Student loans school

The signing ceremony on the pilot model “For a healthy environment on social networks” between Bac Tu Liem District’s Education and Training Department and the local police agency.

Teenagers are more vulnerable to unhealthy information on social networks and can make misperceptions and take regrettable actions, said Major Phuong Minh Thang, Deputy Chief of Bac Tu Liem District Police Agency. There are 16 secondary schools with a total of nearly 13,000 students in Bac Tu Liem District.

According to Thang, the local police agency solved 16 cases of abuse of children under 14 years old, including children being seduced by people that they befriended on the internet and then were sexually harassed by these individuals.

Some 14-year-old students even committed suicide, leaving a note saying they were suffering from depression and pressure in life but were unable to share this with family members. This behavior is partly due to the frequent use of social networks.

Police in Bac Tu Liem District advised the local People’s Committee to implement the pilot model at Phuc Dien Secondary School.

The police will coordinate with the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Applied Science and Technology in Crime Prevention and Fighting of the People’s Police Academy to plan electronic lessons with appropriate content.

This model will then be applied to the remaining 15 schools in the district.

Ms. Do Thi Kim Loan, Principal of Phuc Dien Secondary School, said that for many years, the school has regularly held seminars about laws and regulations, including educating students to use social networks properly. These seminars are usually in forms of on-stage performances, games, questions and answers, among others. Thanks to such activities, students have made positive changes in perception and behavior.

When there is coordination between the district police, school and parents, it can help teenagers learn how to use social networks more safely, Loan said.

“Our school is trying to ensure that all of our students have basic knowledge about the Law on Cyber Security and use social networks safely and effectively, as well as know how to stay away from criminals and society’s vices in cyberspace,” said Loan.

PV

Drought and saline intrusion destroy a field of rice in Thoi Binh District, the Mekong Delta province of Ca Mau.

The Mekong Delta has been struck by drought, saline intrusion and water shortage since the beginning of 2021 due to weather conditions, water flows upstream and impacts of tides, he said, adding that it has driven clean water prices up and affected the locals’ life and production.

Since saltwater intrusion is forecast to linger on in April, the Prime Minister asked the concerned ministries, governmental agencies, and municipal and provincial People’s Committees in the region to take proactive actions to address the issue in the 2020 – 2021 dry season. People must not be left short of fresh water, according to the official dispatch.

People’s Committees of cities and provinces, particularly those coastal, must keep a close watch on the situation and adopt response measures suitable to their particular context. They must identify high-risk areas where people should be prioritised with access to clean water while the deployment of military and public security forces is possible, if necessary, to help provide clean water for affected people.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development was tasked with monitoring and giving forecasts on water resources, water quality and saline intrusion; and promptly providing information and warnings for affected cities, provinces and people.

The ministry is also responsible for giving instructions to the cities and provinces on how to maintain agricultural production and minimise damage from saltwater intrusion and lack of fresh water while coming up with solutions to supply water to local families and develop concentrated water supply projects. It was also urged to mobilise support from domestic and international organisations in tackling the issues.

No COVID-19 infection cases recorded on March 27 morning

Vietnam logged no COVID-19 cases in the past 12 hours to 6:00 am on March 27, according to the Ministry of Health.

The total number of COVID-19 patients detected in Vietnam has been 2,586 so far, including 2,265 fully recovered.

Among active patients undergoing treatment across the country, 54 tested negative for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 once, 21 twice and 45 thrice.

There are 36,480 people who had close contact with confirmed COVID-19 patients or entered Vietnam from pandemic-hit regions are being quarantined nationwide, including 485 in hospitals, 18,343 in state-designated establishments and 17,652 at their residences.

In a bid to live safely with the pandemic, people should strictly follow the Ministry of Health’s 5K message: khau trang (facemask), khu khuan (disinfection), khoang cach (distance), khong tu tap (no gathering) and khai bao y te (health declaration).

According to the National Expanded Programme on Immunisation, an additional 1,775 people were inoculated with COVID-19 vaccine on March 26, raising the total to 44,000, who are frontline medical workers, and members of community-based anti-COVID-19 groups and steering committees for COVID-19 prevention and control./.

Appointment decision presented to Honorary Consul General in RoK

Vietnamese Ambassador to the Republic of Korea (RoK) Nguyen Vu Tung on March 25 visited the Vietnamese Honorary Consulate General in the Busan-Keangnam region and presented Honorary Consul General Park Soo-kwan a decision concerning his appointment to the post.

On behalf of leaders of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tung spoke highly of Park’s contributions to the Vietnam – RoK strategic partnership and citizen protection work for over 40,000 Vietnamese citizens in the Busan-Keangnam region.

According to Tung, Park has also proactively assisted the Vietnamese Embassy in seeking permission for the construction of its headquarters in Seoul, while working with the embassy in asking the RoK’s competent agencies to transfer the Korea Maritime & Ocean University’s training ship Hannara to the Vietnam Maritime University (VMU). The vessel, of international quality and technology standards, has been renamed VMU Vietnam-RoK.

Park affirmed he will further his cooperation with the embassy in his current capacity as the Honorary Consul General of Vietnam for 2019-2022.

Also a successful long-term investor in Vietnam, he vowed to make greater efforts to help Korean firms gain a better understanding of its business climate and prepare their post-pandemic business plans./.

World Bank funds Vietnam’s data survey on gender

The World Bank (WB) has signed an agreement with the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to provide a non-refundable aid worth 740,000 AUD (563,000 USD) through the the Australia-World Bank Group Strategic Partnership’s second phase to help Vietnam conduct a nationwide survey serving its gender policy making.

The survey is part of the economic empowerment project for Vietnamese women, performed by the General Statistics Office (GSO). It covers 6,000 men and women across the country to collect data on their daily time allocations.

Carolyn Turk, World Bank Country Director for Vietnam, said despite progress in improving gender equality in education, health, and economic empowerment, Vietnam still faces many persistent challenges in gender equality.

Developing a comprehensive gender database is important for monitoring gender gaps and designing effective solutions to the issue, she added.

Vietnam established a set of national gender development indicators in 2011, but nearly two-thirds of them are not classified by gender. Meanwhile, there are no indicators related to the use of time.

Measuring the use of unpaid time, such as the time spent on household chores, is important for measuring contributions of men and women in their families, and for understanding how investments and public policies affecting the use of time can reduce gender gaps in the labour market and promote gender equality.

Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Robyn Mudie said one of the main reasons why 40 percent of women are not engaged in the Vietnamese labour market is due to responsibilities of taking care of their families.

The survey will provide more data on the time for unpaid jobs and serve as a foundation for redistributing those fairly for equality and for the economy, she said.

Australia is pleased to support the Vietnamese Government and the World Bank Group in conducting this survey, the ambassador added.

Court asks for further investigation in land-use violation case involving HCM City’s former leader

The People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City on March 26 decided to return dossiers of the law violation case involving the land lot at 57 Cao Thang street being exchanged for the land lot at 185 Hai Ba Trung street in the city for further investigations as new evidence and details have been found.

According to the jury, it asked the Supreme People’s Procuracy to make further investigations into eight major issues, including those related to the mortgage of the land lot at 57 Cao Thang of Diep Bach Duong Real Estate Co. at Agribank’s Ho Chi Minh City Branch.

The jury asked for the clarification of property lease agreement involving the land lot at 185 Hai Ba Trung street among three parties of Agribank, the Diep Bach Duong Real Estate Co., and Phan Thanh Company.

In this case, Duong Thi Bach Diep, Director of the Diep Bach Duong Real Estate Co., is among the key defendants in the trial, and is charged with “fraud, appropriation of assets”.

Nine other defendants in the case are charged with “lack of responsibility, causing serious consequences,” including former Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Tai; former Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Finance Tran Nam Trang; former Director of the HCM City Light Music Centre Vy Nhat Tao; former Director of the municipal Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Thanh Rum; former Deputy Director of the department Le Ton Thanh; former deputy heads of the municipal People’s Committee Office Huynh Kim Phat and Le Van Thanh; former Director of the municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment Dao Anh Kiet; and former Deputy Director of the department Nguyen Thanh Nhan.

According to the indictment, the land lot at 185 Hai Ba Trung street, owned by the State, was the headquarters of the Light Music Centre under the municipal Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism. In 2007, the centre’s then director Vy Nhat Tao contacted Diep to cooperate in upgrading the headquarters.

Diep then proposed exchanging her land lot at 57 Cao Thang street for the 185 Hai Ba Trung land lot, as she owned the land lot at 179 Hai Ba Trung street and wanted to build a five-star hotel complex there.

The property swap was approved by Nguyen Thanh Tai. During the process, Diep used the land use right certificate for the land lot at 57 Cao Thang as collateral to borrow money from Agribank – HCM City Branch.

After being granted a land right use certificate for the property at 185 Hai Ba Trung streer, however, Diep did not use it to replace the collateral at Agribank to hand over the property at 57 Cao Thang to the Light Music Centre as committed. Instead, Diep used the 185 Hai Ba Trung land lot as collateral for a loan at Southern Bank (now Sacombank) and so far was not able to repay the debt.

The indictment stated that Tai permitted the property swap while he was not responsible for handling and reorganising State assets.

On March 5, 2010, Tai signed a document sent to relevant units approving the exchange of the two land lots, without any request to check and clarify the legal status of the 57 Cao Thang land lot, causing losses of State assets.

The other defendants showed a lack of responsibility in carrying out their duties, thus facilitating Diep’s fraud and appropriation of assets.

At the hearing on March 22, representative from the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Procuracy proposed that the court give Diep life imprisonment for the charge of “fraud, appropriation of assets” under Article 174 of the 2015 Penal Code.

The city People’s Procuracy asked the court to return the land lot at 185 Hai Ba Trung street to the HCM City Light Music Centre for management.

Earlier, the first-instance trial for the case was suspended twice on March 17 due to the health condition of Diep and on March 25 to re-evaluate evidence./.

Third working day of 14th National Assembly’s 11th session

The 14th National Assembly continued the third working day of its 11th session on March 26.

Legislators attended a plenary session in the morning under the chair of NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan to discuss a draft working report of the 14th National Assembly, along with working reports of the NA Standing Committee, the Council for Ethnic Affairs and committees of the legislature.

The session was broadcast live by Radio The Voice of Vietnam, Vietnam Television and the NA’s television channel.

Deputies spoke highly of the innovation of the 14th National Assembly, especially the success in lawmaking, supervision and decision-making on important issues of the country.

They also focused their discussions on specific issues such as law-making, collection of comments on law projects, measures to improve the quality of the National Assembly’s verification work, policy issuance, and supervision of law enforcement, and the application of information technology in the NA’s operations.

Deputies agreed that the 14th NA is a successful tenure, excellently completing its tasks with outstanding achievements and imprints across fields.

Agencies of the NA have made efforts to unite, reform, actively coordinate closely with the Government and relevant agencies to fulfill their assigned tasks.

NA deputies have always shown their ability and high responsibility before voters and people, as well as promoting their knowledge to contribute to the NA’s success.

NA Chairwoman Ngan demanded relevant agencies to seriously collect opinions of NA deputies, thus completing the reports and fully reflect those in the NA’s Resolution on the 14th legislature’s operations.

As scheduled, the NA will discuss working reports of the State President and the Government in the 2016-2021 tenure on March 29.

Dong Thap has first office for domain name “.vn” registration

An office for registration of national domain name “.vn” has been inaugurated in Dong Thap province, becoming the first of its kind in the Mekong Delta locality.

The facility is located at the provincial Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Centre. Organisations and individuals can also register the domain name online via website https://dtict.vn/.

According to Doan Thanh Binh, Director of the provincial Department of Information and Communications, said that the launching of the facility is an opening activity in the implementation of the digital transformation roadmap of Dong Thap, thus raising public awareness, promoting the Internet resources and affirming the national sovereignty on the cyber space.

He held that compared to international domain names, the national domains name of “.vn” is safer, easier to recognize and more reliable.

According to the department, Dong Thap has seen the registration of 838 domain names “.vn” and about 1,204 international domain names. Meanwhile, the locality is home to 4,244 businesses, he said, adding that the ratio of businesses using the domain name “.vn” has been very low, leading to risks of conflicts on the cyber space amid growing e-commerce activities.

The inauguration of the facility is expected to help businesses to register for the domain name in an easier manner, thus improving the level of recognition of their trademarks and make them searchable on the Internet, and improving the province’s indexes in digital transformation, e-commerce and online shopping.

HCM City: poverty threshold set at 36 million VND

The poverty threshold for the 2021-2025 in Ho Chi Minh City will be set at 36 million VND (1,556 USD) in annual income per capita, according to Decision No.995/QD-UBND recently issued by the municipal People’s Committee.

From 2021, households who escape poverty must have annual income per capita of more than 46 million VND.

The Decision also states that near-poor households have average income ranging from over 36 million VND to 46 million VND.

HCM City’s multi-dimensional measures of poverty will include five dimensions: health, education – training, employment – social insurance, decent living conditions, and annual income. There will be 10 indicators in the five dimensions of poverty.

The city began using multi-dimensional poverty measures in 2016, aiming to achieve sustainable poverty reduction and access to basic services by the poor.

The Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs is ordered to join hands with competent sectors to make a list of poor and near-poor families in accordance with the city’s multi-dimensional standards for 2021-2025.

Meanwhile, the People’s Committees of 24 districts and Thu Duc city are responsible for reviewing and setting up lists of poor and near poor households each year, as well as carrying out measures to improve the poor and near-poor’s accessibility to basic social services./.

Photo exhibition marks 60 years of Vietnam – Morocco diplomatic ties

In celebration of the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Vietnam and the Kingdom of Morocco (March 27, 1961 – March 27, 2021), the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) and the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco in Vietnam have coordinated to organise an online exhibition featuring 20 photos of high-level diplomatic activities between the two countries, selected from VNA’s photo archive.

The photos are being displayed on the official website of the Moroccan Embassy in Vietnam (http://moroccoembassy.vn/) from March 27 to April 30 and on the VNA portal (http://vnanet.vn).

Although the number of photos is not large, they help demonstrate the important strides forward in the two countries’ political relations, most notably high-level meetings.

Mutual high-ranking visits reflect the two countries’ wish to promote the friendship and cooperation between their parliaments, States, and people, as well as their resolve to continue bringing into play and capitalising on the opportunities and huge potential so as to jointly enhance bilateral cooperation and relations.

In 2006, Vietnam and Morocco opened their embassies in each other’s capitals – an important milestone in bilateral ties.

Within the framework of the Francophone community, Vietnam and Morocco have carried out a number of practical cooperation activities. In recent years, the Moroccan Embassy has taken part in the sponsorship of the “Young Francophone Reporters” contest held by Le Courrier du Vietnam, a VNA newspaper.

VNA and the Moroccan News Agency (MAP) established a partnership in 2008. Via their news, the two agencies have continually made practical contributions to the intensification of cooperation and, especially, acted as a bridge linking Vietnamese and Moroccan businesses who wish to seek opportunities to tap into their respective sides’ potential and people-to-people exchanges.

The photo exhibition, part of a series of events held this year to mark the 60th anniversary of the two countries’ diplomatic relations, expresses the respect for the sound traditional ties between Vietnam and Morocco.

Wartime bomb in Nghe An removed safely

Sappers in the central province of Nghe An safely deactivated a 115-kg bomb left over from wartime on March 26.

Workers of a stone quarrying company in Quynh Luu district found the bomb, which has a diameter of 41cm and a length of 1.2m, on March 23 when they were working in the area.

After being alerted by the workers, the district military command coordinated with a sapper unit from the provincial military command to isolate the area.

The bomb was then defused and moved to a safe area for detonation.

Vietnam spent a total of 12.6 trillion VND (545 million USD) on bomb and mine detection and clearance during the 2010-2020 period, the Standing Office of the National Steering Committee on the Settlement of Post-war Unexploded Ordnance and Toxic Chemicals revealed at its conference in Hanoi in January 2021.

Of the total spending, 1.4 trillion VND came from the national action programme for the settlement of post-war bomb and mine consequences for 2010-2025, 9 trillion VND from development investment projects, and 2.2 trillion VND from non-refundable aid.

The country conducted bomb and mine detection and clearance on more than 500,000 ha during the period, in which Defence Ministry units oversaw 400,000 ha and international organisations 80,000 ha./.

Phu Quoc identifies over 20 people with close contact to new COVID-19 patients

Phu Quoc island city in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang have placed 26 people closely contacting the new COVID-19 patients who illegally entered Vietnam, said a local official.

Contact tracing work toward F2 and F3 cases is underway, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Huynh Quang Hung said at a virtual conference held on March 26 regarding the city’s pandemic prevention and control.

The three new patients were among a group of 10 people illegally entered Vietnam on a fishing boat and arrived on Phu Quoc Island on March 22 morning.

After that, two of the group travelled to Ho Chi Minh City by boat and road, and one of them later tested positive for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, while the other tested negative.

Meanwhile, two others of the group travelled to Hai Phong by air and both of them later received their positive COVID-19 test results.

Currently, Phu Quoc city is capable of organising quarantine places for a total of 500 people, according to Hung.

Chairing the meeting, Vice Chairman of the Kien Giang People’s Committee Nguyen Luu Trung urged localities in Kien Giang to step up prevention and control work and stand ready for any domestic infections detected in the future./.

Northern Vietnam braces for first heat wave of the year

A hot low-pressure area originating from the west is heading for the nation’s northern region and is set to cause the first hot spell of this year.

The period of hot weather is due to last from March 29 and will impact the northern and the north-western regions, including Dien Bien and Son La provinces, according to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.

Temperatures are anticipated to range from 32 to 34 degrees Celsius, with some locations even seeing highs of 35 degrees Celsius, the centre said.

In Hanoi, temperatures are forecast to rise quickly from March 29 and hit 33 degrees Celsius in the middle of next week. Local people will feel hot and dry due to the impact of the latest heat wave.

Meanwhile, the centre said the current hot spell in the Central Highlands and the southern region will see temperatures fall this weekend, with showers and thunderstorms predicted to hit some places.

By late April, rainfall is predicted to be between 20 mm and 40 mm higher compared to the same period from previous years.

Over the next month the Central Highlands and the southern region will see temperatures drop by up to one degree Celsius against the same period from the past.

On average, regions may record less days in which they experience heat waves in comparison to previous years.

Outcomes of ILO Work Country Programme for Vietnam assessed

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Labour Affairs (MoLISA) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on March 26 held a consultation conference on the Decent Work Country Programme for Vietnam in the 2017-21 period.

The programme focuses on three priorities – promoting decent employment and an enabling environment for sustainable entrepreneurship opportunities; reducing poverty by extending social protection for all and reduce unacceptable forms of work, especially for the most vulnerable; and building effective labour market governance compliant with fundamental principles and rights and at work.

The Party Central Committee on September 3, 2019 issued a directive on strengthening the leadership and direction over the building of harmonized, stable and progressive working relations in the new period, he noted.

Meanwhile, a social insurance reform project was also approved, along with a resolution on the renovation of salary policies and another on reforming social insurance policies.

Cuong said that Vietnam has completed the joining of four important conventions of the ILO, including the Convention 88 – Employment Service Convention, Convention 159 – Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Convention, Convention 98 – Right to Organise and Collective Commenting on the efficiency of the Decent Work Country Programme for Vietnam in the 2017-21 period , Le Duy Binh, an economist and policy analyst held that employment policies and programmes have brought about job opportunities for labourers, especially vulnerable groups, while maintaining low unemployment rate compared to that in the region and the world, and transforming the labour structure in a positive direction.

The programme has helped expand social welfares and improve labourers’ income, while increasing social insurance coverage, reducing illegal labour forms, especially child and forced labour, he said, adding that the labour relationship has become more effective and better suits international standards, thus improving stable employment opportunities.

Meanwhile, ILO Viet Nam Director Chang-Hee Lee recognized Vietnam’s efforts in improving labour and employment conditions, helping the country integrate deeper into the world and increase income and social welfares for labourers.

He held that 2021 marks an important milestone of the programme. However, he said that there are new challenges facing the country, including the gender-based income gap.

At the event, participants also discussed the progress and efficiency of the programme, while sharing experience on sustainable employment and cooperation methods between central agencies and localities in implementing projects within the programme’s framework.

Five decades of Vietnam – Chile diplomatic relations marked

Chile’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in collaboration with the Vietnamese Embassy held an event on March 25 to celebrate 50 years of the two nations’ diplomatic relations (March 25, 1971-2021).

