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Social
News 6/10
Diabetes
affects more than 5% of
As much as 5.42% of
the total population, suffers from diabetes, according to a study conducted
with more than 11,000 respondents between the age of 30-69 as part of the
2012 National Diabetes Prevention Project.
The
non-communicable disease is prevalent in the southwestern and central coastal
regions, the National Hospital of Endocrinology reported at a conference
taking place in
Changing lifestyle
habits and poor public awareness are major factors for the rapid and alarming
increase in diabetes patients.
Experts warned that
individuals who are overweight or have high blood pressure face a higher risk
of developing diabetes.
If not treated
early, the disease can cause long-term complications, such as blindness and
kidney failure, they said.
During the
conference, participants discussed scientific research and treatment options
for diabetes in
Cuban
journalists tour southern provinces
A delegation of
At a meeting with
Binh Duong provincial officials, PL President Luis Enrique Gonzalez Acosta
said he was impressed at the rapid development in the fields of industry and
foreign direct investment in Binh Duong.
He said the PL will
keep close attention on the development of Binh Duong – one of the economic
development models that
Local officials
reported that the province attracted over US$1.4 billion in FDI in the first
nine months of this year period, bringing the total amount of foreign
investment in the locality so far to more than US$20 billion.
Meanwhile, in Dong
Nai, the delegation was received by Chairman of the provincial People’s
Committee Dinh Quoc Thai, who voiced his hope that the visit will open up new
information channels for Vietnamese and Cuban businesses to know each other
better, thus seeking more cooperation opportunities.
The Prensa Latina
has already dispatched correspondents to
The guests also
made fact-finding tours to some industrial parks in the two localities,
including the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) in Binh Duong and the
Amata, Bien Hoa 2 in Dong Nai.
It is a main theme
of a conference organised by the Vietnam Association of Architecture (VAA)
and the Vietnam Institute of Architecture under the Ministry of Construction
(MoC) heard in
Numerous
international and domestic experts participated in the event, which aims to
send a message to city managers and architects calling for action plans to
develop sustainable cities, VAA chairman Nguyen Tan Van said.
Dr Nguyen Quang,
the United Nations’ Habitat Programme Manager in
Residents are
treated equally and they all share the same accommodation conditions, Quang
added.
Jacques Moussafir
from ARIA Technologies, a French company that sells software run air
pollution simulations and meteorological analyses, suggested the country
develop policies to reform its traffic system, urban space design, and land
use.
Construction
Minister Trinh Dinh Dung said 770 cities and towns throughout
At the same time,
the minister highlighted the shortcomings in
Dong Nai
profits from grapefruit
Many farmers in the
southeastern
In Thong Nhat
District's Hung Loc Commune, for example, Phan Van Xich, the first farmer who
planted the specialty grapefruit in Hung Loc, said he knew the soil was
suited to plant this kind of grapefruit.
Xich said he
visited the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta
"My two-ha
grapefruits have had a stable harvest for two years," he said. "My
family has earned a profit of more than VND400 million ($19,000) a
year."
At harvest time,
traders visit his orchard, offering a price of VND35,000-40,000 (US$1.6- 1.9)
a kilo. They harvest grapefruit themselves, he said.
Green-peel and
pink-flesh grapefruit, a speciality fruit, is delicious and sweet, and has
high demand, especially during Tet (Lunar New Year) when the price normally
reaches VND100,000 ($4.7) a kilo.
The fruit is in
high demand in large cities like
Other farmers have
also intercropped green-peel and pink-flesh grapefruits in coffee or other
fruit orchards.
Dang Tuan Thanh in
Hung Loc said he cut down 1ha of his 1.5ha coffee orchard to grow green-peel
and pink-flesh grapefruit four years ago. The coffee orchard was 25 years old
and had a low yield.
Thanh decided to
grow the grapefruit after he visited his friend's grapefruit orchard in Dong
Nai's Dinh Quan District.
Dinh Quan's
green-peel and pink-flesh grapefruits are famous nationwide and have won top
prizes at the Southern Delicious and Safe Fruit Contest for many years.
Early this year,
Thanh's grapefruit trees began to bear fruit, and he has earned VND20 million
($950) of profits from the first harvest.
