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Social News 1/4
Operation Pacific Angel plane lands in Da Nang
A C-130 transport airplane landed at
The operation included an exchange between the United States
Air Force and Viet Nam Air Force and Defence at the airport on the same day,
on the capabilities of C-130 airplanes in humanitarian and disaster-relief
missions.
Operation Pacific Angel is a joint and combined humanitarian
assistance exercise led by the United States Pacific Air Forces.
The three key programmes of PACANGEL are health services,
civil construction and expert exchanges on health matters, providing
optometry, dental, women's health and physical therapy, as well as other
health services for local patients.
Over 2 million foreign visitors to
The number of foreign tourists to
Of them, 1,700,480 travelled by air (down 8%) while 18,058 by
sea (down 36.7%) and 289,346 by land (down 35.8%).
In the reviewed period, the predominant increases came from
the Republic of Korea (up 31.4%), Finland (28.2%), Spain (10.8%), Singapore
(7.1%), Italy (6%), the US (2.9%), Japan (0.8%) and Germany (0.2%) against
last year.
The number of domestic visitors in the first three months is
estimated at 19.5 million and the tourism sector earned VND96,359 billion in
revenue, a year-on-year increase of 1.9%.
The labour agencies of
At his working session with Cuban officials on March 31,
Chairman of the
While congratulating Nascimiento on the success of the 20th
Congress of the CTC, Tung expressed his belief that the two sides will
continue to coordinate and build the strong relationship between the two
countries’ workers and unions.
Expressing his delight at the enthusiastic reception from the
VGCL, Secretary General Nascimiento thanked the VGCL’s assistance to the CTC
in recent years and hoped the visit would enhance the relationship between
the two agencies and the diplomatic relations between the two nations.
The delegation is scheduled to pay their respects to the late
President Ho Chi Minh and meet with State President Truong Tan Sang and other
union agencies.
The Police Agency in central Ha Tinh province began criminal
proceedings against the case of a recent serious scaffold collapse due to a
labour law violation, unveiled the agency’s Vice Director Bui Dinh Quang on
March 31.
The incident occurred at 8pm on March 25 when around 100
workers were working on a 30-metre scaffold at Taiwanese-invested
Thirteen died and 28 sustained injuries in the accident.
A failure in the hydraulic brake system in the structure is to
blame for the tragedy.
Kim Hyung Sub, Deputy General Director of the project’s
contractor Samsung C&T, admitted his company’s remiss in operating the
scaffold.
Fishing boats fined for near-shore fishing violations
Two fishing boats were fined VNĐ48 million (US$2,200) for
violating
The two boats numbered TH 91585-TS and TH91586-TS with 11 crew
members on-board were found catching fish illegally by the border patrol
force and inspectors from the province's Department of Aquatic Resource
Exploitation and Protection.
An official from the department said near-shore fishing must
be stopped as it would result in the exhaustion of the province's fisheries
resources.
HCM City to build Hiep Phuoc 1 Residential Quarter
The HCM City People's Committee has sought approval for the
construction of the Hiep Phuoc 1 Residential Quarter in the Hiep Phuoc Port
Urban Zone in Nha Be District.
The approval has been sought from the Ministry of
Construction. The project will be spread over an area of more than 29
hectares, where houses for resettlement residents will be built in the Hiep
Phuoc Industrial Zone, along with other buildings, by project investor Tan
Thuan Industrial Promotion Co. Ltd.
The project will include the construction of more than 2,000
flats for resettlement residents and involve a total investment of nearly
VND4.3 trillion (US$204.7 million). The construction period will be four
years.
It is expected to be the biggest urban zone and industrial
zone in the city.
Ship rescues fisherman injured in propeller accident
The Regional Maritime Search and Rescue Co-ordination Centre
No 2 (MRCC Da Nang) rescued an injured fisherman 195 nautical miles off the
central city yesterday.
The fisherman, named Chau Minh Duong, 22, from Duc Pho
district in
The maritime centre's rescue ship, SAR 412, located the boat
and transported the fisherman to the
Duong is receiving urgent medical treatment at the hospital.
Cosmetics goods to be tested for origins
Ha Noi's Market Watch sent samples of confiscated goods from
Xuan Thuy Cosmetics Ltd to the police for testing, said Le Viet Phuong,
deputy captain Market Watch Unit 14.
On Saturday the company failed to show proper origins
documents for 110 cosmetics boxes, 320 bottles of product and other items
found in their possession.
They were also found to be repackaging the items in smaller
containers for sale.
