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Social News 11/1
Skyscraper project on Han River bank cancelled
In an interview by Sai Gon Giai Phong Newspaper yesterday,
Mr. Tran Tho said that
However, after receiving the objection from the public and
architects, the city authority decided to cancel the project, he said.
Mr. Tho said that he had requested the city’s government to
look for a new place to build the skyscraper.
After the city committee approved the project, many architects
and municipal development experts raised their voice against the project.
They said that project would damage landscape of river that
has helped the city become one of the most beautiful cities in
In addition, the project’s investor- investment joint stock
company DHC- called the building as a lighthouse that experts believed was
not necessary because no one builds a lighthouse on river.
Experts said the investor swindled the local government
because they knew that the government had never approved one more skyscraper
along river banks.
Deputy PM instructs implementation of many highway projects
Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai has instructed the
Ministry of Transport to implement many highway projects in the northern and
southern region.
The ministry is tasked to invite bids for the projects’ construction
under Public Private Partnership (PPP) form, decide investment phases to meet
traffic demand and ensure capital balance ability in accordance with
financial plans.
According to the Ministry of Transport, 106 kilometer and
six-lane Binh Binh-Thanh Hoa Highway project is expected to break ground in
the first half this year, while 98.2 kilometer Thanh Hoa-Bai Vot with 4-6
lanes is scheduled to start construction early next year and be completed by
2020.
The construction of 51 kilometer Trung Luong-My Thuan and 24.5
kilometer My Thuan-Can Tho is planned to start this month. These two highways
will have six lanes each.
Education ministry gives guideline on primary students’
remarks
The Ministry of Education and Training has sent a guideline to
its sub-departments, instructing how to assess primary students.
As per the document, primary students would be ranked into
three standards including subject, competence development and quality. When
giving remarks on students, teachers should pay attention to their whole
growth procedure and other extra activities, progress, shortcomings, skills,
aptitude and quality.
Teachers just give remarks that students complete or not
complete educational activities. While remarking students’ ability growth,
teachers should write prominent manifestation of a student’s characteristics,
progress, and ability formation and growth procedures as well as adjust
students’ behaviors and give advice to students’ parents.
The Ministry also guided how to appraise students in the end
of academic year.
The Management Board of Hanoi’s Old Quarter on January 6 said
Hoan Kiem district has completed a project to conserve
The project aims to restore facades and preserve the
architectural spaces of the street, improve the living quality of residents,
as well as make the street a destination for domestic and international
tourists who want to learn about the traditional trade and therapies.
According to the management board, an opening ceremony
featuring an art performance depicting the history and tradition of the
street will be held on January 9.
The street is named after famous physician Hai Thuong Lan Ong,
born Le Huu Trac (1720-1791). The street is a delight of textures and smells
emanating from the sacks of herbal medicinal products including leaves,
roots, barks, and powders.
So far, about 85% of local residents still keep their
traditional trade.
The Hanoi Municipal People’s Committee has issued a decision
on a VND97.8 billion (US$4.6 million) investment to build a clean water
supply facility in Trung Hoa commune, Truong Yen, Chuong My district to help
people in the outlaying district access clean water.
The project helps supply clean water for over 23,000 local
residents in Chuong My district.
The three-year project was funded by the World Bank (WB) from
the National Target Programme for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation, in which
the WB provided 60% of the funding,
When completed, the facility’s capacity will be 3,600 cubic
metres per day, supplying clean water for around 23,137 residents. The water
source from Bui river running through Trung Gia commune will be treated by
synchronised technologies.
The
Earlier, Hanoi invested nearly VND90 billion (US$4.2 million)
in a similar project in Huong Son commune, My Duc district, which is
scheduled to be completed in 2015, to supply clean water for nearly 23,000
local residents.
Singapore’s education group to build 2 schools in Binh Dinh
Authorities of southern central Binh Dinh province has given
KinderWorld, a Singaporean education group, the green light to build two
educational facilities in Quy Nhon city.
Accordingly, the Singapore-Vietnam International School
(SVIS), a modern establishment that will run international-standard courses
for learners from the 1 st -12 th grades, is to be constructed on a
five-hectare area at An Phu Thi urban area.
Meanwhile, the
At a meeting with KinderWorld’s Chairman Ricky Tan on January
8, Ho Quoc Dung, Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, said he
supports and believes in the promising future of the two schools, adding that
the province will create favorable conditions to facilitate the education
group’s project implementation.
