VIETNAM NEWS HEADLINES MARCH 12 15:54 Two consecutive earthquakes happen in Quang Nam The central province of Quang Nam faced two consecutive earthquakes within 20 minutes early this morning, March 11. According to the Earthquake and Tsunami Warning Centre, the earthquakes occurred in the mountainous district of Bac Tra My. The first one measuring 2.9 on the Richter Scale happened at around 1:48 am at a depth of 8.3 kilometres, while the other at around 2:07 am had a depth of 8.2 kilometres. Local residents could feel the shakes for a few seconds. These have been the first earthquakes in Bac Tra My so far this year. The locality has previously witnessed many earthquakes of differing severity. Former deputy health minister detained The Ministry of Public Security has detained former Deputy Minister of Health Cao Minh Quang for his alleged involvement in irregularities in the purchase of materials to produce Tamiflu and Oseltamivir phosphate, antivirals of the H5N1 avian influenza virus, from Cuu Long Pharmaceutical JSC in 2006. Lieutenant General To An Xo, chief of the ministry’s office, said today, March 11, that the ministry had filed charges against Quang since he showed no sense of responsibility, which caused serious consequences. The ministry’s investigators also launched criminal proceedings against Duong Huy Lieu and Nguyen Nam Lien, former heads of the Department of Planning and Finance under the Ministry of Health, for the same charges. Preliminary investigation results showed that the accused had failed to check and discover that Cuu Long Pharmaceutical JSC had yet to pay US$3.8 million to the supplier of the materials. The money was a result of the reduction in prices of materials, originating from the State budget. The firm kept the money for its own use rather than returning it to the Ministry of Health, causing losses to the State. Relating to the case, investigators had earlier arrested Luong Van Hoa, former general director of Cuu Long Pharmaceutical JSC, and Nguyen Van Thanh Hai, former chief accountant of the firm. Ministries earmark 70 percent of budget for climate change adaptation Vietnamese ministries allocate more than 70 percent of their budgets to climate change adaptation, heard a launch workshop regarding climate public expenditure and investment review (CPEIR) of Vietnam on March 11. The CPEIR report, jointly conducted by six ministries, together with 28 provinces and Can Tho city, indicated that the figure exceeds 90 percent in the localities, meeting the Government’s priorities in public expenditure in the 2016-2020 period. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Transport held a lion’s share of 80 percent of the total budget, with spending on major infrastructure projects of irrigation and transport. The report aimed to give recommendations on budget planning for climate change adaptation and propose keeping watch on the use of the State and localities’ budgets to ensure consistency between priorities and policies. Outcomes of the report will be helpful in bolstering climate change adaptation of the public financial management system and facilitating ministries and localities’ climate interventions, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc underlined. HCM City bolsters efficiency of work on overseas Vietnamese in new context Ho Chi Minh City’s Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs is to step up dissemination to raise awareness of policies and regulations of the Party and State, contributing to upholding great national solidarity and patriotism of Vietnamese people at home and abroad. During a conference to launch its orientations and tasks this year held on March 11, head of the committee Phung Cong Dung affirmed that the Vietnamese community abroad is an inseparable part of the nation, adding that HCM City has hosted various events for the OVs and took note of their recommendations for the southern hub’s development. The committee plays an important role in external affairs work and foreign investment attraction, he underlined. In 2022, it is set to hold some 15 events on activities of the OVs in combination with socio-economic recovery and development, as well as measures to raise efficiency of the work in the new context. Vietnam logs 169,114 COVID-19 infections on March 11 An additional 169,114 COVID-19 infections were confirmed in Vietnam on March 11, the Ministry of Health said. A further 71 COVID-19 related deaths were also announced. The country’s COVID-19 caseload since the start of the pandemic now stands at 5,448,935. In the last week, the country has reported an average of 153,998 new infections daily. Among the new cases, 24 were imported and the rest is domestic infections. A total of 112,937 of the transmissions were detected in the community. The total number of COVID-related fatalities in Vietnam is now 41,228, about 0.8 percent of all infections. According to the Ministry of Health, 3,990 patients nationwide are in serious condition, with 317 requiring invasive ventilation and three on life support. Preparations made for flight from Romania bringing Vietnamese home Vietnam's representative agencies and associations of Vietnamese in Romania are making efforts to prepare for a March 12 flight bringing citizens who had to flee from Ukraine home, the Embassy of Vietnam in the country has announced. This will be the second repatriation flight bringing Vietnamese people home from Bucharest. The VN68 flight is to depart from Bucharest’s Henri Coandă international airport at 5:20pm on March 12 and land at Hanoi’s Noi Bai airport at 4:40am on March 13 (local time). It is projected to carry 276 passengers. Vietnamese Ambassador to Romania Dang Tran Phong said passengers include under-12 