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Social News 29/1
Saltwater intrusion threatens southern region
Widespread saltwater intrusion is forecast to hit areas along
rivers such as Dong Dien, Vam Co Tay, Vam Co Dong, Cua Tieu, Co Chien and Hau
in the southern region this week.
The Southern Regional Hydro-meteorological Center predicted
the level of seawater in a number of rivers in HCMC, Long An, Tien Giang, Tra
Vinh and Soc Trang will reach its highest during the first days of the week
and then remain higher than the same period last year in these localities.
Salinity rose significantly last week in the
According to the center, rainfalls in the southern region
during the first months of this year will be lower than the average of many
years. The rainy season is likely to start later than usual, probably from
mid-May.
Seawater intrusion is predicted to spread while salinity at
estuaries is likely to be higher in this year’s dry season due to weak water
flows to the Mekong Delta. Particularly, salinity will make its way 45-60
kilometers upstream Tien and Hau rivers.
The center called for residents in the localities to prepare
to cope with drought, a lack of water and saltwater intrusion as the climate
is turning bad.
Four seals forgers nabbed in Binh Duong
Police in the southern
The men are Nguyen Hong Van, 40, from Binh Duong; Le Ba Tong,
45, from Binh Duong; Vu Duc Hai, 40, from the central province of Thanh Hoa;
and Ma Thanh Van, 37, from the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre.
Police said they discovered the ring making Bachelor's
degrees, foreign-language and information-technology certificates and driving
licences in the province's Di An commune. Each fake certificate was sold for
between VND200,000 - 1 million (US$9.5-46).
The case is under investigation.
Pertussis outbreak detected in Ha Noi
Several children in Ha Noi have been diagnosed with pertussis,
even as the peak season of the disease approaches.
At least eight children are being treated for pertussis at the
National Hospital of Pediatrics, while
The health records indicated that these children had not yet received
the pertussis vaccination.
Pertussis is a highly infectious respiratory infection that
causes an estimated 195,000 child deaths per year, according to the World
Health Organisation.
Whooping cough breaks out in Ha Noi
Several children in Ha Noi have been taken to hospital in a
critical condition after contracting whooping cough (pertussis), a highly
infectious respiratory infection.
At least three out of eight children being treated at the
National Hospital of Paediatrics arrived at the hospital suffering from
respiratory failure.
They included a two-month-old infant and two young girls aged
two and three. All were given ventilator treatment.
Several young children suspected of having the ailment were
also taken to
Le Hong Hanh, Deputy Head of the Respiratory Department at the
National Hospital of Paediatrics, said that the preliminary symptoms of
whooping cough were like those of normal flu. This led many parents to treat
their children themselves.
"Many families bought flu medicine for their children
only to find their condition got worse and worse," Hanh said.
Health records of those infected showed that they had not
received a whooping cough vaccination.
Tran Dac Phu, Director of the Preventive Medicine Department
under the Ministry of Health, said children who were not vaccinated were much
more likely to become infected.
He advised parents to give the children a full pertussis
vaccination and avoid contacts between the youngsters and individuals
suspected of carrying the disease.
Whooping cough occurs mainly in infants and young children. It
causes an estimated 195,000 child deaths around the world each year,
according to the World Health Organisation.
Binh Duong faces Rubella outbreak
The cause of a Rubella virus outbreak sweeping Binh Duong
province has not as yet been determined, but initial suspicions point to
crowded living conditions, poor hygiene and lack of immunisation.
The Department of Preventive Medicine said on January 26 that
since the beginning of the year, the My Phuoc industrial zone in Binh Duong
had recorded the highest number of new cases, 29, with another 109 suspected,
making it the worst affected province in the country.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) describes Rubella as a
highly contagious viral disease affecting mostly children, and that it can be
effectively prevented by immunization.
Swollen lymph glands behind the ears and in the neck are the
most characteristic clinical feature. A rash also develops, starting on the
face and upper neck and gradually spreads over the body.
Rubella and related measles viruses cause the death of
hundreds of thousands of children throughout the world annually.
