Ho chi mi city

Ho Chi Minh City will not trade the environment for economic growth, chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong said at a tree planting and environmental sanitation campaign in Thu Duc City on Sunday.

Speaking at the event, chairman Phong stated that planting trees reflects the cultural beauty of Ho Chi Minh City and is a practical activity given the ongoing climate change.

“Since 2011, environmental protection has been included in one of the city’s seven breakthrough programs,” the official stated.

“During the 2021-25 period, Ho Chi Minh City will strive to add an extra 600 hectares of parks and 20 hectares of green areas.”

The people and government of Ho Chi Minh City, and Thu Duc City in particular, will join hands to make the southern metropolis a green, clean, and beautiful city, Phong remarked.

Such activities will help spread the message of environmental protection and combat climate change, while spurning the country’s effort to plant one billion trees.

Hoang Tung, chairman of the Thu Duc City People’s Committee, said that rapid urbanization has brought about a lot of environmental challenges.

Many residents are still littering on local streets and dumping garbage into canals, which exacerbates inundation and pollution.

“To deal with the issue, Thu Duc City has launched tree planting events at three locations and in 34 wards to expand urban green space,” Tung said.

“Through these activities, we hope to raise awareness of environmental protection among local residents.”

Thu Duc City has set a goal of planting one million green trees during the 2021-25 period, the official added.

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By staff writers – Translated by Uyen Phuong

Discos, bars, karaoke parlors in HCM City will continue to be closed (Photo: VNA)

Under a dispatch issued by the Chairman of the city People’s Committee on March 8, the city leader asked heads of departments, sectors and agencies to localities to continue strictly implementing directions of the Prime Minister, the National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control as well as the Health Ministry and the city in pandemic prevention and control measures, including the “5K message”.

Locals are advised to strengthen COVID-19 prevention and control measures, especially in wearing facemask in public places, washing hands, and keeping safe distance.

The city leader asked the Department of Information and Communications to strengthen communications on measures to prevent the spreading of COVID-19, especially the “5K message” – khau trang (facemask), khu khuan (disinfection), khoang cach (distance), khong tu tap (no gathering) and khai bao y te (health declaration).

So far, HCM City has seen 210 COVID-19 infections, including 68 domestically-transmitted cases. The city has spent 26 days without any new infections.

Two investors look at stock prices on a laptop in HCM City. — Photo courtesy of Vietnambiz.vn

Instead of congestion, and errors, only in the afternoon or near the close like previously, errors are now occurring even in the morning.

For example, on March 5, just after the market opened, the security live board froze and failed to show realtime prices.

Nguyen Kha, a veteran investor in HCM City, said he punched in an order to sell HBC shares on March 3 when it jumped to above VND18,500 (US$804 million), but only half his order was matched, and in the next few days had to sell at below VND18,000 since he needed money, losing VND1,000 per share.

Another investor on HoSE said he has been in a constant state of insecurity recently and cannot do any other work after placing orders since one needs to watch the screen to see if the order is matched.

This insecurity has caused many investors to switch to trading on the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) and UPCoM, causing shares there to skyrocket in terms of both price and trading.

On March 4 UPCoM saw trading worth VND1.7 trillion, twice the normal average.

Drastic solutions

To tackle the overload at HoSE, the State Securities Commission (SSC) said it is speeding up installation of a new trading system provided by the Korean Exchange (KRX).

Last week it instructed the temporary transfer of shares from HoSE to HNX to much acclaim from both investors and analysts, but a difficult task since listed companies need to get approval from their shareholders.

Besides, it could take securities companies one to two months to meet the technical changes involved in identifying the shares transferred to the HNX.

Some need even six to nine months.

Dr Nguyen Van Thuan of the University of Finance and Marketing told Thanh Niên (Youth) newspaper however that since this solution has the least impact on investors and companies, the SSC could make it not mandatory for companies to get approval.

The settlement between the two exchanges and securities companies is an internal issue, and so the switch could be accelerated, he pointed out.

If the problem lasts much longer, not only investors but also the stock market and the economy itself would suffer badly, he added.

VNS