Social News 1/4 Towboat owner, driver in Ghenh bridge collapse prosecuted The site of the bridge collapse The Dong Nai province Supreme People’s Procuracy on March 30 approved a decision to start criminal proceedings against two men involved in the recent collapse of Ghenh Bridge across Dong Nai River. The detainees are 62-year-old Phan The Thuong from Ho Chi Minh City, owner of the towboat which caused the March 20 accident, and 30-year-old Tran Van Giang, residing in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang, who was at the towboat’s wheel when it crashed into the bridge. An order was also issued to take the two men into custody for four months to serve the investigation into “violations of regulations on navigation in waterways” stipulated in Article 212 of the Criminal Code. According to initial investigation, Thuong asked Giang who has no boat-pilot’s licence to steer the towboat coded SG-3745, which was towing a barge with a plate number of SG-5984 carrying 800 tonnes of sand from the western region to Dong Nai. However, the towboat’s engine stopped working when it came near the Ghenh Bridge. Due to a strong current, Giang could not steer the towboat, resulting in the barge hitting the bridge. Two spans of the bridge collapsed after the crash. Giang and Nguyen Van Le, another person aboard, jumped into the river and were rescued by nearby fishing boats. They fled to Soc Trang afterwards. The Ghenh bridge was built by the French in the 1900s during the colonial period and has been used for both railway and land transportation. As the bridge is on the North-South railway route, rail services have been interrupted. Trains on the route must now stop at Bien Hoa Station. To support passengers travelling between Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai, HCM City’s transport sector has increased bus services between Sai Gon Station to Bien Hoa. Fallen soldiers laid to rest in An Giang The remains of 29 Vietnamese soldiers who laid down their lives during the US war were reburied in Khanh Binh commune, An Phu district, in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang, between March 22-30. Colonel Pham Quang Trung, head of the search team K93 of the provincial Military High Command, said the remains were found at a site which was once a cemetery of the B3-Vat Lai revolutionary base, which existed from 1960-1969. After the Southern Liberation Day (April 30, 1975), many of the soldiers’ remains in the cemetery were brought to nearby cemeteries or their families’ land, while others were not found as they were hidden in locals’ orchards and fields. Trung said the remains of thousands of soldiers who fell in the province and in neighbouring Cambodia during the wars are still unaccounted for. He said the search faces an array of difficulties as the landscape has changed and a lot of witnesses have passed away. Hanoi launches child-friendly library model Two child-friendly libraries, the first of the kind in Vietnam were put into operation at the Dong Hoi and Tam Xa pre-schools in Hanoi’s Dong Anh district on March 30. The libraries were built under a project initiated by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Vietnam and the UNICEF National Committee in the Republic of Korea, and funded by the Samsung Corporation. Deputy Chief Representative of UNICEF in Vietnam Jesper Moller underlined the need to form a reading habit early in children, adding that this model will help promote self-reliance and self-study. With different corners for reading, learning about culture, science and arts, and play, the model aims to enhance communication and situation settlement skills for kids. Additionally, it also helps improve the caring and educational ability of teachers and parents, and increases links between schools and families, Moller said. According to Nguyen Ba Minh, Head of the Department of Pre-school Education under the Ministry of Education and Training, the model will be expanded to other localities in the future. Prolonged cold spell threatens Sapa livestock A cold snap has hit this northern mountainous province since last week, with temperatures plunging to around 5 degrees Celsius, causing vast damage to the livestock farming industry in Sapa Township. The locals and authorities have complained of hundreds of cows and buffalo, the main asset of farmers in rural mountainous areas, being killed by the cold spell, which usually resulted in hoar frost. Local farmers said they could not do anything to save their livestock as the cold weather had unexpectedly lasted for too long. They said the only thing left to do was to sell the dead livestock in local markets or to visitors travelling along National Highway 4D, connecting Lào Cai City and Sa Pa Township. Lưu Minh Hải, director of the Lào Cai Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, said summer should have started by now, but mid-winter temperatures have prevailed. Hải said this was proof of a very complicated climatic