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Vietnam Airlines recently converted one of its Boeing 787-9 aircraft to transport 40 tonnes of lychee from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City.

Before the pandemic its Dreamliners had a busy schedule, flying to Europe, Australia and the ultra busy Hanoi-HCMC sector, and few thought lychees will replace passengers on the modern airplane with a capacity up to 270.

The carrier has also deployed other planes to transport lychee.

Budget airline Vietjet has also been offering freight services to compete with leading logistic providers as demand balloons by the day. It has set up an online freight service , Swift247, in which it owns a 67 percent stake.

In the first three months of 2021, Vietjet transported over 18,000 tonnes of cargo, with its cargo subsidiary contributing nearly 50 percent of total revenues.

Since May, Bamboo Airways has been offer charter flights.

To compete in the summer, the high season for air travel, carriers have offered big discounts on fares and promotions like free check-in baggage to attract customers back.

Bamboo Airways reduced fares by 35 percent when booking five seats or more.

Vietjet offered free insurance to all domestic passengers, including VND1 million compensation per day for loss of income in case of forced quarantine or Covid-19 infection as a result of traveling with it.

Newcomer Vietravel Airlines, which has a fleet of three airplanes, is pricing tickets at below breakeven level, according to Nguyen Quoc Ky, its chairman.

Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet have joined the effort to trial a vaccine passport.

Next month, Vietnam Airlines will implement the International Air Transport Association’s Travel Pass initiative that allows people to store verified Covid-19 test and vaccination certificates on a smartphone app.

This is seen as one of the keys to convincing countries to reopen borders to international travelers.

According to Planespotters, an online database on commercial aviation based in Berlin, Germany, over half of all aircraft in Vietnam are idling in near-empty airports.

Vietnam Airlines is currently operating only 47 of its over 100 planes, including 15 of its 29 wide-body airplanes (A350 and B787).

In the case of Vietjet Air, over 50 out of its 74 airplanes are not flying.

In the first quarter, Vietnam Airlines suffered losses of nearly VND5 trillion ($218,4 million). To generate sufficient cash flows, it is now selling 11 of its A321 CEO planes.

Bamboo Airways has the least number of idle aircraft, nine out of 27.

Nguyễn Thượng Hiền

Nearly two years after the launch of anti-plastic waste movement, many supermarkets have committed to banning single-use plastic bags and many organisations have also launched initiatives to encourage people to reduce the use of plastic.

In a recent interview with Vietnamplus online newspaper, Nguyễn Thượng Hiền, Deputy head of the General Department of Environment talked about the use of plastic in the country and measures needed to curb plastic waste.

What have we achieved through the anti-plastic waste movement over the last two years?

Specific and practical activities from the Government and relevant ministries, agencies, localities and local people across the country have brought about encouraging results. It’s not just about awareness, localities and people have taken actions to reduce single-use plastic and pay more attention to recycling and reuse.

In terms of policy, there are laws and regulations approved, aiming to reduce the amount of plastic waste, encourage people to recycle and process plastic as well as combat ocean plastic.

Our national action plan set the target to reduce marine plastic litter by 75 per cent, collect 100 per cent of abandoned, lost or discarded fishing material, and put an end to disposal of fishing waste into the sea. We also aim to have 100 per cent of coastal tourism areas, tourist attractions, tourist accommodations and other seaside tourism services not using single-use plastics and non-biodegradable plastic bags. We also strive for 100 per cent of marine protected areas free of plastic litter.

The government also directed authorities to enhance communication work on plastic waste prevention and control in 2021-2025 as well as strengthen the management, recycle, reuse, processing and reduction of plastic waste.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) has also set an example in this movement and called for its staff to take actions and encourage their families and relatives to join the movement.

It also cooperated with the Ministry of Education and Training to strengthen environmental protection work in 2019-2025, aiming to raise awareness of teachers and students and disseminate information about environmental protection laws.

The Ministry of Health has also issued a directive in 2019 to direct hospitals and health establishments, pharmaceutical companies and stores to limit the use of single-use plastic bags.

Big changes related to this issue have also been seen in most localities.

What are the highlights of the achievements?

