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Social News 24/1
Bus fare reductions for holiday travellers
Following decreases in fuel prices,
According to agency statistics, 110 of 130 operators in the
Mien Tay bus station and 115 of 214 operators in the Mien Dong station have
reduced transport fares thus far.
Only five operators have announced their intent to increase
their ticket costs for some routes.
Currently, the industry is experiencing increased demand on
the people’s travel as the holiday season quickly approaches.
On January 4, petrol prices were cut by 1,900 VND per litre,
the second reduction this month.
The price of RON 95 was down to 16,270 VND while the prices of
RON 92 and bio-fuel E5 were reduced to 15,670 VND.
Diesel prices were cut by 1,460 VND, resulting in a cost
between 15,120 and 15,170 VND per litre.
Earlier, on January 6, average retail petrol prices were cut
by 310 VND per litre.
Project on law enforcement on the disabled reviewed
People with disabilities have increasingly been encouraged to
engage in monitoring policy implementation and decision making in local
issues related to their wellbeing, as a result of a nine-month project on the
subject.
At a workshop held by the Vietnam Association for the Blind
(VAB) on January 22 in
The project, funded by the Public Participation and
Accountability Facilitation Fund (PARAFF) was piloted in Thanh Ha district of
northern Hai Duong province, home to more than 3,800 people with
disabilities.
Under the project, training courses, talks, and games were
organised to improve the target group’s understanding of relevant laws and
legal documents.
Consultation services were offered, as well as user-friendly
Braille lettered and audio versions of documents, to targeted groups in Thanh
Ha district.
The project has benefited local people with disabilities,
improved the implementation of relevant legal documents, and contributed to
raising compassion and understanding across the community, said Pham Van
Hung, Chairman of the district Fatherland Front Committee.
German-funded school inaugurated in Soc Trang
A German-funded primary school’s facility was inaugurated and
put into operation in Hoa Tu 2 commune, My Xuyen district, Soc Trang province
on January 22.
This was the final venue of the Hoa Tu 2 four-site primary
school which was built with funding from the German foundation
Schmitz-Stiftung along with five rural bridges in the Mekong Delta province.
It includes two classrooms, a sports ground, and a park.
Earlier in last October, the German foundation inaugurated a
two-class school venue in Hoa Tu commune.
Ha Noi to prosecute two Peruvian robbers
The Ha Noi police decided to prosecute two Peruvian men
arrested for suspected robbery.
William Rafael Villanueva, 43, and Jose Marcelino Velasquez
Aviles, 63, reportedly told the police that they went to a luxury hotel in
Hoan Kiem District as tourists on January 8, and found ways to rob the other
tourists staying there.
They stole a tablet, a camera and a credit card of a Canadian
woman at the hotel and sold the items for money.
The men confessed that they had committed robbery at other
hotels too in the city.
Two robbers seized in
The Ha Giang Police seized two men for robbery 20 hours after
they committed the crime.
Ha Van Chi, 39, from the northern mountainous province of Ha
Giang and Hoang Van Nguyen, 37, from the northern mountainous province of Yen
Bai allegedly stole more than VND700 million (US$33,300) from a 70-year-old
woman at Ha Giang's Thanh Thuy International Border Gate at 8am on Tuesday.
Hundreds of police from the Thanh Thuy Border Post and the
provincial police were assigned to hunt down the two men.
The two men were caught at 3pm on Wednesday while they were
hiding in the forest.
Besra faces fines for polluting the environment
Canadian tax debtor Besra Group may face environmental
pollution fines at its Bong Mieu Gold Mining Company as the firm was detected
to discharge untreated wastewater into the Bong Mieu River, according to the
central province of Quang Nam’s website.
The Quang Nam Provincial People's Committee sent a dispatch to
the local environment and natural resources department to ask the latter to
complete final necessary procedures to impose administrative environmental
fines on Bong Mieu Gold Mining Company.
The committee also asked the company to immediately stop
pumping untreated waste water into the
Operating two gold mines in Quang
According to VIR’s source, on January 23, the provincial
leaders will meet with Besra to settle down the environmental pollution
issue.
Producer of fake traditional medicine fined VND 15 million
Authority in the central
In addition to the fine, the provincial People Committee
forbade Nguyen Thi Nhuong, 46, who produced the fake traditional drugs at her
house, to make traditional drugs forever.