change that could continue to cause trouble for local agricultural production. The weather forecasting official urged the locals to be more cautious and to prepare for the cold spell by taking every step to protect their livestock. Earlier, in January this year, a cold snap sent temperatures plunging to below zero degrees Celsius in Sa Pa, the worst bout of cold weather since the start of winter. Trịnh Xuân Trường, chairman of Sa Pa District’s People’s Committee, said ice had appeared on the Hoang Lien Mountain Range, where temperatures at 2,800 metres above sea level on the Fansipan peak had dropped to minus 1 degree Celsius. The cold weather had also already caused losses for farmers in mountainous areas, with calves and old buffalo dying as the temperature plunged. Lào Cai Province, particularly Sa Pa Township, suffered estimated damages of more than VNĐ5 billion (US$222,200). Fallen soldiers laid to rest in An Giang The remains of 29 Vietnamese soldiers who laid down their lives during the US war were reburied in Khanh Binh commune, An Phu district, in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang, between March 22-30. Colonel Pham Quang Trung, head of the search team K93 of the provincial Military High Command, said the remains were found at a site which was once a cemetery of the B3-Vat Lai revolutionary base, which existed from 1960-1969. After the Southern Liberation Day (April 30, 1975), many of the soldiers’ remains in the cemetery were brought to nearby cemeteries or their families’ land, while others were not found as they were hidden in locals’ orchards and fields. Trung said the remains of thousands of soldiers who fell in the province and in neighbouring Cambodia during the wars are still unaccounted for. He said the search faces an array of difficulties as the landscape has changed and a lot of witnesses have passed away. ASEM Youth Week delegates gather in Hanoi An Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) Youth Week got underway in Hanoi on March 31 with the arrival, registration and welcoming dinner for the more than 100 students from universities of the 51 ASEM Partner countries at the Khan Quang Do Hotel. The Youth Week is being held in conjunction with the Model ASEM Hanoi 2016 conference that runs April 1-7 at the same hotel discussing issues and policies on the topic of ‘Stronger Actions to Address Zero Hunger Challenge’. The ASEM Youth Week is an initiative co-sponsored by Vietnam, Brunei, Ireland and Laos, which was endorsed at the 10th ASEM Summit in October 2014 in Milan, Italy. The events are co-organized by the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Youth Union, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, ASEF and British Council and are aimed at enhancing understanding of the Asia-Europe partnership and ASEM process. They aspire to raise awareness among the youth of potential cooperation on poverty eradication, and provide them a platform to take actions in the fight against hunger, said the organizers. The organizers said the participants will also have a chance to develop their skills in the fields of negotiation, diplomacy and consensus-building through activities scheduled to transpire throughout the week. Registration was open to all undergraduate and graduate students between the ages of 18-30 from the 51 ASEM Partner countries. A similar event is being held in Ha Long Bay in Quang Ninh Province. Germany supports Vietnam on national biomass energy development The Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in Vietnam and General Directorate of Energy (GDE) on March 31 co-host the consultation workshop on ”National Biomass Energy Development and Utilization Planning for the Period of 2020 with vision to 2030”. The workshop is facilitated by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT)/GIZ Energy Support Programme under the Technical Development Cooperation project ”Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency” (4E project) in order to assist Vietnamese Government to utilise and apply this source of energy, meeting the objectives in the Renewable Energy Development Strategy approved the the Prime Minister in 11/2015. 4E project is implemented by GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), in which one component is co-funded by The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Government of Czech Republic. The Consultation Workshop on ”National Biomass Energy Development and Utilization Planning for the Period of 2020 with vision to 2030” targets relevant Ministries such as MoIT, Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and relevant provincial departments including Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and Department of Industry and Trade of 63 provinces. It aims at collecting comments and ideas from participants in order to finalise the National Biomass Planning Study report as well as improve methodology on biomass planning nationawide. National Biomass Planning Study