Social News 24/4 Thanh Hoa: women active in new-style rural area building Activities of the Vietnam Women's Union (VWU)’s chapter in the central province of Thanh Hoa over the last five years have contributed to promoting the nation’s new-style rural area building programme in the locality. There are now 14,334 union members’ households that have escaped from poverty, helping boost poverty reduction and rural development programmes in the province. Many movements have been launched to help local women develop their families. Thanks to programmes supported by t he Vietnam Bank for Social Policy (VBSP) , the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank), the Fund for assisting women with disadvantaged backgrounds, and the TYM Fund, around 372,791 households of local women have gained access to loans worth over 5.6 trillion VND (252 million USD) for economic development. Women union members in the province shared experience and assisted each other in agricultural development and other affairs. From 2010-2015, the chapter financed 151 billion VND (6.79 million USD) to build 787 houses for poor women. Thanh Hoa’s Centre for Vocational Training organised 167 vocational training courses for 5,350 rural women, contributing to increasing the rate of skilled labourers in rural areas. Collective economic models owned by women initiated in Thanh Hoa have proven effective, driving connection in production and business. According to Chairwoman of the chapter Le Thi Nuong, communication campaigns will be enhanced in the coming time to raise local women’s awareness of the importance of the new-style rural area building programme. Her agency will also work to give advice to the local authorities on outlining more policies to support women, thus promoting the locality’s new-style rural area building movements. In 2015, the agency successfully held a fair for farm and handicraft products made by women across the province, which helped foster trade links and generate jobs for thousands of local labourers. Hà Nội Fire Department set to increase inspections The Hà Nội Fire Prevention and Fighting Department (HFPFD) will inspect fire extinguisher systems in high-rise apartment buildings four times per year instead of once a year. The information was released at a meeting held by the Hà Nội Publicity and Education Committee earlier this week. The firefighting police will also conduct unplanned inspections to ensure fire distinguisher systems in these apartments are operating without any problems. In addition, training courses will be held instructing residents on how to prevent and fight fires and to follow rescue procedures in case a fire breaks out. Some 61 fires, one gas explosion and 275 fire-related incidents have occurred in the city since the start of 2016, killing at least four people and injuring 14. Three hectares of forest land have been destroyed, and estimated damages from fires were more than VNĐ7 billion (US$330,000), according to the HFPFD. The firefighting police have also dispatched 750 fire engines to put out fires in the city and surrounding areas. Five people have been rescued so far this year. Following the inspection of nearly 6,200 units, the authorities fined some 1,000 organisations and individuals nearly VNĐ1.3 billion ($57,800) for violating regulations on fire prevention and firefighting. Besides this, some 170 rehearsals and 620 training courses on fire prevention and firefighting have been held. In January, an additional 500 water supply stations were installed across the city to fight fires. The main areas included crowded residential areas, trade centres, open markets and the inner districts, including Ba Đình, Hoàn Kiếm, Đống Đa and Hai Bà Trưng, as well as Thanh Xuân, Tây Hồ and Hoàng Mai. The Hà Nội People’s Committee recently approved a master plan for infrastructure and human resources to prevent and fight fires for the 2016-2025 period, towards 2030. According to the plan, by 2030, the total number of firefighting officers in the city is expected to be 6,500, and 58 more firefighting locations will be established on 285,000sq.m. of land. The plan also includes the purchase of two aircraft for assistance with firefighting and rescue missions. However, HFPFD Director Hoàng Quốc Định was quoted on soha.vn that the purchase would be done during phase 3 of the project, which runs from 2026 to 2030. The total investment for the plan is VNĐ11.5 trillion ($511 million). – Developing new-style cooperatives Only 40% of 10,000 agricultural cooperatives in Vietnam are operating efficiently. Processing Bat Do bamboo shoots in Kien Thanh Cooperative’s production chains. Attendees at a recent meeting to review three years of implementing Vietnam’s Cooperative Law agreed on the need to refine the model of linking production and product consumption by value chain. Covering an area of 8.8 hectares, the terrain of Kien Thanh commune in Yen Bai province is mainly hilly. Kien Thanh is a planned commune that grows Bat Do bamboo shoots. Following the restructuring pursuant to the 2012 Cooperative Law, the Kien Thanh General Service Cooperative connected with the Yen Thanh Company in Yen Binh district to set up a production chain to plant, harvest, process, and export Bat Do bamboo shoot products. Since early last year, the cooperative has handled 90% of