Following the rumor that Nhuong’s family has earned huge
profits from making a miracle traditional drug which made from corn powder,
sugar-cane honey and some herbals, medical inspectors have paid an
unscheduled visit to the house.
Inspectors discovered illegal medicines and suspended the
production. They also destroyed 13 bags of corn powder weighing totally
445 kilogram and 368 packages of herbal drugs, sugar-cane honey and many
materials without clear indication of origin.
The Ministry of Health and its medical partners met with
international organisations to consult on current pharmaceutical best
practices and recommendations on January 22, as the ministry prepares to
revise the law on pharmacy.
Addressing the function, Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien,
said the 1996 national pharmaceutical policy was a significant milestone for
the sector, but progress in healthcare standards in the last two decades
mandate improved policies to maximise access to reliable medication sources.
She continued, saying the ministry’s top priority is
maintaining long-term and effective collaboration with medical partners both
locally and internationally in order to realise targets set forth in the
national strategy on pharmaceutical development by 2020.
According to Truong Quoc Cuong, Head of the Pharmacy
Management Department under the Ministry of Health, the development strategy
will focus on a number of key issues, such as ensuring sufficient pharmaceutical
supply, expanding the distribution network, and developing comprehensive and
effective management structures.
Cuong highlighted other components in the current draft of the
amended pharmacy law, including increasing investments in pharmaceutical
research, applying advanced technologies, improving clinical medicine
quality, and enforcing regulations on the cost of medicines.
Arthur Erken, Country Representative of the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA) in
He also endorsed the revised law, saying it will provide an
improved legal framework for the national strategy.
Since the 1990s,
This year's 10th Lawrence S. Ting charity walk has raised
about VND3 billion (US$143,000) from sponsors, organisers and individuals
since the campaign was launched about three months ago.
All proceeds will be donated to the fund set up to help the
poor in districts 7, 8, Nha Be and Binh Chanh and a foundation that aids
sporting talents of
More than 14,000 people will take part in the walk that will
be flagged off in Ban Nguyet (Crescent) Lake in
FDI for education falls short of expectations
As of December 2014, foreign direct investment (FDI) in the
public education sector of the nation has fallen far short of expectations,
the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) has announced.
The sector attracted investment of only US$825.5 million in
204 projects nationwide, which represents an average of roughly US$4 million
and is an inconsequential 0.33% of the nation’s total investment.
The government had been banking on an average investment per
project of US$14.3 million the FIA said adding, that of the country’s 18
sectors, education ranked near the bottom in the 16th position.
Most of the projects have been located in the larger
metropolitan areas including 70 projects in Hanoi with FDI of US$328 million,
Ho Chi Minh City (97 projects at US$263 million) and Danang (8 projects at
US$157 million).
Students in
As TET approaches many Vietnamese students in
Members of the Melbourne Overseas Vietnamese Student
Association (MOVSA) have collected about VND24 million by selling second-hand
clothes, footwear, used computer discs and bags at markets in
MOVSA President Nguyen Minh Hoang said students want to share
joy and warmness with the disadvantaged at home during the upcoming Lunar New
Year festival (Tet). All collections will be used to purchase 45 gifts for
poor people in Quang Tri province.
PM okays relocation plan for Hoa Binh reservoir
The Prime Minister has approved adjustments to the Scheme on
Population Stabilisation and Social-Economic Development for the Da River
Evacuation Area in
The original scheme, approved in Decision 1588/QD-TTg dated
October 9, 2009, affects 36 communes of five districts (Da Bac, Mai Chau, Tan
Lac, Cao Phong and Kim Boi) and the city of
The adjusted scheme is different from the old one in the
scope, purposes and duration of implementation. The new VND4,053 billion
(nearly US$190 million) scheme will be completed in 2020, instead of 2015.
The affected area will cover 40 communes, including 36 covered by the old
scheme and the additional four communes of Yen Nghiep (Lac Son district), Bao
Hieu (Yen Thuy district), Dong Tam (Lac Thuy district) and My Hoa (Kim Boi
district).
The scheme intends to ensure stable residences for people,
improve their living standards and income, eliminate the households at risk
of relapsing into hunger and reduce the ratio of poor households to the
province average. It also aims to change the economic structure of the area
gradually, reducing agriculture-reliant labour and increasing the percentage
of trained labourers.