report will be an invaluable document guiding policy makers and managers to assess the development potential, current exploration and utilization status of biomass for power generation; economic and ecological benefits for converting crude resources into end-use energy; the compatibility with national socio-economic development in order to draw up a roadmap for the exploration and utilisation of biomass effectively and sustainably. Together with rapid industrialisation of Vietnam, demand for power consumption is increasing. Aware of the roles and advantages of renewable energies, Vietnamese government is encouraging research, study and investment in renewable energies, among which biomass energy plays a very important role. As a developing agricultural country, Vietnam has huge potential for power generation from biomass energy. Therefore, if utilised effectively, biomass energy will not only reduce the dependency of Vietnam on traditional energies, reduce carbon emission and environment pollution but also directly benefits biomass producers, farmers who participate in biomass energy value chain (selling residues and agricultural and forest by-products for fuels). Hanoi man jailed for stealing iPhone 6 A Vietnamese court on March 30 sentenced a local man to jail for stealing an iPhone 6 from a German man and his daughter enjoying a cyclo ride around the Hanoi Old Quarter. The man, Do Minh Can, 34, was given a sentence of four months and 21 days in the city jail for theft of the mobile by the Hanoi’s People’s Court. Prosecutors alleged that on September 21, Can targeted the German man and his daughter and stole the mobile while they were on a cyclo ride near the Dong Xuan Market. The daughter, Patricia, was holding the phone while looking at a map of the city and did not see Can sneak up until he snatched the phone from her hands and attempted to flee. Fortunately, her father, Madrin, was able to subdue Can and turn him over to local authorities. This was a carefully planned, sophisticated, professional offence targeting high value goods and tourists in Hanoi, said prosecutors, a crime they consider very serious that will not be tolerated. Vietnam’s tourism potential promoted at Ukraine Exhibition On March 30, the Vietnam Embassy in Ukraine first attended the 22nd Ukraine International Travel & Tourism Exhibition 2016 (UITT Kiev)which attracted 200 travel firms from 30 nations around the globe. Vietnam Ambassador to Ukraine Nguyen Minh Tri said Ukrainian people are very fond of travellingand want to explore Vietnam’s beautiful landscapes and get a better understanding of the country’stradition and culture. Ukraine and international friends appreciated Vietnam’s participation in the event through which the Southeast Asian nation can share information about tourism development and introduce its great tourism potential. During the three-day exhibition, a score of measures were discussed aimed at simplifying visa procedures, especially tourism visas for visitors of both nations. Wartime bomb safely detonated in Bac Lieu Army engineers in the Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu on March 30 successfully detonated a 340-kilogramme bomb discovered in An Phuc commune, Dong Hai district. The defused bomb is the MK117 type, an air-dropped general-purpose bomb used by the US military forces in Vietnam War. The bomb is believed to have an effective casualty radius of about one kilometre. Since the beginning of the year, five bombs have been unearthed and defused in the locality. The US army used more than 15 million tonnes of bombs and mines during the war in Vietnam , four times the amount used in World War II. As a result, Vietnam has been listed among the countries most contaminated with unexploded ordnances (UXOs). According to the State Steering Committee for the national action programme on settling post-war bomb and landmine impacts, about 800,000 tonnes of UXOs are scattered across 6.6 million hectares or 20.12 percent of Vietnam ’s land, mainly in the central region. Preliminary statistics show that UXOs have claimed more than 42,000 lives and left about 62,000 injured - mostly rural people and children - in Vietnam over the last four decades. Vietnamese television to go online for overseas citizens Overseas Vietnamese will soon be able to watch Vietnamese television online, following a deal inked on March 29 between the country’s overseas labor bureau and one of its leading multimedia corporations. The Bureau of Overseas Labor (BOL) under the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs signed an agreement with Vietnam Multimedia Corporation (VTC) under the Ministry of Information and Communications in Hanoi, the main provision of which is to offer Internet television service to Vietnamese citizens living abroad. Vietnam exports around 100,000 laborers every year, which have amounted to over 500,000 Vietnamese laborers working in more than 40 different countries and territories worldwide, according to