However, the WHO said on its website that most people recover
in two to three weeks, however, particularly in malnourished children and
people with reduced immunity, measles can cause serious complications including
blindness, encephalitis, severe diarrhoea, ear infection and pneumonia.
From September 2014, the Ministry of Health has carried out a
campaign to vaccinate 24 million children aged 1 to 14 across the country,
free of charge, in 63 provinces. So far 17 million children have been
vaccinated.
The Department of Preventive Medicine has issued a strong
warning to prevent contracting the rubella virus by obtaining a vaccination
and prevent its transmission by isolating patients who have contracted it and
practicing good hygiene.
Project aims to plant more forests in coastal areas
The Prime Minister has approved a project to expand coastal
forest coverage, to 19.5 percent by 2020 from the current rate of 16.9
percent, in an effort to respond to climate change.
The project, starting 2015, will aim for the growing of
additional 46,058 hectares of forests for an ultimate area of 356,753
hectares by 2020.
The move is expected to deal with sea level rise while provide
a protective shield for the sea dyke system, infrastructure and biodiversity,
contributing to boosting socio-economic development and ensuring defence and
security.
Five major solutions were defined to facilitate the
implementation, ranging from land use, investment, science and technology, to
communications and policy.
Coastal land lying within the dyke protection corridor that
had been illegally occupied and used by individuals and organisations will be
reclaimed for afforestation.
Flower sellers expecting Tet sales growth
Gardeners in southern provinces and
"This year, I expect to sell 400 ochna blossom trees and
several hundred flowers and plants of different kinds, like traditional
Vietnamese flowers such as daisies, carnations and roses," said Pham Tan
Loi, owner of a 1,200sq.m-farm in District 12 of HCM City.
"Traditional flowers seem to be increasingly favoured
over more foreign hybrids. I hope to sell a pot for VND25,000 (US$1.2) to
VND40,000, about 15 per cent higher than last year's price," he said.
For Tet, Loi and his colleagues have invested several million
dong in new seeds and other items.
Florist Hoang Van Thang of Thu Duc District said:" My
farm offers 1,500 ochna blossom trees at prices raging from VND2 million
(nearly $100) to VND5 million per tree. Some old bonsai trees sell for VND300
million and are sold to customers from Ha Noi."
"Because of good weather, the ochna tree flowers will
open in time for Tet. I hope God will bless our farmers," he said.
Last season, Thang lost several hundred trees caused by floods
and broken dykes.
Ochna growers in Thu Duc and Hoc Mon said ochna flower prices
will increase by about 10 per cent compared to last year.
Farmers in provinces of Tien Giang and Ben Tre provinces have
shown greater interest in growing foreign hybrids such as tulips and lilies.
Tam Hung, who owns a farm in Tien Giang's Cho Gao District,
said he has cultivated more than 1,000 pots of different foreign hybrids and
expects to sell them at about VND30,000 ($1.4)-50,000 per pot.
"We hope to attract people in
In
"I plan to sell 400 kumquat trees at VND1 million for a
quality tree and 300 daisy pots at VND20,000 per pot. I will not be sure
about my profit until the last day," said Nguyen Minh Luan , a farmer in
Ben Tre's Cho Lach District, who often delivers his flowers on a boat in the
city's Ben Binh Dong in District 8.
More than 120 flower fairs around
The city has worked to design
Elevator accidents scare apartment residents in Vietnam
Elevators can cause deaths in
They also create injuries, leave people stuck inside, and
other inconveniences due to low quality or inadequate maintenance.
Residents say they have been living in anxiety but cannot help
using the machines because of the height of their buildings.
Many have reported that they often get clamped by the doors of
elevators and stuck inside the machines halfway up or down.
Some have even fallen to the ground since they enter elevators
with open doors but without a floor inside.
On average, an elevator is supposed to work for 20 years, but
the machines in apartments in
“My apartment has two lifts but one was left unused long ago
and the other has kept on ‘torturing’ residents thanks to its vibrations and
cracking noise when in use,” said a female resident of the resettlement
building G9 Xuan Dinh in Dong Tao Ward of Bac Tu Liem District in
“Mechanics said there are problems with the ball-bearings
which create the sound.”
