Social

On behalf of the real estate enterprises, Mr. Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HOREA), said that compared to the previous year, there was an additional petition of Gamuda Land Joint Stock Company. The petition states that while waiting for the Prime Minister to decide on a VND514-billion deduction following the recommendations of the Government Inspectorate, over the past time, construction investment and business activities of the company have been stagnant, affecting the reputation and brand of this company in 10 years of operation in Vietnam.

As for the matter of social housing, Mr. Le Huu Nghia, CEO of real estate developer Le Thanh, said that they were considering whether to develop social housing again. Because of too many difficult procedures, many people advised him to play safe by switching to develop commercial real estate. At the Le Thanh Tan Kien social housing project in Binh Chanh District, although the HCMC People’s Committee had directly instructed to remove obstacles, after three years of implementing the project, now it backs to square one.

Although the regulation for the processing time of the application by authorities is 215 days, in fact, the processing of the application can take a lot longer than that because the application must be transferred between departments and districts. Even a document from the urban management office to the district People’s Committee takes several months. Moreover, although the social housing projects are invested by enterprises from start to finish, they are audited as projects using capital from the State budget. Meanwhile, the auditors are too strict. They slap them with high fines on petty mistakes, discouraging investors, Mr. Le Huu Nghia explained.

Le Thanh Company is one of 20 enterprises that have petitioned the city through the summary of HOREA. This list shows that many petitions had been raised by investors at meetings with the city leaders in the past years, but they kept repeating because they were not resolved, or resolved sluggishly.

For Novaland Group Corporation, out of a total of 14 problematic projects, only 4 projects were solved. Seven projects that have handed over houses to customers in Phu Nhuan District and have been facing obstacles in the past years, merely stay at the stage of “being actively considered and settled by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment and relevant departments”.

Entanglements at the Dragon City project in Nha Be District of Phu Long Real Estate Company have lasted for 16 years. In 2004, the company won the auction of 14 land plots with a total area of 44.49 hectares, which are clean land. The investor has fulfilled all financial obligations as prescribed, at the same time embarked on implementing the housing project as planned. However, one subdivision of the project still has a house that refuses to move, causing the company to be unable to deploy the rest of the project. Although the company has sent many petitions to the People’s Committee of HCMC, the People’s Committee of Nha Be District, and relevant authorities over the past years, so far, there has been no progress in compensation settlement.

The HOREA raised a hot issue that although the project does not include public land, the Department of Planning and Investment still requests the investor to supplement the documents many times. Up to now, the department has not submitted to the municipal People’s Committee for issuance of the decision on investment policy for the project, causing enterprises to face many difficulties. The representative of the Department of Planning and Investment explained in writing as follows: In the process of handling documents, the department does not require investors to amend and/or supplement their documents many times. However, in the case that after consulting the departments, if there is a request, the department will ask the investor for additional documents following the opinion of these agencies. The Department of Planning and Investment also suggests that in the future, if there is an unreasonable request for additional documents many times by the Department, the HOREA should inform the department so that it can respond promptly.

So for public land, which are roads, trails, canals scattered and interlaced in the projects, how will it be handled? The representative of the Department of Planning and Investment answered that the department can only review and process dossiers for investment policy approval after the Department of Natural Resources and Environment submits to the City People’s Committee to handle the issues related to the receiving of transfer, capital contribution, renting agricultural land use rights to implement projects and small land parcel managed by the State.

HCMC People’s Committee Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong asked relevant agencies to focus on solving difficulties and speeding up the progress of real estate projects because the implementation was extremely slow. This delay is due to the inspection and auditing work. The city had had to work a lot, with the Government Inspector alone inspecting 164 projects. When being inspected, the projects must halt, affecting greatly the operation of enterprises. Besides, there are some projects related to public land, the city also had to stop.

“I understand that currently, real estate businesses are facing many difficulties. It costs a lot if the project is behind schedule, so departments must understand and share this,” Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phong noted.