A company representative said the goods were imported from
WB funds planting of industrial trees
The central
Acacia forests that can be harvested for industrial wood after
just three or four years have been planted in the districts of Phong Dien,
Huong Tra, Huong Thuy and Phu Loc.
The World Bank has provided loans to farmers while the
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has given them technical
support for the Forest Section Development Project.
The project grants forest land to farmers to help them escape
from poverty.
"The project has helped facilitate the process of
granting forest land to households and increased forest coverage on the areas
more barren areas," said Tran Hung Long, deputy director of the forestry
and agriculture development unit in Huong Tra District.
Ho Da The, a farmer from Phu Loc District, said he earned
around VND200 million (US$9,300) per hectare over the past eight years after
planting trees.
"It is a sizable amount of money and has helped improve
my family's living conditions," he said.
Farmer Ho Dac Ngu said favourable loans from the project had
allowed him to delay the harvest, which meant better quality wood and higher
prices.
The project has also been carried out in the central provinces
of Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Quang
The project has cost $100.19 million with more than two thirds
coming from World Bank loans, supported by ODA from the Global Environmental
Facility, the Finnish Trust Fund for Forestry, the European Commission and
the Vietnamese Government.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development regarded the
project a successful one to reduce deforestation area in the Central region
of
Victoria Kwakwa, World Bank Country Director for
Farmers have also asked for more funding to develop their
forests and plant other species of trees.
Swedish Speaker promotes traffic safety in Hanoi
A Swedish delegation led by Parliament Speaker Urban Ahlin
rode motorbikes through
They departed the Swedish Embassy on
The Swedish delegation came to
Vulnerable communities in disaster zones to receive support
A programme to support communities in the disaster-affected
areas of northern Dien Bien province, Hai Phong city and southern Tien Giang
province was launched on March 31.
The three-year programme aims to increase the disaster
preparedness and resilience of 6,000 vulnerable children and 30,000 community
members.
The Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in
The project will also support communities in organising
disaster-prevention drills and developing plans for better resilience, as
well as advocating for the use of risk-reduction education in communities and
schools.
The project will be funded by the Prudence Foundation and
implemented by Save the Children in coordination with the Ministry of
Education and provincial centers for flood and storm control from 2015 to
2017.
Every year, two million people are estimated to be affected by
the frequent storms and typhoons that hit
The cooperation was the focal topic of a recent meeting
between Deputy Chairman Nguyen Huu Tin of the municipal People’s Committee
and the fund’s Programme Director Kelly Larson on March 31.
Low investment in transportation infrastructure and the
limited number of law-abiding residents on the road stand counter to the
rapid growth of the southern hub, informed Tin.
There is still much to be done to address safety concerns and
the assistance from international organisations like Bloomberg Philanthropies
is a great source of encouragement for the city’s efforts, Tin declared.
Larson hoped the bilateral engagement would produce practical
and effective initiatives within the next five years.
The Global Road Safety Initiative initiated by Bloomberg
Philanthropies aims to reduce fatalities and injuries from road accidents.
With a new commitment of 125 million USD over five years, the program will work
at both the national level to strengthen road safety legislation and the city
level to implement proven road safety interventions.
Canadian students build kitchen for
A group of 25 high school students from
The
They also donated VND100 million (US$5,000) to fund the
construction.
The nursery, located in Huong Tra District, a small town of
the central province, has not had a kitchen to prepare lunches for its 100
students until now
The children, many of whom live far away from the school, had
to carry hurriedly-prepared lunch boxes with them or go back home around noon
for lunch.
Nguyen Vinh, a tour guide of the Canadian group, said that
students from the Canadian school travel on volunteer trips six times a year.
State officials discuss Q1 road safety measures
Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc chaired an online
conference reviewing outcomes of road safety programmes nationwide in the
first quarter on March 31.
Road accidents totalled 5,850 cases in the reviewed time,
leaving 2,345 people dead and 5448 others injured.
Compared to the same period last year, reductions were seen in
the number of accidents (11.11 percent), fatalities (3.38 percent) and
injuries (15.07 percent).
Thirty-six out of 63 cities and provinces recorded a decrease
in mortality rate, particularly southern Dong Nai province, which posted a
drop of more than 50 percent.
Nguyen Van Thanh, Chairman of the Vietnam Automobile
Transportation Association, raised concerns about the loose control of
driving tests and drivers’ performance.
He stressed the urgent need for detailed inspection of
drivers’ route data and stronger measures to be taken against drunk driving.
Meanwhile, Transport Minister Dinh La Thang showed his
determination to clear the issue of overweight transportation.
Deputy PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc, who is also head of the National
Committee on Road Safety, required local administrations’ greater involvement
in handling transport issues.
