ACB in 2008-2012. Gia, together with a lot of former senior managers of the bank, including Ly Xuan Hai, Le Vu Ky and Trinh Kim Quang, were investigated in a case related to Nguyen Duc Kien, or ‘Mogul Kien’.

Kieu Huu Dung, former director of the Banks and Non-bank Credit Institutions Department, served as president of Sacombank in 2014-2017. He later became president of ACB Securities and president of Sacombank Securities.

The other officials included Pham Viet Muon, who was Vice Chairman of the Government Office, Cao Sy Kiem, former Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) and Truong Van Phuoc, former head of SBV’s Foreign Exchange Management Department.

Former Deputy Minister Bui Xuan Khu, who joined VietBank in 2011, also has a lot of business experience as he was general director of the Vietnam Textile and Garment Corporation (Vinatex), the largest garment producer in Vietnam, general director of Viet Tien Garment and deputy president of the Global Petroleum Investment JSC.

In mid-2019, VietBank put VBB shares into transactions on the bourse.

VietBank was established in December 2006 as a rural bank with charter capital of VND200 billion. Its founding shareholders have relations with Hoa Lam Group, ACB and Dieu Hien Company. The bank now has charter capital of VND4.19 trillion after five capital increases.

ACB has divested from VietBank, while Dieu Hien is no longer mentioned in documents and information about the bank. The shareholders from Hoa Lam Group still maintain their stake with Duong Ngoc Hoa as the representative. Duong Nhat Nguyen is now deputy chair of the bank.

V. Ha

Hanoi, Hai Phong get green light for private funding to buy Covid-19 vaccines

February 26, 2021 by e.vnexpress.net

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said on Thursday that the Ministry of Health and Government Office should draw up specific guidelines for the purpose.

No details of how or from whom they will mobilize funds are known yet.

Vietnam plans to procure 150 million doses from British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca, global vaccine access mechanism Covax and domestic producers by 2022, the ministry has said.

The first batch of 117,600 doses from AstraZeneca was delivered on Wednesday.

Hanoi has decided it will provide free vaccination, and estimates it will need 15 million doses to vaccinate everyone above 18.

The northern port city Hai Phong plans to acquire more than two million doses.

Local firms keen on purchase of COVID-19 vaccines

February 26, 2021 by vov.vn

Coteccons Construction Joint Stock Company and the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam have already registered to purchase tens of thousands of doses which would be distributed among their employees and family members, according to a reports thanhnien.vn.

Dat Xanh Group, a real estate developer, has also announced plans to fund inoculations for over 7,300 employees working at 68 of its affiliates nationwide.

Furthermore, Phu Nhuan Jewelry, one of the country’s leading gold and gem stone firms, has agreed to purchase COVID-19 vaccines for staff members. It has also raised a total of VND270 million in support of the free vaccination campaign for groups of underprivileged people in society, including the poor.

Meanwhile, the Canada International School Vietnam has also decided to allocate a fund of VND3 billion for its immunisation campaign in an effort to vaccinate its teachers and staff, as well as the parents of students, providing the conditions allow.

Despite this initial interest, the Vietnam Vaccine Joint Stock Company (VNVC), the only agency assigned by the Ministry of Health to receive, preserve, and distribute COVID-19 vaccines domestically, has said due to limited supplies, imported vaccines will be available for priority groups first. Specifically, frontline healthcare workers would be at the head of the queue.

Vaccination inoculations will be regulated by the Government, according to a VNVC representative.

Vietnam imported its first batch of more than 117,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine on February 24.

The Ministry of Health (MoH) subsequently published a list of 11 groups of people that will benefit from the vaccination campaign, with priority to be given to frontline healthcare workers, soldiers, border forces, policemen, and those on duty in isolation areas and quarantine facilities.

The MoH is currently considering licensing two additional COVID-19 vaccines produced by Moderna of the United States and Generium of Russia.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said the country requires at least 150 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines which can be used to inoculate citizens this year. However, he confirmed the MoH is likely to get only 90 million doses in 2021.

Along with the import of 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine agreed with AstraZeneca and COVAX, Vietnam is in the midst of negotiating to import a further 30 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine of the US, said Long

Four Vietnamese research institutes and companies are now researching and developing COVID-19 vaccines, with two locally-produced vaccines, Nano Covax and Vovivac, carrying out human clinical trials.