In his speech, Chilean Foreign Affairs Minister Andres Allamand lauded Vietnamese people’s bravery during their past struggles for independence as well as the nation’s achievements in the recent past, particularly in economy, pandemic prevention, and diplomacy.

Allamand said the Vietnam – Chile friendship and cooperation have grown significantly, especially after the two signed a free trade agreement in 2011.

The minister highlighted a phone talk between Chilean President Sebastian Pinera and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the two countries’ diplomatic relations as a proof of their friendship.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Chile Nguyen Ngoc Son said Vietnam and Chile share close ties despite geographical distance, adding that they established a comprehensive partnership in 2007.

Son noted the two hold similar stances on most of key global issues and are proactively and responsibly participating in many multilateral mechanisms. Their top leaders have visited each other many times, while their cultural and educational relationship and people-to-people exchange have expanded continuously over the years, he added.

The ambassador said despite COVID-19-related difficulties, the embassy has worked with Chilean partners to organise activities celebrating the five-decade relations, including publishing special issues on the University of Chile’s radio channel to popularize the comprehensive partnership as well as Vietnamese economic, cultural, and tourism affairs./.

Vietnam promotes renewable energy for sustainable development

The Multi-Actor Partnerships for 100 percent Renewable Energy (100 percent RE MAP) project was kicked off at a conference held in Hanoi on March 25.

It aims to realise the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).

Nguyen Thanh Trung, a representative from the Green Innovation and Development Centre (Green ID), said that the project targets to introduce and consolidate multi-actor partnerships towards the goal of 100 percent renewable energy use in Nepal, Uganda and Vietnam.

The partnership network will help popularise the benefits of renewable energy, as well as the ability to concretise the 100 percent renewable energy scenario which is suitable with Vietnam’s conditions.

The project will be carried out in three years, from March 2020 to March 2023, by Green ID, World Wide Fund for Nature Vietnam (WWF) and the Vietnam Business Council for Sustainable Development under the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Experts at the conference said that Vietnam has been a dynamic member of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), particularly the nation has joined global efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions to net zero.

The nation plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 9 percent by 2030, and the figure could be brought to 27 percent with international support through bilateral and multilateral cooperation and mechanisms.

Vietnam is among 194 countries signing the Paris Agreement. In a bid to attain the deal’s goals, the greenhouse gas emission must be at the net zero level before 2050.

Regarding greenhouse gas emission reduction, the country issued a wide range of policies and regulations like Decree No.24-NQ/TW, the Politburo’s Conclusion No.56-KL/TW, and the Politburo’s Decision No.55-NQ/TW on orientations for the national energy development strategy by 2030 with vision until 2045. Additionally, renewable energy development is prioritised in energy and power planning./.

Plan for 2021 high school graduation exams announced

The organisation of the 2021 national high school graduation exams will remain basically the same as in 2020, according to the Ministry of Education and Training.

The ministry has issued a circular amending and supplementing a number of articles within the regulation on high school graduation exams.

Accordingly, the 2021 exams will be essentially the same as last year. Specifically, in order to achieve graduation, high school students must take four exams, including three independent ones, featuring Mathematics, Literature and Foreign Languages, and a custom test in natural science or social science chosen by the candidates.

For continuing education candidates, they will take three exams, including two independent tests of Math and Literature and a custom test in natural science or social science. They can also register to take a foreign language test to use the results for university and college entrance admission.

The noteworthy new point in the 2021 exam regulations is that candidates who have taken and passed all the required exams as required, but have not graduated from high school and are not disciplined to cancel the exam results, they have the right to reserve their test scores for recognition of high school graduation in the following exams next year.

Candidates who win different prizes (from the provincial level up) in various contests are only entitled to enjoy the point bonus from their highest prize, with a maximum of two bonus points to their total test results.

VUFO plays key role in people-to-people diplomacy

The Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations (VUFO) will play a crucial role in people-to-people diplomacy and mobilisation of foreign non-governmental aids, according to its statutes recently approved by the Prime Minister.

According to the statutes, VUFO is a socio-political organisation specialised in people-to-people diplomacy in the fields of peace, solidarity, friendship and people-to-people cooperation. It is a member of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, and has the task of establishing ties of peace, solidarity, friendship and cooperation with corresponding organisations, non-governmental organisations and foreign individuals.

VUFO operates for non-profit purpose in line with the Constitution and laws. It will expand, diversify and multilateralise partnerships to contribute to consolidating friendship and cooperation between Vietnamese people and those from other countries. It also pools support, solidarity and cooperation of people worldwide for the cause of national construction and defence.

VUFO offers suggestions and recommendations on regional and global issues related to people-to-people diplomacy, assists its member organisations in activities regarding peace, solidarity, friendship, people-to-people cooperation, and mobilizes and coordinates foreign non-governmental aid./.

Sci-tech application to be promoted to ensure food security

Prioritising resources for the research, application, and transfer of science and technology to diversify food products to ensure nutritional balance and food safety in people’s diet is one of the long-term targets set in the Government’s resolution on ensuring national food security until 2030.

The resolution, issued on March 25, stated that ensuring national food security is a long-term task and a special concern in the Party and State’s development policies.

In more than ten years, from 2009 to 2019, of implementing the 10th-tenure Politburo’s Conclusion No 53-KL/TW on the national food security plan until 2020, Vietnam has obtained significant achievements, notably firmly guaranteeing national food security in all circumstances, which have greatly contributed to economic, political, and social stability and national development, especially amid global economic crises and the COVID-19 pandemic, and helped supply food for the world.

According to the new resolution, national food security is an important issue of the country in both short and long terms. The maintenance of rice farming land is necessary for keeping national food security but rice farmers’ livelihoods and income must also be secured. Besides, food security must be associated with water resources security, environmental protection, climate change adaptation, and sustainable development.

Resources must be prioritised for the research, application, and transfer of science and technology to diversify food products to ensure nutritional balance and food safety in people’s diet, the resolution noted.

It also emphasised the importance of ensuring food supply, people’s food accessibility, nutritional demand to be met, and food safety.

Certain tasks and solutions were also pointed out in the resolution, including restructuring and aligning food production with the market; developing infrastructure for food production; stepping up the research, application, and transfer of science – technology in food production, preservation, and processing; improving human resources; and reforming mechanisms and policies on ensuring national food security./.

Take precautions before getting vaccinated, say health experts

People who receive COVID-19 vaccines should take precautions just like with other vaccines, as the COVID-19 vaccine may offer some immunity but might also side effects soon after entering the body, according to health experts.

They said people who should be cautious about vaccinations are those with a history of allergies, people with underlying health conditions or chronic diseases which require medical supervision.

Last week, the Ministry of Health released guidance on health screening before COVID-19 vaccinations for people aged 18 and above.

Under the instructions sent to medical facilities nationwide, people who will not be vaccinated against COVID-19 are those with acute diseases; pregnant women, breastfeeding women; people with impaired immune responses, end-stage cancer patients and patients with decompensated cirrhosis.

Users of high-dose corticosteroids, those who have had chemotherapy and radiation treatment within 14 days and recipients of immunoglobulin and COVID-19 plasma treatment within the last 90 days and recipients of other vaccines within 14 days are also excluded. Those infected with COVID-19 within the last six months, people aged 65 or above and people suffering thrombocytopenia or blood clotting disorders are also ineligible to be vaccinated.

After receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, people should stay at the vaccination centre for 30 minutes of observation. They are recommended to pay attention to abnormal changes in their body such as hives, itching or difficulty breathing. They should report any symptoms they experience to medical staff.

As of Tuesday, nearly 38,000 frontline workers had received AstraZeneca COVID-19 jabs as part of the national inoculation programme which started on March 8.

Health officials said that there have been several cases of severe allergic reactions among people who received the COVID-19 vaccine but they are all in stable conditions.

The most common reactions are headaches, arm pain, body aches, chills or fever but they only last a few hours to a few days.

Students get involved in environmental issues in a creative way

With the air pollution in Hà Nội and other parts of Việt Nam very alarming, a group of university students has set up a project allowing pupils to gain experience in science and technology and raise public awareness about the environment.

The Air Quality Monitoring System for Environment and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education (AirSENSE) project combines STEM skills development with environmental thinking.

It is a collaboration between the Signal Processing And Radio Communications laboratory (SPARC lab) under the School of Electronics and Telecommunications (SET) and School of Applied Mathematics and Informatics (SAMI) at the Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST), Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, and Centre for Science and Technology Support Development.

AirSENSE provides a STEM curriculum about air quality metering construction and knowledge related to environmental improvement.

In the project, students are taught how to use the AirSENSE device to measure the air quality index and process the data collected. They are also instructed to develop their own equipment.

Hàn Huy Dũng, a manager and the founder of AirSENSE project said more than 200 students at schools in Hà Nội and surrounding provinces have enjoyed lessons from the project, as have more than 1,000 students at STEM festivals since 2018.

The project has taught pupils and first-year students techniques like web and app programming with an environmental-related theme, he said, adding that it has stimulated their passion for science and technology.

Khánh Dương, an 11th grader from Việt Đức High School who has taken part in the project, said in the past she didn’t feel confident when speaking in public.

But now, after studying and working in groups, she can make presentations on issues related to technology fluently and her thinking has become clearer.

“I really want to make a device to measure the indoor air quality by myself. Then I’ll try to figure out measures to make the environment cleaner,” she told the Vietnam News Agency.

Talking about the project, Lê Duy Nhật, a student from School of Electronics and Telecommunications of HUST, who is also head of the technical team, said once joining the project, a student will be given a device that allows them to monitor the air quality at home or in their surrounding environment.

This device is capable of measuring air pollution density PM1, PM2.5, PM10 as well as temperature, humidity in the air and sends periodic data to the server via the Internet.

“The cheerful and attentive faces of students at primary, secondary or high schools where the project has been carried out is the driving force for our group to overcome difficulties and be more enthusiastic in guiding the students to do scientific research,” Nhật said.

Through the project, students can apply the knowledge they learned at schools, learn how to analyse data and improve their programming, problem-solving and research skills.

Nhật said he expected the AirSENSE devices would be introduced to more students as time goes on.

Trần Thị Hồng Hiền, a project member, said to attract the participation of many students passionate about environmental science research, the project has organised several contests namely ‘2019 Technical design contest for air environment’ and ‘2020 Technical design contest on smart solutions for environment’.

“The contests aimed to create a healthy, useful and intellectual competition. They offered an opportunity for students aged 13-15 to exchange and turn their ideas into useful products with creativity,” she said.

Explore beautiful Loc Yen Ancient village

Lộc Yên ancient village located in Tiên Cảnh Commune in Quảng Nam Province’s Tiên Phước District is considered one of the four most beautiful ancient villages in Việt Nam.

The ancient village is home to eight 150 to 200-year-old houses. Their structures are typical of a  “nhà rường” house made of solid jackfruit wood pillars and beams.

Their cultural value is critically acclaimed and deemed worthy of preservation.

In 2017, Quảng Nam People’s Committee approved Tiên Phước‘s ecotourism development, with plain concrete roads now decorated with stone fences and colorful petite flowers.

Bòn bon fruit trees, which are native to Southeast Asia, can be seen in almost every garden here. The fruit turns ripe in the eighth lunar month with a translucent sweet flesh under its skin.

According to historic records, bòn bon used to be a royal offering. The tree reaches 10 to 20m in height. Its flesh contains polyphenols and anthocyanins, packed with health benefits and antioxidants.

Land encroachment affects Phu Quoc airport’s drainage system

Part of a runway in Phu Quoc International Airport in the southern province of Kien Giang has been encroached upon by construction activities, affecting the airport’s drainage system.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) has asked authorities of Kien Giang to ensure Phu Quoc International Airport’s water drainage.

According to the CAAV, the airport’s water mainly flows into Cua Lap River. However, the river area where the water is discharged into is gradually being filled by nearby construction activities.

Many people have encroached upon the land in the north of the airport runway, filling in part of the drainage in the area. This has caused serious flooding following the heavy rain.

In August 2019, the airport experienced severe inundation as the result of the congestion of the drainage into Cua Lap River. This meant the airport had to cancel nearly 70 flights for one day.

To deal with the situation, the CAAV requested the Kien Giang People’s Committee to assist in the dredging of Cua Lap River area before the coming rainy season as well as closely tighten control over construction activities by the river.

The province has also urged to take drastic measures to deal with the encroachment in the airport runway area.

HCM City doctors warn against high UV index as hot weather set to peak

With the onset of a heat wave in HCM City, doctors are urging people to take preventive measures against heat-related health conditions.

The city has experienced temperatures of 34-37 degrees Celsius this month.

Lê Đình Quyết, deputy head of the weather forecast division at the Southern Hydrometeorology Station, told Lao Động (Labour) newspaper that the peak temperatures would be in April and May.

According to doctors, heat-related illnesses such as heat stroke, exhaustion and cramps can strike anyone, but especially the elderly, young and obese.

Children’s Hospital 2 has admitted 3,600 children in the first two weeks of this month after nearly 4,000 ones last month.

The department’s doctors warned that the hot weather could send more and more children to hospital.

Other paediatric hospitals in the city have also received many patients this month.

Thống Nhất Hospital said the number of seniors hospitalised usually increases by 5-10 per cent every year in hot weather.

Dr Dương Anh Phượng of the City International Hospital told Việt Nam News that hot weather increases the risk of respiratory diseases because many people turn on fans at full speed and air-conditioners at low temperatures, causing the throat and nose to go dry. If the respiratory tract mucus dries up, bacteria and viruses find it easier to enter, leading to diseases, she explained.

Children below six often do not have a strong immune system, which increases their risk of respiratory diseases, she said.

People should protect their children carefully when taking them out in hot weather and take them for prompt medical treatment when they show signs of illness, she warned, adding they need to be fully immunized, especially for respiratory infections.

Thống Nhất Hospital doctors said people should eat a lot of vegetables and fruits, wear wide-brimmed hats and protective clothes, and use sunscreen when going out in hot weather.

According to the HCM City Hospital of Dermato Venereology, many patients have come with irritated, red or dry skin since hot weather increases water loss in the body.

So, people should drink at least 1.5-2 litres of water a day, and more if they play sports.

According to Weather Online, the UV index in HCM City in the next three days will be 10-11, meaning very high risk of harm from unprotected sun exposure.

According to World Health Organization norms, a UV index of 6-7 is “high”, 8-10 is “very high” and 11 and above is “extreme.”

UV radiation causes sunburn, cell damage in the skin and skin cancer.

Youth Union’s 90th founding anniversary celebrated in Laos

The Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union (HCYU)’s chapter in Laos and the Vietnamese Embassy in Laos co-organised a meeting in Vientiane on March 26 to celebrate the union’s 90th founding anniversary (March 26, 1931 – March 26, 2021).

Speaking at the event, Secretary of the Executive Committee of the chapter Tran Dai Thang reviewed the glorious tradition of the HCYU since its inception, noting that with its pioneering role, the union has made important contributions to the cause of national construction and defence.

He affirmed that the chapter will continue to well perform its functions, duties and role in the coming time, contributing to building and defending the fatherland of Vietnam as well as constantly fostering the special friendship and solidarity between the youth unions and people of the two countries.

As part of activities to celebrate the HCYU’s 90th founding anniversary, in addition to art programmes and sports exchanges, an exhibition showcases hundreds of photos featuring the HCYU’s activities as well as the cooperation of the Vietnamese and Lao youth unions over the past time./.

Morocco, Vietnam enjoy sound friendship, cooperation: diplomat

Vietnam and Morocco have shared sound friendship and partnership in all fields over the past six decade, Moroccan Ambassador to Vietnam Jamale Chouaibi said in an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations (March 27).

The commemoration is an opportunity to celebrate the friendship between the two countries’ people, to assess the progress of cooperation between our two countries and to reflect on the best ways to strengthen and broaden the scope of this cooperation, the diplomat said.

Noting that relations between Morocco and Vietnam existed long before the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1961, he said the shared interest in strengthening collaboration between the two countries reflects their common desire to promote and consolidate South-South cooperation, and respond to global economic, political, social and environmental challenges, mainly through the sharing of experiences and good practices, and the promotion of knowledge and expertise among developing countries.

In terms of politics, Morocco and Vietnam share several fundamental principles relating to their external relations, and pledge to implement the principle of settling disputes through dialogue, negotiation and mediation.

The two countries’ political ties have been also strengthened via increasing the exchange of high-level delegations, at government and parliamentary level.

The visit by National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan to Morocco in March 2019, and the tour of Vietnam by President of the House of Representatives of Morocco Habib El Malki in December 2017 were milestones in fostering political and parliamentary cooperation between the two countries, he said.

Morocco and Vietnam have maintained regular consultations, through the Joint Committee mechanism. The two countries have so far held four joint committee meetings and five political consultation sessions. The 5th meeting of the Joint Committee and the 6th session of bilateral political consultations are scheduled for next November in Rabat, he added.

On the economic aspect, the positive development of bilateral cooperation is reflected by an increase in trade of nearly 50 percent during 2015 and 2019. Vietnam is currently Morocco’s second largest trading partner in ASEAN.

Bilateral economic relations have been strengthened by the signing of trade agreements and memoranda of understanding (MoUs) between the ministries in charge of trade. A trade agreement was recently signed between the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam and the Ministry of Industry, Investment, Trade and Digital Economy of Morocco to promote cooperation in many areas of common interest, such as renewable energies, textiles, clothing, electronics and mechanical industries, chemical industry and fertiliser production.

A MoU between the two ministries in charge of trade was also signed recently on the establishment of a subcommittee on trade and industrial cooperation with the aim of promoting bilateral trade and supporting SMEs.

Meanwhile, he noted that the two sides are determined to strengthen and expand their bilateral partnership. This is evidenced by the growing number of agreements signed between the two countries, which cover a wide range of sectors such as trade and investment, energy and mining, banking, education and training, air services, as well as MoUs between several universities and cities of the two countries.

Although bilateral trade has yet to reach its potential and met both sides’ expectations, it is growing year by year, he said.

Morocco’s upcoming appointment an Honorary Consul in Ho Chi Minh City is expected to give new impetus to trade and business opportunities between the two countries, he said, adding that plans and visions both are looking towards in terms of renewable energies, digital transformation, tourism, agriculture, infrastructure and logistics, industrial and technological acceleration, with the aim of becoming leading emerging economies in their respective regions, should be opportunities for Morocco and Vietnam to share their experience, expertise and know-how through the establishment of joint sectoral committees in the areas.

A series of economic and cultural events will be held through 2021 with the participation of heads of ministries and departments as well as experts, scientists and researchers, he added.

He held that Vietnam is now one of the few countries to successfully achieve the dual targets of combating COVID-19 pandemic and boosting economic development.

He attributed the success to the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam in applying measures to combat the pandemic and encouraging the involvement of all people in the fight./.

Source: VNA/VNS/VOV/VIR/SGT/Nhan Dan/Hanoitimes

A road section is cleared to make room for HCMC’s second metro line project. Work on the project is expected to start next year – PHOTO: NLDO

In a report on the project’s progress sent to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Binh stated that the site clearance work for the project would be completed in the first months of this year, while the relocation of technical infrastructure facilities would start in August, the local media reported.

The Management Authority for Urban Railways of HCMC is completing procedures to invite tenders for the project this year.

According to the municipal government, the project is facing some obstacles, such as reappraising loan conditions, extending a loan contract with the German development bank KfW that expired on December 31, 2020, and signing an appendix with the consulting firm of the project, Implementation Consultant, which stopped work on the project in October 2018.

Therefore, the city proposed the Ministry of Planning and Investment support the removal of these obstacles, so that the project can be completed as scheduled.

The second metro line project in HCMC, which requires an estimated investment of more than VND47.8 trillion, was designed to be over 11 kilometers long, including a 9.2-kilometer underground section, an elevated section and an approaching road section to the Tham Luong Depot. The metro line will include nine underground stations and an elevated station.

The cleared sites have been handed over for four stations—S9-Ba Queo in Tan Binh District, S10-Pham Van Bach, S11-Tan Binh and S5-Le Thi Rieng. In addition, the office building and auxiliary facilities at the Tham Luong Depot have been built.

As planned, the route will be constructed for four years and put into operation in 2026. Once in place, it will connect the first metro line at the Ben Thanh Station in District 1 and metro lines No. 5, 3b, 4 and 6.

