Gimsons prime ministers review

Vietnam prepares funding plans for locally-made COVID-19 vaccines

April 14, 2021 by vov.vn

This information was agreed at a regular meeting of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control in Hanoi on April 14.

Do Quyet, director of the Military Medical University, announced that the second phase of the Nanocovax human trials is set to end on April 15. The university will send a report to the Ministry of Health and the Biomedical Research Ethics Council in order to review and evaluate the scientific basis of the second phase, while simultaneously starting the third phase.

Quyet also noted that a total of 554 volunteers who had got the Nano Covax jab in the second phase exhibited some forms of symptoms, including a light fever, pain around the injection site, muscle aches, joint pain, and fatigue. However, none of them required medical intervention and they are all now in stable health condition.

Vietnam should go ahead with research and production efforts of domestically-made COVID-19 vaccines, stressed the director.

The meeting saw the Ministry of Health (MoH) confirm that many countries globally are continuing to struggle with vaccine shortage, and Vietnam must try its best to secure a sufficient supply of the vaccines for domestic use through a combination of local production and imports.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long warned Vietnam is set to face numerous difficulties in accessing and negotiating the purchase of coronavirus vaccines from suppliers.

Addressing the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam requested that the MoH urgently submit specific plans to purchase foreign vaccines, in line with the Political Bureau’s decision and the Government ‘s Resolution No 21/NQ-CP regarding the purchase and use of COVID-19 vaccines.

At present four local COVID-19 vaccines are being developed by Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology JSC, the Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals (IVAC), Vaccine and Biological Production Company No. 1 (Vabiotech), and the Center for Research and Production of Vaccines and Biologicals.

So far, pre-clinical trials by Nanogen, IVAC, and Vabiotech have shown that the vaccines are safe for use on animals and are immunogenic.

Nano Covax, the vaccine produced by Nanogen, is currently in its second phase of human trials, while IVAC’s Covivac remains in its first phase.

Vabiotech’s vaccine is anticipated to have its first and second phases for human trials approved in July.

Vietnam has signed a contract to purchase 30 million doses of the AstraZeneca this year. The first batch of more than 117,000 doses arrived in late February for the national COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

It is anticipated to received an additional 30 million doses of the same vaccine sponsored by COVAX, a global mechanism for developing, manufacturing, and procuring COVID-19 vaccines. The first batch of more than 800,000 doses arrived in Vietnam in late March.

Alongside the AstraZeneca vaccine, Vietnam is also ramping up negotiations with the Pfizer and Moderna of the United States, and other vaccine manufacturers in order to ensure a total of 150 million doses for domestic use.

Creating basis to promote development of domestic market

April 14, 2021 by en.nhandan.org.vn

These included programmes to build scenarios and plans to promote the consumption of agricultural and aquatic products in localities facing difficulties in the export and domestic consumption of their products.

Under the programme, the reserve capacity of frozen and cold storage warehouses was also reviewed towards the preparation of storage plans when necessary. In addition, related State management units have actively connected a series of distribution enterprises with localities to promote the consumption of large-yield and harvested agricultural products facing market difficulties.

For example, right after Hai Duong Province implemented social distancing from 0:00 on February 16, the Ministry of Industry and Trade directly worked with major distribution systems such as Central Group (BigCand Go! supermarket chain), Vincommerce (Vinmart and Vinmart + chain), BRG Retail (BRG Mart supermarket chain), MM Mega Market chain and others to purchase agricultural products from farmers, cooperatives andenterprises in the province.

As a result, although the COVID-19 pandemic, with its new variants, has developed complicatedly and spreadrapidly on a large scale in many localities, the domestic market was still guaranteed and has gradually recovered.

Total retail sales of consumer goods and services in March increased by 9.2% over the same period last year, showing the recovery of consumers’ demand. In the first quarter of this year, total retail sales of consumer goods and services also rose by 5.1% over the same period in 2020.

The Prime Minister issued Decision No. 386/QĐ-TTg on March 17 to approve the Project on Developing Domestic Market associated with the “Vietnamese people prioritise using Vietnamese goods” campaign in the 2021-2025period.

The project outlined four main groups of tasks to be performed, including boosting information and communication; developing a sustainable distribution system with priority given to Vietnamese goods; improving competitiveness for Vietnamese products and Vietnamese enterprises; and strengthening the inspectionof the market and protection of consumers.