children accompanied by adults, elderly people, pregnant women, persons with illness, students, and people in disadvantaged circumstances. In addition, the embassy and the Vietnamese community in Bucharest are assisting more than 600 compatriots with procedures and accommodations while waiting for upcoming flights to Vietnam. Repatriation flights must be conducted in line with regulations: Deputy PM Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh has assigned the Ministry of Transport to coordinate the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) and relevant agencies to quickly arrange flights funded by businesses to bring home Vietnamese citizens from Ukraine. The Ministry of Finance was also asked to join hands with the MoFA, the Ministry of Public Security and agencies in the implementation of the Deputy PM’s document on the conduct of such repatriation flights, issued on March 9. Any matter that comes beyond their power should be reported to the Prime Minister, according to the March 11 document. Those who want to go home can continue to register for flights at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdQqfqeq3QTxl8CKLqbAwkQnOpHiRu8wj8hiN2lqhnqp4j-OA/viewform To receive assistance in case of need, Vietnamese people in Ukraine and its neighbouring countries can contact the following phone numbers and emails: Ministry of Foreign Affairs: 84-965411118, 84-981848484; Email: baohocongdan@gmail.com Vietnamese Embassy in Ukraine: 380 (63) 8638999 Vietnamese Embassy in Russia: 79916821617 Vietnamese Embassy in Poland: 0048782257359 Vietnamese Embassy in Romania: 0040744645037 Vietnamese Embassy in Slovakia; 421 2 5245 1263, 421 915 044 329, 421 915 419 568 Vietnamese Embassy in Hungary: 36 308 385 699. Vietnam supports reforms to make UN stronger, more effective Vietnam strongly supports upgrading the United Nations into a stronger and more effective organisation that can fulfill its vital role of meeting the interests and concerns of member states and the international community, said Nguyen Phuong Tra, Deputy Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the UN, on March 10. The official made the statement during the UN General Assembly’s fifth consultation on “Our Common Agenda” themed “Enhancing International Cooperation”. This process should be open, based on wide consultations, and led by member states. Therefore, there should be a better mechanism for improving inputs of the UN, including its bodies and agencies, Tra suggested. The diplomat added success of the UN also depends on the improvement of the institutions and working methods, stressing that meaningful reform should ensure widest possible participation from a variety of actors while maintain the inter-governmental nature of the organization. Soldiers’ remains repatriation team in An Giang honoured K93 team of the Military High Command of An Giang received the third-class Feat of Arms Order by the President during a ceremony held in the Mekong Delta province on March 11. The award is to honour the team’s contributions to the search and repatriation of remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and experts who laid down their lives in Cambodia. Since its establishment in November 2000, officers and soldiers of the team have searched for and repatriated more than 3,200 martyr remains. Quang Tri launches peace symbol design contest Authorities and the youth union in the central province of Quang Tri on March 11 launched a sculpture design contest for a peace symbol to be erected at the local Hien Luong – Ben Hai national special relic site. The nationwide contest will last until May 31, requiring its entries to be generalisable, artistic, and highly professional, and have positive cultural and humanistic meanings. The entries must be unique and sustainable. The selected work is expected to recreate the image of the national struggle to liberate the South and unify the country. The province was one of the most heavily bombed areas during the anti-US resistance war. It was also renowned for the fierce 81-day-and-night battle at the ancient Quang Tri Citadel. 13th National Women’s Congress wraps up The 13th National Women’s Congress for the 2022 - 2027 tenure wrapped up in Hanoi on March 11 morning after three working days. The congress elected 155 people to the 13th VWU Central Committee, which later convened its first meeting and re-elected Nga as the President and chose four others as vice presidents. The event approved the basic targets for 2022 - 2027, including helping 33,500 women’s households escape from the poor or near-poor status; helping improve the capacity of 17,000 women who are business owners, cooperative managers, or heads of business households; assisting the establishment of 350 cooperatives with women among their managers; and helping 80 percent of the women and girls who are victims of domestic violence or human trafficking to access at least one social support service. President of Sierra Leone to visit Vietnam from March 14-20 The President of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio, and his spouse will pay an official visit to Vietnam from March 14 – 20. The visit will be made at the invitation of President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his spouse. Vietnam-Oman football match to welcome 20,000 spectators Up to 20,000 spectators will be allowed to directly watch the upcoming World Cup qualifier match between Vietnam and Oman at the My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi, according to a document issued by Hanoi People’s Committee relating to the organisation of the event. Spectators are required to be fully vaccinated and strictly follow the Ministry of Health’s 5K messages and complete