In big cities and provinces, many supermarkets have committed to banning single-use plastic bags including Co.op mart Việt Nam, Big C Đà Nẵng, and Big C Hà Nội. Many are using leaves to wrap goods.

Some airlines also committed to paying attention to the use of environment-friendly products on their flights. Many organisations and individuals across the country have called for people to exchange plastic for plants while some food and drink establishments replaced plastic straws with ones made from paper.

With the support of the MONRE, an alliance of businesses against plastic waste has been set up including major manufacturing and retail distribution companies such as TH Group, Coca-Cola, La Vie, Nestle, Nutifood. An agreement on building a circular economy has been signed between the ministry and companies including SCG and Unilever.

Along with the high determination of ministries, agencies and localities, as well as international organisations and educators, the movement has had great impacts on the community and the whole society.

With the results achieved, Việt Nam will be successful in reducing plastic waste and contribute to the sustainable socio-economic development and the establishment of a circular economy.

What should be done to realise the goal of banning single-use plastic by 2025?

Management of plastic waste is a problem that requires drastic, continuous and systematic efforts of authorities at different levels, the community and local people.

To improve the management of waste, the MONRE is reviewing and proposing to the Government several measures.

First, it is important to have guidance documents in the implementation of the Law on Environment 2020 to reduce the impacts of waste, especially plastic waste, on the environment.

It is also necessary to encourage businesses and people to invest, manufacture and use environmentally friendly materials, enhance recycle and reuse of waste as well as build a circular economy.

There should also have regulations requesting relevant organisations and individuals to recycle.

The ministries, agencies and localities need to push scientific research, strengthen the application and transfer of technology, among many others. — VNS

In a chic white dress, T.N.P.N, 27, who lives in HCM City, told VietNamNet that she was a victim of a man who made friends with her on Tinder.

N said she was warned about cheating on dating sites and tried to learn something about her friend before having relations with him.

N, who works in the information technology sector, had always looked up information about the men and had been able to avoid bad people. But she could not escape the sophisticated trap set by YiLi.

“YiLi was at another rank,” she said. “He had a youthful and manly appearance like a supermodel. He was knowledgeable with a strong personality. Though I was very cautious, I could not find anything shady about him.”

“My doubt was replaced by belief, and I followed YiLi’s advice to make a forex investment on Ausforex-x.com,” N said.

She later discovered that she had been cheated and lost over $10,000.

“YiLi designed a perfect scenario and acted so well that I absolutely believed in him. I even fell in love with him. After one month of talking, YiLi never mentioned the investment,” she recalled.

“We only talked about our hobbies. During the process, I realized that YiLi was calm and knowledgeable. I fell in love because I found that both of us had many common interests such as taking pictures and watching Japanese anime,” N explained.

One morning, when N still had not gotten out of bed, YiLi sent sweet text messages. He also sent images of him going shopping and buying luxury items.

When asked about the shopping, the man said he had made big money from forex investments. It was a ‘job’ that he was doing to earn extra money as he, a pilot, could not fly during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Many young Vietnamese women have fallen into traps set by men on dating sites.

Another woman, N.M.Y, 24, from Tien Giang province, was also hurt by someone on the dating app. She had been involved in a ‘billion dong swindle’.

Y was cheated out of VND1 billion, but the biggest pain for her was the emotional cheating.

The cheater was the first love of the young woman. Y felt so depressed that she had to be hospitalized after a long period of not eating.

Y is an assistant for a CEO of a large food corporation. As she was busy, she had no time to seek friends and find lovers. So she decided to seek friends on Tinder.

On the dating website, she met Li Rui. “After some conversations, Li Rui called me to chat on Line, an online chatting app, and we began our relation,” Y said.

After two or three days of talking, Li Rui began flirting with sweet messages.

“He talked about a future where there is ‘you, me and our children’, about a happy home full of laughter, where I won’t have to do anything but take care of him, our children and our home,” she said.

She said he had all the things she wanted, from a good appearance to character.

“He took great care of me and made me feel that I was really pampered. We called and chatted every day. When I fell sick, he called and messaged all the time and made careful recommendations on what to eat, what not to eat, and how to avoid stimulating drinks,” she recalled.

