Shreyas parikh flight attendant

By Khanh Dang

* Philippine and US soldiers will conduct a two-week joint military exercise from Monday, resuming the annual training event after last year’s cancellation due to the pandemic, the Philippine military chief said on Sunday.

* The funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh will be held at Windsor on April 17, with no public access nor public procession beforehand, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said Saturday. The event is to be a “ceremonial royal funeral”, rather than a state funeral, which “very much reflects the duke’s wishes”, a palace spokesman said.

* China has administered 164.47 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of Saturday, the National Health Commission said on Sunday. This represents around 24.5 million doses in the past six days, as the country’s vaccine rollout continues to accelerate.

* Brazil’s COVID-19 death toll has risen to 351,334 after 2,616 new deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health reported on Saturday. Meanwhile, the country registered 71,832 new cases, bringing the national tally to 13,445,006, the ministry said.

* Russia reported on Sunday 8,702 new COVID-19 cases, including 2,090 in Moscow, taking the national infection tally to 4,641,390 since the pandemic began. The government coronavirus taskforce reported 337 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the total death toll to 102,986.

* Thailand on Sunday reported 967 new COVID-19 cases, its biggest daily jump, but no new deaths as the country deals with a third wave of infections and a highly contagious variant. Of the infections, 964 were domestic transmissions, including 236 in the capital Bangkok, the epicentre of an outbreak that has spread to most of Thailand’s 77 provinces.

* Malaysia reported 1,739 new COVID-19 infections, the Health Ministry said on Sunday, bringing the national total to 360,856. Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a press statement that eight of the new cases are imported and with 1,731 being local transmissions. Eight more deaths have been reported, bringing the death toll to 1,329.

* Israel views the United States as a “full partner” and will work closely with its ally to ensure any new diplomatic accord with Iran does not compromise regional security, Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz told his US counterpart on Sunday.

* French lawmakers voted late on Saturday to abolish domestic flights on routes than can be covered by train in under two-and-a-half hours, as the government seeks to lower carbon emissions even as the air travel industry reels from the global pandemic.

* Israel’s defence minister pledged on Sunday to cooperate with the United States on Iran, voicing hope that Israeli security would be safeguarded under any renewed Iranian nuclear deal that Washington reaches.

* Voting began in Benin’s presidential election on Sunday following a week of violent protests against incumbent Patrice Talon, who is heavily favoured to win a second term.

* The Republic of Korea authorities said on Sunday they will move ahead with a coronavirus vaccination drive this week, after deciding to continue using AstraZeneca PLC’s vaccine for all eligible people 30 years old or over. The ROK on Wednesday suspended providing the AstraZeneca shot to people under 60 as Europe reviewed cases of blood clotting in adults.

* Peruvians were preparing to head to the polls on Sunday in a presidential election marked by uncertainty due to widespread public apathy following decades of graft and mismanagement and a possible low turnout because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

* The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 17,855 to 2,998,268, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Sunday. The reported death toll rose by 104 to 78,353.

* Tropical cyclone Seroja strenthened off Western Australia on Sunday, with emergency services opening shelters in preparation for high winds and coastal flooding later in the evening.

* People arriving in Ireland from the United States and 15 other countries and regions will have to complete a 14-day mandatory quarantine at a government-designated facility starting from 4 a.m. (Irish time) on April 15, according to a latest decision of the Irish government.

* Munir Akram, the president of United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Pakistan’s UN ambassador, on Friday called on the global community to address the crisis of inequality and mobilize financing for recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

* The United Arab Emirates has selected the first Arab woman to train as an astronaut, as the Gulf country rapidly expands into the space sector to diversify its economy.

* The Saudi-led military coalition battling Yemen’s Houthi movement intercepted and destroyed drones launched by the Iran-aligned group towards Khamis Mushait and Jazan in southern Saudi Arabia, state media said on Sunday. The coalition said it would take “necessary operational measures” to protect civilians in line with international law.