HCM City searching for foreigner who fled quarantine centre

Relevant agencies in Ho Chi Minh City are searching for a foreigner who failed to observe quarantine regulations after entering Vietnam illegally, the city’s Centre for Disease Control (HCDC) announced on March 18.

Police in Cu Chi district announced the search for Yang Gui Bin, a Chinese national born in 1986, who had previously been quarantined at the Cu Chi Hospital for COVID-19 Treatment after being caught by police for illegal entry.

Yang tested negative twice for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 on March 6 and 11, and then fled on March 15.

According to the HCDC, 824 health workers at the city’s Hospital for Tropical Diseases had received shots against COVID-19 as of March 16.

Some of those vaccinated displayed predicted symptoms such as pain at the site of injection, muscle pain, headache and fever, but all are now in a stable condition.

The municipal Department of Health has asked the HCDC to hold training courses at vaccination sites on the implementation of the COVID-19 inoculation drive./.

15th NA election: Presidium of VFF Central Committee holds second consultative conference

The Presidium of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee held the second consultative conference on March 18 to reach agreement on a preliminary list of candidates nominated by central agencies for the upcoming election of deputies to the 15th National Assembly.

In opening the conference, Tran Thanh Man, President of the VFF Central Committee and Vice Chairman of the National Election Council, noted that according to election regulations, consultative conferences will be held three times to select worthy candidates for the election in a democratic manner.

The Presidium of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee held the first consultative conference on February 4, and the third one will be completed before 5pm April 19.

After the first consultative conference, agencies, organisations and units held meetings to nominate candidates for the NA election, and to collect voters’ opinions on their nominees.

According to Man, by March 17 the VFF had received dossiers of 205 nominated candidates, and preparations for the election are going according to schedule and in compliance with regulations.

At the conference, 100 percent of delegates approved the preliminary list of 205 candidates nominate by central agencies, organisations and units.

As of March 17, the number of nominated candidates nationwide stood at 1,161, which is 2.3 times the number of deputies to be elected to the NA.

It is noteworthy that 24 provinces and cities reported 77 self-nominated candidates, including 30 in Hanoi, and 16 in Ho Chi Minh City.

The elections of deputies to the 15th-tenure National Assembly and all-level People’s Councils for the 2021-2026 tenure are scheduled to take place on May 23.

Critically ill infected patient recovers in biggest coronavirus hotspot

A critically ill infected patient has been discharged from hospital in Hai Duong province, the epicenter of Vietnam’s latest coronavirus outbreak, after making a full recovery from the virus.

The man was admitted to field hospital No. 2 on February 17, suffering from severe respiratory failure, rapid shallow breathing, and extremely low oxygen levels in the blood. CT scan results show his lungs were seriously damaged.

His deteriorating health forced doctors to put him on a ventilator and a dialysis machine the following morning.

After 3 days of receiving intensive care and treatment, the patient displayed signs of recovery. He did not need an ECMO intervention – a therapy that is used to support critically ill patients.

The patient was able to breathe himself on February 23 and walk with support from medical workers the following day.

“I am very happy to be released for home. I would like to thank doctors for saving my life,” the man said after receiving intensive care and treatment for nearly a month in the hospital.

Field hospital No2 has been established after the virus recurred in Hai Duong in late January 2021. It has since given treatment to 376 patients, of whom 234 have recovered and have been discharged from hospital.

Scholarships for Vietnamese students in India announced

The Embassy of Vietnam in India, with support from the Centre for Indian Studies at the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics and the Centre for Vietnamese Studies in New Delhi, held a ceremony on March 17 to announce the Ambassador Scholarships for Vietnamese Students in 2021.

Some 113 scholarships will be granted to Vietnamese students in undergraduate and postgraduate studies at four Indian institutions: the Integral University in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh; the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology in Bhubaneswar, Odisha; Rishihood University in Haryana; and Sharda University in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

Priority will be given to disadvantaged students from ethnic minority and vulnerable groups. Recommended majors include medical and pharmaceutical technology, engineering, and management, among others.

Speaking at the ceremony, Vietnamese Ambassador to India Pham Sanh Chau expressed his hope that, through the scholarships, more Vietnamese students will study in India and experience the local culture. They will also help promote India as an educational destination of potential, he added./.

Vietnam listed among countries with cheapest Internet service in Asia

The average monthly cost of broadband Internet in Vietnam was US$12.4, much cheaper than in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Vietnam is among the countries with the cheapest internet service in the world, accornding to a report by Cable.co.uk, a private company researching cable television services, Internet and telecommunications of the UK.

Cable.co.uk collects data from 3,288 fixed network service providers in 211 countries in the world, from October to December 2020. The average amount that users in the world have to spend a month on Internet connection is US$78.14.

Accordingly, Vietnam ranks 12th in the world, 6th in Asia and 1st in Southeast Asia in terms of low internet service rates. Average users in Vietnam spend US$11.27 (equivalent to VND260,000) for a month on Internet connection.

The average monthly cost of broadband Internet in Vietnam was US$12.4, much cheaper than in Thailand (US$25.9), Indonesia (US$32.5), Malaysia (US$34.9), and the Philippines (US$51.1).

Around 64 million Vietnamese, or over half the country’s population, are online.

In contrast, African countries with poor telecommunications infrastructure, lack of competition among service providers and low average income are the ones with the highest internet cost in the world.

Particularly, Internet users in Eritrea have to spend an average of US$2,666 per month. The next one is Mauritania, with US$ 712.46 for a month of internet connection.

Ukraine is the country with the cheapest internet rates in the world, with an average price of only US$6.41 per month. It is followed by Syria, with an average Internet rate of US$6.49 per month.

Mekong Delta needs to urgently protect underground water resource

Water supply companies in Soc Trang, Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, Kien Giang, An Giang and Hau Giang provinces expressed their concern over exploited water reserve and the quality of groundwater water source through a seminar titled “Protecting and efficiently exploiting underground water resources in the South of Hau River” on March 17.

Similarly, General Director of Kien Giang Water Supply and Sewerage Limited Company (Kiwaco) Mr. Au Van Tam shared that Kiwaco put 80 to 110- meter deep wells into operation at Ca Mau Peninsula with a capacity of 50 meters cubic per hour; however, the high salinity and iron concentrations significantly impact on quality of water resource.

Speaking at the seminar, a representative of Ca Mau Water Supply Joint Stock Company (Cawaco) said that Cawaco has a water supply factory in Ca Mau City and seven branches in districts in addition to 63 wells in a depth of 180 to 240 meters. Last year, Ca Mau Province had reports about the reserve depletion as well as abnormal water quality.

General Director of Soc Trang Water Supply Joint Stock Company Mr. Dang Van Ngo also worried about outdated wells affecting underground water quality.

Dr. Anke Steinel, who is geoscientist and hydrologist of the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, said that the Mekong Delta is facing with challenges for underground water resource under the impact of climate change, sea level rise and water resource exploitation. As this reason, the Mekong Delta needs to urgently have solutions for protecting and managing underground water resources.

Sport tournament marks ties between Vietnamese, Lao public security forces

The Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security’s representative agency in Laos, together with the Embassy of Vietnam and the Lao Ministry of Public Security, held a friendly sport tournament in Vientiane on March 17.

The event was part of activities to commemorate 60 years since the first group of public security experts from Vietnam was sent to Laos on March 22, 1961 to assist the Lao public security force at the request of the Parties and Governments of the two countries, marking the start of official cooperation between the two forces.

It was also aimed to mark the 60th founding anniversary of the Lao public security force on April 5.

Addressing the opening ceremony, head of the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security’s representative agency in Laos Maj. Gen. Hoang Quang Huong affirmed that the cooperation between the two public security forces has played a key role in the great friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and Laos in the past six decades.

The sport tournament, taking place from March 12-17, was to express gratefulness to officers and soldiers of the public security forces and offered chances for staff of the countries’ agencies to enhance understanding and further strengthen solidarity and friendship. It saw 18 teams playing in men’s football and badminton.

At the closing ceremony later on the same day, Lao Deputy Minister of Public Security Lieut. Gen. Kongthong Phongvichith spoke highly of the role and significant contributions by Vietnamese public security experts to the development of the Lao public security force over the years, thereby contributing to the achievements and successes of the Lao revolution and maintain order and stability in the country during its national construction process./.

Four trains for first metro line to arrive in HCMC before July

The next four trains for the first metro line project in HCMC are expected to be transported from Japan to Vietnam between April and July this year if the Covid-19 pandemic is brought under control, said Huynh Hong Thanh, deputy head of the Management Authority for Urban Railways (MAUR) of HCMC.

During an inspection by a team led by HCMC Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong on March 16 into the construction site of the Ba Son underground station, part of the first metro line project, Thanh said two trains were scheduled arrive in Vietnam in April or May. Two months later, the next two trains would be handed over to Vietnam, news site VnExpress reported.

After arriving in HCMC, the four trains, together with the first one which was transported to Long Binh Depot in Thu Duc City in October last year, will be operated on a trial basis.

MAUR had earlier planned to run the trains on a trial basis in the last quarter of this year. They will run on an elevated section from Binh Thai Intersection to Long Binh Depot before the entire system is put into trial operation.

At the same time, other works serving the metro line’s operation will also be conducted, such as training laborers, transferring technology, checking and handing over the project.

The first metro line in HCMC was designed to have 17 three-carriage trains. Each train is capable of carrying 930 passengers and can move at a maximum speed of 110 kilometers an hour on elevated sections and 80 kilometers an hour on underground sections.

The average distance between every two stations is over one kilometer, so trains will run at a speed of some 40 kilometers per hour.

According to Thanh, the project is facing some obstacles. However, the progress of some packages has been ensured, such as the CP1b package to build an underground section from the Opera House station to the Ba Son station, which is expected to be 99% complete by the middle of this year.

He added that the project was still expected to be completed by the end of this year as planned. Due to the pandemic, MAUR will come up with another detailed plan on the project’s progress, assess the impact of Covid-19 on its execution and propose new solutions.

HCMC Chairman Phong said the city had directed MAUR to determine when the project would be put into commercial operation, which will be a foundation to work out difficulties.

The first metro line project requires an investment of VND43.7 trillion. It was designed to be nearly 20 kilometers long with three underground stations and 11 elevated stations.

The project is some 83% complete and is expected to be put into operation next year.

NA Chairwoman works with An Giang on election preparations

National Assembly (NA) Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan on March 18 asked the Mekong Delta province of An Giang to pay more heed to safeguarding security and order as well as COVID-19 prevention and control at border areas, thus ensuring the safety of elections of deputies to the 15th NA and all-level People’s Councils for the 2021-2026 tenure, which are slated for May 23.

At a working session with the provincial steering committee for elections, Ngan, who is also head of the National Election Council, urged An Giang to continue with information and communications tasks to raise public awareness about the elections.

Channels seeking public opinions on the elections should be set up, she said, adding that conferences collecting constituents’ votes of confidence on candidates need to be held as scheduled.

The Chairwoman called for the training of personnel in charge of election work, especially members of election groups.

Lauding An Giang’s preparations, the top legislator said it has seriously observed guidelines on reducing both constituencies and deputies.

Nguyen Thanh Binh, Deputy Secretary of the provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, and head of the steering committee for elections of An Giang, said the province will elect nine deputies to the 15th NA and 62 others to the provincial People’s Council.

As of 5pm on March 14, the steering committee had received dossiers from 125 candidates, including 15 for candidacy for the NA, he said.

District-level steering committees for elections have also announced lists of constituencies and the number of deputies to be elected in each constituency, as scheduled, according to Binh./.

Belgium’s Ixelles mayor appreciates contribution of Vietnamese to local COVID-19 response

Christos Doulkeridis, Mayor of Ixelles, a district of the Belgian capital Brussels, expressed his sincere appreciation on March 17 of the Vietnamese community’s contribution to the local COVID-19 response.

Vietnamese people are truly part of the local community, Doulkeridis said when accepting 1,200 face masks donated to the district by the Vietnamese Association in Belgium.

Everyone must engage in the fight against this deadly pandemic, he continued, and the symbolic gesture made by the Vietnamese community shows that everyone can play a part in the fight with a very important tool, face masks, being an expression of mutual protection.

He also spoke highly of the sense of responsibility among Vietnamese people in Belgium, saying they have fully integrated into the local community.

President of the Vietnamese Association in Belgium, Huynh Cong My, who handed over the donated face masks, said Vietnamese people appreciate how the administrations of Ixelles and Brussels at large have supported their integration efforts.

Data from 2019 indicates that about 14,000 Vietnamese were living in Belgium at that time./.

Campaign to promote public exercise, sport activities

A campaign “All people take exercises following the example of great Uncle Ho” in 2021-2030 will be launched at a ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City on March 28, according to the Vietnam Sports Administration (VSA) under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

An annual Olympic Run Day for Public Health 2021 will take place on the same day, the VSA said.

The VSA set to lift the total of people participating in regular exercise and sport activities to over 38 percent by 2025 and over 42 percent by 2030. Meanwhile, the rate of families joining sport activities is expected to reach over 28 percent, and 32 percent in 2025 and 2030, respectively.

The department also aims to have all communes and wards nationwide having grassroots cultural and sports establishments meeting the standards prescribed by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Up to 98 percent of communes and wards, and 100 percent of districts, provinces and central-run cities are expected to organise sport festivals at all levels, the VSA said./.

Ministry eyes over 9,000 km of expressway by 2050

The Ministry of Transport is striving to have 5,000 km of expressway by 2030 and over 9,000 km by 2050, according to Minister Nguyen Van The.

According to the ministry’s statistics released at a working session on road infrastructure planning on March 17, Vietnam is currently operating1,046 km of expressways and building an additional 900 km, equal to 90 percent of the planning scheme.

Experts said that the linkage between the national road system and other means of transportation has yet to meet requirements. Several seaports, railways and airports, for example, do not connect with expressways yet.

Speaking at the event, The emphasised the policy of reducing the market share of road transportation, and increasing the market shares of waterway, railway, aviation and seaway transportation.

Accordingly, he requested reducing public investments in roads and increasing in public investments in other means of transportation.

The minister also stressed the need to look back on shortcomings that make the ministry fail to reach 2,500km of expressways by 2020, including slow public investment disbursement and slow site clearance.

To achieve the goal of 5,000 km of expressways by 2030, it is necessary to have breakthrough policies to develop expressway infrastructure and gain the Prime Minister’s allowance to complete all site clearance before building investment projects./.

Group exhibitions open at Galerie Quynh

A group exhibition featuring works of Vietnamese and French artists has opened at Galerie Quynh.

The exhibition showcases paintings, installation works and video installations by French artist Nadège David, Vietnamese-American multi-disciplinary artist Trọng Gia Nguyên, and the Đà Nẵng-based visual and multimedia artist Xuân Hạ.

Through the works, the artists reflect bodily experiences in mediating and expressing perception, memory and culture.

The exhibition will be on view until April 10. The gallery is at 118 Nguyễn Văn Thủ Street in District 1.

HCM City accelerates completion of urban planning project

Ho Chi Minh City is eyeing to become a centrally- run special urban area, the nation’s biggest economic hub of tourism, industrial services, industry and high-tech agriculture.

To this end, it is working to complete a series of urban planning projects, including an overall urban planning scheme by 2040 and a planning scheme of Thu Duc city.

For the overall planning scheme with a vision to 2060, the city will cover a total of 2,123.7 sq. km, including 28.7 sq. km of Can Gio sea encroachment urban area.

Its urban development is associated with orientations to adapt to climate change and sea-level rise as well as a multipolar structure.

It will have new urban areas, with key locations including Thu Duc city – a creative high-interactive urban model, Hiep Phuoc port urban area, Tay Bac urban area, Binh Quoi-Thanh Da urban area, and Can Gio sea encroachment urban area.

Notably, HCM City will build Thu Duc into a city of a knowledge-based economy and artificial intelligence, serving as a driving force behind the growth toward the 4th Industrial Revolution of HCM City and the region.

The planning of Thu Duc is the central task in the southern economic hub’s overall planning.

As the eastern gateway of HCM City, Thu Duc city is set to span 21,156.9 ha and be developed into a centre of innovation and connectivity to assist the growth of other urban areas in the HCM City metropolitan area, which consists of HCM City and seven key economic hubs in the South./.

Craig Thomas Gallery presents new works by Vietnamese artists

Craig Thomas Gallery is displaying new works by contemporary Vietnamese artists this month.

The showcase includes a preview of paintings and sculptures from artists Phạm Thanh Toàn, Nguyễn Trọng Minh, Lim Khim Katy and Phạm Đinh Tiến. These works will be displayed at exhibitions this year and in 2022.

The artists, most of whom are graduates from the HCM City Fine Arts University, have had works displayed at the Việt Nam Fine Arts Museum, the HCM City Fine Arts Museum, and galleries in the city and Hà Nội.

The gallery is open for visitors from 1-6pm between Tuesday and Saturday. The venue is located at 27i Trần Nhật Duật Street in District 1.

Opening ceremony and festivities of Hoa Lư Festival to be halted

The annual festival of Hoa Lư in the northern province of Ninh Bình will be held without festivities this year, according to the Provincial People’s Committee.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival will be celebrated on a small scale but its respectful spirit will still be retained to ensure both locals and tourists’ safety, the organisers said.

Instead of holding the opening ceremony of Hoa Lư Festival as usual, Ninh Bình Province will exclude its opening ceremony and all other festivities.

Only some traditional ceremonies will be organised by Hoa Lư District People’s Committee and the Department of Culture and Sports of Ninh Bình Province, such as the temple-opening ceremony, water procession, the ceremony of Buddha bathing and the thanksgiving ceremony.

The Department of Culture and Sports of Ninh Bình Province will preside over the incense offering ceremony.

Earlier, Ninh Bình Provincial People’s Committee drew up a plan for the organisation of Hoa Lư Festival 2021 in November 2020.

The annual festival is one of 100 national intangible cultural heritages. Together with the ancient capital of Hoa Lư, the Hoa Lư Festival is an important part of the World Natural and Cultural Heritage Site of Tràng An scenic complex. It aims to commemorate the national heroes Lê Đại Hành and King Đinh Tiên Hoàng who built and protected the country.

Over the years, the traditional festival has had almost all of its traditional rituals restored, honouring the cultural values of the Đinh-Tiền Lê dynasty (968-1010).

Held from the 9th to the 11th day of the third lunar month, which falls on April 20-22 this year, Hoa Lư Festival typically attracts thousands of attendees.

Quang Ninh Province announces plans to resume classes for students affected by pandemic

The Department of Education of Training in the northern province of Quảng Ninh has proposed two options for students from pandemic-stricken areas to resume classes.

The proposal, which was submitted to the provincial People’s Committee for approval, aims to bring them back to school as soon as possible.

According to the department, as many as 534 high school students weren’t able to return to school due to the COVID-19 pandemic as of March 13. Of which, 94 students were isolated in Quảng Ninh Province while the rest were quarantined in Hải Dương and other provinces.

In the first option, the students would return to Quảng Ninh Province and undergo safety requirements. Specifically, those from locked down areas or those under social distancing in Hải Dương Province will be quarantined at centralised quarantine centres.

Students who live in Hải Dương Province but are not in locked down areas or those with social distancing requirements will be tested for SARS-CoV-2 and self-quarantine at home for 14 days.

Regarding students who live in other provinces and cities, if they are under quarantine, they will return to school after completing the mandatory period, the department said.

Those who aren’t in quarantine can return to school but they will have to make a health declaration to local health authorities.

Students who are under quarantine in Quảng Ninh Province will resume classes after the quarantine period ends and they test negative for the novel coronavirus.

In the second option, the province will isolate students who are subject to quarantine at centralised quarantine zones before returning to school.

Hạ Long City plans to waive all costs for quarantine and COVID-19 tests for students and their relatives when they return to the city to study.

To ensure the quality of education, the provincial Department of Education and Training also directed educational establishments to maintain online learning and other forms of learning to consolidate knowledge for students who have not yet returned to school as they are in quarantine.

Hanoi’s ten most outstanding young faces of 2020 announced

Ten outstanding young Hanoians will be honoured at a ceremony to be held by the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union’s Hanoi chapter on March 20.

