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Social News 27/1
Students
respond to blood donation campaign
Thousands of students from various universities in
Speaking at the event , Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc
said more efforts need to be made to further promote voluntary blood donation
movements, including raising public awareness and keeping blood transfusion
safe .
Phuc joined volunteers in signing to show determination in
promoting voluntary blood donation , making the Red Sunday develop further in
the coming time.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien, who is also
head of the National Steering Committee for Voluntary Blood Donation, quoted
the World Health Organsisation’s statistics saying that
However, the country has yet to meet the demand, she noted,
adding that the ministry has been working for a more modern blood donation
centres nationwide to improve the situation.
Also on January 25, more than 1,300 youngsters in the central
In 2014, local youths organised over 60 blood donation drives,
collecting over 19,370 blood units for the needy.
At the same time, more than 700 students and young people in
the central
Last year, the province collected about 12,680 blood units
from 16,000 people via 85 blood donation drives.
This year, the “Red Sunday” festival, the seventh of its kind,
is scheduled to take place in 18 cities and provinces across the country
between January and February . About 15,000 blood units are expected to be
collected during the event.
The blood donation events in response to the festival have
been held in the provinces of Nam Dinh , Vinh Phuc and Thanh Hoa , with more
than 1,500 units of blood collected.
A group of students from the central city of
The PIV-VK group including Le Tu Hieu, Phan Ngoc Diep, and
Nguyen Huu Vinh from Class 10DT2 of the E – Telecommunication Department of
the
The mirror is equipped with a 10cm-thick electronic circuit, a
touch screen, and status indicators.
It allows users to listen to music and read books while
checking their looks in front of it.
The 50cm x 70cm mirror can also read messages, give weather
information, and is capable of connecting to a mobile phone’s Bluetooth
system, as well as informing users of their health condition via statistics
on height, weight, and heartbeat.
Phan Ngoc Diep, leader of the PIV-VK group, said the idea of
making the mirror came up when the assemblage attended the Texas Instruments
MCU Contest 2014 held by the U.S.- based Texas Instruments Inc. from March to
November last year.
“We initially aimed to create a technology product with
healthcare functions, including height and weight measurement,” Diep said.
“We won the second prize.”
However, realizing that the product was quite boring and not
attractive to users, the group came up with an idea that integrates all the
technology into a mirror, an item that is used daily.
According to Diep, the group has also met difficulties,
especially financial problems. Costs to make the mirror have reached VND6
million (US$280) from the school’s funding and their own pockets, and could
reach even higher.
Another problem is it is not easy to find components for the
smart mirror.
“Besides some components which were sponsored by the contest’s
organizers, we had to go to
The mirror’s design is also a challenge. Since motherboard
manufacturing technology in the central region is not as developed as it is
in the big cities, the motherboard is quite big.
“The smart mirror is basically finished but our group is still
not happy,” Diep said. “We want to find a company or a sponsor to work with
and develop and improve the product, bringing the smart mirror to customers.”
“The mirror could only be in full swing when it is applied to
life.”
Associate Professor Doctor Nguyen Van Tuan, head of the E –
Telecommunication Department of the
“They have mastered microcontroller technology, and
successfully integrated it with a mobile-based platform,” he said. “The
mirror is customizable and can suit all kinds of consumers.”
Deputy PM inspects sea dykes in Ca Mau
A Government working team led by Deputy Prime Minister Hoang
Trung Hai inspected the erosion at the sea dyke along the eastern coastline
and the Ca Mau Cape in the southernmost
According to the provincial People’s Committee, more than 40
kilometers of the province’s sea dyke system has been severely damaged by
erosion, including a 5km section of the 76km long eastern sea dyke in the
districts of Ngoc Hien and Dam Doi .
Earlier, t he province has repaired about 12km of this eastern
dyke system, and is seeking around 1 trillion VND (47 million USD) to build
an extension of this dyke with a view to protecting local forests and
communities.
Deputy PM Hai hailed the efforts of the province in dealing
with the dyke erosion, while asking the province to make careful study before
building new dykes in order to find the most suitable solution.
Ca Mau province, surrounded by sea on three sides, is being
threatened by saltwater intrusion under the impacts of climate change and sea
level rise while local sea dykes have seriously degraded.
A report released by the provincial Department of Natural Resources
and Environment revealed that close to 10,000 hectares of agricultural land
in the province have been intruded by sea water.-
Media’s role in water pollution control highlighted
A conference was held on January 23 to discuss the role of the
media in monitoring and detecting water pollution, advocating responsive
policies, and calling for the stronger community engagement in managing water
pollution.