* The occupancy rate of Egypt’s hotels, which are running at half capacity due to COVID-19 regulations, was between 40% and 45% in the first quarter, an official from the tourism ministry told Reuters on Sunday. This amounts to an occupancy rate of nearly 25% if hotels were running at full capacity, according to Reuters calculations.

She has also won the third prize twice in the southern province of Ba Ria – Vung Tau contest for excellent students.

Nghiem Thao Tam

Having a father who is the leader of the chess team of Ba Ria – Vung Tau province in the 90s, Nghiem Thao Tam (12th grader at Le Quy Don High School, Ba Ria – Vung Tau) has had experience with this intellectual sport since her childhood.

At the age of 7, Tam won a gold medal in the National Young Chess Champs. Realizing their daughter’s capabilities, Tam’s family encouraged to her pursue the career of semi-professional chess.

“When I was 7 or 8 years old, I achieved success in national and international competitions and set the provincial record as the youngest athlete to win multiple international medals. However, in the following 4-5 years, I only got into provincial and regional tournaments. At that time, I was very disappointed because I did not achieve the goals I wanted. There was even a time when I felt like I lost my passion and wanted to take a break to focus on studying at school,” Tam recalled.

But then, Tam seriously thought about it and realized that she had to focus more of her time on chess instead of school in order to achieve great success. With the encouragement of her family, Tam decided to continue pursuing chess. As a result, in 2017, Tam won the gold medal for the National Chess Cup for Students. This was an important milestone to help her become more confident in herself and is a premise for many other great achievements later on in her career.

Nghiem Thao Tam has won multiple medals at international tournaments, and a perfect score on the SAT Maths II.

In 2018, Tam won the gold medal for the National Chess Cup for Students and two medals in the Asian Young Chess Championship.

In 2019, Tam won three medals in the teams’ competition at the Asian Young Chess Championship (1 gold medal in slow chess, 1 silver medal in blitz chess and 1 bronze medal in rapid chess) and an individual silver medal at the Southeast Asian Young Chess tournament.

And most recently, in 2020, she won another gold medal in the National Young Chess Cup.

Impressive study results

Taking part in tournaments and studying at school is not easy. Tam often brings her homework along with her at tournaments.

Luckily, Tam is a fast learner and is good at all subjects. Although she is a student specializing in Mathematics, Tam is regularly at the top of the class and the school in both Mathematics and Literature.

In middle school, Tam was chosen to participate in Vung Tau City’s exam for excellent students. While participating in chess tournaments, she had impressive results, always staying in the top 5 best students of her class. Her 10th grade GPA was 9.2; Grade 11th was 9.1 and semester 1 of grade 12th was 9.3.

In grades 10 and 11, Tam won the third prize in the city’s exam for excellent students in Mathematics.

She also achieved a score of 800/800 on SAT Math II and IELTS 7.0.

Tam said that the SAT math mainly requires basic knowledge and smart thinking, so it was not difficult for her to get the perfect score.

However, IELTS 7.0 is a score that she was not really satisfied with.

Tam usually spends three sessions a week to practice chess and about 30 minutes daily to study. During summer breaks, Tam spends most of her time practicing chess.

Valuable experience

“Chess has not only helped me improve my logical thinking and creativity, but also gave me a lot of valuable experiences that not all my peers have the privilege to experience. Each tournament has different happy and sad memories, but all of them have helped to create my independent, mature personality today,” said Tam.

Besides being able to compete in many countries, interacting with many different cultures and meeting many international friends, chess also became a way for Tam to make money to help her parents with her studying fee and living expenses.

Despite her talent for chess, from 11th grade, Tam determined that in the future she would pursue a major in computers and programming.

She said that having won many prizes in Mathematics and learned logical thinking skills from chess, she realized that majors in science and technology, specifically information technology, would be the best choice.

Tam has won a scholarship of about VND3.3 billion (nearly $170,000) to study computer science at a domestic university. Despite the advice from everyone that females should not follow a career in technology, she still was determined to pursue her passion.