The outstanding individuals include Nguyen Manh Quan (born in 2003, 12th grader from the Hanoi-Amsterdam High School for the Gifted; Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Chien Thang (born in 1987, lecturer in the Faculty of Chemistry, Hanoi University of Natural Sciences under the Vietnam National University); Dr. Luu The Loi (born in 1991, CEO and co-founder of Kyber Network), Nguyen Thi Thu (born in 1988, Director of Tam An Cooperative in Thuong Tin District, Hanoi; Lieutenant Vu Ngoc Hoang (born in 1992, Dong Da District Police); football player Do Hung Dung (born in 1993);

Other excellent young people are Master, Doctor Pham Van Phuc (born in 1990, the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases); Master, Doctor Tran Anh Duc (born in 1989, Department of Obstetrics, Hanoi Obstetrics and Gynaecology Hospital); Engineer Tran Trung Hieu (born in 1992, Founder and Executive Director of TopCV Joint Stock Company); Master, Researcher Ung Thi Hong Trang (born in 1987, the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology).

The youngs people are being acknowledged for their marked achievements in such areas as study, scientific research, economic development, national defence-security, culture, arts, sports and voluntary activities.

Air ticket prices on Reunification Day-May Day holiday increase

Prices of air tickets on Reunification Day (April 30) and May Day holiday have increased, particularly for beach tours.

The pandemic has been basically controlled in Vietnam, so many people have flocked to book tours.

Budget carrier VietJet Air’s cheapest one-way air ticket on Hanoi-Nha Trang route on April 30 is VND1.7 million (USD73.91), including surcharges. Meanwhile, national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines’ return tickets on the route is VND5.36 million.

Hanoi-Phu Quoc flights have the highest prices with VND2.9 million for Vietnam Airlines’ one-way ticket, including surcharges. For Bamboo Airways, the ticket is VND2-3.1 million.

VietJet Air’s one-way tickets for flights from Hanoi to Quy Nhon and Danang is less than VND1 million, excluding surcharges. For Vietnam Airlines, the tickets range between VND1.5-2.5 million, including surcharges.

Air tickets on HCM City-Phu Quoc route are also on the rise, ranging from VND1.7-3.5 million; while the tickets for flights from Hanoi, HCM City to other tourist sites on the Renunciation Day and May Day occasion have considerably increased.

According to travel companies, the number of customers who book air tickets and hotel rooms for their tours on the occasion has increased.

HCMC tourism sector to digitalize tourist attractions

The tourism sector in Ho Chi Minh City is planning to implement digitalization on tourist attractions in the city this year, said Director of the Department of Tourism Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa yesterday.

The city tourism sector is facing severe economic hardship in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis. Digital technologies, such as immersive, virtual and augmented reality and 3D, are an increasingly important factor for success when it comes to attracting tourists to a destination.

The city will digitalize tourist destinations with 360° photo platform, virtual 3D pictures, flycam, and virtual reality technology and implement QR Codes to provide area information of 100 tourist attractions, museums and cultural heritage sites.

Presently, the Department of Tourism is preparing for a program “100 interesting tourist attractions in HCMC” which will be for promoting domestic and international tourism. The sector will focus on applying online media as well as other approaches to identify the city’s designed tourism brand name.

Moreover, the sector will also make short movies about the city’s culture, cuisine and lifestyle as well as multimedia “ Vibrant Ho Chi Minh City” to increase brand awareness and lure visitors.

Vietnam to tighten cyber security for digital transformation, e-government

In the last 5 years, both the central Government, the local authorities, and the community have wholeheartedly supported the establishment of an e-government in Vietnam, leading to such impressive success in only 2 years adopting Resolution No. 17/NQ-CP.

The only unfulfilled targets are those related to online public service use of citizens and digital identification, authentication.

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung shared that the Vietnamese digital government will be officially launched in 2025, letting it enter the global Top-50.

At that time, all governmental services will be automatically offered 24/7 with customizable features. New public services will be developed based on the existing open databases, which is the cooperation between the Government, businesses, IT experts, and the community.

Along with the digital economy and society, this digital government is the key in the national digital transformation process. Considered as the leader, the digital government is the top priority for development at the moment.

The transformation from an e-government to a digital one, or from online public services to digital ones, is the foundation. In that process, there will be a shift from IT systems to digital platforms, from service access to database access, and from the participation of governmental agencies to contribution of both the Government, citizens, and related businesses.

If the challenge in the e-government is inter-connection, the trial in the digital government is change management.

In 2020, certain critical national-leveled databases in the fields of business, social welfare, healthcare, education, and civil status were completed. They have significantly reduced paperwork in administrative procedures.

Praising the above results, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc insisted that it is vital to ensure cyber security and protect the national sovereign on the cyber space while carrying out the digital transformation process.

He added that the national databases must be more effectively exploited to create a sustainable digital government, economy, and society.

At the moment, the suitable legal environment for the development of an e-government in Vietnam is still not perfect, and certain necessary decrees regarding personal data as well as identity protection have not been released yet.

Therefore, in the upcoming time, the Government and related state agencies must prepare these legal documents as soon as possible so that the establishment of an electronic and then digital government can be further facilitated.

Over VND21.5 trillion to be poured into six traffic projects linking HCMC, Long An

The HCMC Department of Transport has written to the municipal government proposing prioritizing six traffic projects with total investment of over VND21.5 trillion connecting HCMC with the Mekong Delta province of Long An from now until 2025.

As many as 23 roads connecting HCMC with Long An Province need investment, with 12 existing roads in dire need of expansion, nine road projects having been approved and the remaining two needing to be added to the general plan, according to the municipal department.

The six projects proposed for the 2021-2025 period include building the Tay Bac road project with a length of some 19.8 kilometers that will start at National Highway 1A in Binh Tan District and end at Ring Road 4 near Hau Nghia Town in Long An Province, and investing in Nguyen Van Bua Street linking Hoc Mon District and Long An Province’s Duc Hoa District.

The municipal department also proposed expanding the Vo Van Kiet Avenue in HCMC’s outlying district of Binh Chanh to connect the city with the Hai Son-Tan Do industrial park in Duc Hoa District in the Mekong Delta province. The projected road that will start at Ring Road 3 is set to cost VND3.3 trillion.

Besides, National Highway 50 running through Binh Chanh District and Long An Province’s Can Giuoc District needs upgrading and expanding with total investment of VND2.15 trillion, the local media reported.

Another traffic project comprises building a 3-kilometer-long road and the 409-meter-long Rach Doi bridge to connect Le Van Khuong Street in the city’s outlying district of Nha Be with Provincial Road 826C in Can Giuoc District.

The sixth project is to build a road running parallel to National Highway 50 in Binh Chanh District to connect it to Can Giuoc District that had been approved by the prime minister. The project is set to require VND4.3 trillion.

PM fixes deadline for submission of new regulations on environmental protection

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has ordered the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to draft a new Decree on administrative sanctions against violations in the field of environmental protection.

This is part of the Government’s plan which figures out measures to implement the revised Law on Environmental Protection adopted by the National Assembly in November last year.

The administrative sanctions includes application of sanction forms, remedial measures with respect to individuals, organizations committing acts of administrative violations according to provisions of law on administrative sanctions which are implemented by the competent persons.

At present, administrative sanctions for violations in environmental protection are specified in the Government’s Decree No. 55/2016/ND-CP dated November 18, 2016.

The Government chief also tasked the ministry to develop a decision on a list of domains and establishments subject to greenhouse gas emission inventory and another decision approving a plan for environmental improvement and restoration of areas where pollution of soil environment is especially serious in accordance with Point C, Clause 1, Article 19 of the 2020 Law on Environmental Protection.

It will also be responsible for drafting a decision prescribing criteria for environmental protection in the field of construction and rural development.

The aforesaid draft documents shall be submitted to the Prime Minister for consideration in the first half of 2021./.

Hanoi, HCM City named top places for local delicacies

Both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have been voted as the leading destinations to enjoy traditional cuisine or street food, as well as being top places for food shopping among local travelers, according to a survey conducted by renowned travel website Booking.com.

Hanoi tops the list in terms of best destinations for traditional Vietnamese food, with Booking.com stating that the top dishes in Hanoi are typically inexpensive. Despite their cheapness, an array of tasty treats can be found within the Old Quarter’s narrow alleyways and the bustling street markets situated throughout the capital.

“This is where you can find the familiar and world renowned ‘pho’ noodles served with bagel twists or the original ‘bun cha’ that was once enjoyed by President Obama during his 2016 visit in Vietnam. ‘Bun dau mam tom’, a stinky yet tasty and crispy delicacy originated in Hanoi, is a definite must for daredevils undisturbed by the idea of pungent shrimp paste,” the website explains.

Furthermore, Ho Chi Minh City was named as best city for street food. The survey states that the southern metropolis is the city that never sleeps and appeals to the taste buds of travelers due to its countless food stalls and markets that are open around the clock.

“A city trip to Saigon is incomplete without indulging in all-time favourites such as bot chien fried in a large flat pan with whipped eggs, the legendary Vietnamese pizza or quesadilla grilled on the coal stove, duck embryo in tamarind sauce and beef offal steamed in coconut milk served with local banh mi,” the website highlights.

“With all the finger-licking and creative dishes the city has to offer, it is no surprise that travellers have pinned Ho Chi Minh City as one of the top endorsed destinations for street food on Booking.com.”

Van Quyet among 10 outstanding young Vietnamese faces of 2020

Famous footballer Nguyen Van Quyet of Hanoi FC has been listed among the outstanding young Vietnamese faces of 2020, with the annual national award held to honour young local people who have excelled in their respective fields.

The 30-year-old striker first rose to prominence after captaining the Vietnamese U19 men’s football team which went on to record a victory over Thailand’s U21 side to win the International U21 Thanh Nien (Youth) Newspaper Cup in 2010.

Last year saw the forward make a number of great contributions to Hanoi FC as they lifted the National Cup and went on to finish as runners-up in the V.League 1.

As captain of Hanoi FC, Van Quyet also won both the Golden Ball Award and claimed the title of outstanding athlete in the same year.

The award to honour outstanding young Vietnamese faces is a highly-esteemed event organised by the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Central Committee with the purpose of recognizing the various achievements of people aged under 35 from across the nation.

This year the awards ceremony is set to get underway on March 21 in Hanoi.

Tourism sector seeks solution to stimulate tourism demand

The Vietnam Tourism Association and Hanoi Department of Tourism are set to co-ordinate efforts to organise the national tourism forum in April which will be held in Hanoi in an effort to seek solutions and attract greater tourist numbers in the near future.

Vu The Binh, vice chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association, said during the ongoing wait for borders to open for international tourism, the local tourism industry should primarily focus on developing domestic tourism and organising a diverse range of activities that can stimulate tourism demand.

Binh noted that the upcoming event is anticipated to offer an ideal venue for travel firms and localities nationwide  to strengthen connectivity for the purpose of domestic tourism development.

Following the national tourism forum, the Vietnam Tourism Association and other agencies in the tourism sector are expected to host the Vietnam International Travel Mart (VITM 2021) which is scheduled to take place between May 5 and May 8.

Furthermore, Hanoi tourism firms have recently organised a number of affiliate schemes aimed at creating new domestic tourism products that can meet the needs of customers, such as the VGreen Caravan tourism programme which will encourage travelers to visit northwest localities.

Former heroin user helps others fight drug addiction

Nguyễn Minh Hiếu’s life used to be spent in and out of rehab centres in HCM City to fight his drug addiction. After seven times in rehab, he finally kicked his addiction.

As well as rebuilding his own life, Hiếu has set up a volunteer group to help local drug addicts get back to normal life.

“I set up the Nụ Cười (Smile) Group to help those who have lost their way just like I did get rid of drugs and become a good person,” he told the online newspaper baochinhphu.vn.

Located in an apartment in HCM City’s District 8, the group focuses on helping intravenous drug users as these people face a high risk of HIV transmission. These addicts are given new needles and HIV tests, as well as support to access methadone maintenance therapy and antiretroviral (ARV) therapy.

Several times per week, the group goes to hotspots for drug addicts to collect used needles to help curb the transmission of HIV/AIDS.

Hiếu and the group have been doing this job for eight years. Seeing and talking to hundreds of drug addicts, Hiếu said what they needed most was positive energy to get close to drug users.

“Drug addicts have only one goal: how to get money to satisfy their addiction. What I need to do is to let them trust me, but not by giving them money,” he said.

“They might not understand our good intentions, but they will later on,” he said.

Hiếu said some people in his group were drug addicts and still under methadone treatment and were in the group to try and give up their drug habit and help others, too.

When asked about his family, Hiếu said proudly that they had supported everything he had done.

“My family used to lose faith in me after many broken promises to give up drugs. They were desperate about me being an addict father, husband and son. Whenever I rushed out of the house, they were hopeless,” he said.

“But now they care and support me, even when I’m out all day. How proud!” he said.

Soc Trang border guards use loudspeakers in COVID-19 communication campaign

Over the last year, people living in border areas of the southern province of Sóc Trăng have gotten used to seeing border guards carry a loudspeaker on their motorbikes telling them how to protect themselves from COVID-19.

Colonel Lê Văn Anh, head of the Province Border Guard Command’s COVID-19 Prevention and Control Committee, said that during the complex development of the COVID-19 pandemic, local border guards strengthened preventive measures, especially communication.

Many initiatives had been launched and proved effective, Anh said, noting that using loudspeakers in communication campaigns was most effective and economical.

During the pandemic, public communication events to attract crowds were not allowed, but the loudspeaker systems of communes and wards were unable to reach remote areas, Anh said.

With a portable loudspeaker, a USB with recorded information and a motorbike, a border guard could access people in all corners of the province, he said.

Major Lê Văn Băng of An Thạnh Ba Border Station in Cù Lao Dung District said they also drew posters and slogans on COVID-19 prevention and control and stuck them on the loudspeakers.

In the morning and the afternoon, border guards drove motorbikes with loudspeakers turned on, Băng said.

“When reaching busy areas, we slow down or park there so people can hear the information clearly,” Băng said.

During the pandemic, they have explained the Ministry of Health’s 5 K message: Khẩu trang (face mask) – Khử khuẩn (disinfection) – Khoảng cách (distance) – Không tụ tập (no gathering) – Khai báo y tế (health declaration), and called on people to install the Bluezone contact tracing application.

Ngô Châu, head of Âu Thọ A Residential Group in Vĩnh Hải Commune, Vĩnh Châu District, said border guards and their loudspeakers helped people learn a lot about COVID-19 prevention and control.

“Knowing and understanding the Government’s policies and recommendations on disease prevention and control, local people strictly implement preventive measures,” Châu said.

As the commune is home to many people of the ethnic Khmer group, border guards also used the Khmer language, Châu said.

Border guards also visited residents’ houses to advise them on personal hygiene and food safety.

“The border guards told us to sanitise hands, use cooked foods and boiled water, keep away from wild animals and wear face masks,” Châu said.

According to the province’s Border Guard Command, in the last year, border guards gave people in border areas about 18,000 medical face masks, more than 500 bottles of hand sanitiser and some 10,000 leaflets with disease prevention and control information.

Student research projects focus on pollution, waste reduction solutions

Six projects by university students that were displayed today at the eProjects Innovation Showcase contest at the Cao Thắng Technical College in HCM City mostly focused on environmental pollution and waste management solutions.

A team from the HCM City University of Technology and Education presented a solution for discarded chewing gum while students from Lạc Hồng University in Đồng Nai Province had one for packaging in the e-commerce industry.

Sorting plastic was the focus of students from Cần Thơ University, while a team from the Đà Nẵng University of Technology had a platform for plastic waste management.

Students from the HCM City University of Technology, who showed how to reuse construction materials, won the prize for the most effective solution.

Students from the Industrial University of HCM City displayed technology to modernise Dow Vietnam Company’s customer order and tracking systems.

The team from the HCM City University of Technology and Education won the prize for the best presentation and the Đà Nẵng University of Technology won for teamwork.

The event enabled students to demonstrate their industry-mentored prototypes to peers and professionals from across the country.

Over the last semester, eProjects teams developed their prototypes through regular consultation with professional mentors, who set out a vision for each project, shared their technical expertise and regularly met with the students.

Since September the teams worked online, on campus and even at Dow’s plant to build and test their prototypes.

The showcase was a part of USAID BUILD-IT and the Dow Vietnam Stem Programme which has been carried out for four years.

Speaking to showcase attendees, USAID Vietnam’s acting mission director, Bradley Bessire, said: “These applied  projects demonstrate  how  the  BUILD-IT  Alliance  links  industry  expertise with universities’ teaching capacity to give students experiences that develop both the technical and soft skills they’ll need to succeed in Việt Nam’s ever more advanced workforce.”

USAID sponsors BUILD-IT Project which is carried out by Arizona State University.

Concert features works by 20th-century’s lesser-known composers

A concert introducing works from composers that have not been performed much in Việt Nam will take place at Goethe Institut next Monday.

The concert, the first of the ’20th Century Music Concert Series’, will present a repertoire featuring works by composers from Japan to Eastern and Western Europe and America, including Benjamin Britten, György Ligeti, Toru Takemitsu, Nikolai Kapustin, Friedrich Gulda, and Frederic Rzewski.

Artists and lecturers of Inspirito School of Music, including oboist Hoàng Mạnh Lâm, trumpeter Yuki Urushihara, pianists Ngô Phương Vi, Lưu Đức Anh, Dương Hồng Thạch, and Phó Đức Hoàng, will perform in the concert.

The concert will start at 7pm. The Goethe Institut is at 56-58-60 Nguyễn Thái Học Street. Recommended donation: VNĐ100,000.

Thousands of counterfeit fashion products seized in Nam Dinh

Market management authorities have seized thousands of Chanel, LV, and Hermes counterfeit products in Nam Dinh Province.

On March 17, Vietnam Directorate of Market Surveillance worked with the Department of Market Surveillance and the police in Nam Dinh to raid a 500-square-metre warehouse in Dai Lai Village, Vu Ban District and found a large number of counterfeit products. The owner was unable to provide any necessary papers.

Nguyen Ky Minh from the Vietnam Directorate of Market Surveillance said the sellers advertised and sold their products via social media. They created various accounts with different names and used them alternatively to avoid attention from the authorities.

An empty shop on Ho Tung Mau Street in Hanoi was used as a decoy to promote their products. Minh said it had caused some difficulties during the investigation.

It is estimated that 20,000-30,000 products were kept at the warehouse worth about VND6bn (USD259,000).

A representative of Hermes said Tam Son International Company is their sole distributor in Vietnam. There are also only two Hermes stores in Vietnam besides the products sold at Lotte shopping centres and some duty-free shops.

Private investment proposed for HCMC-Can Tho express railway project

The Southern Institute of Science and Technology has proposed executing the HCMC-Can Tho high-speed railway project under the public-private-partnership (PPP) model, and the total required investment of some US$10 billion will be sourced from private enterprises.

Under the proposal sent to the Ministry of Transport, the institute also mentioned the adjustment of the railway’s direction and the development of nine stations in satellite urban areas, Dan Tri news site reported.

The main route from HCMC to Can Tho will need an estimated investment of more than US$4.4 billion, while a branch from the Thanh Phu station in Long An Province to the Hiep Phuoc Port in HCMC will require US$791.35 million. The remaining US$4.6 billion will be spent on stations and other facilities.

The express railway will have a total length of 134.9 kilometers, passing through five localities, comprising HCMC, Long An, Tien Giang, Vinh Long and Can Tho. The railway will stop at nine stations, beginning at Tan Kien Station in HCMC and ending at Can Tho Station in Can Tho City.

In addition, the Thanh Phu-Hiep Phuoc branch will be 44 kilometers long, running through HCMC and Long An.

The Southern Institute of Science and Technology has also proposed adjusting the direction of the railway to the right of the HCMC-Trung Luong-My Thuan Expressway, completely different from the previous plan.

According to the institute, with the adjustment, the railway will share a corridor with the expressway, reducing the separation between residential areas and industrial parks. Moreover, the land bank for the satellite urban area development will be larger.

The adjustment will also help shorten the length of the railway by five kilometers, saving nearly US$200 million.

A leader of the Vietnam Railway Authority said the HCMC-Can Tho express railway is an important traffic route which will help ease the traffic on roads.

The authority assigned the project’s management board to choose a consulting firm to conduct a prefeasibility report for the project using the State budget.

As for the financial plan proposed by the Southern Institute of Science and Technology, the authority asked the institute to make it more specific. The institute should clarify the investment method and financial plan in case foreign investors want to get involved in the project.