During a recent Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc requested the MoH and relevant agencies to speed up the national vaccination campaign , considering this to be key to slowing the spread of the virus among the community.

“Our strategy is to vaccinate approximately 100 million Vietnamese people,” PM Phuc said.

Due to limited supplies of COVID-19 vaccines, the country has yet to launch paid immunisation services, said Associate Professor Tran Dac Phu, former director of the National Preventive Medicine Department and currently a senior member of National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

First 35 volunteers receive injections of home-grown COVID-19 vaccine in second-stage trial

February 26, 2021 by en.qdnd.vn

Developed by the Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology JSC and the Military Medical University, Nanocovax is Vietnam’s first COVID-19 vaccine to reach the human trial stage.

The 35 volunteers were chosen among about 300 people who registered to participate in the second-stage trial of the vaccine at the University after undergoing rigorous medical examinations. They are divided into three groups for receiving three different doses of 25mcg, 50mcg and 75mcg, and one group with five people getting placebo.

According to a representative from the University, a total 560 volunteers, aged 18-60, including those with several diseases such as hypertension, dyslipidemia and diabetes, among others, will participate in the second-stage trial, which is carried out in Hanoi and the Mekong Delta province of Long An.

Lieutenant-General Do Quyet, Director of the Military Medical University, said since the trial sees the participation of volunteers with underlying health conditions, competent authorities have been prepared for all scenarios and ensure safety for all volunteers.

Results of the trial will be announced in May 2021 before preparing for the third-stage trial during which only one single shot of the vaccine will be administered to 10,000-15,000 people from both domestic and foreign pandemic-hit regions, Quyet added.

Present at the second-stage trial of Nano Covax at Military Medical University, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam encouraged the volunteers and the medical workers, while expressing his firm belief in the ability of the Vietnamese scientists in successfully developing COVID-19 vaccines.

The first-stage trial of the Nano Covax vaccine showed that it is likely to be effective against B117 variant from the UK.

Vietnam is one among 40 countries in the world that have started human trials of a COVID-19 vaccine, after successfully producing coronavirus test kits early into the pandemic.

The country also has several other COVID-19 candidate vaccines being developed, which are IVAC by the Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals, VABIOTECH by the Company for Vaccine and Biological Production No 1, and POLYVAC by the Centre for Research and Production of Vaccines and Biologicals.

Source: VNA

Van Don Int’l Airport prepares to reopen on March 3

February 26, 2021 by sggpnews.org.vn

An inspection team for pandemic prevention led by Quang Ninh Provincial Party’s Committee Secretary, cum Chairman of Provincial People’s Council, Nguyen Xuan Ky made a survey in the aiport on February 20.

The province’s leader highly appreciated the aiport’s efforts to control the pandemic and reduce the spread of Covid-19 to get ready for reopening.

He asked Van Don Airport’s leadership to continue to strictly implement prevention measures to ensure the safety of passengers and employees.

After reoperation, the airport plans to resume routes connecting Van Don and HCMC to meet passengers’ travel demand as well as receive repatriation flights for Vietnamese citizens and foreign specialists to enter Vietnam to work.

After arriving at the aiport, passengers on flights carrying experts are required to submit health declaration form, take temperature checks, wash their hands, wear masks and keep a safe distance. After completing entry procedures, arrivals will be sent to quarantine facilities.

Travelers on commercial flights have to implement online health declaration, take temperature checks, wash their hands and wear masks. The disinfection of terminals and high-touch surfaces is carried out daily

Dozens of employees at Van Don International Airport were found infected with the novel coronavirus because they were linked to the 1,553rd patient who is an employee of the airport.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc decided to close down Van Don Airport for 15 days after many locally-transmitted cases of COVID-19 were confirmed.

On January 28, Minister of Transport signed a decision on shutting down the airport from midday on January 29 to midday on February 13. The CAAV then proposed the Ministry of Transport to extend the closure of the airport until February 21. The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) then suggested that the airfield should be extended its closure from 12:01 p.m. on February 21 to 6 a.m. on March 3 to prevent further spreading of Covid-19.

Van Don Int’l Airport prepares to reopen on March 3 ảnh 1

An inspection team for pandemic prevention led by Quang Ninh Provincial Party’s Committee Secretary, cum Chairman of Provincial People’s Council, Nguyen Xuan Ky makes a survey in the aiport .

Van Don Int’l Airport prepares to reopen on March 3 ảnh 2

A worker is disinfecting a terminal.