Even so, Tam still wished to pursue chess. Although she would not be able to spend as much time on chess, Tam said she would arrange time and energy to practice and participate in about 2-3 tournaments each year.

“There are many teachers and friends willing to help me practice and compete. Although I do not know what the future holds, in order to pursue my passion, I want to be able to participate in all the national youth tournaments, the excellent youth national championships, and Asian and Southeast Asian tournaments up to the age of 20 and attend larger tournaments such as the Vietnam Chess Championship to expand my horizons,” said Tam.

Thanh Hung

A top-10 trading partner

According to the Trade Counselor at the Vietnamese Embassy in India Bui Trung Thuong, India is one of Vietnam’s top 10 trading partners, and annual bibateral trade has exceeded US$10 billion. In 2020, Vietnam ranked 17th among India’s trading partners worldwide and fourth among those in ASEAN.

In the first two months of 2021, bilateral trade reached nearly US$2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 21 percent. This included US$1.09 billion worth of Vietnam’s exports to India, up 17 percent, and US$905 million worth of India’s exports to Vietnam, up 26 percent. Positive growth was recorded for most major Vietnamese exports to India, for example mobile phones and components up 23 percent; iron, steel and metal products up 32.22 percent; computers, electronic products and components up 6.7 percent. Given these results, 2021 bilateral trade is expected to reach US$12 billion.

India is also a major foreign investor in Vietnam. Indian investment in Vietnam, including investment through third countries, has reached US$1.9 billion. Currently, 294 Indian investment projects are ongoing in Vietnam with total capital of US$898 million. By the end of 2019, Vietnam had six investment projects in India with total capital of US$28.55 million, mostly in the field of pharmaceuticals, information technology, chemicals, and construction materials.

Vietnam’s advantages

The Indian Government has paid great attention to boosting trade and investment connections with Vietnam. It has approved a US$77 million project development fund to support Indian companies in building supply and production chains in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

According to the Vietnamese Trade Office and Embassy in India, Vietnam is an attractive investment destination for Indian companies due to its long coastline and 14 free trade agreements (FTAs) with more than 50 countries and territories. In terms of ease of doing business, Vietnam ranked 70th among 190 economies worldwide in 2020, according to the World Bank. Vietnam allows foreign direct investment (FDI) in a wide range of fields and offers foreign investors attractive tax and land rent incentives. The cost of business establishment in Vietnam is low, with no requirement for minimum investment capital.

At a recent meeting of the India-Vietnam Business Forum in Changigarh, the capital city of Punjab and Haryana states, Indian companies affirmed their special interest in Vietnam, especially in the context of the increasing shift of investment from China and the growing demand for supply chain diversification. They also pointed to many similarities between Vietnam and India. The meeting was organized by the Vietnamese Trade Office and Embassy in India, in association with the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

Direct flight routes between the two countries will contribute significantly to boosting bilateral trade and investment, as well as cooperation in education, people-to-people exchanges, and tourism.

Untapped potential

Indian companies want to cooperate with Vietnam in farm produce processing, information technology, pharmaceuticals, textiles, garments, and auto spare parts. The EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) which came into force in August 2020 is expected to help Vietnam increase textile and garment exports to the EU, while India can become a supplier of quality fabrics, fibers and yarns for Vietnam.

Another potential field of cooperation is pharmaceuticals. In the context of ongoing complications of the Covid-19 pandemic, India is considered “the pharmacy of the world” with a large scale of production, low production costs and high product quality. For its part, Vietnam is the second largest pharmaceutical market in Southeast Asia. It spends US$225 million on pharmaceutical imports from India annually. Vietnam is encouraging domestic pharmaceutical production while at the same time attracting foreign investment in this field. Vietnamese pharmaceutical companies can take advantage of FTAs to which Vietnam is a signatory to join global supply chains.

Despite the positive results, the potential of bilateral cooperation has not been fully tapped. To increase economic cooperation, the two sides need to upgrade infrastructure and accelerate institutional improvements, among other efforts.

Thu Thuy