HCMC set to rename hospitals in Thu Duc City

District 2 Hospital, District 9 Hospital and Thu Duc District Hospital will be renamed as Le Van Thinh Hospital, Le Van Viet General Hospital and Thu Duc City Hospital, respectively.

The HCMC government has approved a plan to re-organize ward- or district-level healthcare centers and hospitals under the HCMC Department of Health after the rearrangement of administrative units at the district and commune levels of Thu Duc City.

Among the three renamed hospitals, Le Van Thinh Hospital, located at 130 Le Van Thinh Street in Thu Duc City’s Binh Trung Tay Ward, is a Grade-1 non-business unit and has a capacity of 500 in-patient beds, Nguoi Lao Dong Online reported.

Le Van Viet General Hospital, headquartered at 387 Le Van Viet Street in Tang Nhon Phu A Ward, is a Grade-2 health non-business unit, with a capacity of 100 beds, while Thu Duc City Hospital at 29 Phu Chau Street in Tam Phu Ward is a Grade-1 health non-business unit and has a capacity of 800 beds.

Besides, the city also re-organized the District 2 Healthcare Center, the District 9 Healthcare Center and the Thu Duc District Healthcare Center into the Thu Duc City Healthcare Center under the HCMC Department of Health.

Construction process of nationwide expressway system reaches 90 percent

The Ministry of Transport informed that the 1,046-kilometer expressway system nationwide has been put into operation so far and currently there are more than 900 kilometers being under construction, reaching over 90 percent as planned.

Accordingly, the North-South Expressway to the East, the Eastern Expressway of Ho Chi Minh Road, Bien Hoa – Vung Tau Expressway, Expressway connecting to Huu Nghi Border Gate in Lang Son Province and Ring Roads of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have not been implemented.

According to Minister of Transport Mr. Nguyen Van The, the delay was due to the slow site clearance progress.

Based on the actual situation, the transport sector set the target up to 2030 concentrating on construction of inter-regional expressway projects connecting to sea ports, air-ports, striving to complete 5,000 kilometers of expressway in 2030 and more than 9,000 kilometers in 2050.

To speed up the progress, Minister Nguyen Van The said that there should be a breakthrough mechanism for expressway infrastructure development in the coming time, a breakthrough in the way of implementing, selecting a portfolio, and submitting to the Government for approval of the whole site clearance to form the entire investment project of 5,000 kilometers of the expressway.

EVNHCMC’s youth launches energy-saving activities to respond Earth Hour 2021

The Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Unions of HCMC, Thu Duc City and the Electricity Corporation of HCMC (EVNHCMC) have co-organized many activities in response to the 2021 Youth Month program and Earth Hour 2021 campaign.

Accordingly, the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Unions of EVNHCMC and Thu Duc City have kicked of the “Joining hands to build Thu Duc New City” program.

In March, the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Unions of EVNHCMC has implemented a series of activities to mark the 90th anniversary of the establishment of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union and the 45th anniversary of the founding of EVNHCMC, such as installing safe electrical systems in three alleys and 50 households, implementing the programs of “Civilized, safe and clean apartment” and “Using electricity safely and economically in school”.

HCMC asks for ODA loan for Water Environment Improvement Project

Ho Chi Minh City authorities have asked for an Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan from Japanese government for its Water Environment Improvement Project.

The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee has proposed the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to value the Water Environment Improvement Project and have official document on provision of the loan to improve water environment in Ben Nghe- Tau Hu – Doi – Te canals for the third phase, said the office of the committee yesterday.

Presently, the city has been implementing the anti-flooding project and the wastewater treatment project for the 2020 – 2045 period as well as for the 2020 – 2030 period including the Water Environment Improvement Project in Ben Nghe- Tau Hu – Doi – Te canals.

The project includes dredging and building a complete canal system with total length of 13.5 kilometers as well as building a wastewater collection system Nam Sai Gon comprising 43-km culvert system and one wastewater treatment plant with capacity of 100,000 cubic meters a day for the first phase and 170,000 cubic meters a day for the second phase.

Source: VNA/VNS/VOV/VIR/SGT/Nhan Dan/Hanoitimes

BẮC NINH — The COVID-19 pandemic has badly affected production and business activities, especially start-up businesses set up by young people.

To help young entrepreneurs overcome difficulties and stand firm during the pandemic, the Youth Union of Bắc Ninh Province has introduced several support solutions.

After graduating from university, Vũ Quang Đạo, 29, from Ngô Thôn Village, Xuân Lai Commune of Gia Bình District returned home and continued to volunteer in the military.

Leaving the army, and realising the potential of farming, Đạo decided to start up his own business. Local people were still farming in traditional ways, which were not very efficient.

With his family’s land stretching 7,000sq.m, Đạo used half of the area to dig a pond for fish and the rest was for growing fruit and raising livestock.

After receiving a VNĐ400 million (US$17,200) loan from Bắc Ninh Province’s Youth Start-up Fund, Đạo built barns for the animals and bought 70 bamboo rats and 1,000 rabbits.

To feed the animals, Đạo planted sugarcane, vegetables and raised worms.

After three months, his bamboo rats had started reproducing and the rabbits were ready for sale.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic meant he was unable to sell the animals.

About a third of his rabbits have reached their maximum weight and need to be sold, but he is unable to find customers.

Đạo had to spend more than VNĐ500,000 (US$27) per day to feed them, and the animals were at risk of contracting diseases.

“When I was trying to make the business survive, I heard about a ‘rescue plan provided by the Youth Union organisations,” Đạo said.

Nguyễn Thị Trâm’s vegetable farm in Minh Tân Commune of Lương Tài District was also badly impacted by the pandemic.

In 2015, Trâm leased 5ha of land to grow safe vegetables. After applying advanced techniques and technology in planting, last year, her farm earned a turnover of VNĐ13 billion (US$562,000), of which profit was VNĐ1.2 billion (US$52,000).

However, in February, her vegetables came to harvest but she could not sell them.

“This year, I focused on supplying vegetables for schools and factories, because I thought demand would be high when students and workers return after Tết,” said Trâm.

“However, due to the pandemic, many factories remained closed, while schools and restaurants were shut, so tens of tonnes of vegetables could not be sold, causing hundreds of millions of đồng in losses,” said Trâm.

Political and social organisations, especially Bắc Ninh’s Farmers’ Association and Youth Union, helped ‘rescue’ a large amount of vegetables to help her continue production and business.

Nguyễn Đức Sâm, secretary of the provincial Youth Union, said: “In recent years, Bắc Ninh Youth Union had stepped up start-up activities that  became a bright spot in youth movements nationwide.”

“Facing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, start-up companies of young people were severely affected, especially the production and consumption of products,” said Sâm.

“As a ‘midwife’ for young people’s start-up businesses, the Youth Union had strengthened coordination of sectors and agencies to review the economic development models by young people so as to provide encouragement and solutions to overcome difficulties,” said Sâm.

Particularly, the provincial Youth Union had co-operated with the Việt Nam Bank for Social Policies to delay and reschedule debt repayments for businesses that were badly impacted by the pandemic, according to Sâm.

Last year, the bank rescheduled debts worth dozens of billions of đồng.

With the policy of on-the-spot support, the Youth Union at all levels of Bắc Ninh Province had ‘rescued’ and consumed dozens of tonnes of agricultural products.

Bắc Ninh Provincial Youth Union will continue to propose and recommend to the provincial People’s Committee to pay attention to supplementing and maintaining the capital from the local budget entrusted to the Việt Nam Bank for Social Policies to provide loans to young people starting businesses.

The union would also propose to the authorities to accelerate the reform of administrative procedures as well as enhance training and improve the quality of corporate governance to help businesses solve difficulties, said Sâm.  VNS

More people have been hospitalised in HCM City due to the current hot weather.

Since early this month, the average temperature in HCM City and the southern region has risen to 36-38 degrees centigrade.

Doctor Nguyen Dinh Qui from HCM City Children’s Hospital 2 said that since early March, more children were taken to the hospital. In February, around 4,000 children were hospitalised, but the figure increased to 3,600 in the first two weeks of this month.

Dr. Tang Le Chau Ngoc, head of the hospital’s Gastroenterology Department, said that the ward has around 40-60 patients per day, including 15-20 hospitalised. Among those, 3-5 cases suffer from serious hypohydration. He mentioned a 17-month-old child who faced kidney failure after high fever and diarrhoea.

According to Ngoc, the number of sick children to the hospital could continue rising in the coming days.

The same situation has also been reported at HCM City Children’s Hospital 1, particularly children with respiratory diseases.

Thong Nhat Hospital in HCM City has seen more elderly patients. Nguyen Thi Thoa in District 10 said that she has been faced with dizziness and breathing difficulties. She was suspected of having symptoms of a stroke.

HCM City Hospital of Dermato Venereology said it has also seen more patients with diseases such as allergy and pruritus.

Doctor Nguyen Dinh Qui said that diseases related to digestive, respiratory and skin problems account for the highest rate of patients when the weather is hot. He advised that people should not change environments suddenly. People are advised to pay attention to protecting their health during hot weather.

The hot weather has tended to expand to more localities in the southern region.

Dr. Truong Quang Anh Vu from Thong Nhat Hospital said that the number of elderly people treated at the hospital increases around 5-10% per year.

No new COVID-19 cases to report on March 21 morning

Vietnam had no new COVID-19 cases to report in the past 12 hours to 6am March 21, and the death toll remains at 35, according to the Health Ministry.

As of March 21, 2,198 patients have been given the all-clear. The death toll remains at 35.

Among the patients still under treatment, 37 have tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 once, 18 twice and 63 thrice.

Meanwhile, 37,174 people are being quarantined nationwide, with 490 at hospitals, 17,990 at concentrated quarantine facilities and 18,694 at their accommodations.

Journalism training not allowed at private universities

The Ministry of Education and Training has just turned down proposals from several private colleges to launch journalism training courses this year.

The higher education department under the ministry cited a directive on journalism and publishing management as saying that journalism training should be carried out at local public universities under tight management from the state but not at private institutions.

The ministry asked local universities to strictly follow the directive.

At present, journalism training is being provided at nine public universities including the Academy of Journalism and Communication, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities under the Vietnam National University in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the Military University of Culture and Arts, the Hanoi University of Culture, the Vinh University, the Thai Nguyen University, the Hue University, and the Danang University.

However, many graduates from private universities are found working in journalism and publishing after studying communications or public relations.

New highway linking HCM City, Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc to be built

A highway connecting HCM City, Thủ Dầu Một (Bình Dương) and Chơn Thành (Bình Phước) will be built in the 2021-25 period under an agreement between HCM City and the Bình Phước People’s Committees on March 18.

The PM agreed that the Bình Phước People’s Committee would monitor the investment process of the project.

Bình Phước has proposed lengthening the highway to 70 kilometres instead of 69 kilometres as planned.

It is estimated to cost about VNĐ36 trillion (US$1.5 billion), including VNĐ17 trillion (US$736 million) from the state budget and VNĐ19 trillion (US$825.7 million) from private investors.

The part through Bình Phước will consist of six lanes sharing the same design as the Đắk Nông – Chơn Thành Highway.

The 1.5 kilometres through HCM City from the Gò Dừa intersection to the border with Bình Dương will be built as an elevated road and cost VNĐ3 trillion.

Another part through Bình Dương costing VNĐ30 trillion (US$1.3 billion) will be 57 kilometers long, of which 28 kilometres will be an elevated highway. There will be 10 overpasses. The last part through Bình Phước with a length of 11.5 kilometres will cost VNĐ3 trillion (US$130 million).

The provinces are seeking State support for capital investment, including clearance costs.

The HCM – Thủ Dầu Một – Chơn Thành Highway will contribute to the national highway network and connect key cities, facilitating socio-economic development in Bình Phước and the Central Highlands provinces, according to the Bình Phước People’s Committee.

HCM City education dept proposes tuition fee subsidy for private primary schools

The HCM City Department of Education and Training has proposed a tuition fee subsidy for students at private primary schools, similar to what is offered at their public school counterparts.

Lê Hoài Nam, deputy head of the department, said the Law on Education allows local people’s councils to provide a tuition fee subsidy for private primary schools if provinces or cities do not have enough public schools.

Under the proposal, the subsidy would be more than VNĐ5million (US$216.5) per student for one academic year, the same as the one for public primary schools.

The department will continue to ask for opinions from other relevant departments before the People’s Committee considers it for approval, Nam said.

The subsidy is expected to help reduce financial pressure on families if their children cannot study at public schools.

It would also help to reduce overcrowding at public schools, which is a barrier to carrying out the new education programme effectively, Nam added.

Forty to fifty students are often in one classroom, but the Ministry of Education and Training’s requirements call for no more than 35 students in each classroom.

With the subsidy, investors will be more willing to pour money into schools, he said.

For the 2020-2021 academic year, the city has more than 25,000 primary students at private schools. Many of these schools are in districts 12, Tân Phú and Gò Vấp where public schools face pressure from student crowding.

A monthly subsidy of VNĐ70,000 would be offered to public primary students who study two shifts in one day. The subsidy is expected to be provided in the 2021-2022 academic year.

Public primary schools in the city currently collect fees of less than VND150,000 for teaching two shifts in one day.

Vietnam to ensure “safety first” with “vaccine passport” scheme

Standing members of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control have discussed the preparation of technical and policy solutions to implement the “COVID-19 vaccine passport” scheme while ensuring the principle of “safety first”.

Passport holders will not be quarantined and tested for COVID-19, but some other countries still require testing.

Vietnam is working with countries around the world on the acceptance of the passport through QR codes.

To get the “COVID-19 vaccine passport”, people will provide their personal information when receiving a vaccination, which is checked on a validation system. After two injections, the relevant information is confirmed by a QR code. When going abroad, people’s information will be verified when scanning the QR code.

The Ministry of Health and Viettel are piloting the passport scheme at COVID-19 vaccination centres, to evaluate the capacity and compatibility of these facilities.

Meanwhile, relevant technical infrastructure to receive foreign visitors with COVID-19 vaccine passport is expected to be completed and ready for use from April./.

Domestic medicines to meet 75 percent of demand by 2025

Domestic medicines are expected to meet 75 percent of demand and 60 percent of market value by 2025, according to a programme on the development of the pharmaceutical industry and medicines for domestic production till 2030 with a vision to 2045.

Recently approved by the Prime Minister, the programme set the overall goal of building the domestic pharmaceutical industry to level 4 according to the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s classification, the top 3 in terms of market value in ASEAN, contributing to ensuring the timely and sufficient supply of safe, quality and effective medicines at reasonable prices.

It also targets developing medicines into a quality and high-value industry that is competitive at home and abroad.

By 2025, the rate of using pharmaceuticals of domestic origin will increase by at least 10 percent from 2020.

At the same time, Vietnam will build eight zones for sustainable exploitation of natural medicinal sources, two to five cultivation areas on a large scale. Each of them will have one to two linkage chains of research, farming and processing following the WHO’s Guidelines on Good Agricultural and Collection Practices.

By early 2030, Vietnam sets to become a pharmaceutical production hub in the region with a total value of nearly 1 billion USD.

To such end, the programme also set out measures regarding institutions, laws, investment, competitiveness improvement, science-technology, workforce training, control of medicine and pharmaceutical market, international cooperation and integration, information and communications.

Accordingly, at least two national-level science-technology tasks using the State budget will be performed in three years while at least five ministry-level pharmaceutical development tasks will be undertaken in one year, focusing on research and production of vaccines as well as national products using domestic medicinal sources./.

Vietnamese film about climate change available to rent online

The latest film by Vietnamese famed director Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh is available to rent on vimeo.com, giving film fans a chance to indulge in the work of the renowned director.

Entitled Nuoc 2030 (2030), Minh’s film is set in a fictional setting in which the south of Vietnam is submerged in water.

The film was featured as part of the InterAsia Water(s) Graduate Conference, 2021 by Council on Southeast Asia Studies at Yale University on March 18. At this conference, the director also joined a Q&A session via Zoom with the audience.

It is not the first time Minh’s film has been featured in a seminar on climate change. In 2016, Nuoc 2030 was the opening film of European Climate Diplomacy Week. The director was also a speaker at a seminar at the event after the film was screened.

Minh is a Vietnamese-American filmmaker based in Los Angeles. He holds a PhD in physics and used to work as a lecturer before focusing on directing.

Nuoc 2030 was completed and premiered in 2013. In 2015, the film was re-introduced in HCM City during the 19th Vietnam Film Festival.

The film was also featured in the 64th Berlin International Festival in 2014.

A combination of various cinematic elements like mystery, romance and drama, Nuoc 2030 is set in the vast and beautiful coastal regions of Vietnam in the near future when water levels have risen due to global climate change.

South Vietnam is one of the regions most affected by climate change, which causes as much as half the farmland to be swallowed by water. To subsist, people have to live on houseboats and rely solely on fishing with a depleting supply.

The story follows a young woman in her journey to find the truth about the murder of her husband whom she suspects was killed by the people of a floating farm.

In the process, she discovers the secret of that floating farm that employs genetic engineering technology to cultivate vegetables that can be grown using saltwater thus can be produced much cheaper. However, this untested technology can have dangerous health consequences for consumers that the farm wants to keep secret.

The women end up finding out different versions of the truth about her husband’s death and has to make a dramatic decision without knowing the absolute truth.

This is the 65-year-old director’s third film after Mua Len Trau (Buffalo Boy) in 2004 and Khi Yeu Dung Quay Dau Lai (Don’t Turn Back When You Are In Love) in 2010.

He received many international accolades and awards for his directorial debut including the New Directors Silver Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival, the FIPRESCI Jury Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, and Youth Jury Award at the Locarno International Film Festival./.

Vietnamese-funded new National Assembly Building handed over to Laos

A ceremony was held in Vientiane on March 20 to hand over the new National Assembly Building to the Lao legislature, which is a gift from the Vietnamese Party, State and people.

The ceremony was attended by Vietnamese Minister of Construction Le Quang Hung; Vice Chairman of the Lao National Assembly Somphanh Phengkhammy; and Major General Nguyen Quoc Dung, Commander of the Army Corps 11, the general contractor of the project.

Talking to a Vietnam News Agency reporter at the ceremony, Vice Chairman of the Lao NA and head of the steering committee for the new NA Building project Somphanh Phengkhammy appreciated the efforts of the project’s management board, the investor and related units, particularly the general contractor – Army Corps 11 of Vietnam.

Even though the project has not been completed by 100 percent, the building is ready for use at the first session of the 9th legislature of Laos, which is a very important event when the legislature will not only elect key leaders of the Lao NA and Government but also adopt the ninth five-year socio-economic development plan for Laos.

Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Construction Le Quang Hung said after the first session of the Lao NA, the remaining work will be carried out for the full completion of the project by the end of June.

The Lao NA Building, constructed at a cost of over 111 million USD, will be the venue for meetings of the Lao NA and important ceremonies. It will also serve cultural tours and research trips of the people, students and tourists.

The building is a meaningful present and a symbol of the great friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between the two countries./.

Beauty pageant for peace launched in Da Nang

The beauty pageant Vietnam Peace Bella 2021 was kicked off at a press conference in the central city of Da Nang on March 20.

Speaking at the press conference, Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy, director of the Minh Khang Vietnam Co. Ltd – the organiser, said the contest aims at promoting Vietnamese women’s beauty and selecting Vietnamese representatives for international pageants.

Deputy head of the Da Nang Department of Culture and Sport Nguyen Thi Hoi An said the local authorities target to turn the city into a venue of events and tourism, noting that Da Nang has so far accepted to host five beauty contests, with the Vietnam Peace Bella 2021 being a highlight of the local summer tourism.

According to the organiser, the pre-qualification rounds will take place in late May for the northern and central regions and in early June for the southern region. The finale will take place on July 3 in Da Nang.

A total of 35 contestants will be selected for the final round, and the winner will be awarded with 100 million VND (4,352 USD), with the first and second runner-ups receiving prizes worth 80 and 60 million VND, respectively.

The organiser will donate part of proceedings to lonely elderly people, disadvantaged children and families of revolutionary contributors in Da Nang./.

Efforts to protect Delacour’s langurs in Ha Nam

Since Fauna & Flora International (FFI) discovered Delacour’s langurs in Kim Bang forest in Ha Nam province in 2016, the organisation has joined hands with local authorities to protect the endangered species.

