By Thanh An – Translated by Anh Quan
Smart city
Ao Dai Week 2021 opens in Ho Chi Minh City
A special exhibition of two collections of Ao Dai (Vietnamese traditional dress) by renowned designers will open at the Ao Dai Museum in Long Thuan Garden in District 9 on March 7.
They include Ao Dai owned by outstanding women working in politics, culture and arts, such as Dr Trinh Thi Hoa, the former director of the HCM City History Museum, and veteran soldier Dang Hong Nhut, who have both encouraged young women to study and develop their careers as well as live more independently.
The museum displays Ao Dai owned by Nguyen Thi Dinh, the first woman major general to serve in the Vietnam People’s Army, former Vice State President Nguyen Thi Binh, and some of HCM City’s well-known cai luong (reformed opera) artists, including Kim Cuong and Bach Tuyet.
A photo exhibition featuring Vietnamese women in Ao Dai will also be held on the occasion.
The two exhibitions will open at 206/19/30 Long Thuan Street and will close at the end of the month.
Fashion designer Si Hoang, the museum’s owner, said Ao Dai Week 2021 promotes traditional cultural identity and the image of Vietnamese women.
Hoang spent 12 years to establish the museum thanks to his love for the traditional attire. “The long robes have aesthetic, historic and cultural value,” he said.
In Hanoi, the union and Museum of Vietnamese Women have worked together to open a photo exhibition of 358 images featuring Vietnamese women, their place, and their contributions to the country.
Captured by veteran artist Dinh Quang Thanh, the works on display portray women and their heroic activities in the national resistance wars against France and the US.
HCM City to build ‘golden brands’ for agricultural products

HCM City (VNS/VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City ’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is building a ‘ golden brand ‘ for its agricultural enterprises, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Vo Van Hoan has said.
In 2020, none of the 30 enterprises receiving the HCM City Golden Brand Award were in the agricultural sector.
Hoan has encouraged enterprises to develop brands for local agricultural products and services. Can Gio district’s specialties, for example, that have already been branded include dried shark catfish, bird’s nest and mango.
The development of high-value agricultural products together with tourism will benefit the local economy and maintain agriculture.
Dinh Minh Hiep, Director of the municipal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the city will continue to call for more investment in agriculture. The aim is to increase its number of agricultural enterprises to 2,000 from the 1,910 enterprises in 2020.
Ninety percent of agricultural enterprises in Vietnam are small or micro sized, with capital of less than 10 billion VND (430,000 USD).
The country’s agriculture sector targets being ranked in the top 15 in the world, in which the agricultural processing sector would rank among the top 10 countries by 2030./.
King Ly Thai To makes a milestone in the city’s history
The Hanoitimes – With the relocation of the capital and a comprehensive reform, Ly Cong Uan (King Ly Thai To) and his descendants succeeded in building a strong nation.
Peaceful ascension to the throne
The kings of the Early Le Dynasty, founded in 980, embarked on effective reforms to stabilize the political and economic situation. However, the decease of king Le Dai Hanh in 1005 led to infighting within the royal family for succeeding him.
In the end, Le Dai Hanh’s fifth son, Le Long Dinh, defeated other princes to claim the crown. However, the brutal struggle that he fought for the throne caused resentment among the people.
The statute of Ly Cong Uan in Hanoi. Photo: Jenna Duong. |
In 1009 when Le Long Dinh died at the age of 24 and his children were very small, Ly Cong Uan, a talented dignitary was supported by other court officials to ascend to the throne, peacefully seizing power from the Le. It is known as the most peaceful change of dynasty in the country’s history.
From moving the capital to reforming the country
Ly Cong Uan was crowned in the context of a serious political and socio-economic crisis and the threat of invasion from the Chinese Song dynasty. He was determined to end the political crisis that lasted through several reigns and bring stability to his kingdom.
His first decision as king was to move the capital from Hoa Lu (Ninh Binh) to Dai La (Hanoi now). Hoa Lu was chosen by King Dinh Tien Hoang (924-979) as seat of his court to suit the needs of defending the nation in the early days after the civil wars.
It was more appropriate for defense purposes as it is located in a low land surrounded by limestone mountains. However, it was difficult to develop an urban city here as traffic was inconvenient and its location is too distant from the thriving economic centers in the Red River Delta.
In autumn of 1010, King Ly Thai To decided to move the capital of the kingdom to Dai La, mindful that the place had an ideal location as well as many advantages for wet rice farming and traffic thanks to a number of waterways, especially the Red River, promising a long-term prosperous development of a capital and a nation.
The Ly Thai To Flower Garden in Dinh Tien Hoang street, Hoan Kiem dist., Hanoi. Photo: Ngoc Tu. |
After moving the capital and renaming it Thang Long, Ly Cong Uan ordered to build citadel to protect the city. Since then, Thang Long has become the political, economic and cultural center of the country.