Nguyen Ngoc Quynh, general director at BOL. Alongside the expatriate and overseas student population, Quynh said, these laborers are in need of access to official information on the policies of the Party and government, as well as Vietnamese entertainment programs to unwind after their working hours. Quynh said that over the past years, the information on Party and government policies could only be accessed via a limited number of online newspapers and mail-delivered publications, while there have been a lack of television and radio services available overseas. With the recently inked deal, overseas Vietnamese will soon be able to watch or listen to television and radio programs at any time through any Internet connected devices such as laptops, smartphones, or Internet TV sets. Users can download and install the Homeconnect application available in the App Store or Google Play, or use any web browser of their choice to access the site www.tvnet.gov.vn to watch the programs. There are currently 10 television channels available: VTV1, VTV2, VTV3, and VTV4 by Vietnam Television, HTV1 by Hanoi Television, HTV9 by Ho Chi Minh City Television, VTC1, VTC10, and VTC16 by Vietnam Multimedia Corporation, and VNews by Vietnam News Agency. Luu Vu Hai, chairman of the council of members at VTC, said one of the strengths of this television service is that there is integrated technical assistance to enhance the visuals even in areas with slow Internet connection, and that the server could host up to 200,000 simultaneous visitors. Hanoi proceeds with underground parking lot project Authorities in Hanoi have decided to go ahead with a plan to develop a 10,000-square meter underground parking lot inside one of its major public parks despite strong criticism. Speaking at a press conference on March 29, Luu Quang Huy, spokesperson of the People's Committee of Hanoi, said the city's Party unit has approved the project, which will have three floors under Thong Nhat Park that can accommodate more than 1,000 cars. There will also be a shopping mall. The project, which will be developed by private investors, is meant to repurpose the existing underground structures of a suspended hotel project, Huy said. Addressing public concerns about possible impacts on the environment and one of the city's rare green spaces, the official assured that there will be no construction on the ground. Developers will be obliged to replant all affected trees and restore pedestrian lanes after finishing their underground construction, he said. The People's Committee is working on a detailed plan and will collect public opinion, Huy said. The parking lot project initiated in 2013, around the same time when the city suspended the SAS controversial Hanoi Royal Hotel project. Similar criticism prompted local authorities to bring the hotel project to a halt after eight years of construction. By then Singaporean-owned SIH Investment Limited, which collaborated with Hanoi Tourist in the hotel project, had invested more than US$13.3 million, local media reported. The foreign investor was then reportedly compensated with another piece of land in the capital city. It was allowed to develop a new project without having to partner with a local investor. Vinh Long aims for larger number of guest workers The Mekong Delta province of Vinh Long has planned to send 3,000 guest workers to foreign markets in 2016-2020, according to the provincial Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs. Vinh Long has 705,000 people of working age, accounting for 67.96 percent of the locality’s population. The rate of highly skilled workers reached 55.16 percent by later last year, and the number is expected to hit 75 percent by 2020. To realise its goal of increasing the number of guest workers, local authorities have intensified campaigns to raise public awareness about the advantages of labour export. Attention was paid to vocational training in order to meet requirements for export labour set by foreign markets. At the same time, policies related to the issue have been also updated across the community. The locality has also selected markets with good working conditions and stable income to send its workers to. Meanwhile, the implementation of labour export contracts signed with foreign partners have been strictly supervised and managed, addressing difficulties and risks facing labourers. As many as 2,447 guest workers were sent to foreign markets in 2011-2015, mainly to the Republic of Korea, Japan, Chinese Taiwan and Malaysia. The annual remittances to the locality hit between 200-250 billion VND in the period. Living standards of workers who return home after completing labour contracts have improved remarkably, contributing to promoting the locality’s socio-economic development. Two suspects detained in death of Vietnamese businesswoman in China Two suspects allegedly responsible for the death of a Vietnamese businesswoman in mainland China in September last year have been