The Den Lu apartment buildings in Hoang Van Thu Ward of the
capital’s Hoang Mai District has been open for ten years, but the lift of
block G has been ‘dead’ for two years.
Other elevators at Den Lu have rusty floors and ceilings and
the holes are getting wider.
Most of them have no battery in case the electricity goes out,
so many have been locked inside with great worry for over an hour, said Dang
Thuy Hang, 42, a resident of Den Lu.
Their emergency phones and alarms become useless during
electricity blackouts.
“When it rains heavily, water leaks into the lifts. The water
will overflow when it stops at a certain floor.
“We local residents dare not use it for fear of electric
shock,” Hang added.
Le Thi Dan, head of the residential quarter, said that Den Lu
has four lifts and they only worked well during the first two years.
“Recently, no mechanics have come to maintain the machines,”
she said. “A person may be quickly clamped by the doors of a lift because it
has a technical problem and runs too fast.”
Similar situations exist in other resettlement apartments.
Giang Van Phuc, 68, who lives in the N5C building of the Trung
Hoa – Nhan Chinh resettlement apartment building in Thanh Xuan District,
Hanoi said his ill wife has been ‘locked’ at home since the lift does not
work and she cannot use the stairs.
The Hanoi Housing Management and Development Company, which is
in charge of managing buildings for resettlement, said it manages 204
elevators in the capital city, 33 of which have been left unused.
Residents of building N5A at Trung Hoa – Nhan Chinh have ‘boycotted’
their lifts since last year after a guard was killed last June by a lift,
said Le Hung, 62.
“We reported the problem to the Hanoi Housing Management and
Development Company but they didn’t repair it and the fatal accident
happened,” he said.
A lift must undergo technical maintenance at least every two
months, said Nguyen Hong Thai, vice director of the lift-producing company
ThyssenKrupp
Bui Quoc Dung, an official of the Hanoi Housing Management and
Development Company, said the repair and maintenance of the lifts at the
firm’s apartment buildings must be approved by the People’s Committee of
Hanoi.
Then the committee will direct the finance department to
provide money for the company to do the repair and maintenance work, so
waiting is the only thing his firm can do now.
Tet coach fares to go up 20-60%
Coach operators will be allowed to increase fares by 20-60%
for the trips departing from HCMC several days before the Lunar New Year
holiday (Tet), according to the city’s Department of Transport.
As most passengers buy tickets for the trips from HCMC to
their hometowns before Tet, transport enterprises can increase ticket prices
to offset losses from their return trips whose seating occupancy is often
very low, Pham Dinh Duc, head of the Road Transport Management Division of
the department, told a meeting with coach operators in the city last week.
But the Tet fares are 7-20% lower than last Tet as a result of
sharp decreases in fuel prices this year.
Apart from passenger coaches registered for operation at
stations in the city, transport firms can rent more vehicles to meet surging
pre-Tet travel demand.
The department also pledged to arrange sufficient vehicles for
all people wishing to return home for family reunion one day before the biggest
holiday of the country, which begins on February 19.
After sharp fuel prices last Wednesday, with RON92 petrol down
by VND1,900 per liter to VND15,670 per liter, many transport firms in HCMC
said they could not revise down fares further as they had already made price
adjustments during the New Year holiday.
Hoang Duy Kha, chairman of Dong Bac Transport Cooperative,
which operates coaches on the routes connecting HCMC with the southeastern
provinces, central and Central Highlands regions, said member enterprises of
the cooperative have reduced their fares by 10% following the fuel price cuts
last year and this.
Tran Thanh Bao, head of the operation office of Thien Phu
Transport Service Trading Company Limited, which provides coach services
between HCMC and
Nguyen Quoc Chien, head of the pricing division under the
city’s Department of Finance, calculated that as fuel prices have gone down
by 32%, taxi fares should drop by at least 8.4% while coach fares for fixed
routes should fall by 11%.
But Chien noted that it is difficult for transport firms to
slash their fares in proportion to fuel price reductions because fuel is just
one of the many factors used to set transport fees.