Since its presence in
Thanh Hoa to help build houses for poor families
Over 3,000 poor households in flood-prone areas in 17
districts and towns of the northern central
This is the goal of the provincial Construction Department’s
project to be carried out from December 2014 to 2016 in line with the Prime
Minister’s Decision 48/2014/QD-TTg dated August 28, 2014.
The project has a total investment of 178 billion VND, of
which over 44 billion VND will come from the State budget, more than 50
billion VND will be sourced from preferential loans while the community and
beneficiary households will contribute the remaining 66 billion VND.
The “For the Poor” Fund also donates 16 billion VND to the
programme.
Beneficiary households will get financial assistance in cash
with the amount ranging from 12 million VND, 14 million VND and 16 million
VND, depending on regions.
They are also able to apply for loans of up to 15 million VND
from the Bank for Social Policies.
Since 2009, Thanh Hoa has effectively implemented Programme
167 on housing support for poor households, which has built 32,490 houses
from 793 billion VND mobilised.
The province also completed a project on building flood and
storm shelters benefiting 100 households.
Human resources play key role in tourism development
High-quality human resources are considered one of the most
important resources for tourism development. According to the Vietnam
National Administration of Tourism, the tourism sector needs an additional
40,000 workers every year, but currently produces just 15,000 tourism
graduates annually. The sector employed around 500,000 direct workers and one
million indirect workers last year, and expects to record 650,000 direct jobs
and two million indirect jobs this year.
According to the national tourism development strategy for the
2011-2020, the tourism sector will need 2.2 million workers this year and
around tree million by 2020. Most tourism colleges are found in Hanoi, Ho Chi
Minh City, Da Nang and Hue, and only a few of them can be found in other
localities with tourism potential. Local tourism training quality is low due
to a lack of necessary training facilities. Tourism training needs to be
improved in both quality and quantity.
At the Vietnam Business Forum 2014, investors agreed that the
tourism and hospitability sector in
Foreign investors also suggested that the tourism and
hospitability sector should improve its image and trust by promoting
training, as a result of it, well-trained tourism workers would help
providing better services and generating more revenue for the sector.
In addition, qualified tourism workers should be sent to work
for other travel companies in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) region to enhance their practice, expertise, knowledge, skills and
professional values. Moreover, foreign tour operators should be allowed to
participate in the local travel market while streamlining the procedure for
grant of the travel business licence.
Decree calls for end to backward marriage practices
The Vietnamese Government has issued a decree detailing the
implementation of marriage and family practices while calling for an end to
backward ones.
Under the document, backward customs should be eliminated,
including getting married prior to marriage age prescribed by the Marriage
and Family Law, forcing or obstructing marriage due to superstition or ethnic
and religious differences, and forbidding marriage among relatives out of
four generations.
The new decree also bans such out-of-date practices as polygamy,
marriage among people of the same direct blood line or among relatives within
three generations, and high requirements for wedding gifts.
The Government asks relevant ministries, sectors, and People’s
Committees at all levels to work together with the Vietnam Fatherland Front
to build and implement policies and measures encouraging people to follow
legal regulations on marriage and family.
They are also requested to intensify activities to popularise
laws relating to this issue, thus helping people promote good practices and
abolish backward ones.-
Social welfare beneficiaries to receive extra support for Tet
holiday
The People’s Committee of central
Accordingly, each staff of non-productive administrative units
will receive 1 million VND (47.6 USD), while an additional 22 gifts worth 1
million VND will be sent to families with of officers and soldiers who are
working on Truong Sa archipelago.
The city will also provide impoverished households with 15
kilograms of rice each.
Meanwhile, the neighbouring
Local children of AO-affected ex-soldiers, disabled people,
and poor households will be given Tet gifts.
Binh Phuoc targets development in rural areas
The southern
In order to meet this target, the province plans to mobilise
various resources to accelerate implementation of the programme, which is
estimated to cost more than 3.75 trillion VND (178.67 million USD).
Binh Phuoc officials intend to integrate the programme with
other locally implemented projects, and to make use of other resources
including land use right auctions, rental charges, and the local budget.
Four years post-commencement, the programme has helped raise
the 2014 per capita income to 39 million VND (1,860 USD) – up 210 percent
from 2010 –, reduce the impoverished household rate from 6.51 percent to 3.5
percent, and improve local infrastructure facilities and social services.
One commune within the province was recognised as a new modern
rural area in 2014. Binh Phuoc intends to assist ten additional communes to
satisfy at least 15 criteria in 2015, if not all 19.
Last year, as many as 785 communes were estimated to become
new-style rural areas. In addition, 1,285 communes were expected to meet
15-18 out of the 19 criteria for new rural development, and 2,836 others to
satisfy 10-14 criteria, according to the programme’s steering committee.
