World female boxing champion

Despite not competing internationally since March last year, Vietnam moved from 34th to 33rd with 1,657 points, as the Replublic of Ireland dropped from 31st to 34th after losing two consecutive matches to Belgium and Denmark in Women’s Euro qualifiers.

The last international game Vietnam women’s team played was on March 11, 2020 when they lost 1-2 against Australia, sealing their exit from Olympic qualifers. This was the first time Vietnam had scored against Australia after eight games played over 12 years.

Right above Vietnam on the rankings are Wales with 1,658.19 points and Ukraine with 1,661.41 points.

Vietnam are still the number one team in Southeast Asia, followed by Thailand and Myanmar. In Asia, the team are sixth, below Australia, North Korea, Japan, China and South Korea.

The world’s top five team are still the U.S., Germany, the Netherlands, France and Sweden.

Vietnam Football Federation aims to see the team qualify for Women’s World Cup 2023 hosted in New Zealand and Australia. With FIFA increasing the number of teams in the tournament from 24 to 32, opportunities have opened for many teams, including Vietnam. In 2019, Vietnam were only one game away from World Cup but lost to Thailand in the final play-off.

Eight countries to directly qualify for the 2023 World Cup will be decided after the 2022 AFC Women’s Asian Cup, with the country finishing ninth to enter the play-off against a team from another region.

A scene in the dance performance

Choreographer Nguyen Duy Thanh (C)

By Mai An – Translated by Kim Khanh

Deputy Minister Nguyen Huy Dung lauding the achievements behind eMeeting

Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Huy Dung said that eMeeting is an ambitious product that can compete with other online meeting platforms of world tech powers such as Zoom and Microsoft Team.

He said the debut of eMeeting affirms that Vietnamese businesses can tackle challenges in realising the “Make-in-Vietnam” dream.

Vu Ngoc Son, BKAV’s vice chairman

Vu Ngoc Son, BKAV’s vice chairman, said eMeeting is equipped with a nine-layer security system, ensuring the utmost in security for users during online meetings. It also has other advantages about high sound and image quality even in poor internet access.

He added that during COVID-19 in 2020, eMeeting was applied in 14 schools in five cities and provinces.

According to the MIC’s Information Centre, the platform will be used for its own meetings.

By Bich Thuy

After a sudden downpour on April 4, Nguyen Tien Dung, 40, and his colleagues at the state-owned Ho Chi Minh City Urban Environment Co., Ltd (Citenco) had to spend two hectic days removing dead fish from the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal, which flows through Districts 1, 3, Binh Thanh, Phu Nhuan, and Tan Binh.

They collected 14 tons of fish from a three-kilometer section of the 8.5-km (5.28 miles) canal, making it one of the most serious such incidents in almost a decade since Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe was cleaned.

Dung and 20 others had rushed to the scene at 3:30 in the morning after being informed that dead fish were floating all over the canal.

He said: “Even the previous evening I had noticed a lot of dead fish in the water and its change of color. Though I’d come prepared, I was still shocked to see so many fish belly up all over the canal.”

Since 2012, after taking over the job of cleaning the canal, he has been taking out dead fish almost every year soon after the rains arrive, but what he saw that morning left him dismayed: the fish covered almost the entire water surface visible between garbage and water hyacinth plants.

Dung and his team had to work as fast as possible since the huge volume of dead fish posed a serious threat to the water environment.

The city Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s fisheries division provided a clear explanation for the mass death.

It said the sudden heavy rains flushed out a large volume of wastewater lying in the drains, which then covered the canal surface and significantly reduced the oxygen in the water.

The sudden rush of wastewater also stirred the layer of sludge at the bottom, which usually contains toxic gases. The gases were released and they rose up and dissolved in the water.

“The dual impact from below and above led to a sudden change in the fish’s living environment and killed them,” the division said.

Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe was once arguably the most polluted water body in the city.

A project to dredge and clean it began in 1993 at a cost of VND1.6 trillion ($69.3 million). Embankments and roads along its two banks were built and households living along it were relocated.

Ten years later an even bigger clean-up was undertaken, this time with sewers built to ensure wastewater was no longer released into the canal, with over $300 million provided by the World Bank.

But the story of fish dying en masse in the year’s first rains has become a regular one, the worst being in 2016, when 70 tons were collected.

Jolted by this, in 2017 the Steering Center for Urban Flood Control Program proposed installing an oxygen system in the canal at a cost of VND134 billion to save the fish.

But since it costs VND99 million ($4,290) a day to operate the system, the proposal remains on paper.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment said the cost is unacceptable since the main function of the canal is to drain the city and not act as a fish farm.

According to the fisheries division, to avoid the annual fish deaths, the city needs to install a system to collect and treat wastewater all along the canal at a cost of VND40 trillion ($1.73 billion).

And with authorities still unable to arrive at a decision, Citenco has come up with its own temporary solution for the problem: reducing the canal’s fish population by catching them and releasing them in other rivers.

Truong Van Ho, head of the garbage collection team, said it is necessary for the company and his team to receive timely warnings so that they could shut the drains and let rainwater dilute the residual wastewater before flushing it into the canal.

Speaking at the Theoretical Council’s meeting in Hanoi, the Party leader highly valued the council’s work during 2016-2021, noting that it has continually reformed the operational model and methodology, gathered more scientists, institutes, academies, and universities, and built on the attainments and experiences gained in the previous terms to fulfill its functions and tasks, thereby contributing to common successes of the Party and the country.

He also suggested some issues needing attention in the time ahead and asked for thorough understanding of the requirements in the political theoretical work in the new period. The council’s role in providing consultations in terms of viewpoints, strategies and theoretical guidelines remains limited, the Party chief said, adding that many issues in the country’s 35-year Doi Moi (renewal) cause and 30-year implementation of the 1991 Platform, as well as newly emerging issues in reality in Vietnam and the world, have not been analysed and clarified.

The 13th National Party Congress identified the strategic vision as well as a detailed road map and steps to develop the country in the next five, 10, and 25 years. The international context and the demand for breakthrough development in the new period require that the Party continue reforming its development mindset in a way that fully taps into Vietnam’s potential, stature and conditions and matches development trends in the world and of the era, he pointed out.

The leader told the council to study new theoretical issues in the world, experiences of developed countries, along with scientific – technological revolutions.

General Secretary Trong also asked the council to improve the quality and effectiveness of political theory-related advice to help the Party Central Committee, the Politburo, and the Secretariat direct national development and defence efforts.

It should also proactively coordinate with ministries, sectors, central agencies, local Party committees, and political theory researchers nationwide in reality analysis and theoretical research, he said, adding that during the 25 years of operations, the council has established itself in the system of central agencies.

On this occasion, the Theoretical Council was granted a merit certificate from the Prime Minister in recognition of its contributions to the compilation of the documents of the 13th National Party Congress, the fight to protect the Party’s ideological foundation, and theoretical research.