According to the finance department, 32 out of the 55
operators of coaches on fixed routes and under the city’s management have cut
prices twice in the range of 7%-22%, while taxi firms have lowered fares two
times with each down by VND500-1,000 (4.6 U.S. cents) per kilometer.
The department has requested transport firms to register their
new fares before January 31 after the fuel price falls last Wednesday, Chien
said.
“After the fuel prices were cut on Wednesday, I think taxi
fares should go down by an additional VND500 per kilometer while coach fares
for fixed routes should fall by 10-15% if the operators did not make
adjustments previously,” Chien said.
According to the authority of Mien Tay Coach Station, 110 out of
130 transport firms active at the station have lowered their ticket prices
and some have cut their fares twice. Some 20 firms that have kept their fares
unchanged said they did not raise their ticket prices when fuel prices rose.
At Mien Dong Coach Station, 115 out of 214 coach operators now
offer lower fares.
PM approves financial mechanism for grid project
The Prime Minister has approved a financial mechanism for a
project to expand electricity grids in
Under the mechanism, the Government will sign a deal with the
ADB and the AIF to receive a loan of 272.70 million USD, which will then be
re-loaned to the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN)
The EVN Hanoi and
The national EVN will be responsible for the debts in the
event the EVN Hanoi or
Vietnamese community-related work in
The Vietnamese Embassy in
Addressing the event, Ambassador to
The community took opportune measures to support families of
Vietnamese people in
The ambassador asked the Vietnamese community to work closely
with the embassy to organise activities marking
The participants were briefed on
Representatives of the Vietnamese communities in
On the occasion, the embassy presented certificates of merits
to organisations and individuals in recognition of their contributions to the
community work in 2014.
Revised
State budget law should entail gender equality
Experts suggested integrating gender equality into the
development and enforcement of the revised Law on State Budget at a forum
held in
They said the 2013 Constitution and the 2006 Law on Gender
Equality both stipulated bringing gender-responsive budgeting into the
amended law.
Financial resources, from the State budget and otherwise, are
essential to promoting the equal rights of women and children, they added.
A clear gender budget with specific principles will help
promote gender equality activities in
The National Assembly Committee for Financial and Budgetary
Affairs is studying the application of successful international practices in
the realm, said deputy head Dinh Van Nha.
He described gender equality as the foundation to building
budget estimates and defining spending demands on the field.
The draft Law on State Budget should be adjusted in the spirit
of the 2013 Constitution and supplemental contents which highlight the
necessity of human and financial resources to enact gender equality measures.
Experts also recommended building a monitoring mechanism to
ensure the State budget is managed in a transparent, public and equitable
fashion.
They suggested increasing the involvement of residents at the
local level in the development, allocation and examination of the local
budget while raising gender equality awareness among officials.
The draft law should also be constructed and implemented on
the basis of human rights and commitments to promoting gender equality, as
opposed to “priority” mechanisms, they commented.-
Long An women honoured as Heroic Mothers
Local authorities in the Mekong Delta
The recognition was on the occasion of the 85 th anniversary
of the founding of the Vietnam Communist Party on February 3.
The Party, State and entire nation have always respected and
honoured those who have made valuable contributions to the home land, said
Deputy Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Hoang Van Lien at the
ceremony.
Local authorities will do their utmost to help the mothers’
and martyrs’ families maximise their benefits from social welfare policies,
he added.
Historically, the province has granted the title to 838
mothers, 42 of whom are still alive.
Across the country, more than 59,000 women have been
recognised as Heroic Mothers.
A series of activities began in
Addressing the ceremony, United Nations Resident Coordinator
Pratibha Mehta said the UN adopted a resolution in 2005 to designate January
27 as the International Holocaust Memorial Day in memory of the Jews who lost
their lives to anti-Semitism violence.
Israeli Ambassador to Vietnam Eilon Shahar said remembering
Holocaust victims has become an annual event at the Israeli embassy in
Commemorative activities will take place at the Hanoi
University of Social Sciences and Humanities, the Ho Chi Minh City University
of Social Sciences and Humanities, and the Ho Chi Minh City Pedagogy
University.-
Remains of Vietnamese soldiers repatriated from Cambodia
A ceremony was held at the Binh Hiep International Border Gate
in southern Long An province’s Kien Tuong town on January 27 to receive the
remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers who died in Cambodian battlefields
during the wartime.