the local Bat Do bamboo shoot output, generating revenues of about US$270,000 and providing jobs for 30 people with a monthly salary of US$160 each. Yen Bai farmers are provided with techniques in intensive farming and Bat Do bamboo shoot processing. Tran Ngoc Su, director of the Kien Thanh Cooperative, told VOV that the investment link based on value chains has contributed to poverty reduction for local ethnic people. Su said “since we’ve coordinated with the Yen Thanh Company, our products have sold at higher prices. The bamboo shoots have been processed for export, bringing in higher revenues and increasing farmers’ incomes. In the past, one hectare of land growing bamboo shoots earned less than US$1,400. Since farmers started cooperating with businesses, their per-hectare earnings have almost doubled.” The initial results have encouraged other companies to link with cooperatives. The Hung Thinh Company in Tran Yen district, for example, has joined with Truong Xuan, the Tan Huong cooperative in Yen Binh district, and the Kien Thuan cooperative in Van Chan district to grow tea trees in accordance to VietGAP standards. The cooperatives are in charge of mobilizing local tea growers to participate in training courses, learn new farming techniques, and pick tea leaves meeting the set standards for exports. Chu Quoc Tuan, director of the Hung Thinh Company, said: “we began to work with the cooperative in 2002. At first everything was very confused. But since last May, when production chains were set up, the results have been clear. The production process has gradually become standardized and the quality has improved. Farmers now know how to take care of tea hills and which fertilizers and pesticides are best for tea trees.” Vo Kim Cu, President of the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance, is discussing with the director of Kien Thanh Cooperative about seedlings. Vo Kim Cu, President of the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance, says that to develop new-style cooperatives in combination with product value chains, more competent cooperative leaders are needed. “The cooperative alliance’s responsibilities are to link cooperatives, create a cooperative system for communication, and increase the sense of responsibility of cooperative officials toward sustainable development. The alliance takes responsibility for product quality, prompt delivery, and volume. If a cooperative doesn’t deliver enough goods, its reputation and trademark suffer,” HCM City distributes free bus route maps to commuters The HCMC Public Passenger Transport Management and Operation Center is providing free maps of all bus routes in the city in a fresh move to woo people back to the public transport service. The center on April 19 distributed 5,000 bus route maps to students at tertiary schools in HCMC and will give the remaining 5,000 maps to bus commuters to make it easy for them to take the right routes. The printing cost of the maps was covered by Truong Hai Auto Corporation, PV Oil Company, Airports Corporation of Vietnam, Petrosetco Distribution Joint Stock Company, and PetroVietnam Southern Gas Joint Stock Company. HCMC has adopted a number of measures to attract commuters to the public transport service, including fare subsidy since 2002. At present, the city government subsidizes fares for buses plying 105 out of 136 bus routes in the city. The number of commuters rose to 413 million in 2012 from 36 million in 2002. But the figure steadily dropped to 411 million passengers in 2013, 367 million in 2014 and 334 million last year. The decline was attributable to more people using private vehicles, poor bus service quality and aging buses. Vietnam works to ensure water security   Vietnam must take drastic measures to tackle drought and saline intrusion to help ensure water security and prevent the politicisation of water in the region. Irrigation facilities, re-arrangement of crops as well as developing plant varieties and animal breeds adapted to dry conditions are among solutions to the issue. Local authorities need to build reservoirs to store water during the rainy season to ensure fresh water for locals. Meanwhile, the Government should zone off production areas suitable for different natural conditions and make upgrades to irrigation systems, to help ease the dependence on rivers springing from foreign countries. The country now has about 830 billion cubic metres of surface water, up to 60 percent of which originates upstream in foreign countries. The Mekong River, 5,000 kilometres in length, provides 76 billion cubic metres in water reserves for China every year. Livelihoods and production in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta region will be threatened when China constructs an additional 15 hydropower plants in the upstream Mekong River by 2030. Using up to 70 percent of the river flows, the dams will increase drought and saline intrusion in the lower base. Saltwater has intruded as far as 90km inland in the Mekong Delta recently, about 10-25km farther than usual. Up to 11 out of the 13 cities and provinces in the delta were affected by salinity which caused serious water shortages and damaged agriculture production. As of April 13, 2016, more than 390,000 households in the Central Highlands, Mekong Delta, and south central