The task force will be responsible for removing traps and tracking wildlife, particularly Delacour’s langurs. It must remain vigilant about wildlife damage and report any cases to forest rangers.

Their efforts have paid off. Indeed, from 40 Delacour’s langurs in 2016, Kim Bang forest is now home to over 100, ranking it second in the world, behind only Van Long Natural Reserve in Ninh Binh province. Ha Nam is also working on establishing a Delacour’s langur reserve in Kim Bang district.

Delacour’s langurs are rare in nature. The animal is among 25 of the most-endangered species worldwide and on the brink of extinction./.

Seller of rare turtles jailed for 10 years

A man in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for illegally raising and possessing 127 individuals of many rare and endangered turtle species, according to the Education for Nature Vietnam (ENV) .

In May 2020, police raided the house of Hoang Minh Trien, 60, at the alert of local people and found the creatures.

They included the Indochinese box turtle, the black marsh turtle and the elongated tortoise, all endangered species.

Earlier, the ENV’s hotline 1800-1522 received many calls informing that Trien’s son was using social media to illegally buy and sell turtles of many rare species.

All the turtles found at Trien’s house have been sent to the Cuc Phuong Turtle Conservation Centre./.

Hanoi tourism firms adapt after fourth wave of COVID-19

Right after the fourth wave of COVID-19 in the country was put under control at the beginning of March, travel agencies in Hanoi started offering various products at favourable prices to attract tourists.

VGreen Club (of the Hanoi Travel Agents Association) recently launched a driving tour product themed ‘Northwest – Season of Orchid Blooms’, which has attracted 1,000 people after the first trip kicked off on March 12.

VietSense Tourism Company has hosted a group of 100 people for a tour that departed on March 6, while Vietravel branches in the north have sold tours to 300 visitors since the beginning of March.

Inside Hanoi, relic sites have seen a surge of guests in the first days after opening again.

“During the Week of Ao Dai (between March 1 and 8), Thang Long Citadel Complex welcomed hundreds of visitors from all over the country,” said Nguyen Thi Yen, head of the Guide Department of the Thang Long – Hanoi Heritage Preservation Centre.

The Hanoi Tourism Department is planning promotion policies together with airlines and travel agents.

“Promotion policies will not only focus on cutting prices but more importantly focus on the quality of product, services and bring fresh experiences to tourists,” Dang Huong Giang, director of Hanoi Department of Tourism.

Phung Quang Thang, director of Hanoitourist Company, chairman of Hanoi Travel Agents Association, said the association has hosted various training classes for building tourism products with sustainable features.

The VGreen Club established by the association will work with the National Museum of Vietnamese History to host a new product – exploring the culture and history of Hanoi and other provinces.

Nguyen Van Tai, director of VietSense Company, said the company is planning more new tours in March and preparing for the peak season of April 30 – May 1 vacation and summer holidays.

“Our new tours will not only focus on key markets in the central and Central Highland regions but will also bring new experiences to tourists,” Tai said.

In April, the Hanoi Investment, Trade and Tourism Centre will run the Hanoi Tourism Promotion Festival.

The Hanoi Tourism Department will work with Hoan Kiem district, Son Tay town and My Duc district to build tourism products bearing Hanoi’s features.

The first will be ‘Hanoi – 12 Seasons of Flowers’ to draw domestic tourists first and then international visitors when international air routes resume./.

Organisations, agencies in Hanoi donate 12 billion VND to fund for sea, islands

Seventy-three organisations and agencies in Hanoi donated more than 12 billion VND (over half a million USD) to the Fund for Vietnam’s Sea and Islands on March 19.

The donations were collected at the launching ceremony for this year’s first donation drive to collect money for the Fund, held by the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) committee of Hanoi.

Vice Chairman of the VFF committee of Hanoi Nguyen Sy Truong said the warm response to the drive demonstrates that the country’s sea and islands are always in the hearts of Hanoi people.

The fundraising drive aims at raising funds to help build a multi-functional cultural house on Thuyen Chai A Island in Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago and organize a number of activities to promote the country’s sea and islands.

The drive will last until April 15./.

Hanoi needs to take action to reduce plastic waste

The use of plastic bags and products in traditional markets and shops in the capital city of Hanoi has been on the rise again.

Pham Huy, a small trader at a traditional market in Long Bien district, said plastic bags and products were selling in large quantities in local markets because they were not only cheap but also convenient.

It costs 30,000 (1.3 USD) per roll of 100 plastics bags and 20,000 VND (0.8 USD) for 50 plastic cups, he said.

Huy said the number of people shopping at the market was very large and most of them asked for plastic bags. Few people carried their own bags to the market.

“If we do not use plastic bags, we have nothing to store things for our customers,” he said.

An owner of a food shop in Quan Thanh street, Ba Dinh district, said his customers often asked for takeaway food in plastic containers.

Although he knew the impacts of plastic bags and products on the environment, he still bought them to store food for his customers, he said.

Hong Ha, a resident of Ba Dinh district, said due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, food and beverage outlets had to close and only sell online.

People often ordered using popular applications such as Grab and Now to eat and drink at home, she said.

The shops often used plastics bags and products to wrap up their wares for shippers to bring to customers, she said.

Plastic bags float on Quang Man sea in Da Nang (Photo: VNA)

The municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment has urged relevant agencies to strengthen dissemination to improve people’s awareness of the impacts of plastic waste on the environment. The agencies were told to find alternative materials to reduce the use of plastic products.

The department would conduct surveys on the use of disposable plastic products and the demand for recycled products to find alternative products to replace disposable plastic in local traditional markets and trade centres.

The department also compiled mechanisms to support enterprises to manufacture environmentally-friendly packaging.

It was strengthening inspections and encouraging enterprises to manufacture environmentally-friendly packaging and pilot training programmes to improve capacity to design environmentally-friendly products for commercial, service and manufacturing facilities in the city.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), around the world, 1 million plastic drinking bottles are purchased every minute, while 5 trillion single-use plastic bags are used worldwide annually. In total, half of all plastic produced is designed to be used only once and then thrown away./.

Concert features works by 20th-century’s lesser-known composers

A concert introducing works from composers that have not been performed much in Vietnam will take place at Goethe Institute in Hanoi on March 22.

The concert, the first of the ’20th Century Music Concert Series’, will present a repertoire featuring works by composers from Japan to Eastern and Western Europe and America, including Benjamin Britten, György Ligeti, Toru Takemitsu, Nikolai Kapustin, Friedrich Gulda, and Frederic Rzewski.

Artists and lecturers of Inspirito School of Music, including oboist Hoang Manh Lam, trumpeter Yuki Urushihara, pianists Ngo Phuong Vi, Luu Duc Anh, Duong Hong Thach, and Pho Duc Hoang, will perform in the concert.

The concert will start at 7pm. The Goethe Institute is at 56-58-60 Nguyen Thai Hoc street. Recommended donation is 100,000 VND.

Tourism forum aims to seek ways to lure visitors

The Vietnam Tourism Association (VITA) and the Hanoi Tourism Department will jointly hold a national forum on tourism in April in the capital to discuss how to draw tourists in the future.

“While waiting for the opening of doors to international tourists, the tourism sector this year will focus on the domestic market,” said VITA Vice Chairman Vu The Binh.

“The forum will gather tourism enterprises and localities throughout the nation to connect and discuss ways to develop domestic tourism,” he added.

He said some localities have used promotions to try to win customers but in early 2021, a third of domestic travel agencies no longer wanted to exploit international routes and 90 percent of tourism enterprises stopped or reduced their operation scale.

“The tourism sector has run out of power to promote tourism,” he said.

Binh explained that the forum will offer a chance for participants to connect services and create new products to lure visitors.

After the forum, the annual Vietnam International Travel Mart will be held between May 5 and 8.

According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, demand for searching information on domestic destinations has sharply increased recently, especially as Vietnam basically controlled the COVID-19 pandemic. Domestic travel activities have resumed in almost all provinces and cities nationwide.

Though demand for airline information from domestic tourists has not increased much recently according to statistics from the Destination Insights tool by Google, searches for short trips in nearby destinations rose markedly in March.

Binh noted the statistics show that tourists now prefer short trips to near places by their own vehicles and avoid public transportation due to fear of the virus./.

Hue bookcase project debut first publication

A book entiled “Dia chi Van hoa Hue” (Hue culture chorography) has recently been debuted as the first publication of the central province of Thua Thien Hue’s bookcase project on the local cultural and tourist hub – Hue city.

The book is a massive collection of works from experienced cultural researchers, presenting a basis for future selection of books to add to the bookcase, which is planned to have three new publications annually.

At the debut ceremony held on March 17, Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Phan Ngoc Tho said the formation of the bookcase aims to introduce Hue through books, promote reading culture, introduce valuable publications, create a special gift set of the city, and build a scientific data serving studies on the province.

It will contribute to turning Thua Thien – Hue into a centrally run city of culture and heritage following the Politburo’s Resolution 54-NQ/TW, he stated.

An app of the bookcase is being developed to help its contents reach readers in Vietnam and overseas./.

Advisory board suggests reopening borders to foreign tourists from July

Vietnam could reopen to foreign tourists from this July, a Tourism Advisory Board (TAB) representative suggested, noting that the COVID-19 outbreak has been basically brought under control and vaccination campaigns are underway in the country and many others around the world.

Head of the TAB Secretariat Hoang Nhan Chinh said China, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and ASEAN countries are sources of tourists near Vietnam, and their people go travelling all year round.

The peak travelling season in Japan is March and August, so the pilot reopening could be conducted in July to attract visitors from this market.

Meanwhile, Vietnam could start welcoming back tourists from certain faraway markets like Australia, Russia, and Europe from around October, according to Chinh.

He held that if vaccination is carried out well in Vietnam, especially for the frontline forces, it will provide a good opportunity to attract holidaymakers. Besides, only when international travellers have vaccination certificates should Vietnam open the door to them.

Chinh also stressed that the reopening of borders to foreign tourists needs thorough preparations right from now, and that Vietnam shouldn’t receive international travellers back if it hasn’t been fully geared up.

The country needs to prepare response plans for many different scenarios and build a safe reopening road map, he said, adding that the TAB has sent a letter submitting related proposals to the Prime Minister.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, tourism had contributed more than 10 percent of Vietnam’s GDP and generated over 30 billion USD in annual revenue./.

Khmer woman prospers thanks to pomelo business

A Khmer woman in the Mekong Delta province of Kiên Giang has started a successful pomelo-growing business.

Thanks to a loan from the Government’s project to support women to start businesses, Danh Thị Kim Ảnh in Phước Ninh Hamlet, Mong Thọ B Commune of Châu Thành District invested in growing green-skin and pink-flesh pomelos and earns hundreds of millions đồng profit every year.

“Previously, my family was so poor. We just lived on planting rice that brought low and unstable income,” Ảnh said.

“Although we had a 4,000sq.m garden, we left it abandoned because we did not have money to buy seedlings,” she added.

After many years of saving, Ảnh bought 20 green-skin and pink-flesh pomelo trees from the neighbouring province of Đồng Tháp to plant.

The results showed that this grapefruit variety suited the climate and soil of the region.

However, she lacked the capital to grow on a larger scale.

In a meeting of the Women’s Union of Mong Thọ B Commune in 2017, she proposed her start-up idea and was provided with a loan of VNĐ50 million (US$2,100) from the Policy Bank under the project to support women to start businesses in 2017-2025.

With the money, Ảnh renovated a 1,000sq.m area of the garden and planted 100 more grapefruit trees.

She was also provided training courses on cultivation and was instructed by agricultural engineers on growing, caring and fertilising techniques to ensure product safety.

By 2020, her pomelo garden was ready to harvest. Ảnh harvested nearly four tonnes of fruits and earned VNĐ180-200 million (US$7,000 – 8,600) of turnover, of which the profit was VNĐ100 million ($4,300).

After gaining the profit, Ảnh planted 200 more trees to cover the 4,000sq.m garden.

“Recently, Châu Thành District’s Women’s Union approved a loan worth VNĐ100 million from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies for me to invest in renovating the irrigation system which helped the pomelo grow better,” she said.

It is expected that in the next two years, when 4,000sq.m of the pomelo garden brings a steady harvest, Ảnh’s family will earn VNĐ300-400 million ($13,000-17,000) per year.

Ảnh’s pomelos have received good reviews from clients because they are so juicy and sweet.

Ảnh used the loans effectively to develop her business, said Huỳnh Thị Ngọc Vàng, deputy president of Mong Thọ B Commune’s Women’s Union.

“She had a clear start-up orientation and was always industrious and diligent,” Vàng said.

“Importantly, she complied with cultivation techniques and processes so she achieved high economic efficiency,” she said.

“Ảnh’s successful model motivated local people to learn and follow. At present, many households have applied Ảnh’s model and earn stable incomes and this has helped them escape from poverty,” she said.

Speaking about her initial success, Ảnh said: “To achieve success in starting my own business, I had to work hard, with burning passion and spirit to overcome difficulties.”

“In my experience, women needed to know what they are passionate about to have a suitable entrepreneurial direction,” the Khmer woman said.

“Once pursued, it is necessary to work hard, persevere and constantly learn from other people,” she said.

Tien Giang expands crop-rotation cultivation, improves productivity

The Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Tiền Giang plans to expand rotation cultivation models for rice and other crops in its eastern area in an aim to improve productivity and cope with natural disasters, its Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has said.

The eastern area, which includes Gò Công Đông and Gò Công Tây districts and Gò Công Town, accounts for 28 per cent of the province’s total area and has advantages in fruit orchards and marine economy, but faces saltwater intrusion and drought in the dry season.

Nguyễn Văn Mẫn, director of the department, said the province plans to focus on growing more vegetables and other short-term crops to 2025 in the eastern area. Only two rice crops a year will be grown, while rice and other crops on rice fields will be rotated.

Under the plan, the province will transfer advanced farming techniques and encourage farmers to use Vietnamese good agricultural practices (VietGAP).

Co-operative groups as well as co-operatives will be expected to continue to work with companies to secure outlets for their members.

Gò Công Đông District, one of the major producers of rice and agricultural products in Tiền Giang, has 10 agricultural co-operatives that have contracts with companies.

This has helped secure outlets and provide stable incomes for their members.

Nguyễn Văn Nhẫn, director of the Tăng Hoà Agriculture Service Co-operative in Gò Công Đông District’s Tăng Hoà Commune, said the co-operative for many years has had contracts with companies to produce rice seeds and high – quality rice.

The co-operative produces high-quality rice on 50ha with an output of 250 tonnes a crop, he said. Companies purchase its rice at a price of VNĐ300 a kilogramme higher than the market price, he said.

The Tân Đông Clean Vegetable Co-operative in Gò Công Đông District’s Tân Đông Commune is growing clean vegetables on a total of 30ha with a daily output of 2.5-3 tonnes, using advanced farming techniques.

Trần Văn Bương, chairman of Tân Đông Co-operative, said the co-operative will encourage members to apply more advanced techniques to produce clean vegetables under VietGAP standards.

The co-operative will also encourage its members to expand the use of hydroponic farming, net houses and poly-green houses to grow vegetables.

Nguyễn Văn Qúi, head of the Gò Công Đông Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the district has two concentrated clean vegetable growing areas in Bình Nghị, Tân Đông and Tân Tây communes.

The two areas are guaranteed outlets by three agricultural co-operatives – the Bình Nghị Clean Vegetable Co-operative, the Tân Đông Clean Vegetable Co-operative and the Tân Tây Agriculture Service Co-operative, he said.

The three co-operatives have contracted with farmers to buy vegetables and later sell them to supermarkets and wholesale markets in and outside the province.

“Farmers in the concentrated clean vegetable growing areas now feel more secure about their products,” he said.

All communes in Gò Công Đông have agreements between companies, cooperatives and farmers to secure outlets for rice, vegetables and fruits for co-operative members.

To mitigate the impact of saltwater intrusion in the dry season this year, farmers in the eastern area have switched to growing vegetables or short-term crops on 2,700ha of rice fields that have problems accessing irrigation water.

In the ongoing 2020-21 winter-spring crop, farmers in the eastern area have planted more than 11,500ha of various types of vegetables and other short-term crops, which offer higher profit than high-quality rice, according to the department.

Farmers who grow leaf vegetables can earn a profit 2.6 times higher than that from high-quality rice.

Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park tops hospitable destination list

Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in the central province of Quang Binh leads the way in terms of the most hospitable destinations nationwide, according to the annual Traveler Review Awards recently announced by travel website Booking.com.

Coming in behind Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park is Hoi An city in Quang Nam province, followed by Ninh Binh province, Sa Pa town in Lao Cai province, and Mai Chau district in Son La province.

The Traveler Review Awards is part of renowned travel website Booking.com and is held with the aim of recognising the hospitality of each location and is based on the ratings given by travelers following their vacation.

This comes as Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park was ranked 15th position in a list of the most popular national parks as voted on by TripAdvisor last year./.

First refill station in Hội An strives to reduce plastic waste

To stop people throwing away empty glass or liquid bottles, a shop in central Viet Nam is offering refills to help protect the environment and give containers a new cycle of life.

Refillables Hoi An is located in Cẩm Thanh Commune, Hội An City and sells eco-friendly products without packaging by refilling containers.

Hội An City in the central region of Việt Nam’s Quang Nam Province, home to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hội An Ancient Town, is aiming to become a green destination for tourists by 2025 and to reduce the single-use plastic waste. Refill stations established by local businesses are contributing to that goal.

The concept of refill stations has become familiar in big cities like Hà Nội and HCM City in recent years but in the central region, Refillables Hoi An is the first of its kind.

Two years ago when Alison Batchelor, an expat in Hội An, opened the shop, the first products she introduced were chemical-free dish soap, hand soap and floor cleaners made from natural ingredients.

The soap containers lead to a lot of plastic waste as customers have to buy them over and over again, so Batchelor thought she could cut down on that waste.

She partnered with a company in Đà Nẵng which makes those soaps from fermented organic waste and stocked them in her shop.

Over the past two years, Refillables Hoi An has welcomed customers including local residents, both Vietnamese and expats, service providers and even schools to refill dish soap, floor cleaners and hand soap. More than 13,000 containers have been refilled so far.

Many hotels, restaurants and coffee shops such as Nourish Eatery, Urban Fresh, Market Bar and Mùa have borrowed containers from Refillables Hoi An, had them refilled with soap and returned them to Refillables Hoi An when the liquid runs out. Most of them continue to refill over and over again.

Lê Thị Ánh Dương, a waitress at the Nourish Eatery in Cẩm Thanh Commune, said: “Our coffee shop refills containers once every one and a half months because we order quite a lot each time. We often have dish soap, liquid detergent and vinegar refilled. We refill 10 litres of dishwashing liquid each time.”

“We chose Refillables Hoi An because of their good quality products. The dish soap made from natural ingredients does not harm our hands. Dishes cleaned with the soap are very clean.

“After using all detergent liquid in the refilled bottles, we return the bottles to the refill station and avoid throwing them to the environment. It’s pretty economically efficient and helps reduce costs for our shop.”

While a lot of companies, shops, coffee shops and restaurants in Hội An had to be closed during the height of the COVID-19 outbreak in the region, Refillables Hoi An maintained its operation as a sustainable business, encouraging people to recycle under the motto of “refilled not landfill”.

“It’s been really amazing as more people are finding the time to come here and bring their containers and recognise that they are not more expensive, in a lot of cases, are cheaper than what we’ve been paying.

“They can come, refill, help the environment and find products better for their health,” said Batchelor.

“Obviously at some point, those containers will get to the landfill whether they are broken or just at some point along the way, someone throws it away. But by refilling it, even one time, that’s saving one more container from going into the landfill,” she told Việt Nam News.

“The container that’s brought in to be refilled can be anything from a small-sized bottle of essential oil. It can also be up to a 30-litre container,” Batchelor said.

“We do prefer glass containers because glass containers tend to have a longer lifespan. But we do also encourage people to continue using plastic containers they have because they are still quality containers. By sending it prematurely or sending it before it’s broken, we are just adding more and more plastic unnecessarily to the landfill that is already overflowing. So just keep using it until it breaks.”

Return to the earth

Holding a handful of soapberry in her hand, Alison said the berry came from the lychee family and could be used as detergent.

“You can put them into a bowl of water and start seeing bubbles. Take 12 of them and put them in a mesh bag and then into a washing machine, they can clean your machine as detergent.