health declaration. They are recommended to undergo a COVID-19 test before entering the stadium and shouldn't go there if they have any symptoms of coronavirus. The football match between Vietnam and China is scheduled to kick off at 7pm on March 24. Vietnam Airlines’ flights to repatriate another 500 Vietnamese from Ukraine Vietnam Airlines has announced it will conduct two more flights to bring more than 500 Vietnamese people from Ukraine back home on March 13. As planned, Flight VN58 will pick up evacuees from Warsaw and come back to Hanoi at 4:40 pm on March 13. Meanwhile, Flight VN68 from Bucharest will arrive in the capital at 11 am the same day. These flights will be conducted under a cooperation agreement signed on March 10 between the national flag carrier and to support the repatriation of Vietnamese people and their family members from war areas in Ukraine. Sun Group will cover the entire cost of the flights and the Vietnam Airlines will offer the most preferential prices. As scheduled, flights will be operated until the demand is over. Karate fighters to warm-up for SEA Games at regional tournament The national karate team will take part in the Southeast Asian championship, a key warm-up tournament to prepare for the Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam in May. A team of 19 athletes will compete in the event from March 21 to 27 at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Seven other countries, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia, will be represented in the tournament, along with the hosts. Vath Chamroeun, secretary-general of the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia (NOCC), said it will be one of the major pre-SEA Games events. The championship will be the biggest and the first international karate-related event in the Kingdom for a number of years. VN must scale-up budget for climate change adaptation Việt Nam increased its public expenditure for climate change in 2016-2020, however, more investment is needed to address climate risks and to mobilise more support from international and private sources, according to experts at a workshop held on Friday. The Ministry of Planning and Investment and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Việt Nam launched a report on Climate Public Expenditure and Investment Review of Việt Nam at the workshop. The report reviews the climate change budgets of six ministries and 28 provinces, as well as Cần Thơ City, between 2016-2020. The majority of climate budgets from ministries and provinces in Việt Nam between 2016 and 2020 was for climate change adaptation, however, it was not sufficient enough to address the climate risks that the country face, according to the report. The total budget and expenditure of the six ministries, 28 provinces and Cần Thơ City was almost US$6.5 billion, or an average of $1.3 billion per year during 2016-2020, according to the report. The report shows that adaptation is the dominant expenditure of the climate change budget, representing over 70 per cent of the ministries' climate change budget and over 90 per cent of the provinces. Minh and My win first prizes in Golf Lexus Challenge 2022 Nguyễn Anh Minh, 15, and Nguyễn Thảo My won the first prizes at the Golf Lexus Challenge 2022 after a four-day tournament, hosted by the Vietnam Golf Association at Tràng An Golf & Country Club. Trương Chí Quân, who was the runner-up of the Lexus Challenge 2019, won the same title again, while Lê Khánh Hưng, the tournament’s youngest golfer, also received the runner-up prize in the male division. For the female division, golfer Đoàn Xuân Khuê Minh bagged the runner-up title while amateur golfers Lê Chúc An and Nguyễn Thị Vân Anh took third prizes. The tournament, which attracted 134 golfers including pro and amateurs, wrapped up late on March 11. HCM City artist to perform, explain traditional art forms A new programme in which artists perform and talk about the cải lương (reformed opera) and tuồng (classical drama) has been launched by the HCM City Theatre Association. The programme Truyền Nghề 2022 (Career Inheritance 2022) will feature veterans like People’s Artist Kim Cương, People’s Artist Ngọc Giàu and Meritorious Artist Thanh Sơn, who have all worked hard to develop Vietnamese theatre. Young talents from the Sen Việt Theatre, one of the city’s leading private traditional art troupes, will also participate. The artists will perform famous extracts from cải lương and tuồng plays themed on patriotism and courage. Vietnamese folk instrumentalists will accompany all performances on the tranh (zither), bầu (monochord) and nguyệt (two-stringed long neck moon flute). The performances will be supplemented with talks by the artists, and video clips on the history of cải lương will also be screened. HCM City wharf hosts music and dance street shows A special programme of Vietnamese music and dance street performances will be held at the Bạch Đằng Wharf Park in HCM City’s District 1. Called Có Hẹn Với Sài Gòn (Meet in Saigon), the programme will feature young singers, dancers and musicians from art troupes and schools, including the HCM City Music Conservatory. Each show will be differently themed to “give new experiences to audiences”, organisers said. The programme’s first 60-minute show featured Vietnamese rock music by artists from the bands UNLOCK and SAIGON WAVE. Singers Tyna Nguyệt Thu and Bella Vu are among the performers. The total cost of the programme, estimated at VNĐ68 billion (US$2.9 million), will be sourced from the private sector. The free street shows will be held at 5.30pm every Saturday at the Bạch Đằng Wharf Park on Tôn Đức Thắng Street. Healthcare support set for central Viet Nam ExxonMobil has pledged a total