New improved shingles vaccine

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

He spoke at the cabinet’s monthly regular meeting on March 1.

The PM said the Government had been very responsible in providing a peaceful Tet holiday for the people. The Politburo and the Secretariat of the Communist Party of Vietnam praised the Government’s high level of responsibility in ensuring an abundant supply of goods, and keeping prices stable for the holiday.

The PM also said that after the New Year, the country launched an opening ceremony for tree planting festivals, calling for people to plant trees.

The recent third Covid-19 wave affected key economic regions in northern Vietnam such as the provinces of Hai Duong, Hai Phong, and Quang Ninh as well as Hanoi. Thanks to the government’s serious measures, the epidemic has been basically controlled. New cases of Covid-19 are only being recorded in Kim Thanh district in Hai Duong.

“We have basically controlled the third wave and have been highly praised by the world in our success in preventing and controlling the spread of Covid-19,” the PM said.

He emphasized that Vietnam has imported vaccines, but the fighting spirit still must be based on the principle of “vaccine plus 5K”, a government message about five preventive measures.

The Prime Minister asked the Ministry of Health to first vaccinate the poor, families of those who were devoted to the country, and eight other categories named in the Government’s resolution on vaccination.

The Ministry of Health was asked by the PM to implement vaccination this week and to continue stamping out the outbreak in Kim Thanh district in Hai Duong province.

At the same time, promoting business to achieve the dual goals of controlling the epidemic and developing the economy must be a priority, the government head said.

According to the PM, this is the last meeting of the government for the 14th term, so he asked ministries, agencies, and local authorities to focus on important, urgent and immediate tasks. Accordingly, they have to solve remaining tasks under their responsibilities within this term.

Ho Van – Lien Anh

National unity promoted

During its 90-year history, the Vietnam Fatherland Front has always exerted efforts to perform its role as the host of campaigns and activities to mobilise resources in all social strata to contribute to the country’s socio-economic growth and ensure national defence and security.

Vice President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee Ngo Sach Thuc says the Front has promoted patriotism, solidarity and creativity among people, which could be seen through effective implementation of its mobilisations on realising the country’s development goals and improving its people’s livelihood.

He says: “The Front has become a bridge to converge people and promote national unity. It could be seen through warm responses of people to mobilisation campaigns targeting the poor, policy beneficiaries, the disadvantaged and fellow residents affected by floods, etc.”

In the mobilisation campaign of ‘All people unite to build new-style rural areas and civilised urban areas’ in 2015, the Fatherland Front at all levels has coordinated with other agencies to call on people to donate land and strength to develop infrastructure, develop the economy, sustainably reduce poverty, protect the environment, adhere to the law, preserve and promote traditional cultural values towards building happy and civilised communities.

Thuc says, “the mobilisation has managed to call on the whole political system and a majority of people to participate and achieved comprehensive results. 60% of communes nationwide have been recognised as new-style rural areas as of 2020”.

Every year, the Fatherland Front cooperates with relevant ministries, agencies and organisations to implement the programme ‘Vietnamese people prioritise Vietnamese goods’.

From 2015 to 2020, the Fatherland Front at all levels have raised a total fund of 19.7 trillion VND (over 850,000 USD) for social welfare programmes and over 4.6 trillion VND (over 200 million USD) particularly ‘For the poor’ fund; built and upgraded over 153,000 houses for poor households; built thousands of welfare projects; assisted millions of households to develop business models, examine their health and facilitate their children to go to school.

The Fatherland Front’s member organisations have organized several programmes targeting policy beneficiaries, people with meritorious services to the nation, disadvantaged people, Agent Orange victims, people with disabilities and the underprivileged. They have also promptly assisted people affected by natural disasters and critical incidents, as well as effectively organised search and rescue missions.

As of September, 2020, the Front raised over 2 trillion VND (over 87 million USD) for the national fund for preventing and fighting COVID-19.

Performing social supervision and criticism

The Vietnam Fatherland Front has organised and co-organised 12 central-level supervision programmes on several fields, including policies towards people with meritorious services to the nation; implementation of the Law on Science and Technology; education and training reforms; agricultural supplies management, manufacturing and trading; handling complaints and denunciations at grass-root level; administration reforms, among others.