Bui Minh Phuong,
chairman of the Hung Loc Commune Farmers Association, said the price of
green-peel and pink-flesh grapefruit was high in recent years and many
farmers planted more grapefruit trees.
"Green-peel
and pink-flesh grapefruit is now one of the key fruits here," he said.
More than 40
households in Hung Loc Commune have planted green-peel and pink-flesh
grapefruit trees on a total area of 50ha under the model of grapefruit-specialised
orchards or grapefruit-intercropped orchards, he said.
Previously, the
commune had only 10ha of grapefruit.
Hung Loc
authorities have encouraged farmers to set up co-operatives to plant
grapefruit trees under the Vietnamese Good Agriculture Practice (VietGAP)
standards, he said.
In other districts,
including Vinh Cuu, Tan Phu, Dinh Quan and Cam My, farmers have earned
profits several times higher than profits from other fruits and trees.
Dong Nai has had
1,900ha of grapefruit as of March, up nearly 1000ha against early 2013,
according to the province's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Dong Nai farmers
have planted several grapefruit varieties, with green-peel and pink-flesh
grapefruits accounting for a large area.
Paddy
output projected to increase this year
Paddy output is
expected to reach 45 million tonnes this year, up 800,000 tonnes from last
year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The southern region
has harvested 93 per cent of its summer-autumn crop, or nearly 2 million
hectares, and the next crop in autumn-winter is well under way in the Cuu
Long (
More than 625,000ha
have been planted, almost the same as last year, while half of it has also
been harvested.
This year the mua
rice crop has been planted on nearly 1.7 million hectares, also almost the
same as last year, with the northern region accounting for 1.17 million
hectares. It is sowed in the rainy season and lasts from July to January.
According to the
ministry, the north had favourable weather conditions and enough water and
used proper techniques, and so the crop is developing well.
But Typhoon
Kalmaegi on September 16 damaged 43,000ha of rice in the region, according to
the National Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Prevention and Control.
Last month rains
and floods in upstream
Nguyen Van Can, a
farmer in Long An Province's Tan Thanh District, said rains flattened and
inundated his 2ha of rice which were ready for harvesting.
"I had to
spend VND700,000 (US$34) for fuel to pump the water out to harvest."
The cost of renting
harvesters to use in slushy fields was 50 per cent higher than normal, he
said.
Can had to pay VND3
million to harvest each hectare.
Yields are down by
10-15 per cent because of the damage caused by the inundation, according to
farmers.
In An Giang and
Dong Thap, the worst-hit provinces in the delta, authorities have strengthened
dykes to protect the rice crop.
The dykes, along
with pumps to drain inundated fields, have helped protect the crop in Dong
Thap, according to the province's Department of Agriculture and Rural
Development.
During the
summer-autumn rice crop, coastal provinces like Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Tra
Vinh, Bac Lieu, and Ca Mau also consolidated their dykes to keep out
seawater, built dams to store fresh water, and dredged canals to help
irrigate 700,000ha of rice.
The crop has
yielded an average of 5.65 tonnes per hectare, according to the Cuu Long
Delta Rice Research Institute.
The bumper harvest
has been enabled by planting varieties that are disease-resistant and high
yielding, the institute said.
Farmers carried out
planting according to schedule, which helped them avoid brown planthoppers
and drought, it added.
Rice prices have
increased because of an increase in
Farmers in the
delta have harvested 20.6 million tonnes so far this year from both
winter-spring and summer-autumn crops, or more than 82 per cent of the target
of this year, according to the institute.
Poor in
need of proper housing
A poor family by Nhieu Loc Thi
Nghe canal in
Housing for low-income
people in
A recent survey on
low-income households in the city by the sociology faculty at the HCM City
University of Social Sciences and Humanities showed that most low-income
people were living in makeshift houses with substandard infrastructure.
Others were staying with relatives.
At an international
conference on the problem on Wednesday and Thursday, the rapidly increasing
population was blamed for exacerbating the problem, said Nguyen Thi Hong
Xoan, head of the faculty.
"Of the social
groups who are in dire need of housing, poor people are the biggest,"
she said.
There were many
low-income residential areas in newly established districts, such as Binh Tan
and Tan Phu, Xoan said. But poor living conditions in houses without
certificates of land use or ownership rights threatened the health and social
lives of low-income residents, she said.