of US$60,000 in 2020-21 through VinaCapital Foundation (VCF) to advance its long-term healthcare capability enhancement programmes in the central province. In a statement on Friday, ExxonMobil said that it contributed $35,000 in response to VCF’s call in its ‘Our Hearts to Central Việt Nam’ campaign to support the relief efforts during the Molave typhoon 2020. The fund was used to rebuild the completely damaged roof of Trà Cang Commune Health Centre, provide medical emergency packages and fix the water system, rebuild the landslides of the basement in Trà Leng communal health centre, build a new water storage tank, fix the water system and make ditches to solve the drainage problems. In 2021, ExxonMobil funded $25,000 to VCF’s Survive To Thrive to reduce the infant mortality in Quảng Nam through the provision of 13 pieces of essential neonatal life-saving equipment to two mountainous district hospitals, Nam Giang and Phước Sơn. Omicron variant dominant in Hanoi: officials The Department of Health of Hà Nội has announced that Omicron is now the dominant COVID variant in the capital. Speaking at a meeting of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control on Friday, Vũ Cao Cường, deputy director of Hà Nội’s Department of Health, said that gene sequencing results of 109 samples taken from December 4 last year to March 1 showed that 80 per cent were Omicron. Also, among these Omicron samples, 86 per cent were the BA.2 sub-variant, or the stealth variant. The BA.2 sublineage is capable of spreading 1.5 times faster than the original Omicron variant BA.1, and can avoid the immune effects of current vaccines by about 30 per cent higher than the original variant. In HCM City, Omicron accounted for 76 per cent of samples sequenced for viral genes. Hanoi removes fourth subject from high school entrance exam The Hanoi government has agreed to a plan to administer the high school entrance examination with three tests: maths, literature and a foreign language. In previous years, another test in a randomly selected subject was also needed but has been scrapped this year as COVID-19 has forced most classes to go online. The exam is scheduled to take place sometime between June 10-20. The maths and literature tests will have a duration of 120 minutes while the foreign language test will last 60 minutes in a multiple-choice format. The test questions mainly cover the knowledge included in the 9th grade curriculum. According to Hanoi’s education authorities, the exam with only three subjects is designed to reduce the burden on students in line with the guidelines of the Ministry of Education and Training. A survey of 422 high schools, secondary schools and local education bureaus shows that more than 94% agree to the plan to administer the exam with only three tests. Reading Culture Ambassador Contest 2022 to promote reading movement The Reading Culture Ambassador Contest 2022, is expected to be launched in the capital city of Hanoi, both in-person and in livestream forms, from March-April. Themed “Aspirations for national development”, this year’s contest aims to promote the reading habits and skills among students, thereby inspiring passion and boosting the reading movement among younger generations. In addition, the contest contributes to affirming the position and great role of Vietnamese culture, especially reading culture, in spreading the knowledge, improving people's intelligence, creativity, fostering personality, arousing patriotism and aspirations for national development. Park Hang-seo calls up 28 players for clashes against Oman and Japan On March 10, coach Park Hang-seo named the 28 players to be called up to the Vietnamese national team in preparations for their upcoming Group B clashes against Oman and Japan in the third round of the FIFA World Cup 2022 Asian Qualifiers. In addition to those who regularly featured and shined in recent matches, Park’s initial list will see the return of several notable players, including goalkeeper Nguyen Tuan Manh and midfielders Nguyen Tuan Anh and Nguyen Hai Huy. However, some versatile players are still absent due to injuries, such as midfielder Nguyen Trong Hoang and defenders Do Duy Manh and Doan Van Hau. Continuing the strategy of renewing the team, the Korean coach has given the opportunity to three rookies – goalkeeper Vu Tuyen (Topenland Binh Dinh FC), defender Nguyen Van Vi (Hanoi FC), and defender Schmidt Adriano (Topenland Binh Dinh FC). Nguyen Van Vi, 24, is known as a fairly versatile player as he can play in many positions such as left-back, left-midfielder and central midfielder. Meanwhile, with good physique and years of experience playing in V.League - Vietnam’s top-tier league, Schmidt Adriano, 28, promises to be a quality addition to the national team’s defensive line. As planned, Park Hang-seo’s troops will reconvene for training at the Vietnam Youth Football Training Centre on March 14. More than 4,500 Vietnamese leave Ukraine, more evacuation flights to be arranged As of 4:00 pm on Friday, more than 4,500 Vietnamese nationals left Ukraine for nearby countries, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Among them, 950 people arrived in Romania, 2,800 in Poland, 660 in Hungary, more than 100 in Slovakia, and about 20 in Russia. Viet Nam sent first two flights to Romania and Poland to bring home more than 550 nationals over the past few days. The third and the fourth flights are scheduled to depart from Ha Noi on Saturday for Poland's Warsaw and Romania's Bucharest to pick up 559 citizens who made the crossing into the two European countries. More repatriation flights will be arranged in the coming days to evacuate those who wish to return to Viet Nam. Source: VNA/SGT/VNS/VOV/VGP/SGGP/Dtinews