More than 157.8 trillion VND (8.5 billion USD), sourced from
the State budget, credits, and the community, was spent on implementing the
programme.
Building infrastructure, improving production capacity,
constructing public works, protecting the landscape and environment, and
promoting local traditions and cultural identities are among the criteria of
the programme, initiated by the Government in 2010.
Vo Nguyen Giap becomes
The new route also aims to help reducing congestion and
traffic flow and improving the economy of Dong Anh and Soc Son districts. In
near future, urban areas and commercial centres will be built along the
highway.
The 12km-long highway includes a cohesive system of overpasses
and tunnels. It has a speed limit of 80km/h for four-wheeler lanes and 40km/h
for two motorbike lanes. The six-lane
The highway is named after the legendary General Vo Nguyen
Giap, who led the Dien Bien Phu Victory, forcing French government to abandon
its colonial rules in
US$301 million spent on road upgrade and management
The Ministry of Transport has started upgrading Trang Thua and
Cong Neo bridges on National Road 38B in Hai Duong Province as part of the
Vietnam Road Asset Management Project (VRAMP) worth VND6.3 trillion (US$301
million).
The upgrade package for the two bridges will help better
connect national highways in northern
VRAMP is aimed to upgrade and manage a total of 18,000
kilometers of road in the country. The World Bank lends US$251 million to the
project and the remaining US$50 million comes from
The Vietnam Directorate for Roads is the executing agency of
the project and Project Management Unit 3 (PMU 3) serves as its
representative. The project comprises of four main components implemented by
both local and foreign contractors.
Component A is to collect and build a road database framework,
and develop a road management system. Component B consists of maintenance for
the National Road 2 section from
Component C covers upgrading three sections of National Roads
38 and 39 in the
VRAMP will create synchronized connections between localities
in key economic regions in northern Vietnam, including Hai Duong, Hung Yen,
Thai Binh and Haiphong in the Red River Delta region and Ha Giang, Son La and
Hoa Binh in the northern upland.
The project also incorporates plans for annual, mid- and
long-term investments in the country’s road network.
Ho Chi Minh City to pilot tourist electric cars in April
Ho Chi Minh City will launch an electric car tourist service
in the downtown area on a pilot basis in April, according to the local
Department of Transport.
The department has said that 10 eight-seat electric cars will
be deployed for this service in its initial stage.
The cars will carry visitors to the city’s major tourist
attractions in the downtown area, including Ben Thanh Market, the Municipal
Theater, People’s Court Mansion, Saigon Notre-Dame Cathedral, Saigon Central
Post Office, Reunification Palace, and Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens.
The specific route is as follows: 23/9 Park-Nguyen Trai-Le
Lai-Ben Thanh Station (in front of Ben Thanh Market)-Le Loi-Hai Ba Trung-Le
Duan-Nguyen Binh Khiem-Nguyen Thi Minh Khai-Mac Dinh Chi-Le Duan-Pasteur-Vo
Van Tan-Le Quy Don-Nguyen Thi Minh Khai-Nam Ky Khoi Nghia-Le Thanh Ton-Phan
Chu Trinh-Tran Hung Dao-Pham Ngu Lao-23/9 Park.
The cars, to start running on a pilot basis on April 30, will
operate from 8:00 am to 5:30 pm every day, with intervals of 30 minutes.
The maximum speed is expected to be less than 40km per hour
and a car can travel 100 kilometers once fully charged.
Tickets cost VND20,000 (US$0.9) apiece and will be on sale at
23/9 Park in District 1.
Groups of tourists can also hire the cars in three-hour
packages costing VND600,000 ($28) each.
The model of tourist electric cars has earlier been adopted in
four other places in Vietnam, namely Hanoi, Sam Son Town in northern Thanh
Hoa Province, Dong Hoi City in central Quang Binh Province, and Cua Lo Town
in central Nghe An Province.
Vietnamplus cited Deputy Transport Minister Le Dinh Tho as
saying at a November meeting that the use of electric cars has boosted
tourism and helped curb the number of motorbikes and cyclos – bicycle taxis
that are a sort of pedicab having one or two passengers in a seat in the
front and the driver pedaling in the rear – in use at tourist attractions.
Hanoi, which is the country’s first city to pilot electric
cars in its Old Quarter and around Tay Lake, has seen an enthusiastic embrace
among locals and tourists since launching the service three years ago.
