Westwood lodge new zealand

Vietnam Airlines to open six new routes in peak season

April 14, 2021 by dtinews.vn

Vietnam Airlines is set to expand its domestic flight network between April 24 and August 31 to meet the higher demand during the summer’s peak travel season.

The national flag carrier will open six new routes: Da Nang – Vinh, Phu Quoc – Can Tho, Phu Quoc – Nha Trang, Phu Quoc – Buon Me Thuot, Phu Quoc – Hue, and Phu Quoc – Thanh Hoa.

Da Nang – Thanh Hoa and Can Tho – Buon Me Thuot flights will be resumed.

The Da Nang – Thanh Hoa, Phu Quoc – Can Tho, Phu Quoc – Nha Trang, and Phu Quoc – Hue routes will have four round-trip flights a week, on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.

Three round-trip flights a week will be conducted on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday on the Da Nang – Vinh, Can Tho – Buon Me Thuot, Phu Quoc – Buon Me Thuot, and Phu Quoc – Thanh Hoa routes.

Since May, the carrier has opened 28 new routes, most of which fly to famous tourist destinations, raising its domestic flight network to 67 routes. The move aims to stimulate domestic travel after the recent resurgence of COVID-19 was brought under control.

HCM City ceremony marks traditional New Year of neighbouring countries

April 14, 2021 by en.vietnamplus.vn

Participants in the ceremony bathe the Buddha statue, a ritual of the traditional New Year festival of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand (Photo: VNA)

HCM City (VNA) – A ceremony was held at Pho Minh Pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City on April 14 to celebrate the traditional New Year of Cambodia , Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand.

Organised by the HCM City Union of Friendship Organisations (HUFO) and the city’s committee of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (VBS), the ceremony saw the presence of representatives from the consulates-general of the four countries in HCM City, the municipal Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee, the municipal Committee for Overseas Vietnamese, and the countries’ entrepreneurs and students.

The traditional New Year festival is known as Chol Chnam Thmay in Cambodia, Bunpimay in Laos, Thingyan in Myanmar , and Songkran in Thailand.

Addressing the celebrations, HUFO Vice Chairwoman Tran Hoang Khanh Van said the ceremony aims to further promote mutual understanding, cultural exchange, and multifaceted cooperation between Vietnam, including HCM City, and the four neighbouring countries.

She noted that Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand are ASEAN members and have cooperated and assisted one another over many years. Their peoples have stood side-by-side in fighting for national independence, developing their countries, and building an ASEAN Community of peace, stability, cooperation, and prosperous development.

HCM City ceremony marks traditional New Year of neighbouring countries hinh anh 2

Most Venerable Thich Thien Tam addresses the ceremony held at Pho Minh Pagoda on April 14 (Photo: VNA)

Most Venerable Thich Thien Tam, Vice President of the Executive Council of the Central VBS Committee and deputy head of the HCM City VBS Committee’s executive board, said the traditional New Year of Cambodia, Laos , Myanmar, and Thailand reflects the similarities in culture and religious practices among the countries, adding that it is helpful in strengthening the five nations’ solidarity in their development efforts and in ASEAN Community building.

Echoing that view, Ratiwan Bonprakhong, Chief Representative of the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s HCM City Office, held that the ceremony helps bring the five countries’ people closer together and also demonstrates their solidarity and unity./.

VNA

Students of Laos, Cambodia join New Year gathering in HCM City

April 13, 2021 by en.vietnamplus.vn

At the event (Photo: VNA)

HCM City (VNA) – Students of Cambodia and Laos in Ho Chi Minh City on April 12 joined a get-together held by the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union (HCYU) of the city on the occasion of their New Year festival.

The New Year festival, called Chol Chnam Thmay in Cambodia and Bunpimay in Laos, takes place in April every year.

Addressing the event, Vice Secretary of the municipal Party Committee Nguyen Ho Hai wished the participants a new year of happiness.

He added that the friendship, solidarity and mutual support between the countries are the factor ensuring victory in the countries’ national development and safeguarding in the past, at present and in the future.

Hai voiced his belief that students of Laos, Cambodia and HCM City will actively strengthen their bond and bolster the sound relations between the countries towards the goal of building the ASEAN Community of peace, cooperation and development.

The get-together also featured Laos and Cambodia’s rituals like thread tying on the wrist and water-splashing to wish for a year of happiness and prosperity.

There are some 925 Lao and Cambodian students learning at HCM City’s educational establishments./.

VNA

Vietnam striving to quickly produce home-made COVID-19 vaccines

April 14, 2021 by en.nhandan.org.vn

The meeting was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, who is also head of the committee.

The board asked that favourable conditions continue to be created for the clinical test of COVID-19 vaccines, while plans of production should be put in place in order to quickly produce vaccines once the testing proves successful.