region faced water shortages. Drought and saltwater intrusion damaged over 232,000 ha of rice, 61,992 ha of fruit and 4,052 ha of seafood. The total economic loss was estimated at over 5.1 trillion VND (229.5 million USD). Ca Mau: 6,000 households face water shortage More than 6,000 households in the southernmost province of Ca Mau is facing a severe shortage of water due to the prolonged drought. The water shortage has affected 10,000 hectares of rice and 7,000 hectares of crops and fruit trees, of which up to 3,000 hectares of crops suffered a complete loss. Around 35,000 hectares out of 45,000 hectares of cajuput forest have also dried up. To deal with the situation, local authorities have made the best use of irrigation facilities in communes, established volunteer groups to bring water to localities and encouraged locals to use water effectively. At the same time, all canals in the U Minh Ha cajuput forest have been dredged to make way for water in case of fires. As of April 13, 2016, more than 390,000 households in the Central Highlands, Mekong Delta, and south central region faced water shortages. Drought and saltwater intrusion damaged over 232,000 ha of rice, 61,992 ha of fruit and 4,052 ha of aquaculture. The total economic loss was estimated at over 5.1 trillion VND (229.5 million USD). National Radio Broadcasting Festival opens in Khanh Hoa The 12th National Radio Broadcasting Festival co-hosted by Radio the Voice of Vietnam (VOV) and the Khanh Hoa Radio and Television Station kicked off in central Khanh Hoa province on April 20. 199 out of 265 entries from 78 participating organizations have been chosen for the final round. Nguyen Thi Lan Huong, Head of VOV Editorial Secretariat and Listeners Department, said the number of radio stations competing in the live broadcast category is greater than last year. Entries cover local events. Live broadcasting skills and technology have improved significantly, she noted. The National Radio Broadcasting Festival has been held every two years since 2002. Passengers want HCMC-Di An train service improved Many passengers of the low-cost train service between HCMC and Di An township in the southern province of Binh Duong have called for the train operator to quickly improve service quality. Talking to the Daily via telephone on April 18, Dao Anh Tuan, general director of Saigon Railway Transport Joint Stock Company, said a small number of passengers took the train on the launch day last Friday. But the daily figure shot up to 2,000 on the two following days which coincided with a public holiday. A number of passengers have bemoaned the quality and shortcomings of the train service. A citizen of Dong Nai Province called Vinh, who used the train service last weekend, said he had to discharge fuel from his motorbike to ensure fire safety as requested by the railway sector. Upon arrival at Di An Railway Station, he had to walk his bike in hot weather to look for a filling station. Another passenger identified as Tam from HCMC said she came to Binh Trieu Railway Station at 9:00 a.m. but having to wait more than two hours for the train. Besides, it is difficult for elderly people and children to get on the train due to a huge gap with the platform. Regarding the fuel rule, Tuan said the railway sector has been aware of the difficulty faced by passengers but advised them to follow the regulations on fire prevention. The company will work with the HCMC Fire Prevention and Fighting Police Department to determine how much gas could be kept in their bikes to ensure fire safety. If the number of passengers continues to rise in the coming days, the company will add train cars and adjust schedules, Tuan said. Police discover 780kg of pork fat processed illegally The central city’s environmental police department, along with the veterinary sub-department, seized 780kg of packaged and fresh pork fat from an illegal processing house in Liên Chiểu District yesterday. Colonel Trần Thanh Nhơn said 12 bags of the processed pork fat were due to be delivered to the city’s market, while 150kg of the unprocessed fat was scheduled to be fried and packed into bags. Đào Trần Quang, an employee of the processing centre, confessed that the processed pork fat was sold in markets across the city. He said he was paid VNĐ3 million per month to process and deliver pork fat to different markets over the past three years. The processing centre could not present a business license, food safety certificates, or registration documents related to its hygiene. It was one of largest illegal pork fat processing centres found in the city. Last year, police also found 2.4 tonnes of unprocessed pork fat in an illegal processing centre in the district, 20km away from the city centre. The police temporarily banned the production of pork fat at the site and confiscated the finished products. Rotten chilli sauce and fake alcohol were also found in the district during a wide food-safety inspection. The district is seen as a hot spot for many fake commodities and food production centres and for the storage of smuggled goods arriving on North-South transport lines. Child hygiene urged for summer Doctors called for better personal hygiene and nutrition among children to prevent and fight against hand-foot-mouth disease, especially during the period from March to