The specific targets set for 2020 are relocating around 300
households to concentrated resettlement areas, stabilising the life of the
1,200 households in the communes around the lake and developing agriculture,
forestry and fishery in ways that are concentrated, industrialised and employ
advanced science and technology to increase productivity, improve quality and
cut production costs.
Under the plan, the ratio of industry and services would
account for 20-25 per cent of the economic structure for the communes
surrounding the reservoir. Villagers would be given access to production
services and product outlets. Agricultural labourers would account for only
60 per cent of the workforce, while trained labourers would account for 40
per cent.
In addition to increasing investment in expanding production
and infrastructure, the scheme aims to move households in areas prone to
landslides and flash floods to safer resettlement areas with adequate land
for permanent accommodation and production. Households in crowded areas will
be relocated to less populated areas with sufficient land for housing and
production. Funding will focus on the development of sustainable livelihoods
such as investing in production forests, raising cattle and poultry and
rearing caged fish on a commercial basis.
Phong Phu workers protest unreasonable working conditions
On January 19, 600 workers of the Phong Phu Nha Trang garment
factory in the central province of Khanh Hoa, one of the factories belonging
to Vietnam’s biggest garment producer and exporter Phong Phu Corp., gathered
to ask leaders of the company to negotiate on the unreasonable new rules the
employer planned to enforce, according to laodong.com.vn.
The workers had been informed of the eradication of the
VND200,000 ($9.4) monthly transportation allowance, to be replaced by the
requirement that 100 per cent of workers travel using the company’s bus
system. Phong Phu would also cut 70 per cent of a worker’s attendance bonus
if he/she takes one day off no matter what the reason is, as well as cut
break time.
Workers were enraged by the new rules. “The bus routes are
inconvenient. The bus passes some locations on the way to the factory but
does not do so on the way back from it. We are only allowed one leave day per
month, now if we take it we get a 70 per cent cut in attendance bonus. Wage
is at most VND4 million ($188) a month. We can’t go on like this,” one of the
workers said.
In 2014, the company already enforced unreasonable policies
such as continuous overtime not paid according to the law but instead paid by
breaks and an unreasonably high quota among others.
A group of officials from the Department of Labour, Invalids
and Social Affairs and the Confederation of Labour of Khanh Hoa province,
joined to facilitate the negotiation between the employees and the employer.
They asked the management to reconsider the quota and overtime pay and
resolve other disputes with the workers.
At the end of the negotiation, Nguyen Tien Ha, acting
director of the factory agreed to abolish the 70 per cent attendance bonus
cut and to redesign the bus routes as well as maintain transport allowance in
some cases. The management said they would still pay workers for January 19
and asked the workers to go back to work on January 20.
Phong Phu Corporation (OTC: PPH) is one of
Doosan Vina donates multivitamins to Quang Ngai
Doosan Vina, in cooperation with Internourish of the
The multivitamins will be distributed to Quang Ngai children
to improve their health. The multivitamin donation is a commitment by
Doosan Vina and Internourish that began with the signing of a memorandum of
understanding on May 19, 2011. This is the fourth multivitamin donation by
Doosan Vina and Internourish.
This year’s donation will provide 2,880 local children with a
one-year supply of multivitamins.
The vitamins will help reduce nutritional deficiencies and
strengthen their immune systems. Doosan Vina and Internourish have donated
more than 2.6 million doses of multivitamin to the children of Quang Ngai
since 2011.
Ryu Hang Ha, CEO of Doosan Vina, said in a statement that
children are the future of a country, so Doosan Vina’s mission is to help
protect the health of children in Quang Ngai.
Doosan Vina’s extensive CSR programs have contributed over
US$5.5 million in health and education related support for the local
community in its six years of operation in Quang Ngai.
VBL awards scholarships to students
Vietnam Brewery Limited (VBL) on January 20 awarded 42
scholarships worth VND15 million each to outstanding students in the field of
environment as part of its program to protect water resources.
The program, which has been in place since 2012 and will last
until 2017, is expected to cost nearly VND7 billion. After more than three
years, it has donated 76 scholarships and funded 12 scientific research
projects worth a combined VND2.7 billion.