Hailing the Health Ministry for its vaccination efforts and dealing with post-vaccination reactions, the board directed the health, public security, and national defence ministries to continue closely controlling immigration pending a policy regarding “vaccine passports”.

Many at the meeting reiterated that prevention measures continue to play an important role in the current context.

Ministries, agencies, and localities are urged to direct medical stations, schools, lodging facilities, factories, and markets to remain vigilant and seriously follow prevention and control measures.

Vietnam reported 16 imported cases of COVID-19 on the evening of the same day, raising the national count to 2,733.

The new cases include one Indian expert, one American expert and 14 Vietnamese citizens who were sent to quarantine right upon their arrival.

Meanwhile, 2,445 COVID-19 patients have been given the all-clear, and the death toll remains at 35.

Among patients still under treatment, 16 have tested negative for the novel coronavirus once, 18 twice and 18 thrice.

A total 38,743 people who had close contact with COVID-19 patients or arrived from pandemic-hit areas are being quarantined across the country.

The Health Ministry continues to urge all people to follow the 5K motto – Khau trang (wearing facemask) – Khu khuan (disinfecting) – Khoang cach (keeping distance) – Khong tu tap (no gathering) – Khai bao y te (making medical declaration), in order to live safely amid the pandemic.

Global cases of COVID-19 continue to increase for a seventh consecutive week: WHO

April 14, 2021 by en.nhandan.org.vn

The number of new deaths increased for the fourth consecutive week, increasing by seven percent compared to last week, with over 76,000 new deaths reported, according to the WHO.

The outbreak was especially violent in India as the country reported 873,296 new cases, an increase of 70 percent compared to last week. It also saw the number of new deaths growing by 51 percent. The United States came the second with a five percent increase of 468,395 new cases; and Brazil listed the third with a rise of 463,092 new cases.

In terms of global COVID-19 new deaths, the South-Asia, Southeast Asia and Western Pacific region saw sharp surges with the Western Pacific displaying an increase of 189 percent in number, the Philippines leading with the grim record of 1,321 new deaths, 400 percent more than last week.

Furthermore, new virus variants continue to spread to other countries, with the variant B117 first identified in the UK reported in 132 countries, the variant B 1351 originating from South Africa present in 82 countries, and the P1 first identified in Brazil now established in 52 countries.

The WHO also noted that existing vaccines have displayed reduced efficacy against variants, even if the related studies remained limited in number.

As an example, the AstraZeneca vaccine saw reduction in post-vaccine neutralization for variant B117, while it saw “substantial reduction” for the variant originating from South Africa.

Studies also reported “evidence of more substantial reduction” in post-vaccine neutralization of the variant first found in Brazil for AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines.

Earlier this week, the WHO stressed that measures such as wearing masks and hand hygiene were still important as “we are in a critical point of the pandemic right now.”.

National governance, public administration improve: PAPI report

April 14, 2021 by en.qdnd.vn

Since 2018, PAPI has been co-funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) of Australia, the Embassy of Ireland and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Vietnam.

The report, which assessed citizen experiences with national and local government performance in governance, public administration, and public service delivery, showed that the Control of Corruption in the Public Sector dimension has improved significantly each year since 2016.

The dimension on Vertical Accountability Towards Citizens also steadily improved during the 2016-2021 term, mainly because an increasing number of citizens have contacted local officials, in particular village heads and People’s Council delegates.

Dimensions posting declines included Participation at Local Levels and Public Administrative Procedures.

“New features of the 2020 PAPI Report include insightful findings on the performance of local governments across two terms (2011-2016 and 2016-2021); experience of internal migrants with accessing services in receiving provinces; and voter perception of women in leadership roles,” UNDP Resident Representative in Vietnam Caitlin Wiesen said in her opening remark at the report launch.

“As the Government embarks on a new term, PAPI provides rich and deep datasets on citizens’ perception of local government achievement in each of the 63 provinces and important metrics to review and further improve their performance across eight key dimensions of governance,” she noted.

Analysis in the 2020 PAPI Report shows that citizen engagement and anti-corruption efforts have a positive correlation with Vietnam’s ability to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Robyn Mudie, acknowledged an improvement in provincial governance and public administration performance, which may have contributed to Vietnam’s successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Findings from the 2020 PAPI Report show that there is a correlation between good governance and effective pandemic responses, she added.

Nguyen Huu Dung, Vice President of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front said he hope that PAPI will continue to serve as a reliable policy monitoring tool that helps promote government accountability and reforms, thereby furthering modern governance.

Over 14,700 citizens were interviewed for the 2020 PAPI Report. This is the largest number of citizens to participate since the survey was first conducted nationwide in 2011. For the first time, the survey also gathered responses from citizens with temporary residence registration status. Nearly 300 migrants were surveyed in six centrally governed municipalities and provinces (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Bac Ninh, Da Nang, Dong Nai and Binh Duong).

Source: VNA