The faculty survey
showed that 4.6 per cent of houses in
Up to 28 per cent
of households rely on clean water sources from their neighbours, while 16 per
cent still use wells.
"Many have to
live around polluted canals, where they release sewage directly into the
streams as they do not have in-house treatment system," Xoan said. Many
did not use rubbish collectors and others lived in waterlogged situations..
"The poor
always suffer the most from air, noise, rubbish and sewage pollutions, so we
need suitable policies to improve their living conditions," Xoan said.
A survey conducted
by the Department for Urban Management Research under the HCM City Institute
for Development Studies found that about 62 per cent of households in the
Dong Hung 2 project in District 12, which serves low-income residents, said
they could not afford the rent they were paying.
"The results
of the survey show that the housing policy, which city authorities have made
a great effort to accomplish, has not met its target," said Du Phuoc
Tan, head of the department.
The amount of
subsidised houses should be increased, said Nguyen Thi Hai Ly, deputy head of
the Department of Construction's Urban Development section. The houses are
worth less than US$23,800 each.
"Besides
creating priority policies for enterprises to build social houses, the city
should have policies to encourage the private sector to join in," she
said.
The conference was
jointly held by the
Sleeper
buses to be weighed
On-road sleeper
buses face being pulled over and taken to weighing stations for the next two
weeks to collect technical data. The vehicles will also be given other safety
tests.
General Director of
the Directorate for Roads under the Ministry of Transport, Nguyen Van Huyen,
said, "Overloaded sleeper buses will not be fined because the object is
to collect technical figures."
Sleeper buses will
be weighed when they are loaded with passengers and freight - and again when
they are empty," said Huyen.
Deputy Minister of
Transport, Le Dinh Tho, announced the checks and weigh-ins last month.
He said freight
piled on sleeper buses could be cause bus accidents by shifting the centre of
gravity, making drivers lose control.
The Directorate for
Roads has ordered each local Department of Transport, including Ha Noi, Quang
Ninh, Lam Dong and
Last month, the
transport ministry proposed banning sleeper buses from travelling on narrow
and curved routes in mountainous areas. This followed the deaths of more than
a dozen people when a sleeper bus left the road near
Bus companies were
asked to employ drivers who had three years' experience in driving 30-seat
buses and to carefully monitor bus technical standards and black boxes.
Director of the
motor registry office, Tran Ky Hinh, said there were more than 4,500 sleeper
buses in the country.
"In the last
two years, there have been 22 accidents involving sleeper buses, of which 19
occurred at night," Hinh said.
University
urged to build reputation
Deputy Prime
Minister Vu Duc Dam has called on the
Speaking at the
opening of the academic year yesterday, he said university officials should
set a schedule for climbing up the list of leading world universities.
It should act as a
link between the country's universities and research institutes to strengthen
scientific research, he said.
He hailed its
research successes and the initiatives taken by its research centres.
The university has
60 labs for research and training, which are also the setting for many of the
country's main science and technology programmes in automation, IT, ICT,
bio-technology, computer science, and telecommunications.
The number of
science articles it published in foreign journals was up four times last year
from 2006 at 110. In the period its articles' index of impact factor (IF)
rose from 1.49 to 2.06.
In the 2014
Quacquarelli Symonds University Ranking in
Prof Dr Phan Thanh
Binh, the university's president, said that the university aims to also
become a research institute, a world-class one and a leader in the region.
In September its
Dam said the
university is likely to have more member universities meeting these
standards, and then it would become a model for others in the country.
It should make
suggestions on how to improve training quality to the education ministry and
the Government, he added.
Dr Tran Hong Quan,
a former education minister, said the Government should invest more in the
country's main universities like the
He also called for
giving it autonomy in terms of administration, finance, and academic
programmes, an urgent requirement for fixing the problems tertiary education
faces.
Dam also met with
and offered words of encouragement to the university's students.
"Put in a lot
of effort, believe in yourselves, and set goals," he told them.
"Help the
country develop quickly. You are
Efforts to clean
all the war-time dioxin waste from around
An estimated 80,000
cubic metres of dioxin-contaminated soil and sediments is targeted for
removal with support from the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID).