Scientists and researchers aged below 40 and senior students
with water resource-related ideas can apply for financial grants from VBL,
Sawaco plans to adjust up water prices
Saigon Water Corporation (Sawaco) on January 20 unveiled a
roadmap to increase the average price of running water by 10.5% per year from
now to 2019 if it is approved.
The average price for household users will edged up from the
current VND5,300 (nearly 25 U.S. cents) per cubic meter to VND7,900 by 2019,
excluding tax, Sawaco said at a conference on the water price hike plan for
the 2015-2019 period.
The State utility said the increase of 10.5% appraised by the
city’s Department of Finance is needed to expand the supply of water whose
investment makes up 72% of the clean water production cost in the next five
years.
Water treatment plants in HCMC are expected to supply around
3.7 million cubic meters of water for city residents a day by 2025, 2.2 times
higher than the current output.
In the coming time, several water plants will be up and
running, including Thu Duc 2 and Tan Hiep 2 with each having a capacity of
300,000 cubic meters a day. More than 1,600 kilometers of new pipeline will
be built.
To help poor households, Sawaco will keep the price of water
for them at the level of last year and lower than the average in the coming
years if each of their members consumes no more than four cubic meters a
month.
Immigrants, students, and laborers at homes rented for 12
months or longer will pay the same prices as city residents.
As calculated by Sawaco, the water price hike will not have
serious impact on locals.
For example, a household of four members will pay an
additional VND12,000 from the current VND84,000 if each member uses a maximum
of four cubic meters of water a month.
Tran Dong A, member of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee
in HCMC, agreed on the roadmap.
But Tran Thien Tu, another member of the committee, proposed
the city authorities compare water prices in the city with those in other
countries in
Tu said he is concerned about the current high water loss rate
in HCMC, at 33%, and that water suppliers should make clear this problem as
it is a matter of investment efficiency.
If the loss rate is reduced to 10%, the city can save enough
money to invest in a water plant with a capacity of two million cubic meters
a day, Tu said.
By the end of last year, 13 of 19 districts in the inner-city
areas had had access to running water. But clean water has not reached around
317,200 households in Binh Chanh, Hoc Mon and Cu Chi districts, according to
data of Sawaco.
Sawaco deputy general director Bach Vu Hai said if the Vietnam
Fatherland Front Committee in HCMC approved the water price hike plan, the
company would forward it to the city government for approval.
Standard Chartered offers shelters, free eye care in Tien
Giang
Standard Chartered Vietnam, in cooperation with Standard
Chartered Korea, has offered eight homes for poor families in
The project was conducted between January 4 and 11 with the
support of nearly 100 employees of Standard Chartered Vietnam and
Volunteers also organized an exchange with local people and
gave information on eye care tips for students in
Standard Chartered Vietnam coordinated with
The US$1-million budget for the eye care project from
2013-2016 has been funded by staff of Standard Chartered Vietnam and Korea
and deployed in Tien Giang, Vinh Long, Lam Dong and Dak Nong provinces.
In 2013, the two units of Standard Chartered gave 20 homes to
poor families in Ben Tre Province, examined and performed eye operations on
400 patients, and supported about 2,000 people in need, including blind
people and students.
Man detained for possessing 1,000 drug pills
A man has been detained for possessing 1,000 pills of
synthetic drugs in the
To Cong Binh, 56, from Cat Bi district in the coastal city of
The case is being investigated further.
Another member of gang of ‘telepaths' arrested
Police in the central
The gang members had pretended to be telepaths who could help
families of war martyrs to find their remains.
The arrested man, 28-year-old Nguyen Truong Son, is the
son-in-law of Nguyen Thanh Thuy, 55 and Man Thi Duyen, 52, who are from the
Thuy and Duyen, allegedly the gang leaders, were detained in
October 2013 for cheating the families of war martyrs of billions of dong.
Later, Duyen's younger brother Man Duc Phuong, and Thuy's
younger brother Nguyen Van Hoanh were also temporarily detained.
Police said that from December 2012 to July 2013, the couple
allegedly made tombs containing fake human remains, and told the families of
war martyrs that the remains were of their relatives.
They cheated the families of VND8 billion (US$380,900).
VNN/VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/ND
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Thứ Sáu, 23 tháng 1, 2015
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