HCMC now has 13 million people. After five years, it will increase by 1 million people, so the pressure on technical and social infrastructure is tremendous. This is also a great potential for real estate enterprises. The real estate industry plays an important role and position and has a close relationship with many industries and many other markets, such as capital, labor, and construction materials. Since 2000, real estate is considered one of nine important service industry groups of HCMC. Up to now, out of 10,200 businesses with a capital of VND100 billion upwards, real estate enterprises account for 32 percent and 35 percent of the capital. Statistics also show that in the nine important service industries contributing 56.5 percent of the gross regional domestic product of HCMC, real estate accounts for 4.2 percent, contributing 8.2 percent to domestic revenue.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phong affirmed that removing difficulties for real estate is to remove difficulties for the economic development of the city. The city leader felt concerned after hearing that most real estate businesses have been encountering difficulties. He requested that based on the petitions of enterprises, Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee Le Hoa Binh should schedule to work with departments to resolve each issue and give specific conclusions. As for the 61 projects facing difficulties in investment procedures, the Director of the Department of Planning and Investment was assigned to study and report to the investment working group of the city. These works must be completed by April 15.

The Hanoitimes – The country has approximately nine million of people or around 9% population living in poverty.

Poor people are listed among priority groups in Vietnam’s vaccination against Covid-19, which is planned to take place in March.

People aged 65 and older are listed in priority groups for Covid vaccination in Vietnam. Photo: VGP

According to the United Nations, around 9% of Vietnam’s population or roughly nine million people living in poverty in 2019, a drastic reduction from 57% in 1990.

Factors that characterized the poor include large size of household, low education and skills, dependency on agriculture, remoteness in rural mountainous areas, lack of supporting infrastructure. The poor nowadays is also specifically associated with ethnic minorities in mountainous area rather than urban migrants.

Under the government’s resolution dated February 26, the poor and social beneficiaries belong to nine groups of people prioritized for the inoculation in the country of nearly 100 million population.

Other groups in the priority list include:

– Health workers and frontline forces (members of the steering committee for Covid prevention at all levels, people working in quarantine centers, contact tracers, volunteers, reporters, among others); army officers; policemen.

– Vietnamese diplomats abroad; customs and state officials working in immigration service.

– Essential providers in aviation, transportation, tourism, clean water, electricity, among others.

– Teachers and employees in education sector; people working in administration agencies having frequent contact with others.

– People with underlying diseases and those above 65 years of age.

– People in the pandemic-hit areas.

– The poor and social beneficiaries.

– People in overseas mission.

– And other people decided by the Ministry of Health basing on the requirements of the pandemic control.

People, who are subject to the first shots (the first phase) of the 117,000 doses, are health workers and frontline forces.

The first batch of vaccine arrived in Vietnam on February 24 from British–Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

Vietnam is under the fresh Covid-19 outbreak that resurged in late January, recording more than 800 locally-transmitted infections so far.

The Hanoitimes – Vietnam’s rise of three ranking positions to 8th overall is the fastest rise in the top half of the Index and displaces regional partner Thailand in the top 10.

Vietnam moved up three places to 8th in the top 10 countries of the Emerging Markets Logistics Index 2021 by Agility, one of the world’s top freight forwarding and contract logistics providers.

Cargos handling at Dinh Vu port, Hai Phong. Photo: Pham Hung

Among countries in ASEAN, Vietnam stood at third behind Indonesia (3rd overall) and Malaysia (5th), and was above the likes of Thailand (11th), the Philippines (21st) and Cambodia (41st).

According to Agility, Vietnam’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic has been one of the most successful globally, with data from Johns Hopkins University showing less than 1,500 reports of Covid-19 cases in the country in 2020.

The combination of social and economic restrictions with a strict and comprehensive testing and tracing system, saw lockdowns last less than three months, and by June many factories were reopened and domestic operations were recovering quickly, it said.

“The steps taken by Vietnam in 2020 propel it into the top 10 ranking in 2021 – its rise of three ranking positions to 8th overall is the fastest rise in the top half of the Index and displaces regional partner Thailand in the top 10,” stated the logistics firm.

“The country’s economy has performed well as a result of the minimal domestic disruptions and is set to be one of the best performing globally in 2020,” noted the report.

The foundation provided by the strong performance in 2020 is expected to underpin a 2021 expansion of 6.5% as domestic and international conditions normalize and the Covid-19 pandemic recedes.