Media involvement is considered important in preventing water
pollution as it comprehensively and accurately reports related issues, agreed
participants at the event, jointly conducted by the Centre for Environmental
and Community Research (CECR) and the Coalition to Advocate for Water Pollution
Control and the Clean Water Act.
They highlighted that the media also points out shortcomings
in initiatives and collects ideas on possible solutions.
Over the past years, media agencies have brought to light many
culprits of water pollution and helped raise public awareness of protecting
the environment, they said.
CECR Director Nguyen Ngoc Ly called for further media
contributions to counteracting water pollution, especially in lobbying for a
law on water pollution management which the Coalition for Clean Water will
put forth in 2015.
Participants at the event also reviewed the current status of
water pollution in
However, the country has faced serious water pollution due to
economic activities from industrial parks, and trade villages, especially in
urban areas.
According to the 2012 national environmental report, about 6
million individuals have been affected by diseases related to water pollution
in the past four years, costing the country about 400 billion VND (19 million
USD). It continued, estimating resulting damage to the agriculture and
aquaculture sectors to reach hundreds of billions of dong each year.
Nearly $2.6 million donated for needy kids
Close to 55 billion VND (2.6 million USD) was donated for
needy children during a fund raising programme held in
The programme, entitled “Mua xuan cho em” (Spring for
children), was jointly organised by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and
Social Affairs, the National Fund for Vietnamese Children (NFVC), and Vietnam
Television in honour of the upcoming Lunar New Year (Tet) festival.
Attending the event were Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan,
Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Pham Thi Hai Chuyen, and
stakeholders contributing to child protection, care, and education over the
past year.
Addressing at the event, Minister Chuyen said the Party and
State have focused their attention on children, especially those with special
needs, providing them with improved living conditions and fostering their
development.
In 2014, the NFVC raised over 95 billion VND (4.5 million USD)
and assisted more than 86,000 disadvantaged children nationwide, she added.
On the occasion, the organising committee presented 30 Tet
gift packages to children with special difficulties.
Nearly 60 outstanding students from nine universities across
northern
The event was co-organised by the Ministry of Education and
Training, the Toyota Vietnam Foundation (TVF), and the Toyota Motor Vietnam
Company (TMV).
With a total value of 460 million VND (22,000 USD), the 2014
Toyota Scholarship Programme planned to 115 scholarships, each worth 4
million VND, to outstanding students majoring in engineering and the
environment from 16 universities nationwide.
In addition to financial support, the scholarship winners will
have a chance to practise at
The TVF was established in 2005 under the partnership between
the Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and
Tourism, and the TMV with a view to actively contributing to
Initiated in 1997, the Toyota Scholarship Programme has
awarded over 1,920 scholarships to outstanding students across the country.
Code of conduct discussed to prevent sexual harassment at
workplace
Experts were invited to give recommendations on a draft code
of conduct designed to prevent sexual harassment at workplaces at a workshop
in
Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Pham
Minh Huan said sexual harassment in the workplace was first mentioned in the
2012 Labour Code as a prohibited act, but there has been no legal document
dealing with this problem in detail. Therefore, it is necessary to build a
code of conduct in line with the law and Vietnamese culture, ensuring
labourers’ rights and building a healthy and safe working environment, he
said.
According to Lisa Wong, a senior expert of the ILO, many
countries in the world have already put in place their code of conduct on
those behaviours, providing businesses, trade unions and workers themselves
with efficient tools to understand and deal with such acts.
Most of the participants agreed that the future code of
conduct needs to specify harassment acts and how to deal with and punish such
behaviours.
The workshop was held by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and
Social Affairs in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation
(ILO).
First district and township recognised as new rural areas
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung granted certificates of “new
rural district” to Xuan Loc district and Long Khanh township in the southern
Xuan Loc and Long Khanh are the first district and township in
the country that have won the status since the National Target Programme on
New Rural Development was launched over 4 years ago.
All communes in Long Khanh and 12 out of 14 communes in Xuan
Loc have met 19 criteria for new rural areas.
Xuan Loc District has zoned off separate areas for the
cultivation of pepper, corn and local specialty fruit trees using
technological advances, generating an average production value of 115.5
million VND (5,500 USD) per hectare.