Mentioning the Fatherland Front’s achievements in social supervision and criticism, Ngo Sach Thuc says “In the past five years, provincial Fatherland Fronts have organised and participated in 4,093 supervision projects; while those at district level 22,679 projects and communal level 466,012 projects.

The Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front has performed its tasks of giving opinions and social criticism, along with monitoring and approving the Front’s activities. It gives comments on over 30 legal documents every year.”

Protecting legitimate rights and benefits of people

According to Politburo member and standing member of the Party Central Committee Secretariat Tran Quoc Vuong, the Vietnam Fatherland Front should continually reform, especially in its mode of operation, to consolidate its position in the country’s political system. He says the Front needs to exert efforts to fulfill its role as a medium agency connecting political and social organisations as well as outstanding individuals.

The Fatherland Front must perform its role of protecting people’s legitimate rights and benefits; making use of potentials from the great unity bloc; implementing democracy, improving social consensus; promoting people’s patriotism; etc. to safeguard the nation in the new situation, Vuong stresses.

“A proud 90-year history of the Vietnam Fatherland Front is an endless flow of patriotism and national unity tradition. Under the Party’s leadership, our people have united within the Fatherland Front, created great miracles that increase the nation’s prestige,” President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Tran Thanh Man says./.

A customer uses smart phone to scan code on a product

Nguyen Quang Dong, Director of the Institute for Policy Research and Communication Development, said digital service industry is recording the fastest growth and is suitable with Vietnam’s strengths such as a young population who love technology and social networks.

Digital technology and the digital economy will be key drivers helping Vietnam increase workplace productivity, escape the “middle-income trap”, and realise the objective of becoming a middle-class developed economy by 2040, Dong said.

Vietnam’s internet infrastructure and digital payment services remain limited, however, while the country still lacks a legal framework for digital assets, he said, stressing that the legal model of the 20th century no longer suits the digital economy.

Dong also underlined the need to promote international cooperation, especially in joining the building of new regulations and their enforcement through legal frameworks for the region.

A study by the Institute for Global Leadership under the US-based Tufts University revealed that Vietnam ranks 48th out of 60 countries and territories globally in terms of rapidly switching to a digital economy, and 22nd in digitisation development.

In the last five years, with the boom of smartphones, the internet, and social networks, digital technology and digital transformation have developed rapidly in Vietnam, shaping a fledgling, dynamic digital economy with great potential.

Vietnam’s digital economy is made up of four main groups: e-commerce, online tourism, digital communications, and logistics technology.

The country, together with Indonesia, holds the lead in digital economy growth in Southeast Asia.

The two pacesetters are both posting growth in excess of 40 percent a year.

Vietnam’s internet economy is also booming, reaching 12 billion USD in 2019 and recording a 38 percent annualised growth rate since 2015.

Another study by Australia’s Data 61 forecasts that Vietnam’s GDP may add an additional 162 billion USD in 20 years if the country’s digital transformation is successful.

Experts said Vietnam possesses strengths in human resources and Government support, so the country could create a dynamic wave to further strengthen the development of its digital economy.

The Party and State have outlined orientations for building policies and programmes to actively join the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), focusing on applying and developing science and technology, promoting innovation, and improving the quality of human resources.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on December 30, 2020 issued the National Strategy on the Industry 4.0 by 2030, to fulfil the goals set in Politburo Resolution No 52-NQ/TW, which outlines policies guiding Vietnam’s active involvement in Industry 4.0.

The strategy’s objectives are to take full advantage of opportunities presented by the Industry 4.0 and fundamentally master and broadly apply new advanced technologies in different social and economic fields.

Under the strategy, Vietnam expects to be named among the top 40 performers in the Global Innovation Index (GII), the top 30 in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)’s Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI), and the top 50 in the United Nations’ e-Government Development Index (EGDI) by 2030.

The country also aims to raise the proportion of the digital economy in national GDP to 30 percent and boost productivity by 7.5 percent annually on average. Other targets is to achieve universal access to fibre-optic internet and 5G services, completion of digital government development, and the establishment of smart cities in key economic zones across the north, central, and southern regions, and connection with regional and global networks of smart cities./.VNA