By P.Nam – Translated by Kim Khanh

World News in Brief: February 26

February 26, 2021 by en.nhandan.org.vn

* China and India should firmly follow the right path of mutual trust and cooperation between neighboring major countries, and not go astray with suspicion and distrust nor fall back on a road of negative retrogression, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Thursday. Wang made the remarks in a telephone conversation with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, stressing that the two sides should maintain the strategic consensuses reached by their leaders.

* As COVID-19 transmission rates seemingly decline across the European Region, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge expressed health concerns over “long-COVID” or “post-COVID” symptoms at a virtual press conference on Thursday.

* Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in Armenia in a telephone conversation with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday, the Kremlin said.

* The Pentagon confirmed on Thursday that the US military had conducted airstrikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed militant groups in eastern Syria. The Pentagon called the operation a “proportionate military response” carried out after consultations with coalition partners.

* China approved two more vaccines for public use, raising the number of domestically produced vaccines that can be used in China to four.

* Japan on Friday is preparing to lift the state of emergency over COVID-19 for five prefectures where the situation has improved, although the Greater Tokyo metropolitan area will likely be kept under the emergency period for the time being, according to government sources.

* The Department of Health (DOH) of the Philippines reported on Friday 2,651 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily increase since Oct. 17 last year, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 571,327.

* Leaders of the European Union (EU) called for an accelerated production and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines late on Thursday as the bloc is struggling with supply shortfalls.

* Brazil surpassed 250,000 COVID-19 deaths, while France and Germany said COVID-19 is here to stay after European Union leaders discussed ways to fight new variants of the virus, step up inoculations and save Europe’s tourism industry from another ruinous summer.

* Europe’s medicines regulator issued new guidance for drug makers that modify their vaccines to protect against variants of the virus to speed up the approval process.

* France will bring in new restrictions for the Moselle area around its common border with Germany, and impose measures including weekend lockdowns in Paris and 19 other regions from the start of March if signs of the coronavirus accelerating persist.

* Australia’s Victoria state will start easing restrictions from Friday night.

* Republic of Korea launched its inoculation campaign, with shots to be administered in some 200 nursing homes.

* US President Joe Biden’s administration plans to launch a campaign to educate Americans about vaccines in anticipation of a period later this year where supply may outstrip demand because of vaccine hesitancy.

* Brazil will purchase 20 million doses of the vaccine made by India’s Bharat Biotech for delivery between March and May.

* Canada’s vaccination campaign is ramping up after earlier supply disruptions and the number of inoculations last week hit a five-week high.

* Pfizer and BioNTech said they are testing a third dose of their vaccine to better understand the immune response against new variants of the virus.

* Mexico’s economy grew quicker than first estimated during the fourth quarter as the country recovered from its sharpest economic contraction in nearly nine decades.

* Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions have fallen to the lowest level since 1995 as coronavirus restrictions limited travel. Data released by the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources on Friday revealed that emissions fell by 4.4 percent in the 12 months to September 2020.

* Security personnel of the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) rescued more than 80 Rohingya refugees who had been onboard a boat drifting in the waters of Andaman Sea for 10 days, and retrieved eight dead bodies.

* Republic of Korea’s quarantine authorities said Friday that it will extend the country’s five-tier social-distancing rules at the third-highest level in the Seoul metropolitan area for two weeks.

* US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that he would work to make US-Saudi relations “as strong and transparent as possible.” Biden made the remarks in the first phone conversation with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud since Biden’s inauguration.

* Germany’s Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure said on Wednesday that more than EUR5 billion (US$6.1 billion) would be invested in the modernization of over 3,000 railway stations across the country.

* Colombian President Ivan Duque announced a decision Thursday night to extend a declared national health emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic by three more months, as the vaccination drive entered its eighth day.

* AstraZeneca boss Pascal Soriot said he hoped to meet the EU’s expectations on the number of vaccines the company can deliver to the bloc in the second quarter.

* The Czech prime minister said people’s movement needed to be “radically” limited over at least the next three weeks.

* Portugal extended until at least mid-March a nationwide lockdown.

* The African Union is backing calls for drugmakers to waive some intellectual property rights on COVID-19 medicines and vaccines.

* Israel has frozen its programme to send vaccines abroad to buy international goodwill, Defence Minister Benny Gantz said, after the initiative came under legal scrutiny.

* Bahrain has approved Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose vaccine for emergency use.