Three quarters of the local workforce have received vocational
training and 90.9 percent of labourers have regular jobs, helping bring
average per capital income in the district to 37.6 million VND (1,790 USD)
per year, tripling the 2008 level. The rate of poor households is brought
down to 1 percent from 7 percent.
Meanwhile, thanks to embracing advanced technologies, the
value of agricultural production per ha in Long Khanh township reached 170
million VND (8,100 USD), the highest in Dong Nai.
The yearly average income of local farmers is 38.6 million VND
(1,830 USD), more than doubling the 2009 figure, driving down the household
poverty rate to below 1 percent.
Among Dong Nai’s 138 communes, 52 have qualified as new rural
areas. The province aims to have all its communes achieve the status by 2020.
Addressing the awards ceremony, PM Nguyen Tan Dung asked the
province to continue applying technologies in production and offer more
incentives for farmers, be it vocational training or finance sourced from the
public or business community.
He unveiled that the government will consider providing more
funding for the locality during the process.
The National Target Programme on New Rural Development,
launched in 2010, sets 19 criteria for new rural areas, covering
infrastructure, production, living standards, income and culture, among
others. A district must have at least 75 percent of its communes meeting all
the 19 cirteria in order to receive the title.
Vietnamese, German farmers’ assoc continue joint work
The Vietnam Farmers’ Union (VFU) and German Farmers’
Association (DBV) have agreed to continue a joint vocational training project
between 2015 and 2017.
An agreement to this effect was signed by VFU Chairman Nguyen
Quoc Cuong and DBV President Joachim Rukwied in
Under the agreement, 15 teachers from VFU’s vocational
training centres and skilled farmers will attend a short-term course in
A specialist information session for VFU’s senior officials
will be held annually in
By late 2017, at least 30 VFU’s vocational training centres
will have one teacher sent to training courses in
The first stage of the project from 2012 to 2014 benefited
scores of Vietnamese vocational teachers and farmers via training sessions
and workshops.
German experts also introduced agricultural training models to
Vietnamese cities and provinces, said Rukwied.
Job fair introduces employment opportunity in Japanese firms
A job fair took place in the southern
Twenty Japanese enterprises operating in the southern key
economic zones attended the event, which was jointly organised by
Suzuki Kyoichi from METI said the fair served as a bridge to
connect Japanese firms and Vietnamese students and labourers.
He noted that there is an increasing number of Japanese enterprises
invested in
According to Dr. Do Huu Tai, Rector of Lac Hong University,
the school is cooperating with a large number of firms operating in the
region in training high-quality workforce.
At the event, about 1,000 students registered to take part in
recruitment interviews. They were provided with advices on skills needed when
working in Japanese companies.
On the occasion, 36 students studying in the
Charity walk held to support poor communities in Ho Chi Minh
City
As many as 14,000 people engaged in the 10th Lawrence S.Ting
charity walk around Phu My Hung urban area,
The event has been held annually by the Lawrence S.Ting
Community Support Fund of Taiwan.
The charity walk not only contributes to raising donations for
disadvantaged people but also promotes an active lifestyle with positive
impact on society, said Mai Ba Hung, Deputy Director of the municipal
Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
According to the event’s management board, participants
donated more than 3 billion VND (139,808 USD), which will be handed over to
the Funds for the Poor of District 7, District 8, Nha Be and Binh Chanh
Districts. Part of the donations will also go to local sport talents with
disadvantaged background.
The Lawrence S.Ting Community Support Fund has organised 10
charity walks thus far, attracting over 134,000 participants and collecting
some 20 billion VND (932,053 USD) worth of donations.
Tet tree planting festival launched in Ninh Binh
A Lunar New Year (Tet) tree planting festival was launched in
the
The seedlings included 30,000 Acacia hybrid and 200 Hopea
odorata trees, forming part of a national wildlife park scheduled to open
later this year.
At the launching ceremony, Deputy Minister of Natural
Resources and Environment Bui Cach Tuyen called upon those from all walks of
life to join efforts towards reforestation and forest protection.
Ninh Binh province plants over 200 hectares of forests every
year, raising its forest coverage to 19 percent last year. The rate is
expected to increase to 20 percent by the end of 2015.
The Tet tree planting festival is an annual activity initiated
by late President Ho Chi Minh in 1959.
Animal health sector works to avert epidemics this year
A key task of the animal health sector this year is to avert
disease epidemics among livestock, poultry and aquatic products, especially
bird flu, blue-ear, foot-and-mouth, and other animal-to-human diseases,
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Vu Van Tam announced at
a conference reviewing the Department of Animal Health’s 2014 performance and
determining its tasks for 2015 in Hanoi on January 23.
