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Eight more people have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in Vietnam, raising the total number of patients in the country to 2,420, the Ministry of Health reported on Thursday evening.

According to the ministry’s report, seven of the new patients are from Hai Duong Province.

The imported patient is a 25-year-old Vietnamese woman who entered Vietnam through the Moc Bai International Border Gate on February 22. She was sent to a quarantine area upon arrival and tested possitive for  two days later.

The patient is now being treated at the Tay Ninh Provincial General Hospital.

With these new infection cases, the number of Covid-19 patients in Vietnam has increased to 2,412, including 1,520 locally-transmitted cases with 827 cases reported since the new outbreak started in Hai Duong on January 28. Hai Duong Province alone has recorded 643 cases.

Visitors to the Hùng Temple Relic are asked to wear masks and keep their distance from others. — VNA/VNS Photo Trung Kiên

HÀ NỘI — The Hùng Kings Festival, which pays tribute to the founders and first kings of the nation, will be held similarly to last year, with ceremonial activities but no festivities.

The plans for the national major festival were decided at a meeting of the People’s Committee of the northern province of Phú Thọ where it is held annually.

The ceremonies will be conducted with the death anniversary of the great father of the nation Lạc Long Quân and the incense offering to commemorate great mother of the nation Âu Cơ on April 17 and incense offering ceremony to commemorate the Hùng Kings and the flower offering ceremony on April 21.

Speaking at the meeting, vice chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee Hồ Đại Dũng said the event would take place in a respectful atmosphere, while strictly abiding by measures to prevent COVID-19 from spreading under the guidance of the Ministry of Health.

This is the second year the Hùng Kings Festival will include only ceremonial activities and no festivities.

According to Lê Trường Giang, director of the Hùng Kings Temple Relic Management Board, the temple received more than 20,000 visitors on the occasion of Tết (Lunar New Year).

“The measures to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic have been taken seriously at the historical site. At the same time, the visitors’ awareness has been much improved this year,” he said.

The Hùng Kings Temple Relic Complex covers more than 1,000ha, more than half of which is forest. The complex is scattered with dozens of temples dedicated to the legendary kings.

There are some 300 temples dedicated to the Hùng Kings and other figures from the Hồng Bàng dynasty (2879 to 258 BC) in Phú Thọ, and nearly 1,500 sites dedicated to the kings throughout the country.

UNESCO placed the “Worship of Hùng kings in Phú Thọ” on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on December 6, 2012,

The Hùng Kings Festival is held annually from the 8th to the 11th day of the third lunar month, which falls on April 19 to April 22 this year, as a tribute to the Hùng Kings who are credited with establishing the nation.

The main festival day, which is also a public holiday in Việt Nam, is on the 10th day or April 21. — VNS

Nguyen Thi Bich Van

In early 2021, on its Facebook page, IBM Vietnam for the first time announced the appointment of a female Vietnamese CEO to replace a foreign CEO who had been working for IBM for 25 years.

The woman, Pham Thu Diep, is the first IBM’s ‘female general’ in the company’s 25 years of operation in the Vietnamese market.

It is now more common to see women managing large corporations in Vietnam such as Mai Kieu Lien, CEO of Vinamilk; Nguyen Thi Nga, president of BRG; Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, CEO of Vietjet; and Le Thi Thu Thuy of VinFast are some of the names.

However, becoming a CEO of a foreign invested technology firm is still rare in Vietnam.

Before taking the office as CEO of a technology firm, Diep was a high ranking manager with 23 years of experience in the IT field. Starting her career at TRG International, she later held posts at Exact, which provides ERP service and cloud software to clients specializing in accountancy.

Diep joined IBM in early 2011 and has had many leadership positions since then.

In 2017, a Vietnamese woman became the highest ranking leader of Unilever Vietnam, a foreign invested enterprise specializing in personal and family care products and food. The first Vietnamese female president of the leading company in the FMCG sector is Nguyen Thi Bich Van, who has had a strong attachment to the company for the last 24 years.

Le Diep Kieu Trang is another well known name among businesswomen. She worked as CEO of Facebook and Go-Viet before choosing a new way to go.

The ‘golden girl’ with respectable achievements during school has had leadership positions at the world’s largest groups in Vietnam.

The brilliant achievements gained by VietJet Air, the air carrier with the largest market share, in the last decade bear the hallmark of CEO Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao. Last year Vietjet was one of only a few air carriers in the world which did not lay off workers and also made a profit, despite the Covid-19 crisis.

After a period of holding the post of CEO at Fossil Vietnam, Trang chose Facebook to use her experience to connect to the business community, both in Vietnam and overseas.

Global vision

Van said in Forbes Vietnam that being a leader in a multinational environment requires a high level of professionalism. She needs to understand multinationals’ vision and define their role in the multinationals’ business.

The working environment at multinationals is very diverse, so there is high requirement on the ability to work, communicate, and think in that environment. To encourage people to raise good ideas, leaders not only need to understand national cultures, but also understand the abilities of each worker so as to combine their talents and lead the staff to the finish point.

According to Van, this is not an easy work, because the more talented people there are, the more difficult it is for the team to reach a common purpose. In modern times, CEOs need to not ‘issue orders from the top down’, but ‘serve others’. They need to set orientation and then give power to workers to implement the strategies.

Some important positions at foreign corporations were and are held by Vietnamese women. These include Nguyen Phuong Anh, who worked as Google Asia Pacific marketing director in charge of the Vietnamese market; and Nguyen Mai Phuong, who became the youngest branding director of Unilever at the age of 24.

Vietnamese businesswomen also play an important role in the development of Vietnamese enterprises.

The brilliant achievements gained by VietJet Air, the air carrier with the largest market share, in the last decade bear the hallmark of CEO Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao. Last year Vietjet was one of only a few air carriers in the world which did not lay off workers and also made a profit, despite the Covid-19 crisis.

Thao has been included in Bloomberg’s list of 50 global influential leaders for many years. Thao is also chair of the board of directors and founding shareholder of Sovico Holdings, and deputy chair of HDBank.

In the manufacturing sector, Le Thu Thuy, president of VinFast, is a respectable name. Just within a short time, VinFast introduced its first two products – LUX A2.0 sedan series and LUX SA2.0 SUV at Paris Motor Show 2018. Most recently, its first three SUV smart electric cars were launched.

The great strides made by VinFast has created a stronger belief in the future of Vietnam’s automobile industry. This is the first time in history that a Vietnamese company can manufacture luxury cars with good design and high quality, to be sold in Vietnam and in the world market as well.

V. Ha