King Ly Thai To also implemented a series of comprehensive reforms. In political terms, Ly Thai To built the regime with the combination of law and virtue. The power of military chiefs was gradually reduced and replaced by the civil mandarins. The power of the lineage in the Ly royal family was also strengthened.
In terms of administration, Ly Thai To divided the country into the districts, wards and smaller levels in towns, creating a comprehensive management of the country.
Economically, Ly Thai To and subsequent Ly kings paid attention to fostering industry and trade, especially in Thang Long with the construction of ports and markets. The king’s efforts were paid off with a thriving economy, creating abundant and strong resources for the country.
In terms of culture, since the reign of Ly Thai To, Thang Long became the largest cultural, artistic and religious center of the country.
The advent of Ly Cong Uan and the Ly Dynasty solved the crisis emanated from the previous dynasties when the state apparatus was not complete. The vision of moving the capital and the reform of Ly Cong Uan opened up a new era for the country and so far, many of lessons drawn from his reforms are valid today.
Minister promises greatest efforts to ensure safety in COVID-19 vaccinations
Minister Long chaired a teleconference which was organised on March 6 and connected with 700 places across Vietnam to launch the vaccination plan and provide related training for medical workers nationwide in the use and storage of the vaccine, as well as the treatment of post-injection complications.
He informed the teleconference that the vaccination programme will start on March 8, although the first batch of vaccine arrived in Vietnam on February 24.
“As the vaccine is new, we need to carry out thoroughly,” Long said, adding that Vietnam has to obtain an accreditation certificate from the producer and reassess the safety index of the batch of vaccine.
Because of the limited number of vaccine, the ministry cannot allocate for all 63 provinces and cities, but for 13 pandemic-hit localities, with priority given to Hai Duong province – Vietnam’s largest outbreak at present, he added.
The minister asked localities which have yet to receive the vaccine to prepare and make training programmes as the ministry will allocate vaccines to them when more are transported to Vietnam in March.
COVAC and AstraZeneca have agreed to provide 30 million doses each for Vietnam this year, the minister said, adding the ministry asked the producers to hand over the vaccines to Vietnam before September and is negotiating with Pfizer to buy an additional 30 million doses from this producer.
The ministry has assigned three deputy ministers to be responsible for directing the vaccinations as this kind of vaccine is injected for the first time and injected for adults.
Vietnam will conduct screening check-ups before infections to ensure safety, although the process takes more time. The first injections, he went on, will be given to people working on the front line of the fight against COVID-19, including health, army, police, customs and immigration personnel.
People getting the shots will be monitored via digital health records and receive e-certificates for their completion of inoculation.
Science and technology contribute to help farmers escape poverty
With a low starting point and more than 70% of the population living in rural and mountainous areas, the completion of that task depends greatly on the effective application of scientific and technological achievements as well as the potentials ofeach region in order to restructure and promote the development of agriculture in the direction of commodity production, controlling the domestic market, and step by step reaching out to regional and international markets.
The undertakings and policies of the Party and State all aim to affirm that the transfer of scientific and technological application in agricultural production is an especially important breakthrough in promoting agricultural production and rural economy.
On October 13, 2015, the Prime Minister signed Decision No.1747/QD-TTg approving a programme on supporting the application and transfer of scientific and technological progress to promote socio-economic development in rural, mountainous and ethnic minority areas in the 2016 – 2025 period.
After five years of implementation (2016 – 2020), 400 projects were approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology and have been implemented in 61 provinces and cities with a total investment of more than VND3.06 trillion.
According to the report of the Programme Office, after five years of implementation, the projects have brought about positive initial results in terms of science and technology. The programme is expected to transfer 2,126 turns of technologies; and trained 3,520 grassroots technicians and more than 1,800 local scientific and technological managers. It has identified suitable technologies for each region and locality, thereby building effective production models.
However, during the implementation process, there are still many problems, such as a low budget for supporting projects; the mechanism of maintaining and replicating the project model is not yet effective; andseveral of the regulations being applied to manage projects are not really appropriate.
Therefore, in order to promote and improve the obtained results, the Ministry of Science and Technology needs to continue to manage and handle issues and problems arising from approved projects; review and define objectives and contents for the 2021 – 2025 period; and give priority to the transfer of technologies for planting salt-tolerant plants in order to deal with issue of salinity.
Departments of Science and Technology should strengthen the inspection and management of projects to ensure their progress and effectiveness. It is also necessary to promote creativity in the practices of people when applying scientific and technological applications; as well as to strengthen the model of scientific and technological transfer to create linkage of production of goods by region and promote production efficiency and socio-economic development in rural and mountainous areas.