As the Lunar New Year holiday approaches, he asked the
department to continue maintaining epidemic-free breeding zones and
inspecting units at the grassroots level to facilitate early detections of
any violations.
He also admitted that the capability of the animal care network
and the breeding skills of farmers across the country still fall short of
expectations.
Pham Van Dong, head of the department said that while bird flu
and blue-ear hotbeds have been brought under control, foot-and-mouth
outbreaks spread across six communes in the northern mountainous
A bird-flu outbreak is expected in the Mekong Delta this year,
especially around breeding areas and wet markets.
In 2014, white spot disease, acute hepatopancreatic necrosis
syndrome, and environmental pollution impacted over 59,500 hectares of
brackish-water shrimp.
So far, 21 cities and provinces nationwide have developed
strategies to control possible epidemic threats and outbreaks.-
Poor OVs, Cambodians get free medical check-ups
The Association of Vietnamese in
This is an annual activity held by the
It also aims to promote the friendship and solidarity between
Vice Mayor of Phnom Penh’s Chbar Ampov Tek Chani spoke highly
of Vietnamese organisations and businesses’ kind-hearted action, considering
it a symbol of the friendship and attachment between the two countries.
She said she hopes that
Over the years, Vietnamese voluntary doctors have conducted a
number of visits to deliver free medical check-ups and surgery for the Cambodian
poor.
VND4,000 billion for 28 million disadvantaged children
Over the past two decades, the Vietnam Children’s Fund (VCF)
has raised more than VND4,000 billion to support more than 28 million
disadvantaged children across the country.
The figure was released at the 8th “Spring for Children”
Programme held in Hanoi on January 24 with the participation of State Vice
President Nguyen Thi Doan and 30 children representing 1.5 million of
disadvantaged children in the country.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Minister of Labour, Invalids
and Social Affairs (MoLISA) Pham Thi Hai Chuyen said the Party and State have
adopted a number of guidelines and policies on child protection and care to
ensure their comprehensive development.
She acknowledged and appreciated businesses, organisations and
individuals’ contribution to the protection and care of children and hoped
that more benefactors will join hands to support disadvantaged children.
She added that MoLISA will strictly guide the implementation
of social welfare policies and ask VCF to effectively use the donations.
Minister Chuyen presented the Prime Minister’s Certificate of
Merit to VCF and MoLISA’s certificates of merit to benefactors for their
contribution to the protection and care of children.
The benefactors were received by State Vice President Nguyen
Thi Doan on the same day,
The Vietnam Children’s Fund reported that last year it raised
more than VND95 billion to support 86,300 disadvantaged children and signed
funding agreements worth VND111 billion for the coming years.
This year the Fund aims to mobilise around VND70 billion for
47,000 children with difficulties.
Currently, there are around 2.6 million children in need,
Ms.Doan said, hoping that benefactors will continue siding with the VCF to
build more schools and help pupils from poor families go to school.
US$170 million in foreign aid goes to health projects
The Government last year inked deals worth nearly US$170
million in official development assistance (ODA) loans and grants with
foreign countries and organizations to carry out healthcare projects in the
nation.
The Ministry of Health indicated the foreign funding sources
for medical equipment, pharmaceutical purchase and training projects in its
report on Tuesday.
A US$116 million training project was funded by the World Bank
(WB), a US$15 million malaria prevention project by the Global Fund, an
US$18.5 million project by the World Health Organization, a financial assistance
project worth 114 million euros by the European Union in non-refundable aid,
and a Korea-funded project costing US$19 million on medical equipment
purchase for the Central Ear-Nose-Throat Hospital.
This year, the Government will continue looking for more
grants and ODA loans for projects in the sector. The Government is expected
to seek loans from Japan, the WB and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for new
hospitals, as well as grassroots clinics and preventive medicine centers in
the Mekong Delta.
The projects to be implemented in the health sector in the
coming time include the Vietnam-Japan Friendship Cho Ray Hospital project
worth US$300 million, human resource development costing US$120 million
financed by the WB, and projects on malaria, tubercular, and HIV/AIDS
prevention at US$158 million by the Global Fund.
HCM City collects 3,465 drug addicts
The authorities of HCMC have gathered 3,465 drug addicts less
than two months after they launched a major campaign to find drug addicts for
sending to their homes and social facilities for treatment, according to the
Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.