In recent years, Vietnam has added significant hightech manufacturing capacity, helping attract investment from producers higher up the value chain as costs in China increased.

The option to avoid additional costs associated with the US-China trade war has added further motivation for manufacturers to choose Vietnam, noted Agility.

Samsung, which alone contributes a quarter of Vietnam’s exports through smartphone manufacturing activity in the country, will shift PC manufacturing to Vietnam after it shut down a Chinese factory in 2020. Apple is also reported to have requested that Foxconn open a Vietnam production location to add production capacity for iPads and MacBooks.

When the production lines become active in the first half of 2021, it will be the first time iPad manufacture to take place outside China. Meanwhile, chip manufacturer Intel will operate its largest assembly plant in the country and South Korea’s LG electronics announced investment plans during 2020.

With Covid-19 further exposing the risks of over-reliance on China, Vietnam will be an attractive option for relocation – indeed, when asked, 19.2% of survey respondents cited Vietnam as the number one location for those seeking to diversify production locations outside of China.

However, so rapid has the investment and arrival of new businesses been that it is creating challenges of its own, including a shortage of skills and knowledge to produce the highest value goods.

Navigos Group, which owns the country’s largest jobs site, reports that 71% of employers cite a lack of IT skills as their most significant challenge.

By 2025, the country set the contribution rate target for logistics to be at 5-6% of GDP, services growth rate between 15-20%, while the rate for logistics outsourcing to be 50-60%, said the government’s decision No.200 referring to an action plan to enhance the competitiveness and development of Vietnam’s logistics sector through 2025 and ensure its ran in the Logistics Performance Index of at least 50th.

In its document on February 27, authority of Vietnam’s capital city approved with the Department of Education and Training’s submission about the time of returning to school after a long break due to Coronavirus pandemic.

According to the document of the Hanoi People’s Committee, high-schoolers will start the second semester of the academic year 2020-2021 on March 2 while college and university students will start on March 8.

Hanoi authority assigned departments of education and training, the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs in coordination with people’s committees in districts to supervise schools in implementation of Covid-19 preventative measures to prepare for the new semester.

Jakarta (VNA) – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Canada and UN Women recently launched a five-year programme to expand and strengthen women’s leadership and participation in conflict prevention, resolution and recovery in Southeast Asia.

The 8.5 million CAD (6.36 million USD) programme, “Empowering women for sustainable peace: preventing violence and promoting social cohesion in ASEAN”, is funded by Global Affairs Canada to support ASEAN and the implementation of the ASEAN-Canada Plan of Action 2021-2025, with the support of UN Women as a lead UN partner.

“ Canada is proud to launch this flagship initiative that uses the women, peace and security approach to promote inclusive and sustainable peace and security in the region, while addressing the systemic gender inequality,” said Diedrah Kelly, Canada’s Ambassador to ASEAN .

ASEAN has made important strides to advance women, peace and security agenda, including the adoption of the first ‘Joint Statement on Promoting Women, Peace and Security in ASEAN’ in 2017, the launch of the ASEAN Women’s Peace Registry in 2018, and convening the first ASEAN Symposium on Women, Peace and Security in 2019 and the ASEAN Ministerial Dialogue on Strengthening Women’s role for Sustainable Peace and Security in 2020.

Secretary-General of ASEAN Dato Lim Jock Hoi said, “ASEAN is working concertedly to advance women, peace and security agenda across the three ASEAN Community Pillars as part of our commitment to promote gender equality and the roles of women in the implementation of the ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework.”

The COVID-19 impact has increased the risks for women and girls in fragile and conflict-affected contexts and this challenges us to re-examine threats to human security. “The pandemic highlights the important linkage between peace, humanitarian and development and the critical need for women’s leadership and participation to ensure effective and comprehensive response, from policy decision-making to peace building and pandemic response,” said Jamshed Kazi, UN Women Representative and Liaison to ASEAN.

The new programme reflects the commitment of ASEAN and Canada to promote gender equality and to respond to an increasingly widespread call across the globe for women to be empowered to lead and participate in peace and development.

ASEAN includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam./.

VNA