arrested, according to Chinese authorities. The two accused murderers of Ha Thuy Linh, a 46-year-old director of a firm based in Lam Dong Province in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, have been detained, Major General Ho Sy Tien, an official at the Ministry of Public Security, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on March 29. According to Maj. Gen. Tien, Vietnamese police were informed of the situation by authorities from China. The two suspects were arrested by Taiwanese police officers on March 23 while hiding on the island, Tien quoted Chinese authorities as saying. The two are being kept in custody in Taiwan with their identities yet to be revealed, a police official continued, adding that police in Vietnam are coordinating with their Chinese and Taiwanese counterparts to stay updated on the case. However, Truong Quang Quy, legal counsel at Linh’s company, said that he and the victim’s family had been able to identify the two suspects through a recording of the piece of news that was aired on TVBS channel of Taiwan’s television network. They are Hoang Thanh Tai, 63, and Tran Tuan Chung, 42, Quy said. According to Quy and Linh’s older sister Ha My Chau, they have met Chung and Tai in Vietnam on several occasions, and the two suspects were previously the victim’s business partners.   Linh was found dead on September 22, three days after she arrived in Guangzhou on a business trip. Post-mortem examination results showed that Linh suffered several injuries caused by external forces, including a damaged pancreas and rectum. The victim’s body was returned to Vietnam on February 4 after Chinese authorities finished the autopsy, responding to a series of repatriation requests from Linh’s family members. Linh was the director of Lam Dong-based Ha Linh O Long Tea Company famous for its tea exports to Taiwan and mainland China, accounting for 60% of its total production. She founded the company in 2008 after she divorced her Taiwanese husband, who had established Haiyih Tea Company, where the woman was also a vice director. 108 Vietnamese caught entering China illegally for factory jobs Police in China will deport 108 Vietnamese after they were caught crossing the border to find factory jobs with the help of smugglers. China Youth Daily reported on March 30 that police raided the human smuggling ring run by nine Chinese early this month after receiving a tip-off. The report said the gang received the illegal immigrants from a Vietnamese woman and was transferring them to factories in Guangdong, which had paid commissions for the cheap laborers. Each illegal immigrant had to pay a fee of up to 1,000 yuan (US$154) to the smugglers, who would arrange transport and look out for them at highway toll areas and petrol stations, it said. A 40-year-old Vietnamese man said, as cited in the report, that he paid the fee after learning that a tile factory in Guangdong was going to pay workers 3,000 yuan a month, three times what he could earn for the same job in Vietnam. He said he traveled for ten hours by bus to the China border and then switched through three other vehicles before arriving at a transit warehouse, where the smugglers gathered illegal immigrants. Police in China have sent 930 Vietnamese illegal immigrants to Guangxi border for deportation this year, according to the report. Fatherland Front, Government to enhance coordination Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has asked the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee (VFFCC) to continue working as an adviser to the Government on implementing socio-economic development tasks in 2016. The leader made the appeal while chairing a conference on coordination between the Government and the VFFCC in Hanoi on March 30, where he said attention should be paid to patriotic emulation movements. He underscored the need for the front to perform better in supervision and social criticism activities in a bid to promote people’s rights to democracy and self-mastery. Mentioning the two sides’ collaboration in anti-corruption, PM Nguyen Tan Dung highlighted building a State of the rule of law, completing policies and mechanisms, and setting up a firm political system as the most fundamental solutions to corruption. At the conference, the two sectors agreed to continue their joint efforts in strengthening the great national unity bloc and social consensus, increasing patriotic emulation drives, stabilising the macro-economy and ensuring social welfare. They will also coordinate with each other in supervision and social criticism work, Party building, the fight against corruption and wastefulness, law making and policy development. The conference heard that in 2015, the close coordination and trust between the Government and the VFFCC contributed to fulfilling national development targets, particularly those on new-style rural area building and sustainable poverty reduction. According to VFFCC President Nguyen Thien Nhan, last year, the VFF