Indonesia

On January 15, a quake of 6.2 magnitude claimed more than 90 lives and injured over 820 people in Majene district and coastal city Mamuju of West Sulawesi province. About 28,000 people were displaced./. … [Read more...] about 5.5-magnitude earthquake jolts southeast Indonesia

As e-commerce is a field which needs significant capital, Vietnamese businesses without a parent company with strong financial potential would not be able to develop and compete as they are only allowed to access capital from the narrow list of investors announced periodically by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, he said. … [Read more...] about VIETNAM BUSINESS NEWS JANUARY 20

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam has seen certain achievements made in tobacco harm prevention and control but challenges continue to emerge, including the increasing trend of smoking e-cigarettes, Associate Professor and Dr Luong Ngoc Khue has said. At a meeting with partners of the Bloomberg Initiative in Hanoi on January 19, Khue, who is also Vice Chairman of the National Medical Council and Director of the Fund for Tobacco Harm Prevention and Control, highlighted encouraging outcomes after seven years of implementing the law on prevention and control. A decline has been recorded in smoking in public places like schools, offices, and public transport; a behaviour subject to increasing objections from the community. Smoking is now almost never seen at meetings, weddings, or funerals. Many non-smokers have also recognised their right to have their health protected and spoken out to remind others not to smoke in places where it is banned, Khue said. Pointing out new challenges, he cited the … [Read more...] about E-cigarette use on the rise: Expert

Rome (VNA) - Vietnam handed over its chairmanship role at the ASEAN Committee in Rome (ACR) to Indonesia at an ACR monthly meeting held on January 20. In its six-month taking over the role starting from July last year, the Vietnamese Embassy in Italy worked with embassies of other ASEAN member states to sustain the ARC’s operations amid COVID-19. Seven ambassador-level meetings, activities to celebrate ASEAN’s founding anniversary and 12 other meetings took place during the period.    Under Vietnam’s chairmanship, the committee continued to carry out ASEAN promotion activities such as a photo exhibition of ASEAN member nations in Rome and the 2nd Torino-ASEAN economic cooperation forum. The Vietnamese Embassy also actively coordinated with ASEAN countries and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to implement the Italy-ASEAN development partnership action plan via an initiative to organise an ASEAN-Italy conference of senior police officers and the … [Read more...] about Vietnam wraps up chairmanship of ASEAN Committee in Italy

Hanoi (VNA) – ASEAN needs to set up an anti-fake news task force, while developing a regional guideline and shared platform for prompt information sharing, proposed a Vietnamese official at a seminar held in Jakarta, Indonesia on January 20. Making the proposal, Trieu Minh Long, Director General of the Ministry of Information and Communications’ Department of International Cooperation, reviewed a number of fake news prevention measures conducted by bloc members. The measures included issuing related regulations, establishing agencies in charge of online news or anti-fake news centres, setting up hotlines, and using digital technologies to verify information. He also mentioned the promotion of public-private partnerships between governments and social network providers to remove fake news and false information, especially those related to the COVID19 pandemic.  He recommended that ASEAN countries increase the provision of information from official government … [Read more...] about Vietnam highlights ASEAN’s need for task force against fake news