The electric cars have transported more than 1.2 million
visitors and generated over VND20.4 billion ($950,694) in revenue.
Tho added the electric cars are also of great benefit
regarding energy conservation, considerable drops in noise and air pollution,
and nurturing the habit of walking and using public transport.
The small-sized vehicles which attain speeds of less than 40km
per hour are just perfect for urban traffic and help preserve the
architecture and milieu of Hanoi’s Old Quarter.
Such improvements as environmental protection, traffic safety,
and job provision have been seen in Sam Son, Cua Lo, and Dong Hoi.
According to the Ministry of Transport’s statistics released
in November last year, the four above-mentioned places currently boast a
total of 621 electric cars, including 50 in Hanoi.
Thanh
Hoa to build houses for underprivileged families
Over 3,000 households in flood-prone areas of 17 districts and
towns of the northern central province of Thanh Hoa will receive financial
assistance for building flood-and-storm resistant homes.
The goal of the provincial Construction Department’s project is
to be carried out from December 2014 to 2016 in line with the Prime
Minister’s Decision 48/2014/QD-TTg dated August 28, 2014.
The project has a total investment of VND178 billion, of which
over VND44 billion will come from the State budget, more than VND50 billion
will be sourced from preferential loans, while the community and beneficiary
households will contribute the remaining VND66 billion.
The ‘For the Poor’ Fund will also donate VND16 billion to the
programme.
Beneficiary households will receive financial assistance in
cash with amounts ranging from VND12 million, VND14 million and VND16
million, depending on the region.
They are also able to apply for loans of up to VND15 million
from the Bank for Social Policies.
Since 2009, Thanh Hoa has effectively implemented Programme
167 on housing support for underprivileged households, which has built 32,490
houses from VND793 billion.
The province also completed a project on building flood and
storm shelters benefiting 100 households.
State programme helps ease poverty in Central Highlands
The Steering Committee for the Central Highlands said the
regional provinces have worked together to mobilise nearly 3.8 trillion VND
(177.1 million USD) to improve infrastructure and production in impoverished
ethnic-minority communities.
This financial assistance has been sourced from Programme 135,
a multi-phase national strategy on poverty alleviation targeting impoverished
and mountainous communes which has produced a number of positive outcomes.
As many as 92 communes have elevated their socioeconomic
status as a result of their participation and completion of the programme’s
first two phases.
Currently, 100 percent of targeted communes have elementary
school facilities, including roads connecting to their locations, 80 percent
have secondary schools, and 70 percent have a radio broadcast station.
The programme has also established 245 irrigation and 141
electricity projects in disadvantaged areas.
In a bid to improve livelihoods and local household
production, 354,502 tonnes of seeds and 17.2 million saplings, as well as
40,264 tools and pieces of equipment for production and processing in the
agro-forestry-fisheries sector, were made available in needy areas of the
region through this state support.
A major priority of the poverty alleviation efforts has also
been to develop effective agro-forestry-fisheries production and organise
annual vocational training courses for locals.
Moving forward, the Steering Committee for the Central
Highlands has proposed the Government raise the investment dedicated to each
impoverished regional commune under Programme 135 from 1.5 billion VND
(69,903 USD) to 2.5 – 3 billion (116,506 – 139,808 USD) annually.
The Tay Nguyen Central Highlands region is comprised of five
provinces - Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Gia Lai, Kon Tum and Lam Dong.
Children, elderly in Tien Giang equipped with swimming skills
As many as 350 children and elderly persons in the Mekong
Delta province of Tien Giang were equipped with swimming skills via seven
classes held with assistance from Australian volunteers.
This is the fourth year members of the AWSOM volunteering
group have opened classes of this kind in Tien Giang, with the help of
province’s Union of Friendship Organisations and relevant agencies.
The classes, running from January 4-9, are also part of a
programme on preventing and reducing drowning on Mekong River in 2015.
Bev Chrismas, founder of the AWSOM Group, said the learners
are taught how to swim properly and react if falling into water.
The right way to save a drowning person is one of topics
discussed in the classes along with skills for children to survive in a
region with many water bodies and rivers.
The volunteers also held workshops for parents and My Tho
city’s Association of the Elderly on why it is necessary to have swimming and
rescue skills.
Drowning is one of the leading child killers in Vietnam, with
over 3,300 deaths in 2012, equivalent to about nine cases every day. The
figure is 10 times higher than the average figure of regional developing
countries. Half of the victims were bathing in ponds, lakes, rivers or the
sea without adult supervision.
Source: VNN/VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/ND
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Thứ Bảy, 10 tháng 1, 2015
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