He suggested heavier fines on law violators and intensive
patrols at accident-prone places.
18-year-old son kills mom for jewelries
The police in the Mekong Delta
The local police agency has decided to arrest Nguyen Kha Dat,
who was born in 1997, for further investigation to prosecute him on two
counts of murder and robbery, said Colonel Hoang Quoc Viet, deputy chief of
the municipal police division in charge of social crimes (PC45).
At the investigation agency, Dat claimed that he killed his
mother, Nguyen Thi Minh Trinh, 42, at their house at night on March 5, after
his mother refused to offer him the money he needed to buy a new motorbike,
said the police agency.
Dat said he pushed his mother so that she fell backwards on the
floor after a fierce argument with her. After that, seeing his mother wearing
many pieces of gold jewelries, Dat thought of killing her for the jewelries
so that he can sell for money to buy a new motorbike, according to the police
agency.
Dat told the police that he then took a piece of wood to hit
his mother’s head two or three times.
After realizing his mother was dead, Dat took all the
jewelries but an ivory bracelet, and carried her body to dump into a big
earthen jar used to store rainwater on the back of the house. Dat also dumped
all of his mother’s clothes into the same place to conceal about her
disappearance.
According to the findings of the police in the field, after
hiding the body of his mother in the jar, knowing that the body would likely stink
up, Dat poured a lot of fabric softener into it in an attempt to conceal the
crime as long as he could.
When Van asked Dat about the strange unpleasant smell, he
replied that the stink came from the clogged sewer in the back of the
house.According to Nguyen Thi Van, 63, a neighbor, she smelled the stench
several days before the police jumped in and found the body dumped in the jar
for 24 days.
Trinh’s relatives held a funeral for her at her homeland in
Bac Lieu on March 30 after the body was recovered by the police.
Opinions sought for Social Labour Law
Public comments about the Social Labour Law 2014 will be
listened to and collected, Doan Mau Diep, deputy minister of Labour, Invalids
and Social Affairs, has said.
Speaking at an urgent press conference held in HCM City late
on Monday, he said that all opinions and ideas from labourers would be
submitted to the Government and National Assembly when they compile the Law's
guiding circulars and decrees.
He said labourers could contact their company's labour unions
if they had ideas or information related to the law's provisions and
regulations.
The urgent press conference was organised after a demonstration
was held from last Thursday at the Taiwanese PouYuen Company Ltd in HCM
City's Binh Tan District.
Workers at this leather and footwear company went on strike to
show their disagreement with the new Social Labour Law 2014, which is
expected to take effect in 2016.
In the new law, labourers will no longer receive one-time
social insurance payments right after they quit their jobs. The payment would
only be given at their age of retirement (60 for males and 55 for females).
Diep said the new law would ensure social welfare and help
labourers have a regular stable income after retirement. It would also
encourage labourers to accumulate their social insurance payment time until
they retire.
When they quit a job, their payments will be reserved until
they have a new job. If they do not get a new job, they can pay voluntary
insurance.
Yesterday morning, the ministry's representatives met with
labourers of PouYuen Company to explain the new law.
Tat Thanh Cang, deputy chairman of HCM City's People's
Committee, said at the press conference that after the demonstration
occurred, the city took action to support the company and ensure security.
He said that HCM City would always protect labourers' and
companies' rights and benefits.
Cang also said the city would no longer disseminate
information about the new Social Labour Law 2014, and would inform labourers
in detail about the law after having the guiding circulars and decrees.
Dak Lak suffers from drought
About 31,000 hectares of crops in the Central Highlands province
of Dak Lak, including 6,000 hectares of rice and 23,000 hectares of coffee,
are suffering from the effects of a prolonged drought.
According to the municipal Department of Agriculture and Rural
Development, the damage was estimated at 980 billion VND (46 million USD)
with the most affected areas in the Krong Nang, Krong Buk, Ea Kar, M’Drak,
Krong Bong, and Buon Ho districts.
The situation is expected to worsen as the drought continues,
affecting up to 40,000 hectares of crops through the end of April.
To cope with the drought, provincial leaders asked local
authorities to guide community members to dredge ponds and reservoirs and
free the flow of streams to make full use of water resources.
The province also directed competent sectors to apply rotational
water supply for areas, with priority given to people’s daily use, animal
husbandry, perennial industrial crops such as coffee and pepper.
The lack of water has not only affected agricultural
production but also the daily lives of thousands of households in the
province.
According to the Dak Lak Water Supply and Construction JSC,
the company runs about 10,000 cubic metres short each day, meeting only 75-80
percent of local demand for clean water.