implemented eight major supervisory programmes with the most worthy of note being the programme that review the Government’s policies to support people who rendered services to the revolution. However, the conference heard, limitations still remained in their affiliation in disseminating the Party’s guidelines and the State’s policies and laws, and handling public concerns, among others. On this occasion, PM Nguyen Tan Dung and VFFCC President Nguyen Thien Nhan inked a programme of coordination in promoting food safety during the 2016-2020 period. Accordingly, the two sides will propose amending and supplementing relevant policies and laws in order to ensure the efficiency of State management in this field. The programme aims to have over 60 percent of farming and food processing households, and all cooperatives and production facilities recognised as meeting food safety standards by 2020. Quang Binh: Certificates presented to Lao security officers Leaders of the Border Guard Command of the central Quang Binh province have recently presented certificates of merit to some officials from the Lao Khammouane provincial Department of Security. The Lao officers were recognised for their contribution to an anti-drug trafficking case coded 528 LV. Under case 528 LV, Quang Binh’s border guards in collaboration with anti-drug forces and Lao security officers on November 26, 2015 caught two individuals carrying 1 kilogramme of crystal meth and 22,000 pills of methamphetamine in Thakhek town, Khammouane province. The investigation showed a close coordination between the two countries’ forces, contributing to the tasks of preventing and combating cross-border drug crimes. Quang Binh: New pre-school opened in impoverished commune A ceremony was held on March 29 to inaugurate a 1.2 billion VND (54,000 USD) pre-school in Truong Son commune of Quang Ninh district, one of the most impoverished localities in the central province of Quang Binh. The school consists of two fully equipped classrooms with tables, chairs, teaching tools and a playground, giving local children a high-quality place of learning. This is part of the “Cung nhau xay dung tuong lai” (Building the future together) programme jointly organised by Prudential Vietnam, Plan Vietnam and the Saigon Children’s Charity. The programme has helped build 20 pre-schools nationwide between 2013- 2015. According to Vice Chairman of the Truong Son communal People’s Committee Nguyen Son Hai, the mountainous commune’s rate of poor households is over 66 percent. More than half of its population are from the Van Kieu ethnic minority group. At the ceremony, children of the school received gifts from the donors, including clothes, school bags and learning tools. HCM City: More districts launch pension payment service via post The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee has recently agreed to pay monthly pensions and social insurance allowances in cash through post offices from May in four more districts. The districts to implement the programme are Nha Be, Can Gio, Hoc Mon and Cu Chi. Three wards in Tan Phu district will also join the project. According to Cao Van Sang, Director of the city’s Social Insurance Agency, HCM City in last July launched a pilot scheme to pay pensions and social insurance for pensioners in District 1 and Binh Chanh district. For pensioners of over 80 years old or those who are unable to move, the post offices send the payments to their homes for free. Under the pilot programme, nearly 7,000 people in District 1 and Binh Chanh district got the payments in cash via the post networks. Sang said most pensioners and insurance beneficiaries are satisfied with the programme. HCM City is set to implement the programme in the remaining 18 districts from this July. Vietnamese Embassy in Ukraine proactive in citizen protection The Vietnamese Embassy in Ukraine has actively taken measures to ensure citizen protection, said Ambassador Nguyen Minh Tri. In 2014 and 2015, the embassy focused on evacuating Vietnamese people from combat zones amid safety concerns. However, at present, it is helping them continue doing business in Ukraine, he stated. Regarding the situation of the Vietnamese community in Odessa, especially after January 28, when the Security Service of Ukraine raided a Vietnamese residential quarter called Lang Sen (Lotus Village) in the city, the Ambassador confirmed that the situation for Vietnamese citizens here remains unstable. Stabilising the lives of the Vietnamese community while ensuring they obey Ukrainian law is urgent, he said, adding that the Vietnamese community is evaluated as a well-organised and generally decent community. Mentioning Vietnam-Ukraine relations, the diplomat said that there has been no progress in bilateral ties over the past two years, due to the current instability in Ukraine. However, in late 2015, within the framework of the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21) in Paris, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko agreed to work together to boost the two countries’ relations. The Ukrainian leader also pledged a visit to Vietnam within 2016. Ukraine is busily preparing for the upcoming meeting of the two nations’ inter-governmental committee, Tri stated, adding that Ukrainian ministries and sectors are also seeking measures to foster bilateral ties. Nghe An: More support to help near-poor residents buy health insurance The north central province of Nghe An plans to increase financial aid to help members of near-poor families buy health insurance over the next few years. The financial assistance will be gradually raised from 10 percent of health insurance costs this year to 15 percent in 2017 and 30 percent in 2020. Nghe An has high rates of households living under and near the poverty line. Meanwhile, a project on medical assistance for north central coastal provinces since 2011 stopped supporting near-poor people’s health insurance from this year, and hospital fees are scheduled to increase. Therefore, more financial aid to help those living near the poverty line is necessary, local authorities said. About 128,000 near-poor residents are benefitting from health insurance support, while 32,100 have not held health insurance cards this year, according to the provincial Department of Health. Nghe An estimates nearly 40 billion VND (1.79 million USD) is needed to help near-poor families buy health insurance in the first half of 2016. Vietnamese, Canadian people expand exchanges The Vietnam – Canada Friendship Association (VCFA) and Embassy Connections Canada (ECC) should continue facilitating visits to expand contact and support businesses and entities in practical projects, ECC President Jerry Sherman suggested. In a meeting with Deputy Health Minister and VCFA President Nguyen Viet Tien in Hanoi on March 30, Sherman informed the host about his activities during the Vietnam visit. Tien, for his part, introduced the role and activities of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations and the VCFA in promoting understanding, friendship and collaboration between the Vietnamese and people worldwide. On the back of the 40-year friendship between Vietnam and Canada, he hoped that the ECC leader’s working visit affords a chance for the two sides to extend business contacts, contributing to bilateral practical cooperation. The two sides discussed issues involving organic agriculture, education, culture, arts and trade cooperation, as well as foreign non-governmental organisations’ activities in Vietnam.- Belgium to work with Mekong Delta on water purification, waste treatmen Belgium will boost cooperation with the Mekong Delta in water purification and sewage treatment in the foreseeable future, Belgian Ambassador Jehanne Roccas told authorities of Can Tho city on March 30. Roccas said that on the back of the Can Tho – Belgium ties over the past 43 years, via linkages between Can Tho University and Ghent University, Belgium is sending experts to Vietnam to develop the waste and wastewater treatment sectors. The project will help repair and upgrade sewage pits and wastewater collection systems running from residential areas to waste treatment stations to mitigate environment pollution. Once built, wastewater treatment stations will discharge standard treated water into rivers and lakes. The project will learn from lessons in a similar model costing 439 billion VND (19.9 million USD) in the northern province of Thai Nguyen, of which 252 billion VND (11.4 million USD) is official development assistance provided by the Belgian government. Meanwhile, in the context of the current serious drought and saltwater intrusion, Belgium will help the Mekong Delta with research and projects in water purification. Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Vo Thanh Thong expressed his trust in the feasibility of the project, adding that the locality will do its best to help with site clearance and administrative procedures. He also hoped that the ambassador will push forward bilateral ties across education and health care. Transport costs soar after Dong Nai bridge collapse The collapse of the Ghềnh bridge that shut down the North-South railway left businesses struggling with a big surge in transport costs. The bridge, crossing the Đồng Nai River, collapsed on March 20 after a barge crashed into its pillar, making the Sài Gòn Station in HCM City and Sóng Thần Station in the neighbouring Đồng Nai Province completely isolated from the transnational railway line. Cargo that used to be shipped to those two stations is now being transported to three small stations in Đồng Nai, including Long Khánh, Trảng Bom and Hố Nai, leading to a sudden overload in cargo deliveries. A representative of the Kim Thành Phát Transport Company said the company had to turn to Hố Nai station, located 30km away from the company’s usual loading site at Sóng Thần, which made their costs increase by about 40 per cent.   