This provides an important basis for State management agencies to continue the implementation of activities to promote domestic market development through various programmes such as “Proud of Vietnamese goods” and “The quintessence of Vietnamese goods”, contributing to promoting production, trading and consumption of Vietnamese goods

At the same time, such programmes will be combined with annual action programmes of ministries, sectors andlocalities to create a spillover effect nationwide.

Project supporting implementation of Paris Agreement sped up

April 14, 2021 by dtinews.vn

The Steering Committee of the project “Support to Vietnam for the Implementation of the Paris Agreement” (VN-SIPA) held its second meeting in Hanoi on April 14 with the participation of representatives from certain ministries, sectors, and localities.

Addressing the meeting, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Le Cong Thanh highlighted the project’s support in implementing Vietnam’s nationally determined contributions (NDC) and the Paris Agreement on climate change.

In order to speed up the project, he asked participants to make proposals and discuss the 2021 plan, especially activities relating to State management over climate change and the enhancing of Vietnam’s role and responsibility as a signatory to the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Meanwhile, Weert Borner, Deputy Ambassador of Germany in Vietnam, said that Vietnam was one of the first countries to build an action plan to realise the Paris Agreement and one of the first to submit and update its NDC.

He held that the VN-SIPA supports Vietnam in creating the necessary suitable conditions for the deal, to mitigate the impact of climate change and bring about environmental and socio-economic benefits for the country.

Pham Van Tan, Vice Director of the Climate Change Administration at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, said that as COVID-19 is still a major issue, ministries and localities should prepare alternative measures and speed up the implementation of approved plans.

Kia Fariborz, Chief Advisor of the VN-SIPA project, said that last year, Vietnam completed and updated its NDC report in September, which was recognised and lauded by the international community as it was one of the first 20 countries to do so.

The four-year VN-SIPA project was approved by the Prime Minister on April 3, 2019 and has a total cost of 10.3 million EUR (12.31 million USD), funded by non-refundable ODA from Germany. It aims to strengthen the legal framework and national capacity in implementing the Paris Agreement, with the core being conducting Vietnam’s NDC.

So far, it has assisted the building of a climate change response programme in the revised Law on Environmental Protection 2020 as well as climate change management documents and sectoral plans on climate change response. It has defined solutions in the central provinces of Quang Binh and Ha Tinh based on the ecosystem./.

More drastic measures taken to support businesses to sustain export growth of agricultural products

April 14, 2021 by bizhub.vn

Tran Quoc Toan, deputy director of MoIT’s Import and Export Department. — Photo congthuong.vn

Viet Nam’s export of some agricultural products such as rice, aquatic products and fruits has experienced many challenges recently. The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) is taking many measures to fight against origin fraud to protect Viet Nam’s export industries from litigation risk arising from the evasion of trade remedies.

Vietnam News Agency spoke to Tran Quoc Toan, deputy director of the ministry’s Import and Export Department, about the challenges facing Vietnamese enterprises as well as State’s support on this matter.

In the first quarter, Viet Nam’s agricultural exports, including rice, benefited from rising prices but export volume decreased compared to the same period in 2020. What are the reasons and the direction for rice export in the future?

Facing many difficulties amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Viet Nam’s rice export achieved positive results. Although the export volume decreased, the turnover growth brought benefits to rice farmers.

Vietnamese rice exporters are increasingly focusing on improving quality, traceability and striving to meet the strict standards of demanding markets such as the EU, South Korea and the United States. This is one of the factors that have helped improve the competitiveness of Vietnamese rice.

Export data to a number of high-end markets in recent years have shown positive signals on the improvement of the quality of both rice and the enterprises themselves.

Viet Nam’s rice export structure has been gradually shifting to high value-added rice such as fragrant rice, accounting for 27.15 per cent of the total export volume; japonica rice, 3.39 per cent; sticky rice, 9.26 per cent.

The current average export price has ensured farmers’ profits when compared with the average cost of paddy planned for the winter-spring crop 2020-21. In addition, Viet Nam has signed many free trade agreements (FTAs) with many strategic countries that have helped the Vietnamese rice brand become better known, expand markets for high-end rice and specialty rice at higher prices, contributing to the increase in export value for Vietnamese rice.