“If I said I could not sleep, he would call and coax me to sleep. In general, he understood women’s psychology,” she said.

The feeling of being loved quickly blew any doubts away.

Some months later, Li Rui told her that he “wanted the love to be built on wealth and money”.

He lured Y into pouring money into a BO investment (binary option contracts) on Jian Hong Era website.

Y invested Jian Hong Era $46,000.

“What makes me feel wretched is not the possible loss of money, but the emotional cheating. My love was toyed with,” she said.

“This was my first love. When I discovering the cheating, I asked Li Rui if he once loved me and I received an angry answer,” she said. “I was in great pain. That pain still haunts me,” she said.

Nguyen Son

Recently announced data from parental control application Kaspersky Safe Kids provides a glimpse into the most searched websites by Vietnamese children and their time spent on apps during the COVID-19 pandemic, with YouTube being the app most used by the kids.

Once installed, Kaspersky Safe Kids collected search queries and web browsing activities on devices that children use to access the Internet in oder to notify parents of content in “undesirable categories,” including adult media, alcohol, narcotics, tobacco, racism, and profanity.

In their newly published ‘Kids on the Web in 2021’ report, the company looks into website hits, as well as screen time on mobile apps of children worldwide from May 2020 to April 2021 to deduce trends and obsessions among youths during the pandemic.

As pointed out by the report, searches for websites in the ‘Internet Communication’ category continued to slip, from 24.16 percent last year to 22.08 percent this year, despite the pandemic and the fact that children around the world were attending school remotely.

The share of hits for ‘Video Games’ also fell more than two percentage points to 13.67 percent.

Meanwhile, online shopping is proving an integral part of life in lockdown, reflected by the two-point rise to 13.46 percent of pages in the ‘Online Stores, Banks, Payment Systems’ category.

Children around the world were most interested in video games: they were the subject of 34.71 percent of the YouTube search queries examined, which almost doubles the interest in vlogging content and music.

In Vietnam, websites’ ‘Software, Audio, Video’ fared the most popular categories, gathering 44.7 percent of searches, followed by ‘Internet Communication’ (32.53 percent) and ‘Video Games’ (8.62 percent).

YouTube sits atop as the platform most used by children, with local instant messaging app Zalo and social media app Facebook ranking second and third, respectively.

Two mobile multiplayer games ‘Mobile Legends: Bang Bang’ and ‘Free Fire MAX’ also made the top ten apps most used by children during the pandemic.

As Kaspersky sees it, screen time is not necessary a bad thing, as apps are encouraging children to be creative in creating original content rather than simply consuming it.

The company suggests that parents “not rush to block access to online resources” once their children have been exposed to something questionable, but rather sit down and talk to discover the children’s endeavor.

They also recommends the use of parental control settings, which can help parents examine the websites their children are visiting, what they are searching for, and which apps they are spending time on.

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Vientiane is deserted in many places because of social distancing days. —VNA/VNS Photo Phạm Kiên

Khánh Dương

VIENTIANE — Nguyễn Trung Đồng, a Vietnamese engineer working in Vientiane, Laos, received the first shot of Sinopharm’s COVID-19 vaccine two weeks ago.

With the help of local authorities, he became one of almost 700,000 people in Laos who have been given at least one inoculation.

Twenty-eight days after the first shot, Đồng will get the second. He said “I went for it because I think protecting myself helps me feel safe.”

There are many Vietnamese in Laos being vaccinated. Anyone in the country who wants to be vaccinated can register with authorities.

Although the Lao Government extended the social distancing order until June 19, the number of daily cases has fallen in recent days.

Đồng added: “The situation was not as bad as the period between April 18 and 22 when the country logged nearly 100 cases per day. Now there are just a few cases each day.”

When the country applied social distancing measures in mid-April, a lot of Vietnamese expats suffered.

Dương Văn Đủ, another Vietnamese engineer in Vientiane, said most of Vietnamese in Laos had their work interrupted by the pandemic. Those who run shops had to close their businesses. Many workers became unemployed but still had rent to pay.

Many landlords were not sympathetic to unemployed tenants and did not reduce rent prices.