Child protection portal launched
A portal has been launched at http://treem.gov.vn to better
serve anybody wishing to search for information related to child protection
and care.
Addressing the opening ceremony on March 31 in Hanoi, Dang Hoa
Nam Director of the Department of Child Protection and Care under the
Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs, said the initiative aims
to develop an online database system on child protection that is accessible
to more people.
The multimedia portal, which provides a diversity of data
types such as video, audio, text and pictures, will also provide information
for child protection organisations and staff, Nam said.
The portal is also expected to help mobilise incentives and
social resources for this child protection and care, he added.
In 2015, the department will continue developing software
managing information on children in localities while setting up a general
database system that integrates information at all levels.
Staff will be trained on how to use the system, thus enhancing
the management of child protection and care nationwide.
Rice supplied to poor students in Quang Binh
The central province of Quang Binh will provide about 312
tonnes of rice aid for 5,211 local students in 48 schools in six poor
districts.
Accordingly, each student will receive 15 kilogrammes of rice
each month over a period of four months.
The provincial People’s Committee has asked the Department of
Education and Training in collaboration with the local districts’ People
Committees to distribute the rice to eligible beneficiaries before April 10.
The rice aid for poor student is part of more than 1,200
tonnes of rice granted by the Government to the province to help poor people
overcome the current between-crop food shortage.
Binh Phuoc, Kratie tighten ties
The southern province of Binh Phuoc took a further step to
tighten ties with its Cambodian bordering province of Kratie with a
memorandum of understanding on cooperation and mechanism for a twinning
relationship in the field of defence.
The MoU was signed at a meeting on March 30 between the Binh
Phuoc provincial military command and the Cambodian army’s military sub-zone
in Kratie.
At the signing ceremony, the two sides informed each other of
the situation on the border in the past years and agreed on contents for
cooperation in 2015 between the two military agencies.
The ‘twinning relationship’ mechanism is intended to encourage
residents on both sides of the border to obey and follow border management
regulations; to enhance cooperation in searching for and repatriating remains
of Vietnamese voluntary soldiers and military experts who died in Cambodia
during wartime.
The two sides also agreed to maintain periodical meetings,
exchange of information and work together to detect and deal with activities
violating border management regulations or plots to destablise the border.
The two provinces promised to hold various activities to
welcome Cambodia’s 62th National Day, Vietnam’s 70th National Day and the
VPA’s 71th founding day.
In 2014, the border was judged as stable without any serious
incidents.
Vietnamese diplomat honoured with French order of merit
Nguyen Thi Bich Hue, Minister- Counsellor at the Vietnamese
Embassy in Paris has been awarded France’s National Order of Merit in
recognition of her contributions to boosting friendship between the two
country.
Jean-Francois Girault, former French Ambassador to Vietnam
presented the decoration to the Vietnamese diplomat at a ceremony in Paris on
March 27.
Addressing the event, Elisabeth Laurin from the French Foreign
Ministry highlighted Hue’s significant service to the successful organisation
of the Vietnam-France Exchange Year (2013-2014) and the arrangement of
high-ranking visits of both nations’ leaders.
She said her agency will further forge links with its Vietnamese
counterparts in the future, thus strengthening the bilateral relations.
In reply, Minister- Counsellor Hue expressed her honour to
receive the distinction, promising to make more efforts to promote the
Vietnam-France Friendship.
Founded in 1963, the National Order of Merit honours French
citizens and foreign nationals for their distinguished civil or military
achievements to France.-
US-funded disaster response centre inaugurated in Quang Ngai
A disaster prevention and response centre funded by the
Command of the US Navy officially went into operation on March 30 in central
Quang Ngai province.
Construction on the three-storey centre began in June 2014. It
was built at a total investment of more than 420,000 USD.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, US Consul General in Ho
Chi Minh City Rena Bitter said that the centre will help Quang Ngai province
effectively respond to disasters, serving as a shelter for locals and
providing a contact and communication point.
The centre is one of many being built in Vietnam by the US to
mark 20 years since the normalisation of bilateral diplomatic ties between
the two nations, she added.
Over 25,000 labourers sent oversea in Q1
Vietnam sent more than 25,766 workers overseas in the first
quarter this year, up 10.7 percent compared to the same period last year,
according to the Overseas Labour Management Department (OLMD) under the
Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs.
The figure represented 27 percent of the year's target.
In March alone, as many as 8,560 went abroad under working
contracts, mostly to Taiwan, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, and Middle
East countries.
Vietnam sent a record-high 105,840 guest workers abroad in
2014, 110 percent of the year's target, according to statistics from the
OLMD.