In order to boost rice export in the future, the MoIT will increase coordination with other ministries and the Viet Nam Food Association to support businesses to implement FTAs effectively.

The ministry will continue regular coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, which is leading the rice industry restructuring process and take drastic and comprehensive measures to improve the value and quality of Vietnamese rice, building and developing Vietnamese rice brand.

Besides the support from State management agencies, businesses need to actively prepare plans to strengthen their capacity, source of goods and improve competitiveness through building long-term and disciplined strategies to strictly comply with regulations on traceability, build and protect brands towards sustainable exports.

It is also necessary to proactively develop cooperation and linkage to enhance strength, create supply chains and prepare measures to deal with trade remedies and lawsuits through monitoring market and price developments.

Recently, many seafood and fruit products are facing challenges to maintain and expand in key markets, including the United States. What solutions has the ministry prepared to support businesses?

Vegetables and fruits have enjoyed impressive export growth for many years with an average growth rate of 14.1 per cent during 2016-20.

However, due to the adverse impacts of COVID-19, export value of this sector reached only US$3.3 billion in 2020, down 12.7 per cent year-on-year. In the first quarter of this year, the export turnover reached $944 million, up 6.1 per cent year-on-year.

The United States is the second largest export market with a market share of about 4-5 per cent of Viet Nam’s total fruit and vegetable export turnover. The export growth averaged 24.4 per cent in the last five years.

In 2020, despite the pandemic, vegetables and fruits shipped to the United States fetched $168.8 million, maintaining a growth rate of 12.5 per cent, of which, fruit export was $72.9 million, down by 8.5 per cent year-on-year. In the first two months of 2021, the export of vegetables and fruits to the US reached $23.4 million, up 3.7 per cent, accounting for 4.2 per cent of the export turnover of the whole industry.

To date, six types of fresh fruits from Viet Nam have been allowed to be shipped to the US, including dragon fruit, longans, lychees, rambutans, star apples and mangos. However, the amount of export is insignificant because of high costs such as transport, storage, quarantine and irradiation treatment which make them less competitive than from other countries that geographically nearer.

The export of processed fruits and vegetables has seen positive growth due to the change in demand and taste of consumers. This type of products with the advantage of long storage time prevails in the pandemic.

For seafood products, the export turnover in 2020 reached $8.4 billion, a decrease of 1.5 per cent year-on-year, of which exports to the US increased the most, reaching more than $1.6 billion, up 10 per cent thanks to sharp increase of 33 per cent in shrimp exports. In the first two months, seafood exports to this market continued to rise by 5.4 per cent year-on-year, reaching over $189 million.

Currently, the demand for seafood imports of the US market is recovering. The structure of products has also changed amid the pandemic. Therefore, the product segment serving retail channels, home consumption with high convenience such as ready-to-eat, instant food, dry food and canned food with reasonable prices is and will have more room to grow in the US this year.

In addition, the high rise in shipping rates and the lack of empty containers for packing in the past few months have also directly impacted seafood export activities.

According to the Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), by the end of 2020, foreign shipping lines increased freight by two to three times, even six to seven times in some sectors but enterprises were still unable to arrange vessels and containers for export. Enterprises supplying seafood materials from abroad also could not book vessels to ship raw materials to Viet Nam.

In order to support businesses to overcome difficulties, maintain and promote the export of agricultural products, especially to the US market, the ministry is taking many measures to fight against origin fraud to protect Viet Nam’s export industry from litigation risk arising from the evasion of trade remedies..

The ministry will update the situation on prices and markets to promptly notify and guide associations, enterprises and production establishments to organise their production plans.

Also it will proactively update the application of trade protection measures, promptly inform relevant agencies and businesses, and effectively fight against unreasonable technical barriers from the US market for agricultural products, including Vietnamese seafood and fruits.

In addition, the ministry will continue coordinating with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to accelerate the negotiation of the technical market to expand the list of Vietnamese goods/enterprises permitted to export to the United States, as well as carry out effective and suitable export promotion programmes for agricultural products.

Regarding the rising freight charges, the ministry has reported to the Prime Minister and will continue working closely with the Vietnam Logistics Business Association and other relevant industry associations to facilitate the distribution and balanced use of container rotation. — VNS