The event was attended by representatives from the Military
Zone 7, the Long An provincial People’s Committee and
The 20 sets of remains, including one identified, were
collected by the search team K73 of Long An province’s Military Command
during the first phase of the 2014-2015 dry season.
The figure raised the total sets of remains of Vietnamese
soldiers gathered by the team between 2001 and 2015 to 2,028, with 158 being
identified.
In the coming time, the province will increase the search for,
gathering and repatriation of the remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers
and experts who laid down their lives in
Improved access to medical services in the Central Highlands
The Ministry of Health launched Phase II of a project to
improve healthcare access in the Central Highlands for a number of ethnic
minority groups on January 26.
The project’s second phase has a total investment of 76.6
million USD, including a 70 million USD loan from the Asian Development Bank,
and will be implemented through 2019 across five provinces: Dak Lak, Kon Tum,
Dak Nong, Gia Lai, and Lam Dong.
The project is working to strengthen primary healthcare at the
communal level, improving the quality of and access to medical services at
hospitals and enhancing hospital management capacity.
At the launching ceremony in the Cu Ne commune of Dak Lak’s
Krong Buk district, Chairman of the Steering Committee for the Central
Highlands Tran Dai Quang expressed his appreciation for the Ministry of
Health’s efforts, which have facilitated locals’ access to high-quality
medical services.
Quang, who is also the Minister of Public Security, asked the
health sector and local authorities to use domestic and foreign sources of
funding more effectively to expand the grassroots medical system. He also
recommended sending medical staff to disadvantaged areas.
Following the ceremony, they broke ground on the construction
of a 100-bed general hospital in Krong Buk district. The hospital, built
across three hectares of land at a total cost of more than 141 billion VND
(6.7 million USD), is scheduled to be operational in early 2016.
The Central Highlands, covering a total area of over 54,641
square kilometres, is home to more than 5.46 million people; ethnic
minorities account for 45 percent of the region’s population.
Poor residents in
As a part of healthcare program for residents in the
Of which, 3,521; 3,521 and 3,542 free cards were given to
residents in Dak Lak, Kon Tum and Dak Nong provinces respectively. All cards
are worth nearly VND 2 billion (US$93,786) taken from the fund to support
women health condition in the country.
At the meeting to give free insurance cards, Health Minister
Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said that the donation aimed to take care of health
condition of disadvantaged households whose economic condition is nearly
poverty line to escape poverty due to illness.
Ms. Tien said that by 2014, the country has had around 64. 12 million
insurance participants, an increase of 2.36 million or a surge of 3.82
percent compared to 2013. Almost poor people, ethnic minority people in
disadvantaged districts , children below 6 year old and those in serving the
cause of the nation’s revolution were granted free health insurance cards.
New insurance law helps more people
New social insurance law includes further helpful points to
people, said the Ministry of labor, Invalids and Social Affairds and Vietnam
Social Insurance Agency said at a press conference in
The new law will take effect on January, 2016. It adds that
those who have one year labor contract must participate in social insurance
and people at all age may buy insurance. It also regulates that people will
buy insurance in longer time to enjoy pension of 75 percent.
Students gear up for start-up contest
Envison Recruit in conjunction with the accounting faculty of
The contest is open for individuals and groups and
registrations at tinyurl.com/sscvn2014 are open until February 17.
After registrations, the organizers will ask contestants to
submit two essays in English by February 28 while groups will have to send in
a Power Point presentation of no more than 10 slides. Submissions should be
sent to studentstartups.vn@gmail.com.
The organizers will announce the contestants and teams chosen
for the qualification round on March 17.
The best five contestants will be able to join the two-day
Echelon 2015 conference where they have the opportunity to meet with over 60
international start-up companies and 50 veteran investors and business
owners.
Source: VNN/VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/Dantri/ND
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Thứ Tư, 28 tháng 1, 2015
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