Wand news channel 20

A poster of Generali Vietnam’s new “More than just a place to work” people strategy. — Photo courtesy of Generali Vietnam

Generali Vietnam officially launched its “More than just a place to work” people strategy, with an aim to become the best employer in the Viet Nam’s insurance and finance industry.

The company is also running its Management Trainee programme, called Genext Challenge 2021, to recruit, train and develop young talent to meet its business growth needs in Viet Nam.

The core of this strategy is the objective to build Generali Vietnam to be “more than just a place to work”, where every staff member can “learn – grow – live – thrive”.

As part of the new strategy, Generali Vietnam will step up its training activities and programmes with practical, innovative and diverse content and formats, as well as reinforce a learning and development culture.

The company constantly digitalises all human resources processes, including the registration and management of training and development requests, and many practical online training programmes.

It will also continue to focus on developing its high quality workforce via the Generali Talent Management program and the ongoing Genext Challenge 2021 Management Trainee programme. Both programmes aim at developing the company’s talent pool and outstanding individuals, to build the next generation of leaders, meeting Generali’s needs for rapid and sustainable development in Viet Nam.

Generali Vietnam CEO Tina Nguyen said: “The “More than just a place to work” people strategy is one of Generali’s strategic and sustainable efforts to build an ideal working environment and develop a happy, engaged, professional and inspired workforce.

“And with that, we hope to spread such happiness to customers and the community through our quality insurance services and products as well as our contributions to the society.”

An enthusiastic, inspiring work environment at Generali and its unique SOHI culture have been vividly featured in the recently launched “More than just a place to work” music video. In 2020, Generali Vietnam was also listed among “Top 10 Companies with Happy Workforce” based on a survey conducted by Anphabe. — VNS

Juventus’ Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo (C) celebrates with Juventus’ Swedish forward Dejan Kulusevski (L) and Juventus’ Turkish defender Merih Demiral after scoring his second goal during the Italian Serie A football match Juventus vs Crotone on February 22, 2021 at the Juventus stadium in Turin.(Marco BERTORELLO / AFP)

The latest figures compare to losses of 50.3 million euros in the first half of the club’s 2019/20 financial year, which runs from July 1 to June 30.

“The first half of the 2020/2021 financial year was heavily penalised by the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic and the consequent restrictive measures imposed by the authorities,” Juventus said of a season played with matches behind closed doors.

“The pandemic directly and significantly affected, above all, ticket sales and sales of products and licenses, with a consequent negative impact on operating income, net income and financial debt.”

The club had reported losses of 89.7 million euros for the year 2019/2020.

Juventus noted the “positive trend of revenues from sponsorships and advertising” which were slightly higher than the previous year.

“These negative effects were partly offset by higher revenues from radio and television rights.”

E-commerce figures also grew by 60 percent to offset the decline in revenues from physical retail stores.

Juventus won a ninth consecutive league title last season but failed to advance past the Champions League last 16.

AFP

Authored by Vietnamese Ambassador to Russia Ngo Duc Manh, the book is divided in five chapters providing a brief introduction to Vietnam and Russia; President Ho Chi Minh, who laid the foundation for the establishment of the bilateral ties; the relations between Vietnam and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in the 1950-1990 period; the Vietnam – Russia ties during the 1991-2011 period; and from 2011 until now.

The publication features more than 700 photos and documents on the bilateral cooperation across the vast fields of politics, economics, defence-security, culture, education, science-technology, and people-to-people diplomacy.

The book also quotes opinions and memories of leaders, researchers, and historical witnesses from the two countries.

Speaking at the ceremony, Ambassador Ngo Duc Manh said that he came up with the idea of penning a book on the great friendship between Vietnam and Russia quite a long time ago, with the aim of further promoting the special bilateral relationship.

He expressed his thanks to leaders, archives, press agencies, individuals and friends from the two countries for their enthusiastic support and comments in compiling the publication.