Compared to 2013, the number of Vietnamese guest workers sent
to Taiwan increased to 62,000 from 46,000, while those working in Japan rose
from 9,600 to nearly 20,000.
According to Nguyen Luong Trao, Chairman of the Vietnam Labour
Export Association, last year the highest number of guest workers went to
Northeast Asia, around 90,000, accounting for 86 percent of the total 40
labour-export markets.
Hoi An comes under spotlight in Italy
La Stampa, Italy’s third most popular newspaper, called the
ancient town of Hoi An in central coastal Quang Nam province an ideal Asian
destination in 2015 in an article titled “Hoi An, a multinational Vietnam”.
La Stampa introduced readers to the town’s history since it
was a busy trading port on the north bank of Hoai River between the 16 th and
17 th centuries, saying that a fusion of indigenous and foreign cultures,
which has been carefully preserved to date, is what makes the town attractive
to visitors.
It appeals to visitors with beautiful tiled-roof houses
embellished with unique details and carved wooden pillars alongside folk
symbols to protect the owners from misfortune.
Both Eastern and Western influences can be seen in Hoi An,
ranging from pagodas and bridges in Chinese and Vietnamese designs to remains
of the French colonial mansions, the newspaper said.
Tourists should not miss Hoi An during its magical full moon
nights as electric lights are switched off and the streets sparkle in the
light of silk lanterns hung from houses to shops.
The article also recommended several restaurants, coffee shops
and hotels to its readers where they can experience local cuisine without
breaking the bank.
Hoi An was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999.
Vietnam’s towns and landscapes have been recommended by
foreign newspapers and travel magazines, such as La Repubblica, La, Stampa,
Dove and Conde Nast Traveller.
Sapa, Hanoi, Ha Long Bay, the Mekong Delta and Hoi An are the
most-frequently mentioned favourite destinations.
Vietnam welcomed around 50,000 Italian travellers and some 7
million international arrivals in 2013.
Son La complete 122 projects for resettled communities
The People’s Committee of the northern mountainous province of
Son La said that during the first quarter of this year it completed 122
projects serving resettlement communities.
The projects include roads, electricity, water and irrigation
systems, public works, schools and production assistance, all of which are
intended to boost socio-economic development in areas established to
accommodate people relocated to make way for the construction of the Son La
hydroelectric power plant.
Since 2003, the province has established 269 resettlement
areas and completed 2,022 related infrastructure projects, representing 93
percent of the projects approved by the Government.
The province currently has 178 projects underway.
The 2,400 MW Son La Hydropower Plant, the largest project in
Southeast Asia, is situated in It Ong Commune, Muong La District of Son La
province. Over 20,000 households in Dien Bien, Son La and Lai Chau provinces
had to move to make way for the project.
The plant was officially put into operation on December 23,
2012, after seven years of construction, three years earlier than scheduled.
It supplies on average 10.2 billion kWh each year to the national grid.
Scholarships worth VND8 billion presented to students in Thua
Thien – Hue
Japanese SoShi Education Group on March 29 presented 37 scholarships
worth more than VND8 billion (US$368,000) for high school students in central
Thua Thien – Hue province who plan to enroll for Japan’s International
Pacific University (IPU), one of SoShi’s partners.
Among the students, 14 of them received 50% of the value of
the scholarship, 22 students received 30% and Hoang Ngoc Bich Tran from Quoc
Hoc Hue High School for the Gifted was presented a full scholarship. All
students have passed requirements for the scholarships, recording high
results in tests for English or Japanese, math and essay writing by the
SoShi.
SoShi is one of the five largest educational groups in Japan
with over 30,000 Japanese and international students studying in 120
international high schools, colleges and universities.
In early 2015, IPU launched a contest for SoShi scholarships
which drew the participation of over 2,400 students in 76 high schools in
nine localities of Vietnam including Hanoi, Hai Phong, Hai Duong, Vinh Phuc,
Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Thua Thien – Hue, and Da Nang. Hanoi accounted
for the most with over 1,000 contestants. Participants had the opportunity to
receive scholarships covering 30%, 50% and 100% of tuition fees with a total
value of up to US$32,000 for an entire four-year tertiary course in Japan.
The same day, 75 students in Hai Phong and 57 in Da Nang were
also presented SoShi scholarships, along with 496 in Hanoi, 62 in Vinh Phuc
and 37 in Hai Duong. Similar ceremonies will be held over the next few days
to present the scholarships to winners in Ha Tinh, Nghe An and Thanh Hoa
provinces.
Source :
VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/Dantri
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Thứ Tư, 1 tháng 4, 2015
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