Worse still, the roads leading to Hố Nai are narrow and suffer from traffic jams due to a surge of transport trucks travelling between the two stations. In addition to the burden on transport firms, manufacturers and goods distributors are also at higher risk of missing deadlines with their business partners. An Trung Phong Company representative Lế Tiến Dũng said the company was unable to deliver about 500 tonnes of cargo to its partners on time. “After the Ghềnh bridge incident, my company’s transport fees shot up by 100 per cent,” Dũng said. “We could lose hundreds of million đồng a month if this situation continues.” Sóng Thần Station Head Trần Thị Cư said the Ghềnh Bridge collapse was the biggest incident in the history of the national railway industry, which cost the station about 13,370 tonnes of cargo a week on average, or VNĐ8.15 billion (US$362,200). Meanwhile, Việt Nam Railways (VNR) has proposed to move 150 train carriages stuck in the Sài Gòn Station following the collapse of the Ghềnh Bridge to another station to brace for the upcoming holiday season. Passengers from HCM City now have to reach the Biên Hòa Station in Đồng Nai Province by road before they can catch a northbound train. VNR Chairman Trần Ngọc Thành said 50 passenger carriages and another 100 for cargo transportation are still stuck in the Sài Gòn station while two long holidays are nearing. Vietnamese will have three days off for the Hùng Kings’ Festival in mid-April and another four days for the Reunification Day and International Labour Day. Thành asked the Ministry of Transport to let those 150 carriages be transferred to the Biên Hòa, Trảng Bom and Hố Nai stations to prepare for the expected travel peak next month. The North-South railway is expected to resume no sooner than August. The Ghềnh bridge, which will undergo construction beginning April 1, is expected to take from three to five months to be ready for railway transport again. Car accident kills three, injures eight At least three people died and eight others were injured after a seven-seat car plunged into an abyss in the northern mountainous province of Lạng Sơn yesterday. The accident happened when the passenger car was travelling from the border area to the province’s Lạng Sơn City. All injured passengers were admitted to a nearby hospital. The injured driver Mè Văn Thưởng said he lost control when trying to avoid a car from the opposite side of the road and hit a stone before plunging into the 30m abyss. The driver does not hold a driving licence. The case is under investigation. Another search for VN soldiers’ remains in Cambodia Military Zone 9 said it was co-operating with Cambodian localities in searching for the remains of Vietnamese voluntary soldiers who died during wars in Cambodia. A delegation of Military Zone 9, which covers 12 localities in Việt Nam’s Mekong Delta, visited Cambodia’s Kampong Chhnang Province yesterday to discuss joint efforts in searching for and repatriating the remains of Vietnamese soldiers. Since 2001, as many as 6,489 sets of remains of Vietnamese voluntary soldiers and experts, who died during wars in Cambodia, have been found and repatriated. Of these, 291 sets of remains were found in Kampong Chhnang Province. The remains of 1,000 Vietnamese soldiers in Cambodia were still missing, a Military Zone 9 official said. Chhouk Chandoeun, head of Kampong Chhnang Province, said the local authorities and people had always supported the search and said they would try their best to help the Military Zone 9 search team. The move represented humanity, solidarity and friendship between the governments and peoples of the two countries, he said. Fire destroys workshop in HCM City A fire broke out yesterday afternoon, destroying all equipment in a 2,000sq.m workshop of Bags Connection Vina Company in HCM City. The fire was first discovered by some workers on the first floor of the two-storey workshop. Soon, tall columns of smoke covered the whole workshop located in District 12’s Tô Ngọc Vân St. Despite the efforts of company workers and the local firefighters, the blaze quickly spread because the house contained inflammable garment equipment and clothing. Nineteen fire engines and 200 firemen, including professional firefighters, as well as the transport police and local police forces were sent to the site. The fire was extinguished after one hour. A senior police official said the firemen had to wear gas masks to get close to the fire and break glass doors to prevent the fire from spreading to neighbouring places.   Đinh Văn Ngàn, head of District 12’s Fire Fighting Police, said the firemen prevented the fire from spreading to a neighbouring 4,500sq.m store and residential houses. No loss of human life was reported, but the damage to property was worth several billions of đồng, with about 100 modern industrial garment machines and dressmaking material being destroyed. The police are investigating the case. VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/TT/TN/Dantri