Obesity preventing and managing the global epidemic

Starting next year, the city will formulate plans on its own and call for investment later, the city's party leader Truong Quang Nghia said at a Tuesday meeting with almost 1,000 city residents. He said reviewing the city's general urban plans has been a key task undertaken by the municipal administration for the past two years. Earlier this year, the city had hired Singaporean consortium Sakae Corporate Advisory-Surbana Jurong as consultants to make adjustments to its master plans from now until 2030 and with a vision until 2045. Based on advice from the two firms, Da Nang, considered the third major city in Vietnam after capital Hanoi and southern metropolis Ho Chi Minh City, will make development plans on its own. It will invite businesses to invest in projects that have already been designed instead of "letting investors tell the city to do this and that and the city revising its plans following their proposals as has been done before," said Nghia. "Every project will be … [Read more...] about Da Nang to keep businesses at bay from urban planning

Forests are being cleared against the law at Van Phong Bay, about 60 kilometers north of Nha Trang Deforestation has been going rife on islands within a bay in the south-central Vietnamese province of Khanh Hoa. Forests are being cleared against the law at Van Phong Bay in Van Thanh Commune, Van Ninh District, which is about 60 kilometers north of the famous beach city of Nha Trang. The situation has been discovered after local authorities announced the establishment of the Bac Van Phong special economic zone. According to the observations of Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reporters, tens of hectares of forests has been wiped out in Vinh Phuong Village, Van Thanh Commune. Several hectares of trees has also been chopped down on Ngang Islet and Tri Islet, as well as some other islands within the bay. Competent agencies have yet to calculate the exact area of forest to have been destroyed. Loggers were hired by someone and came in groups of 20 to 30 people, driving motorcycles and … [Read more...] about ​​Deforestation leaves authorities powerless in Vietnamese bay

The Ministry of Education and Training has recommended that degree certificates should no longer show students' ranks. Universities now have five ranks: excellent, very good, good, average, and acceptable. Truong Nguyen Thanh, vice principal of Ho Chi Minh City's private Van Lang University, said not indicating the level of distinction is now a global trend. Most schools in the U.S. do not include them in the degree certificate but attach the school records along with it. A few years after graduation, not many students would worry about the rank they had got, only the value they bring to their current employer, he said. "Academic ranks can only reflect one aspect of the student: the ability to grasp knowledge. What businesses really need are the skills to solve problems and application of their knowledge in different contexts." Ho Thanh Phong, principal of Hong Bang International University, said he endorsed the new proposal. But it also worried him since it could make things difficult … [Read more...] about Proposal to scrap ranks in university degrees receives mixed response