The four-year
project is part of a range of measures implemented to address the chemicals
used to defoliate large parts of southern
During the first
stage, USAID contractors dug up 45,000 cubic metres of soil tainted with
dioxin, the director of
Tuyen hailed the
department for its part in the project, and called for the second stage to be
started soon.
The
Using an In-Pile
Thermal Desorption (IPTD) system, batches of contaminated soil and sediment
are placed in a container and heated to a temperature of 335 degrees Celsius,
which destroys 95 per cent of dioxins.
The soil is later
removed from the container and tested for traces of contaminants before being
put back.
Yen Bai
commune at risk from landslides
Cracks have
appeared in a hill near Lam Giang Commune in the northern mountainous
The cracks were
first discovered last Saturday. The biggest was about 80m long and rapidly
growing. By Thursday it was more than 1m wide and half of the hill had sunk
by 1m, damaging four houses.
The affected
households were moved to a safe place and warning signs were installed in the
area.
Men
arrested for causing public disorder
Thuy Nguyen
District Police in the northern port city of
Nguyen Huu Dang,
27, Nguyen Van Trieu, 26, and Pham Van Trung, 28, were trainees at the
centre. On September 14, they incited more than 300 former drug addicts
voluntarily staying at the centre to escape, despite efforts by staff to
dissuade them.
Police used
loudspeakers to advise them to return to the centre and not gather in large
numbers on the street.
By 7 pm, they had
dispersed completely. More than 200 went back to the centre and the others
returned home.
Ex-port
officials face prosecution for fraud
The Phu Yen People's
Procuracy has completed documents to prosecute eight managers at Vung Ro Port
Co Ltd for taking advantage of their position.
Company director
Nguyen Minh, 56, who was seized in August 2013, was on the list with seven
others including the former deputy director, accountant and cashier of the
company and Minh's private business Dai Loc Company.
From 2011 to 2013,
Minh and his accomplices made illegal receipts and contracts to move money
from Vung Ro Company to Dai Loc Company, causing losses of more than VND37.3
billion (US$1.7 million) for the State budget.
Deputy PM
calls for faster progress on disaster centre
Deputy Prime
Minister Hoang Trung Hai has called for faster work on the building of the
National Centre for Disaster Management and Operation, Research and Rescue.
Construction of the
seven-storey centre, covering about 9,000 square metres, began in December.
It will cost about VND200 billion (US$9.4 million).
Hai said he wanted
the centre to be in operation by the end of next year because climate and
weather developments were becoming more complicated.
He said the centre
was expected to minimise human loss and property damage when disasters hit.
Hai required the
National Committee for Research and Rescue to co-operate with relevant
agencies to ensure the centre's communication system would run smoothly in
any type of disaster.
The committee was
told to ask the Ministry of National Defence to allocate human forces to the
centre.
Hai assigned the
ministries of National Defence; Planning and Investment; and Finance to work
with each other to buy equipment for the centre.
The centre, located
in Long Bien District's Phuc Dong Ward in Ha Noi, will be equipped with
modern equipment and facilities similar to that in other disaster management
centres in ASEAN nations.
14th
International Agriculture Trade Fair to be launched in
The 14th
International Agriculture Trade Fair (Agro Viet 2014) will be held in
The fair provides a
chance for agricultural businesses to advertise their products, exchange
experiences and gain access to advanced technologies, Director of the Trade
Promotion Centre for Agriculture Dao Van Ho said.
This year’s event
will feature approximately 450 stands from 200 businesses and organisations
both domestic and foreign.
As part of the
fair, a conference on the use of fertilisers and chemicals in agricultural
production and a seminar on the linkages between production and distribution
and sustainable agricultural value chains will be organised.
A delegation of
Japanese businesses will attend an exchange with local partners on this
occasion.-
Japanese
NGO assists Tien Giang in education development
An educational
development assistance project in
The results were
presented in a meeting held in the locality on October 3, aiming to review
the implementation of the project.
The project helped
upgrade educational facilities and reduce the rate of dropouts caused by
economic difficulties, thus increasing the public’s awareness of the
importance of education, especially in remote areas.
Over the last
decade, the provincial education sector has received financial assistance
worth 7 billion VND (329,000 USD) from the project.
The funds were used
to provide scholarships to poor students and consolidate the infrastructure
of nine primary schools and three secondary schools.