“Take 15 of them in five cups of water and boil in 45 minutes, you can get concentrate liquid used as detergent, simple surface spray or floor cleaner. With five cups of liquid, you can have 4-4.5 cups of concentrate, which costs about VNĐ15,000, simple and cheap,” she said.

“Squeeze it, if you still can see the bubbles coming out, it still has life. If not, put it into the garden, compost it, and make it return to the earth. Then you don’t cost any plastic waste or chemical waste to the community.”

“We are targeting the middle to lower financial demographic of the community, which means everybody can afford to come to refill.”

“If somebody can come in, I’m not saying a sachet costs from VNĐ3,000 to 5,000. They can come here with their container and they can use that VNĐ3,000-5,000 and they can get more product than they would in that sachet. So we can start helping the community by managing their money, better in getting more for their money,” she said.

Besides home and personal care products, Refillables Hoi An also refills dried food and seasoning like pepper, Himalayan pink salt, nuts, rice, organic cinnamon, ginger, turmeric powder as well as ingredients for eating clean like chia seeds, oats, quinoa.

During the pandemic, people have more time to explore do-it-yourself (DIY) products for their skin or hair. Many customers have come to refill baking soda, coconut oil and essential oil for their DIY products.

“It can be far more cost-effective than buying something at the shop,” Batchelor said.

As Batchelor’s store is the first refill station in Hội An and there are few others in the central region, she said she wanted to promote community outreach and work with the community and Women’s Union to try to create different products with them and distribute eco-friendly products to smaller refillable stations in the town and expand the refilling model in the region.

“As we’ve seen more refill stations opening up across Việt Nam, I think it can really have an incredible impact. We definitely feel refilling is one aspect that we can provide to the community and it’s only one aspect of the solution for Hội An to become a zero-waste city,” she said.

Vietnamese translators honoured for boosting cultural ties with Kazakhstan

Kazakhstani Ambassador to Vietnam Yerlan Baizhanov has awarded Certificates of Merit from the Ministry of Culture and Sports of Kazakhstan to Vietnamese writers and translators in honour of their contributions to cultural co-operation between the nations.

According to information released by the Kazakh Embassy, translators Toan, Nghiep, and Man have contributed to increasing and developing cultural links between both sides through their involvement in a project aimed at translating the literary work “The Book of Words” of Abai Kunanbayev. This individual is renowned for being a philosopher, poet, civilizer, composer, and the founder of the new culture of the Kazakh nation.

Furthermore, Toan is a famous translator who has translated many literary works from Russian into Vietnamese. At present he is the director of the Fund for the Promotion of Vietnamese Literature and Russian Literature under the Vietnam Writers Association.

Teacher Khoi has also made contributions to the development of links between the two countries, as well as promoting the legacy of Kazakhstan’s sage-scholar Al-Farabi.

As an outstanding teacher, Khoi was formerly Dean of the Russian Language Department of Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies.

The awards ceremony took place on the premises of the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Hanoi to mark the the occasion of Kazakhstan’s traditional New Year Nauryz Meiramy. The event featured the participation of President of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations (VUFO) Nguyen Phuong Nga, Russian Ambassador to Vietnam Konstantin Vnukov, and Armenian Ambassador to Vietnam Vahram Kazhoyan.

Kazakhstani Ambassador Baizhanov also gave a presentation to introduce traditional Kazakh instruments, various folk music genres of the Central Asian nation, and some folk and modern songs that are native of Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan and Vietnam moved to officially establish diplomatic relations in 1992, with the Vietnamese side opening an embassy in the capital Astana, now renamed Nur-Sultan, in 2008. Following this, Kazakhstan opened an embassy in Hanoi in 2013.

In terms of foreign policy, Ambassador Baizhanov stated that both nations share many similarities, such as having good relations with global powers as well as with their neighbours.

Wanted Korean suspect arrested in Hanoi

Police forces operating in Hanoi have arrested a Korean man who is wanted by Interpol for committing telecom fraud.

The 32-year-old suspect has been as named Kim Changhook and is a member of a group running a telecommunication scam in China.

The group were making random calls to Korean victims during which they pretended to be staff members of KB Bank and offered loans with low interest rates. Their aim was to entice the victims into transferring money to their bank accounts.

The nation had been asked to co-operate with Interpol’s investigation in an effort to find the suspect as police forces had noticed that he had gone on the run to foreign countries after being charged.

The Korean suspect was successfully arrested after being detected hiding at his half-brothers’ aprartment in My Dinh ward of Hanoi.

Police in the capital then handed over the Korean suspect to Korean authorities at Noi Bai International Airport on March 18.

Three people arrested for plans to sell baby in China

Police forces in Quang Ninh province have announced the arrest of three individuals after they attempted to smuggle a newborn baby into China for the purpose of selling the child for profit.

Three suspects are arrested by Quang Ninh police for plans to sell baby in China

The arrests of the trio came following co-operation between border guards in Quang Ninh province and the Police Department for the Investigation of Drug-Related Crimes.

The three individuals include Vu Ngoc Anh, born in 1963, and Nguyen Thi Thuong, born in 2002, both of whom reside at No.88 Yen Phu street in Yen Phu ward of Ba Dinh district in Hanoi. In addition, Hoang Van Thanh, born in 1992, of Quan Son in Chi Lang district of Lang Son province was also arrested.

This discovery came following border forces spotting three suspicious people carrying a newborn baby across the border into China.

Furthermore, a total of 50 grams of white power and 70 pink pills which were believed to contain heroin and drugs were also found stashed inside Thanh’s luggage.

Upon being questioned at the police station, the suspects admitted to purchasing the baby for VND15 million from a 19 year-old woman residing in Dong Minh commune of Tien Hai district in Thai Binh province.

At present, the police will continue to investigate the case.

Source: VNA/VNS/VOV/VIR/SGT/Nhan Dan/Hanoitimes

Ho Chi Minh City is striving to earn 70 billion USD in export turnover by 2025 and 108 billion USD by 2030, and maintain an average annual export growth of 9 percent during 2026-2030.

The municipal People’s Committee sets the targets at its recently-approved plan on developing export by 2025, with a vision to 2030.

To that end, from now to 2025, the city will maintain and support the development of its key products, while making preparations to upgrade industry and participate more deeply in global value chains, and focusing on developing electronics, mechanics, and wood products, which it considers a foundation for its export growth in the time ahead.

In addition, the city will upgrade infrastructure serving export, and at the same time reform and increase the quality of public services directly related to import-export activities with the aim of providing the best possible services.

By 2030, the city will build strategies to improve competitiveness of its outstanding export products such as electronics, mechanics, optics, software, and service exports such as finance, tourism and logistics.

It will also attract more investment in finance, banking and logistics, and form logistics service centres, and step up human resources development.

Last year, the largest economic hub of Vietnam earned over 40 billion USD from exports./.

Analysts see profit-taking as VN-Index hovers around 1,200 points

The market experienced a thrilling week as the VN-Index successfully peaked the historic high of 1,200 points after volatile sessions.

However, the index fell under the level in the next session, which was also the last trading day of the week, on selling pressure. The move makes analysts not so optimistic about the coming week.

The market benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) ended last week at 1,194.05 points after hitting 1,200.94 points last Thursday.

For the week, the index rose 1.06 per cent.

Analysts from SSI Securities Corporation (SSI) said that despite the fall of the VN-Index in the last session, trading volume showed weaker-than-expected selling pressure meaning the index could get back to the resistance level of 1,200 points in the next sessions.

Viet Dragon Securities Corporation (VDS) also shared the opinion.

“The loss of the last session is just a small correction and the upward trend is still there. Many stocks are thriving, as well as on track to reach higher targets. Investors can focus on sectors with positive signs to invest more effectively,” the securities firm recommended.

According to MB Securities Co., the drop was partly due to portfolios restructuring of two ETFs, including FTSE ETF and V.N.M ETF.

And the break over 1,200 point-level also created profit booking activities. Some investors might take long positions under technical signs, while others might take profits.

However, volatile amplitude in correction sessions was narrow and the market’s liquidity stayed high which was a positive sign. It is possible that the market might fluctuate in the next sessions, and if the bottom purchase demand is still high, the chance for recovery is coming soon, according to MB Securities.

Meanwhile, some took a more cautious view. BOS Securities Corporation (ART) said that the market couldn’t make a breakthrough in short-term with weaker cash flows. Technical indicators showed signs of fluctuation chances in the market.

“There is possibility that the VN-Index hovers around 1,200 point-level in the next sessions. Therefore, investors put priority in watching the market and consider to reduce shares proportion if the cash flows are weaker when the market gains points,” BOS Securities added.

Last week, the HNX-Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX) closed Friday’s trade at 277.7 points. For the week, the index climbed 1.38 per cent.

The liquidity on both exchanges slightly increased against the week before and was higher than the twenty-week average with a trading value of VND18.3 trillion per session.

Analysts from Saigon – Hanoi Securities JSC said that the gain in the liquidity was thanked to the portfolio restructuring activities, so the market’s current rally was not stable.

Information technology stocks posted the biggest gain in market capitalisation with an increase of 4 per cent. Of which stocks with outstanding performance were FPT Corporation (FPT), up 4.3 per cent, and CMC Corporation (CMG), up 7.1 per cent.

This was followed by the banking sector with a rise of 2.5 per cent in market capitalisation. Bank stocks posting big gains were VPBank (VPB), up 1.6 per cent, Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), up 2.6 per cent, MBBank (MBB), up 3.4 per cent and Vietinbank (CTG), up 6.6 per cent.

Other sectors like consumer services and industry also recorded good performance, up more than 1 per cent.

Finance, materials, oil and gas, pharmaceutical and health care, and consumer goods sectors increased 0.3 – 0.6 per cent last week.

E-commerce – lifebuoy helping businesses overcome market fluctuations: workshop

E-commerce has created a new tendency for production, business and export activities, and been serving as a lifebuoy for many enterprises to overcome difficulties of market fluctuations, heard a workshop on Vietnam’s e-commerce trends on March 20.

The workshop was organised by the Junior Chamber International Vietnam (JCI Vietnam) in Ho Chi Minh City.

National President of JCI Vietnam Vo Quan Duy said that the workshop was the first event in the organisation’s Business Matching Programme 2021 (BMP21) established to create a multi-dimensional support platform for JCI Vietnam’s member businesses and to facilitate international trading.

According to statistics in January 2021, Vietnam’s e-commerce revenue grew 18 percent in 2020, hitting 11.8 billion USD and accounting for 5.5 percent of total retail sales of consumer goods and services nationwide.

Nguyen Thu Trang, Business Development Director at Atalink Technonoly JSC, stated that business-to-business e-commerce is a future trend and the e-commerce platform is assessed as highly effective by enterprises.

In fact, Trang went on, the number of businesses making orders via the e-commerce trading floor increases by 6 percent compared with traditional ones such as email or website.

Sharing the view, Nguyen Manh Tan, Marketing Director of Haravan Technology JSC, said that there is currently a trend of shifting traditional retail to multi-channel retail (both offline and online) and omni-channel retail.

Omni-channel retail is a multichannel approach to sales that focus on providing seamless customer experience whether the client is shopping online from a mobile device, a laptop or in a brick-and-mortar store./.

PM attends inaugural ceremony of Phuoc Dong Industrial Park and Port

Phuoc Dong Industrial Park and Port, an industrial zone located in the Southern Key Economic Region, was inaugurated in the Mekong Delta province of Long An on March 21 in the presence of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

Speaking highly of the inauguration of the industrial park and port, which is expected to serve as a magnet to lure secondary investors, Prime Minister Phuc hailed Long An province’s efforts to develop industrial parks to create impetus for local socio-economic development in the past time, with gross regional domestic product (GRDP) registering an average annual growth of 9.16 percent during 2016-2020.

He laid a stress on the important role of businesses in the national economic development and job generation, asking the local authorities to continue support for the investors, help them remove bottlenecks in their business in the province, and work to further improve the investment climate with more effective measures in place.

He also ordered the province to promote its potential, and sharpen focus on branching out key industries, high-tech industry, supporting industry and logistics so as to improve local livelihoods.

It is necessary to upgrade transport infrastructure, enhance regional linkages with Ho Chi Minh City and other southern localities, he said, adding local socio-economic development must go with environmental protection.

PM Phuc particularly emphasise the need to pen a long-term development plan which enables Long An to make significant contributions.

Phuoc Dong Industrial Park and Port, 39 kilometres to Tan Son Nhat Airport, 19 kilometres to Long An International Port, and 42 kilometres to Cat Lai port, spans 128.8 hectares, including 92.39 hectares of industrial land, ready-built factories and warehouses. It is invested by IMG Investment JSC. The port system will be developed to welcome cargo ships with a capacity of 20,000 DWT in the coming time.

In the morning of March 21, PM Phuc hosted Consul Generals of the US, the Republic of Korea and India in Ho Chi Minh City, and leaders of multinationals GS Energy and Alibaba who are making investments in Long An province.

At the event, PM Phuc hailed the US, RoK and Indian diplomatic organisations’ interests in promoting foreign investment in Vietnam, particularly in the context that the global economy is facing formidable challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

He affirmed that the Vietnamese Government will persistently follow its dual goals of containing the pandemic and boosting economic development, and spare no efforts to better investment and business environment, creating favourable conditions for foreign firms to land investment in the country.

The diplomatic representatives said as more US, RoK and Indian firms have been keen on investing in Vietnam, they will come to the nation to seek cooperation opportunities right after international commercial fights are resumed. They thanked the Vietnamese Government and competent authorities for facilitating conditions for them to proceed investment in Long An province, and expressed their wish to engage further in production and investment activities in Vietnam./.

Quang Nam keen to whip tourism into shape

COVID-19 has been largely brought under control around Vietnam thanks to appropriate containment measures being adopted by the Government nationwide, and the Prime Minister has ordered the quick implementation of a vaccination programme to halt the pandemic and create the conditions necessary for socio-economic development.

After undergoing a long period of closure and stagnation, however, the financial resources of tourism industry players have run low and now, more than ever, they need assistance to recover and become a spearhead economic sector once more. Most tourism enterprises, travel agencies, and tourism service providers in central Quang Nam province agree with such sentiments.

“To improve and introduce travel products and services and stimulate tourism, we first need to focus on the domestic market,” said President of the Quang Nam Tourism Association Phan Xuan Thanh.

Quang Nam has established tourism as a spearhead economic sector, with the goal of attracting over 12 million visitors, with half coming from overseas. Tourism currently makes up over 5 percent of gross regional domestic product  and has created 30,000 jobs. By 2030, Quang Nam’s tourism sector will hopefully be the region’s spearhead economic sector, making up 7-8 percent of the GRDP and creating over 50,000 jobs.

The Quang Nam Department of Commerce and Tourism was established in 1997, paving the way for the tourism sector’s strong development in the province.

But it only really “boomed” after Hoi An ancient town and My Son Sanctuary were recognised as world cultural heritage sites by UNESCO in 1999.

Tourist numbers then increased dramatically, at an annual average of 20-25 percent, and attractive tourism models associated with islands, mountainous areas, community tourism, cultural tourism, other heritages, agricultural tourism, and craft villages also began to take shape.

Events such as “Old Quarter Night”, “Streets without engine noise”, “A day as a farmer”, and “Mỹ Sơn by night” also contributed to building Quang Nam’s tourism brand.

Besides the ever-popular Hoi An, Quang Nam also boasts lesser-known destinations well worth a visit./.

Nearly 3 million phishing attempts aimed at small businesses in region last year: Kaspersky

Cybercriminals actively attacked small and medium businesses in Southeast Asia last year, with the top topics they exploited being COVID-19, non-existent video conferences and new corporate services, according to global cybersecurity company Kaspersky.

It said its anti-phishing technology blocked a total of 2.89 million attempts aimed at SMBs, a 20 per cent increase from 2019.

Phishing is a form of cybercrime based on social engineering techniques that involves stealing confidential data from a person’s computer and subsequently using the data for other purposes ranging from stealing money to selling it.

Phishing messages usually take the form of fake notifications from banks, providers, e-pay systems, and other organisations, but can also be an almost 100 per cent perfect replica of a trusted website to which a victim is lured through phishing messages.

Indonesia registered the most incidents followed by Thailand and Việt Nam with over half a million attempts each. Malaysian, Filipino, and Singaporean SMBs were not spared, with these nations suffering a combined 795,000 attempts.

Yeo Siang Tiong, general manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky, said: “While they serve as the bedrock of our regional economy, SMBs are low-hanging fruits for cybercriminals. These malicious actors are aware that owners are focused on keeping their cash flow more than their cybersecurity, at least for now.

“Social engineering attacks such as phishing is also the easiest way in. Combining our current stressed minds with the right buzzwords like COVID-19, and now the vaccines, we expect to see this threat being used more to steal money and data from this already battered segment.”

Globally, online phishers exploited the COVID-19 theme, invited victims to non-existent video conferences and insisted that their targets register for “new corporate services.”

Given that the fight against the pandemic is not over yet, Kaspersky expects the main trends of 2020 to stay relevant in the near future.

An important trend that businesses in SEA, a region famous for being highly active on social media, should note is that phishing links and mails are being shared via online networking platforms, the company said.

Kaspersky experts observed that scammers who were spreading their chain mail via social networks and instant messaging applications began to favour the latter in 2020.

Message recipients were promised a discount or prize if they opened a link sent to them.

“It is true that governments and financial organisations are combining efforts to offer lifeboats for SMBs via grants and offers, but we have to accept that cybercriminals will spare no one,” Yeo said.

“Amidst the uncertainties, one thing I can say for sure is that building your IT security is always less costly than suffering a cyberattack.”

Criteria for identifying high-tech enterprises set from April

The prime minister issued Decision No.10/2021/QD-TTg providing criteria for identifying high-tech enterprises, effective from April 30.

Accordingly, revenue from high-tech products of these high-tech enterprises must be at least 70 per cent of the total annual net revenue of the enterprise.

These enterprises will have to reach a certain ratio of total expenditure on research and development (R&D) of the enterprise (including depreciation of investment in infrastructure, fixed assets, annual recurrent expenditures on research and development; expenses for training, training support for workers who conduct research and development, science and technology organizations, training institutions in Vietnam; fees of royalty, conveyance, the right to use industrial property objects in service of research and development activities; registration fees for recognition or protection of inventions, and utility solutions in Vietnam) per value of total net revenue minus input value (including the value of raw materials, components for import production and domestic purchase) annually.

For enterprises with a total capital of VND6 trillion($260.87 million) and a total of 3,000 employees or more, this ratio must be at least 0.5 per cent. Enterprises having a total capital of VND100 billion ($4.35 million) and a total of 200 employees or more must reach at least 1 per cent. Enterprises not falling into these two categories must reach at least 2 per cent.

In addition, high-tech enterprises also have to hit a ratio of employees who graduated from college or another higher education institution, vis-a-vis the total number of employees. These employees have to directly conduct R&D activities and have signed labour contracts for a term of one year or more, or contracts with indefinite terms. Workers with college degrees cannot exceed 30 per cent of the total workforce at high-tech enterprises.

For enterprises with a total capital of VND6 trillion and 3,000 employees or more, this must be at least 1 per cent. Enterprises having a total capital of VND100 billion and a total of 200 employees or more, must reach at least 2.5 per cent. Enterprises not falling into these two cases must reach at least 5 per cent.

FDI firms enjoy US$5.5 billion in trade surplus in two months

Foreign direct investment (FDI) firms’ import-export value reached US$68.52 billion in the first two months of 2021, a surge of 31.5 per cent from the same period last year, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs

Among sub-sectors, the machinery, tools and parts posted the largest export growth with 77 per cent, increasing $2.44 billion. It was followed by phones and spare parts ($2.2 billion, or 29 per cent), and electronics and parts ($1.85 billion, or 34 per cent).

As of February 20, $5.46 billion worth of FDI was injected into Vietnam, equivalent to 84.4 per cent of the figure recorded in the same time last year, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

As many as 126 foreign projects were granted investment licences with total registered capital reaching $3.31 billion, a year-on-year decline of 33.9 per cent.

Meanwhile, 115 existing projects adjusted their investment capital with a total additional sum of $1.61 billion, or 2.5 times higher than the same time last year.

Capital contributions and share purchases by foreign investors stood at $543.1 million, down 34.4 per cent.

Foreign investors pumped capital in 17 sectors, with processing and manufacturing holding the lead with more than $3 billion or 55.7 per cent, followed by power production and distribution with $1.44 billion (26.5 per cent), real estate $485 million, and science-technology nearly $153 million.