The department’s director Tran Trung Dung told an online
conference on January 22 that the drug addicts were found from 5,837 people
with signs of drug abuse in the city.
Of the drug addicts, the department has sent home 1,570 who
have babies and are teenagers, and brought the remainder to social centers
before local authorities have their personal files prepared and carry them to
rehabilitation centers.
Dung said the city’s campaign of collecting and sending drug
addicts to rehabilitation centers has borne fruit and there are no longer
drug addicts at the places which used to be notorious for crimes.
In the coming time, the authorities will focus on detecting
drug addicts who usually gather at certain venues at hotels and bars as well
as bringing homeless people and beggars to social shelters.
The city targets to clear all drug addicts and beggars in
public places before the 40th anniversary of the Reunification Day on April
30 this year.
Seeking easy solution
While the public is exhilarated by the significant fuel price
cuts this year, this upbeat sentiment may have been spoiled by possible water
price hikes in HCMC.
Saigon Water Corporation (Sawaco) presented a water price
increase roadmap for the 2015-2019 period at a conference early this week.
The price proposal of Sawaco is still being discussed before being presented
to the city government. It has both won some support and has been met with
reservations. Sawaco can still work out other ways to find capital for its
water supply projects than placing more pressure on the people and
enterprises by pushing up prices.
At the conference held by the Vietnam Fatherland Front
Committee of HCMC on Tuesday, Sawaco proposed hiking the water prices by an
average of 10.5% annually towards 2019. The reason for such price
adjustments, as explained by Sawaco, is to generate capital for its projects
like Thu Duc 3 water plant, Tan Hiep 2 water plant and over 1,600 kilometers
of water pipeline. The combined capacity of water treatment plants will have
to be increased to 3.7 million cubic meters per day by 2025, 2.2 times higher
than the current level. The price hike, according to Sawaco, is necessary as
investment costs are estimated to account for around 72% of water prices in
the next five years.
Sawaco, explaining the necessity of the price hikes at the
conference, claimed the proposed spikes in the next five years would not
affect the majority of city residents.
To make the case convincing, a representative of Sawaco told
the conference that the price increase roadmap takes into account the poor
households. This year’s water prices for poor families would be kept
unchanged from last year if each family member uses no more than four cubic
meters a month. The price increases applicable to these users in the coming
years would be smaller than those to other groups of users.
However, higher prices should go together with higher quality.
Therefore, participants at the conference asked whether Sawaco could improve
the quality of water supplies if the price hike proposal gets the go-ahead or
whether the State utility would use extra revenues from the price hikes to
offset high water losses.
If prices are revised up to raise funds for covering water
losses, this would be unfair to users. According to Nguyen Van Rot, vice
chairman of the Fatherland Front Committee of District 2, water losses should
not be factored into water prices as users should not pay for what they do
not use, Tuoi Tre cites him as saying. Rot added if water prices are to be
adjusted up, the increases should be acceptable as consumer prices remain
stubbornly high and power prices could continue to rise; otherwise, the
living costs would rise though the country has yet to fully recover from the
protracted economic malaise.
Sawaco’s explanations failed to convince many participants,
who called for the company to cope with water losses. The current ratio of
water losses is as high as 32.85%. Therefore, if the firm reduces water
losses, participants reasoned, there would be no need to adjust up water
prices.
HCMC loses around 550,000 cubic meters of running water a day,
worth over VND5.9 billion (with last year’s average price of VND10,767 per
cubic meter). However, Sawaco plans to cut the water loss rate to 25% by
2025.
As reported by the Daily on Wednesday, Tran Thien Tu, a member
of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee in HCMC, said at the conference
that he wants to know how water losses could be reduced. If the water loss
rate was slashed to 10%, Sawaco could save an amount that is sufficient to
finance a new water treatment plant with a daily capacity of over two million
cubic meters of water. With the current huge water losses, Tu cast doubt on
the quality and investment efficiency of the pipeline networks.
Lawyer Truong Thi Hoa had the same view, saying if water
losses are reduced to 31% this year and 25% in 2020, water prices would not
be much increased. Chau Minh Ty from the HCMC Association of the Elderly
called for Sawaco to find ways to reduce water losses instead of raising
water prices.
All the arguments boil down to the question of what Sawaco
should do to slash the water loss rate, instead of looking to the easy and
quick solution: raising water prices.
Source: VNN/VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/ND
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Thứ Hai, 26 tháng 1, 2015
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