“I am among the lucky ones who did not lose their job but still I face difficulties,” he said.

During the social distancing period, only small markets are allowed to open. Supermarkets are closed during the peak time of the pandemic. Now supermarkets are open but only between 8am and 5pm.

“If I want to leave my living area, I have to show documents such as my passport at the COVID-19 checkpoints so that they can control my traveling,” he said.

Despite these difficulties, Đủ said the Vietnamese community had responded calmly to the pandemic, even during its peak in April. The Vietnamese Embassy in Laos had offered support and created good conditions for the Vietnamese community.

Đủ added: “Some Vietnamese people I know bought ginger, lemongrass and lemon for self prevention. They don’t want to be put in quarantine.

“I hope that the Vietnamese embassy will continue to help unemployed workers go back to Việt Nam.”

According to Lê Anh Đức, vice president of Association of Vietnamese people in Vientiane, many Vietnamese who live in Laos do not know the local language so the association has offered support to help them make health declaration forms.

Facebook groups of Vietnamese people in Laos are posting news updates which call on everyone to stay calm, keep distance in public spaces and advise people not to rush back to Việt Nam.

Fear of virus return in Cambodia

Trần Vũ Thu Hằng, a Vietnamese banker in Phnom Penh, said although the lockdown order was lifted on May 6, she feared there could be another lockdown as cases were hitting 800 per day.

“Curfews are still imposed in yellow and orange zones from 8pm to 3am. Areas at high risks are zoned off as ‘red areas’,” she said.

“Lockdown or not, I and my family members still strictly follow COVID-19 protocols, wear face masks when going out as well as keep a safe distance.

“My husband and I have received two shots of vaccine each so we feel safer,” she told Việt Nam News .

Cambodia is ranked the second in Southeast Asia in terms of vaccination coverage. Almost 2.8 million people have had at least one shot in Cambodia, covering 17 per cent of its population, according to Our World in Data.

Among those, more than 2.3 million people have received two shots.

A medical worker gives a COVID-19 vaccine shot to a resident in Phnom Penh capital of Cambodia. — AFP/VNA Photo

Vũ Hào, another banker in Phnom Penh, said he signed up for vaccination through the local bank association. The registration process was quick and he was vaccinated soon after.

Hào said: “In spite of being vaccinated, I still follow local authorities’ guidelines to protect myself.

“Although the number of cases is increasing, I feel optimistic Cambodia will soon be able to control the pandemic thanks to the government’s plan of giving vaccine shots to as many people as they can to obtain herd immunity by year end.”

Vũ Quang Minh, Vietnamese Ambassador to Cambodia, said Vietnamese people in 10 provinces and cities had registered for vaccinations.

He added: “We encourage Vietnamese people to sign up for vaccination. If their turns come, they will receive the shots and do not have to worry about anything.

“Vaccines are safe and very few people reacted adversely. All staff of the embassy, the consulate and their family members have been vaccinated.”

Meanwhile, Thailand still grapples with more than 2,000 cases per day but many Vietnamese there have responded to the outbreak in a calm manner.

Nguyễn Ngọc Linh Thảo, a master’s student in Phayao, northern Thailand, said although the pandemic in Phayao was not as worse as the situation in Bangkok, she and her friends still strictly follow preventive measures.

Thảo said” “As the pandemic has been controlled in Phayao, local authorities have eased social distancing. But to prevent the pandemic, not so many stores are open like before the pandemic.

“Some food and drink stalls only offer takeaway services. Food stalls and restaurants are not allowed to serve alcohol drinks. People are warned to not gather in large crowds.

“Since the outbreak, I have to be more careful when going out, limit going out as much as possible, as well as having to self-isolate for two weeks if I go back to school from another province.

“I always have to check in and check out when leaving or entering public places, as well as have body temperature taken. Classes and meetings are now online.

“Now I can’t take a short trip to Việt Nam to visit home as easily as before.”

Thailand launched its COVID-19 immunisation programme on June 7 and aims to vaccinate 70 per cent of its population by the end of this year. Thảo hopes the Vietnamese Embassy in Thailand will create conditions for expats to receive inoculations. — VNS