Companies with exceptional business make good earnings

The number of unorthodox companies is increasing rapidly on the Vietnamese stock market, generating steady revenue and profit every year.

HaiPhong Funeral Services JSC (CPH), the only funeral service provider on the stock market so far, posts impressive business results with revenues of hundreds of billion Vietnamese đồng per year, earning some VNĐ300 million (US$13,000) of revenue per day.

CPH trades pots, caskets, stone tombs and other funeral products, as well as providing funeral, burial, cremation services.

In the company’s gross profit structure, the sale segment accounts for about 80 per cent of the total gross profit. After-tax profit has been flat for many years with about VNĐ9 billion. Earning per share (EPS) is over VNĐ2,060 in 2020.

The company has paid dividend at a rate of 16 per cent to shareholders over the past four years. And due to maintaining a low transaction price of VNĐ3,500 per share at present, the price-to-earnings (P/E) is at the desired level at 1.7 times.

Another company which also serves in the spiritual realm is Yên Bái Joint Stock Forest Agricultural Products And Foodstuff Company (CAP). Few people know that this company produces and sell votive paper.

Votive paper segment accounts for 50 per cent of CAP’s total revenue, bringing about VNĐ200 billion in 2020. The rest of revenue comes from tapioca and cinnamon oil.

On the stock market, CAP shares have been rising continuously. Currently, CAP is trading at around VNĐ62,100 per share, doubling that of the beginning of 2020.

Thai-invested Siam Brother Vietnam (SBV), established in July 1995, manufactures ropes and fishing equipment. After nearly 30 years of operation, SBV is now the leading producer and supplier of fishing ropes in Việt Nam.

Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, revenue in 2020 grew approximately nine per cent compared to the previous year, to reach VNĐ5 trillion, post-tax profit increases by 19 per cent to VNĐ68 billion. EPS reached VNĐ2,485.

Charter capital of Siam Brothers Vietnam is approximately VNĐ273 billion at present, market price is around VNĐ13,000 per share. Market liquidity is quite stable with tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of shares matched each session.

Thống Nhất Match Joint Stock Company (DTN), a match manufacturer, decided to leave the stock market last year after six years of trading. It sees revenue reaching over a hundred of billion đồng in recent years, particularly VNĐ133 billion in 2019. However, the annual profit touched only around VNĐ2-4 billion. It was even less than VNĐ1 billion in 2019.

During its listing, DTN shares were seeing almost no liquidity. Very few transactions were made, mostly internal transactions.

Before it left the trading floor in August 2020, there were some transactions with thousand of DTN shares matched. The stock price of DTN suddenly soared to VNĐ74,000 per share after these transactions. DTN closed the last session of trading on the stock exchange at the price of VNĐ62,900 per share.

Merufa Joint Stock Company (MRF), the only condom manufacturing company on the stock market, has been listed since December 2017.

Merufa, formerly known as the Medical Rubber Enterprise under the Ministry of Health, was built in co-operation between the Government of Việt Nam and the United Nations Population Fund in 1987. Since then, Merufa has been providing the market with contraceptive products made from natural rubber in Việt Nam with the brand HAPPY.

Not only condoms, Merufa is also a pioneer in researching and producing other important medical products such as surgical gloves, transfusion bottles made from synthetic rubber.

Merufa’s condom business has faced many difficulties recently as it has to compete with famous foreign brands.

In 2020, in the face of widespread COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for gloves in the market increased sharply, the company decided to invest in a second glove factory with a total investment of VNĐ230 billion.

In 2019, Merufa recorded nearly VNĐ108 billion in revenue, up 10.2 per cent from the previous year. The post-tax profit rose by 165 per cent to nearly VNĐ6.7 billion. EPS was VNĐ1,818.

Nam Hoa Toys (NHT) specialises in producing wooden toys for children, the only of its kind on the market at present. The company put its shares on the Upcom since December 2017.

NHT has also considered moving to list on the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), but the procedure has not yet completed.

Business results, revenue in 2020 suddenly quadrupled from 2019, reaching VNĐ887 billion and after tax profit increased 78 per cent, to over VNĐ78 billion, mainly thanks to the consolidated business results of its subsidiaries.

Youth union helps young start-up businesses overcome difficulties

The COVID-19 pandemic has badly affected production and business activities, especially start-up businesses set up by young people.

To help young entrepreneurs overcome difficulties and stand firm during the pandemic, the Youth Union of Bắc Ninh Province has introduced several support solutions.

After graduating from university, Vũ Quang Đạo, 29, from Ngô Thôn Village, Xuân Lai Commune of Gia Bình District returned home and continued to volunteer in the military.

Leaving the army, and realising the potential of farming, Đạo decided to start up his own business. Local people were still farming in traditional ways, which were not very efficient.

With his family’s land stretching 7,000sq.m, Đạo used half of the area to dig a pond for fish and the rest was for growing fruit and raising livestock.

After receiving a VNĐ400 million (US$17,200) loan from Bắc Ninh Province’s Youth Start-up Fund, Đạo built barns for the animals and bought 70 bamboo rats and 1,000 rabbits.

To feed the animals, Đạo planted sugarcane, vegetables and raised worms.

After three months, his bamboo rats had started reproducing and the rabbits were ready for sale.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic meant he was unable to sell the animals.

About a third of his rabbits have reached their maximum weight and need to be sold, but he is unable to find customers.

Đạo had to spend more than VNĐ500,000 (US$27) per day to feed them, and the animals were at risk of contracting diseases.

“When I was trying to make the business survive, I heard about a ‘rescue plan provided by the Youth Union organisations,” Đạo said.

Nguyễn Thị Trâm’s vegetable farm in Minh Tân Commune of Lương Tài District was also badly impacted by the pandemic.

In 2015, Trâm leased 5ha of land to grow safe vegetables. After applying advanced techniques and technology in planting, last year, her farm earned a turnover of VNĐ13 billion (US$562,000), of which profit was VNĐ1.2 billion (US$52,000).

However, in February, her vegetables came to harvest but she could not sell them.

“This year, I focused on supplying vegetables for schools and factories, because I thought demand would be high when students and workers return after Tết,” said Trâm.

“However, due to the pandemic, many factories remained closed, while schools and restaurants were shut, so tens of tonnes of vegetables could not be sold, causing hundreds of millions of đồng in losses,” said Trâm.

Political and social organisations, especially Bắc Ninh’s Farmers’ Association and Youth Union, helped ‘rescue’ a large amount of vegetables to help her continue production and business.

Nguyễn Đức Sâm, secretary of the provincial Youth Union, said: “In recent years, Bắc Ninh Youth Union had stepped up start-up activities that  became a bright spot in youth movements nationwide.”

“Facing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, start-up companies of young people were severely affected, especially the production and consumption of products,” said Sâm.

“As a ‘midwife’ for young people’s start-up businesses, the Youth Union had strengthened coordination of sectors and agencies to review the economic development models by young people so as to provide encouragement and solutions to overcome difficulties,” said Sâm.

Particularly, the provincial Youth Union had co-operated with the Việt Nam Bank for Social Policies to delay and reschedule debt repayments for businesses that were badly impacted by the pandemic, according to Sâm.

Last year, the bank rescheduled debts worth dozens of billions of đồng.

With the policy of on-the-spot support, the Youth Union at all levels of Bắc Ninh Province had ‘rescued’ and consumed dozens of tonnes of agricultural products.

Bắc Ninh Provincial Youth Union will continue to propose and recommend to the provincial People’s Committee to pay attention to supplementing and maintaining the capital from the local budget entrusted to the Việt Nam Bank for Social Policies to provide loans to young people starting businesses.

The union would also propose to the authorities to accelerate the reform of administrative procedures as well as enhance training and improve the quality of corporate governance to help businesses solve difficulties, said Sâm.

Vietnam to offer exciting investment opportunities post COVID-19

Standard Chartered Bank last week hosted an investment webinar entitled “Viet Nam Investment Landscape 2021”, drawing the participation of clients based in Viet Nam and overseas who are looking for investment opportunities in Viet Nam.

The presentations focused on giving clients the latest information about the investment landscapes for real estate, stocks, fixed-income and funds in Viet Nam in the context of a post COVID-19 era and the strategies they can devise to capitalise on the opportunities.

“Standard Chartered Global Research forecasts that Viet Nam’s economic growth will get back to 6-8 per cent in 2021 and onwards. Given its economic prospects, advantages of social stability and success in managing the COVID-19 pandemic along with the profitability of the local stock market and real estate market which is growing at a higher pace than that in the ASEAN region, Viet Nam continues to offer exciting investment opportunities. Leveraging on our unrivalled strengths of an extensive global network and in-depth knowledge of the local market, we provide clients world-class, customised products and services to help them make the most of the investment opportunities and grow their wealth sustainably,” said Harmander Mahal, Consumer, Private and Business Banking Head for Viet Nam and Asia Cluster Markets, Standard Chartered Bank.

Standard Chartered Vietnam offers offshore account opening service that enables its overseas clients to open an account and transfer money for investment without the need to visit Viet Nam. The document processing work will be facilitated by the Bank’s partners based in the client’s home country. Once the fund is remitted to Viet Nam, it will be converted into the local currency at an attractive real-time exchange rate, with the foreign exchange fee being waived. Clients will also receive consultation and support from the bank’s experts and dedicated relationship managers to help them make timely investment decisions.

Building Cai Mep-Thi Vai port on a par with regional port

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc visited the Cai Mep-Thi Vai deep-water port system in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province on March 20, asking the locality to build the port and logistics systems on a par with others in the region by 2030.

The PM inspected Gemalink Deep-water Port – the largest scale port project in the Cai Mep-Thi Vai deep-water port cluster, Cai Mep International Port, and Tan Cang-Cai Mep International Port.

After the visit to the port cluster, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh held a working session with leaders of Ba Ria-Vung Tau province in a bid to further boost the efficiency of the port system and stimulate local socio-economic development.

The PM emphasised that the seaport system is a strength of the province which has made a significant contribution to national development, thus, more attention should be paid to developing the port system in the future planning of both the province and the nation.

He noted that the growth rate of 2% of seaport system in the province is good news, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, PM Phuc pointed out some shortcomings that need to be handled to foster the development of the port cluster including an incomplete transport infrastructure, the lack of modern logistics centres, incomplete finance and customs services and the slow clearance of goods, and others.

The government leader also approved the implementation of various infrastructural projects to promote the efficiency of the seaport system in the province.

He encouraged the relevant ministries, sectors and Ba Ria-Vung Tau province to take more drastic measures to bring the seaport and logistics system in Ba Ria-Vung Tau, particularly Cai Mep-Thi Vai port on a par with others in the region by 2030 and become a world-class seaport hub by 2045.

House prices rise despite of COVID-19 impact

House and land prices in Viet Nam have continued to rise – despite the effects of COVID-19.

Now the Ministry of Construction has compiled a report to determine exactly why there has been a sharp increase in prices.

It is concerned some real estate agents may have inflated prices for their own gain.

The agency said house and land prices surged sharply in 2020, especially in the first two months this year.

Property prices in some places have increased by more than 10 per cent compared to early 2020.

The agency reported that despite many difficulties and challenges in the past year caused by both the pandemic and natural disasters, the real estate industry alone contributed about 4.42 per cent in revenues to the State coffers.

It said in the past, the Ministry of Construction proposed Government build more social housing for low-income earners in urban areas and industrial zones.

The ministry has conducted routine compliance inspections on investment and business practices at big real estate firms, real estate investment.

The inspections were designed to prevent false house pricing, and inaccurate estimates to stop unscrupulous real estate agent from gaining a financial advantage.

This has helped keep house and land prices stable, compared to 2019.

Thu Hang, a senior official of Savills Hanoi, believes as the economy grows post-pandemic, there will be more opportunities for people to buy or rent a property.

She feels urbanisation has not kept up with population growth, causing a drastic imbalance between supply and demand.

The report also said rising costs in building material and fuel has also played a part in the price hike.

In addition, local authorities nationwide are selling land to private developers at inflated prices.

The knock-on effect has contributed to a rise in property prices.

A solution to stabilise the market

According to the Ministry of Construction, managing and stabilising the local real estate market, the ministry has actively studied and submitted many solutions and policies to the Government with a view to minimise imbalance between supply and demand to meet market demand.

In particular, the Ministry had submitted draft decrees on amending and supplementing the No. 99/2015 detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Housing and Decree of Government No. 100/2015/ND-CP dated October 20, 2015, development and management of social houses.

This year, the ministry will submit proposals to amend current policies to both the National Assembly and Government.

The Ministry will ask Government to instruct cities and provinces to strengthen supervision of real estate development and investigate any organisation thought to be cheating the system.

Vietnam Association of Architects launches architectural design contests

The Vietnam Association of Architects has launched two architectural design contests for the commercial centre complex and the riverside landscape of the first phase of Cai Gia – Cat Ba Tourist Urban Area (Cat Ba Amatina).

“The contest to design the commercial centre complex is only for professional and experienced architects while the riverside landscape design contest is for 3rd & 4th year architecture students. Both of the two contests are only for Vietnamese architects to create a professional playing field for architectural innovators in Viet Nam,” said Chairman of Vietnam Association of Architects Phan Dang Son.

Design requirements for the commercial centre complex must be a unique and creative architectural work, creating a highlight for the architectural landscape of Cat Ba Town in Cat Ba Island, Cat Hai District, Hai Phong City.

In addition, the contest category for the pedestrian street along both sides of the river should ensure a green living environment for urban residents and an impressive experience for visitors at the Cat Ba Amatina Tourism and Urban Area.

The two contests will run from March 16 to May 16 and the result is expected to be announced later in May. The project investor, Vinaconex Tourism Development and Investment Joint Stock Company (Vinaconex – ITC), will select the best projects for official implementation.

Forbes spotlights Vietnamese hospitality sector’s creativity amid pandemic

US business magazine Forbes has recently published an article highlighting the Vietnamese hospitality sector’s creativity to survive the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the article, titled “Viet Nam’s hotels get creative to survive the pandemic” by Brett Davis, COVID-19 forced some in the industry to rethink their approach to how to cater to guests and innovate their offerings.

It said one such innovation was developed at Alma Resort on the shores of Cam Ranh Bay in southern Viet Nam, which built its own in-house app to create a safe, contactless way of delivering key information to guests.

Developed by the resort’s IT team and available for download on Android, Apple, Windows and Amazon devices, the ‘Alma Resort’ app provides COVID-19 health and safety tips, menus for the property’s restaurants, activity schedules and promotions as well as live stream broadcasts and information about events.

The resort’s general manager, Herbert Laubichler-Pichler, said he believed it would soon be incumbent for five-star resorts across Viet Nam to offer the same technology.

The author went on to note that thanks to the Government’s drastic measures, Viet Nam was one of the world’s leading countries in controlling the spread of the pandemic.

It said domestic tourism, and the steadily growing purchasing power of Vietnamese consumers, came to be viewed as a lifeline for the local tourism industry, provided it could change its strategy in some key areas. One such example was in the food and beverage offerings.

Looking forward, Herbert Laubichler-Pichler predicted there would be a strong rebound in the Vietnamese tourism sector because of the pent-up demand for travel after a year spent in various forms of isolation.

Foxconn in talks with VinFast on batteries and components for electric

Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn is reportedly in talks with the Vietnamese automaker VinFast to produce batteries and electric vehicle (EV) parts.

Reuters cited sources saying that Foxconn proposed to acquire EV production lines from VinFast. However, a spokesperson for VinFast said they had not discussed any details relating to this matter.

“The partnership, if any, will only focus on developing the batteries and electric vehicle parts. There is no information regarding the cooperation of the two parties in producing EVs,” the spokesman added.

VinFast wants to become Foxconn’s partner but not in manufacturing orders.

Foxconn, the world’s largest provider of electronics components, has outlined plans to become a major provider of parts and services in the global EV market, so any agreement with VinFast would follow deals with Fiat Chrysler and other EV start-ups.

VinFast became Viet Nam’s first domestic vehicle manufacturer with its own badge to debut the first gasoline-powered models in 2019. The automaker has a factory in the northern port city of Hai Phong which is also responsible for main production.

The company sold about 30,000 vehicles last year and is expected to deliver the very first EVs to the domestic market at the end of 2021.

VinFast, which is also producing electric motorbikes and buses this year, signed a contract to produce electric vehicle batteries with Taiwan’s ProLogium.

Huge volume of shares flock to HoSE despite current overload

Despite chronic overloading on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange recently, a series of stocks are still making their way to the main bourse in March, putting more pressure on the exchange.

Southeast Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SeAbank) has been approved to list its 1.2 billion shares on the bourse on March 24, equivalent to charter capital of VND12 trillion (US$520 million).

SeABank shares on the over-the-counter market are being traded at around VND14,400 (62 US cents) apiece.

HoSE last week also gave the green light for 15.18 million shares of Vnsteel – Vicasa Joint Stock Company to list on the bourse.

Nearly 1.1 billion shares of Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB) had also got approval in the last days of 2020. They were officially listed on the southern bourse since January 28.

HoSE’s trading system, which has remained mostly unchanged for the last 20 years, has been overwhelmed after a huge number of new investors began trading in recent months. Many complain about the overload trouble while they are placing orders, especially in the afternoon when trading value rises to VND15 trillion ($652 million).

Concerted efforts

Market regulators need to work with HOSE to solve congestion, said General Director Trinh Hoai Giang of HCM City Securities Corporation (HSC).

“It is time for the regulator to re-organise listed stocks according to their capitalisation as the group of large and medium stocks accounted for a trading value of 85-90 per cent,” he said.

“However, the number of transaction orders for small stocks is huge. Therefore, we should send the entire group of small stocks to the Ha Noi Stock Exchange as a temporary solution. We should only consider the plan to increase the minimum trading lot if the congestion problem still does not end.”

“Regarding increasing the minimum trading lot, it is not advisable to do it simultaneously but to divide stocks based on market price. For stocks with a market price below VND20,000 per share, the lot can be increased from 100 to 1,000, while for stocks with higher market prices, the lot should be kept at 100.”

Some companies have volunteered to move their shares from HoSE to HNX following the instruction of the State Securities Comm (SSC) to alleviate system overloads that have troubled traders.

They included VNDirect Securities Corporation, BIDV Securities JSC (BSC) and PAN Group (PAN), while a number of other securities companies agreed to change the floor to reduce the load on HOSE’s trading system.

VietinBank Securities Company and Agribank Securities Company said that they supported this exchange switching plan but they must submit the switching process to the shareholders during the General Meeting of Shareholders, expected to be held in April this year.

“Transferring to HNX is a temporary plan to help mitigate congestion on HOSE,” said Ta Thanh Binh, Director of Market Development Department under the State Securities Commission.

“When the new trading system is fixed, these shares will return to HoSE. The transfer from HOSE to HNX will not change the listing standards as well as the quality of the transferred shares,” she said.

Consequences

“Some Singapore funds have sold out recently partly due to concerns about the errors on the trading system of HoSE,” said Quan Trong Thanh, director of market analysis and institutional investors at Maybank Kim Eng Securities (MBKE).

“These funds themselves have a great position on the global market, in the context of global volatility and concerns about inflation, they need to prepare to withdraw capital in time. Due to recent worries over HoSE system problems, they decided to sell first to ensure capital flow.

“If there is no problems of system congestion, it is likely that they will not decide to sell early because of the promising economic outlook of Viet Nam and stable profit growth of the businesses,” he said.

“Trading congestion is different from traffic congestion, as in the former if orders cannot be placed, the opportunity is lost and will not come back again,” said Le Ngoc Nam, Deputy General Director of Tan Viet Securities Company.

“Securities companies can not only not collect fees but also face the risk of being sued by investors. Their revenues are not only sourced from fees for transactions, but also from margin lending fees and other services,” Nam said.

“If securities companies cannot collect fees, the exchange will also lose revenue,” he said.

Liquidity on HoSE could have reached an average of VND20 trillion per session if no congestion happened, higher than the current average of VND15 trillion.

As HOSE collects 0.027 per cent of the transaction value from both buying and selling sides, it is estimated to have lost VND2.84 billion in fees every day due to congestion, assuming an average value transaction of VND20 trillion per day, Nam said.

Source: VNA/VNS/VOV/VIR/SGT/Nhan Dan/Hanoitimes