Vietnam is a safe place

A ceremony marking the handover was held April 9 at the offices of the 3rd Regional Coast Guard in the southern province of Ba Ria – Vung Tau.

Attending the ceremony were Vietnam Coast Guard commander Lieutenant General Nguyen Van Son, U.S. Consul General Marie Damour and other officials, the U.S. embassy said in a Facebook post Saturday.

Lt. Gen. Son said that Vietnam highly appreciated the U.S. gesture and considered the event “an important milestone of the Vietnam-U.S. partnership,” helping Vietnam improve its law enforcement capacity at sea.

The cooperation between the coast guards of both countries has strengthened in recent years.

In 2017, the U.S. Coast Guard handed over the Hamilton-class (the second-largest class of vessels in the U.S. Coast Guard) USCGC Morgenthau cutter to the Vietnam Coast Guard under their Excess Defense Articles (EDA) program. The ship was then commissioned for the Vietnam Coast Guard and renamed CSB 8020.

The U.S. has also sold a total of 24 Metal Shark high-speed patrol boats and is overhauling the USCGC John Midgett, another Hamilton-class vessel, to hand it over to Vietnam.

At a press conference in Hanoi, outgoing U.S. Ambassador Daniel Kritenbrink had remarked that security cooperation was developing strongly between the two countries, especially between the two militaries.

He said that Vietnam and the U.S. have worked together to implement a United Nations resolution on North Korea and to promote a common stance on the East Sea. The U.S. has assisted Vietnam in building its defense capacity, especially maritime capabilities, and supported Vietnam in sending peacekeeping personnel to South Sudan.

Referring to East Sea disputes, Kritenbrink had stressed that the U.S. always stood by its partners and allies in building an international order based on rules, and opposed ” the provocative actions of China with the other countries in the region.”

Three Vietnamese people who recently returned from abroad have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, raising the total number of patients in the country to 2,784, the Ministry of Health reported on Sunday evening.

Illustrative photo

According to the ministry’s report, the newly-reported patients include two men and a woman aged between 23-51 who returned from Japan, Angola, and the US. They were sent to quarantine areas in Khanh Hoa, Hoa Binh, and Bac Ninh provinces upon arrival and are now being treated at local hospitals and healthcare centres.

With these new infection cases, the number of Covid-19 patients in Vietnam has increased to 2,784, including 910 locally-transmitted cases reported since the new outbreak started in Hai Duong on January 28.

As of 6 pm on April 18, a total of 2,475 Covid-19 patients had recovered and been discharged from hospital. There have been 35 deaths, most of them being the elderly with serious underlying diseases.

At present, over 40,000 people who had close contact with Covid-19 patients or returned from virus-hit areas are being monitored at hospitals, quarantine facilities, and at home.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Vo Van Hoan said he believes that the event will bolster understanding between the countries, and create more cooperation chances in education, trade, investment and tourism.

Japan is the third largest trade partner of HCM City and the fifth leading investor of the city. The southern hub has formed ties with seven Japanese localities.

Takebe Tsutomu, head of the organising board on the Japanese side said the holding of the JVF after a suspension of more than one year demonstrated efforts by both countries in promoting the bilateral relations. The 7th JVF is a major cooperative project of the countries’ tourism sector.

The two-day event features more than 100 booths of 75 units. Art programmes and sporting events will be staged by artists from both countries.

By Anh Duc

A type of red sweet corn originating in Thailand has recently captured a lot of attention from both Vietnamese consumers and farmers.

The corn breed, named Ruby Queen, has been officially permitted to be cultivated and traded in the Vietnamese market, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development announced on Saturday.

According to Nguyen Quoc Ly, director of a center specializing in plant and crop testing under the agriculture ministry, this is the first sweet corn variety that is edible without the need to be boiled or cooked.

The Ruby Queen is characterized by its dark red color and sweet taste, along with rapid growth in just 58 to 62 days, Lu continued, adding that farmers are able to harvest around 10 to 12 metric tons of the crops per hectare.

The corn breed has been in demand, said Doan Van Toa, a farmer in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang who previously planted the crop for testing purposes.

Each seed of the sweet corn is selling for VND500 (US$0.02), Toa elaborated, adding that the seed is now quite rare due to the high demand.

Ta Wee Sak Pulam, who created the corn breed, speaks during his trip to Vietnam on July 13, 2019 . Photo: Tran Manh / Tuoi Tre

A Ruby Queen corn is offered at VND20,000 ($0.86) to VND35,000 ($1.5) in the Vietnamese market, the farmer said.

Buyers can also purchase the products directly at local farms at VND5,000 ($0.2) apiece.

The prices are three to four times higher than those of regular corn varieties in the country.

According to Ta Wee Sak Pulam, who created the corn breed, the Ruby Queen is the world’s first-ever variety of sweet corn that has a reddish color.

It took Pulam and his company six years to research and create the type of crop, he added.

The number of seeds purchased by Vietnamese farmers over the past time is beyond expectation, Pulam continued, expressing his hope that the Ruby Queen will soon become popular in Vietnam, just like it did in Thailand.

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