Tran Thi Quy Mao,
Vice Director of the provincial Department of Education and Training said the
project had helped minimise the rate of dropouts at primary education level,
especially in rural areas, and had improved the literacy rate in the
community.
The Japanese
non-governmental organisation ACA-AQUA has also been working with
Since her inception
in 1959, the
The year 2000
marked the educational institution’s success in building fishing boats made
from composites, a materials generating high performance at economic
advantage.
The event paved the
way for the university to enter a partnership with
In early August
2014, the first 350CV composite vessels used for fishing ocean tuna were
launched, promising to bring long-term, durable benefits to fishermen.
The intensive
application of bio-technology for the breeding and conservation of freshwater
aquatic resources was attributed to the university’s prestige.
Previously known as
the Fisheries Faculty of Hanoi Institute of Agriculture and Forestry, the
university has educated nearly 40,000 engineers together with those holding
master’s and doctorate degree.
In 2006, the
university received the Government’s Labour Hero Medal in recognition of her
great contributions to the fisheries sector.
A ceremony was held
on October 2 to celebrate the 55 th founding anniversary of the university
and begin the 2014-2018 academic year.
New waste
treatment plant operational in Hanoi
A new waste
treatment plant was put into operation on October 4 in
The plant was built
by the Thang Long Environmental Service Joint Stock Company, which has won
several technology innovation prizes including an award by the World
Intellectual Property Organisation for its research project on waste
incineration with heat recovery.
Addressing the
plant’s inauguration ceremony, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee
Vu Hong Khanh emphasized the need to apply scientific-technological advances
to environmental protection in general and waste treatment in particular. He
hailed the Thang Long company as the first scientific enterprise operating in
the field of environment, adding that the city hopes more economic sectors
will become involved in this field.
More than 16,000
tonnes of solid waste, discharged from households, industrial parks,
construction sites, and hospitals, need to be treated daily in the city by
2030.
To address the
problem,
Seventeen solid
waste treatment facilities have therefore been zoned off, including the eight
existing ones. The total area for these plants till 2030 will be 422
hectares.
Energy-saving and
environmentally-friendly technology will be preferred to treat the waste.
To carry out the
project efficiently, the capital will adopt policies and enhance communication
campaigns to raise public awareness of environmental protection and
classification of solid waste right at home.
Song Thu
Corporation and the Vietnam Coast Guard organized a ceremony to launch most
modern coastguard vessel CSB 8002, in the central city of
The international
standard versatile vessel will assist the Vietnamese coastguard force to
protect the country’s sea and island sovereignty, said Major General Nguyen
Van Tuong, political commissar of the Vietnam Coast Guard’s High Command.
It will also
perform environment pollution prevention, seafood resource protection, and
search and rescue operation, Mr. Tuong said.
Another important
function of the vessel is to help fishermen feel secure to go out to sea, he
added.
Dong Nai
names street after General Vo Nguyen Giap
The southern
The road measuring
12.2km long and 40m wide, runs along Binh Minh commune in Trang Bom district
and Long Binh Tan commune in Bien Hoa city.
The naming of the
the street shows the gratitude of local authorities and people to the beloved
general on the occasion of his first death anniversary (October 4).
Since General
Giap's death, many provinces and cities throughout
The inspectorates
of Hanoi is currently looking into an accusation that local authorities have
been taking bribes for the red book issuance process for a number of real
estate projects in the city.
During a Q & A
session of the National Assembly Standing Committee with the Ministry of
Natural Resources and Environment on September 29, NA Deputy Nguyen Sy Cuong
said he had received complains about corruption in the process of issuing
home ownership certificates.
There have been
rumours that local authorities asked investors and residents to pay VND8
million (USD380) per certificate or they would not be processed. This
'payment without invoice' was also said to occurred for real estate projects
in
After receiving the
information, the Hanoi People's Committee asked the city inspectorates to
start an investigation into the allegations and report back by October 11.
The Hanoi People's Committee also informed the NA Standing Committee, the
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and NA Deputy Nguyen Sy Cuong
of their decision.
Pham Quang Nghi,
Politburo member and secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee, warned all
agencies involved to protect the identities of whistle blowers.
Source: VNN/VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/ND
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Chủ Nhật, 5 tháng 10, 2014
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