In the introduction of the book, Politburo member, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh stated that with an abundance of information and data, the book chronicles the 70-year history of Vietnam – Russia ties as well as the effective, comprehensive and deep cooperation between the two countries in various fields.

For her part, Chairwoman of the Russian Federation Council V. Matviyenko appreciated that Ambassador Manh’s book includes many notable documents on the establishment and development of Russia – Vietnam cooperation.

She also reaffirmed that Russia and Vietnam are determined to further develop the bilateral ties under the spirit of friendship, mutual trust, and respect for each other’s interests.

Book chronicling 70 years of Vietnam-Russia ties launched

Household waste, stored in plastic bags, is piled in Hoang Van Thai Street, Hanoi.

Phạm Huy, a small trader in a traditional market in Long Biên 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 VNĐ30,000 (US$1.3) per roll of 100 plastics bags and VNĐ20,000 ($0.8) 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 Quán Thánh Street, Ba Đình District, said his customers often asked for takeaway food in plastic containers.

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

Hồng Hà, a resident of Ba Đình 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.

Solutions

Lê Tuấn Định, deputy head of the city’s Natural Resources and Environment, said it was estimated that about 6,000 tonnes of waste were discharged daily in the capital, including 60 tonnes of plastic waste.

Plastic waste discharge was believed to increase year after year, adversely affecting the environment, he said.

In response to the situation, the city administration views combating plastic waste as a key task.

In 2019, the city issued Plan No 232/KH-UBND on ‘Preventing plastic waste and bags by 2020, a vision towards 2025’, calling on local administrative and public service agencies and State-owned enterprises not to use disposable plastic products and plastic bags, as well as mobilising organisations and individuals to say no to disposable plastic products.

The department has 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.

He said 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, he said.

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. — VNS

These pagodas are not as crowded as in previous years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but they are still attractive venues for visitors who look for peace.

This Tet, pagodas in Dalat City are not as crowded as in previous years due to the Covid-19 pandemic Thien Vuong Co Sat Pagoda Located five kilometers to the northeast of the city center, Thien Vuong Co Sat is also known as Tau or Phat Tram Pagoda. Built in 1958, it is one of the oldest pagodas in Dalat. The pagoda is famous for a giant white Buddha statue located on top of a pine hill. This is also among the biggest Buddha statues in the city The pagoda is surrounded by many pine trees, creating a peaceful scenery Three Buddha statues inside the pagoda’s hall A Buddhist monk makes calligraphy products at the pagoda Some calligraphy works are displayed near the pagoda’s gate Thien Vuong Co Sat Pagoda is at 385 Khe Sanh Street, Ward 10, Dalat City Quan The Am Pagoda Quan The Am is a big pagoda situated near Xuan Huong Lake. The pagoda is beautifully decorated and organizes many meaningful activities for visitors during Tet. Tet booths are set up at the pagoda’s yard, offering free vegetarian food for visitors There is a Neu tree, which is a very tall bamboo tree, in the front yard of the pagoda. Many people believe that planting a Neu tree in Tet helps expel evils and brings good luck. A booth offers free calligraphy works A man offers incense in front of a Buddha statue Little Buddhist monks chant a sutra in the major hall A big drum is hung on the left wing of the major hall Quan The Am Pagoda is at 15 Ba Huyen Thanh Quan Street, Ward 10, Dalat City. Giac Hoa Pagoda Giac Hoa Pagoda is located at 10 Pham Hong Thai Street, Ward 10, Dalat City. Visitors can access the pagoda through staircases, which directly lead to the main hall, or via a sloping road on the left of the pagoda. A Buddha statue is placed in the middle of a small pond A sitting Buddha statue at the pagoda The pagoda’s main hall Quan Am Pagoda Quan Am Pagoda is located at Alley 11, Khe Sanh Street, Ward 10, Dalat City. It is just a 10-minute drive from the city center to the pagoda. The pagoda impresses tourists with a giant Buddha statue on its roof The pagoda is home to many Buddha statues Three golden Buddha statues stand near the gate Two visitors pray in front of a Buddha statue in the pagoda’s main hall

SGT