May, which typically sees the biggest spread of the disease each year in Việt Nam. According to Hà Nội’s Medical Preventive Department, since the beginning of this year, more than 200 cases of hand-foot-mouth disease were reported in the city. Since last month, the number of cases has increased. The Kinh tế & Đô thị (Economic and Urban Affairs) newspaper reported that last week, more than 600 hand-foot-mouth disease cases were reported across the country, 23 per cent higher than that of the same period last year. Dr Ngũ Duy Nghĩa from the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology said that hand-foot-mouth disease is a common viral illness among children that affects the respiratory and digestive systems, making it spread easily. The disease peaks during two periods - from March to May, and from September to November – with changes in the weather creating favourable conditions for the development of viruses and bacteria, major causes for many child diseases. Nghĩa said most children with hand-foot-mouth virus recover after seven to ten days, but the EV71 virus can cause dangerous complications in children. Director of the Hà Nội Medical Preventive Department Nguyễn Nhật Cảm said that maintaining good personal hygiene and washing hands properly - not only children, but also caregivers – is the most effective way to prevent hand-foot-mouth disease. Houses, schools and children’s toys must be cleaned regularly, he said. Children with symptoms of hand-foot-mouth disease like fever, mouth sores or skin rashes should be separated from others until the symptoms disappear, Cảm said. Former director of the Nutrition Consultation Centre under the National Institute of Nutrition Lê Thị Hải said that children with hand-foot-mouth disease should drink fruit juice, particularly orange, grapefruit, carrot, tomato and watermelon. She said they should eat seafood and chicken to add more zinc, a mineral good for their health. In the first nine months of last year, the country recorded more than 34,300 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease, and five resulted in deaths. Drought damage to agriculture escalates, US$250 mln and counting Losses from the severe drought that is parching central and southern Vietnam have risen to almost US$250 million as it ravages vast plantations and seafood farms, officials said. The number was compiled by the Central Steering Committee on Natural Disasters Prevention which surveyed the impact on agriculture in the Central Highlands, south central provinces and the Mekong Delta in the last three and a half months. The drought, the worst in the country in 90 years, has destroyed nearly 260,000 hectares of rice and vegetables, more than 160,000 hectares of orchards and cash crops and more than 4,500 hectares of seafood farms, according to the report. Nearly 340,000 families face a water shortage, it said. Some 70% of agriculture land have dried up in the Central Highlands and south central provinces, which are the main producers of Vietnam’s prime exports of coffee and pepper. Low water levels in the Mekong River have caused seawater to intrude 90 kilometers into the basin, the furthest recorded in history. Eleven out of 13 provinces in the delta have declared the drought a natural disaster. The agriculture ministry has urged the government to provide more than VND1 trillion (US$44.6 million) in relief to the affected areas as the situation is likely to continue until September and spread to the north central provinces as well. Water in rivers in the affected areas can drop by more than 90% below average levels, it said. Central city to build first community book centre The central city of Đà Nẵng will start construction of a first public book park for the community in An Hoà living quarters in Sơn Trà peninsula in May. It is the first cafe and open air book reading centre that the city will open for free among the community. The centre will be built on 1,000sq.m with a total investment of US$57,000, of which the Korean International Co-operation Agency (KOICA) sponsored US$50,000. It combines a green park for children and creates more space for readers and extra entertainment sites. The city plans to open a book street for local people and tourists later this year. Earlier this year, Đà Nẵng also debuted its first reading space, the Green & Brown Bookstore, comprising a library, a bookstore and a coffee shop on Trần Cao Vân Street and houses 10,000 books. Readers can borrow and buy books, and sit down to read with a cup of coffee in a quiet space. Last year the city opened a new municipal library building on Bạch Đằng Street. Đà Nẵng will be the third city in Việt Nam to design a book street after HCM City and Hà Nội. Deputy PM urges Oc Eo site plan Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam has assigned local authorities of An Giang Province the task of making a master plan for the special national relic archaeological site Óc Eo-Ba Thê. Đam has asked for more details on the renovation project to turn the site into a tourism destination. He has also ordered the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to co-ordinate with the concerned agencies to assess the plan before submitting it to the Government for approval. The site is located in Óc Eo Town in Thoại Sơn District in the southern province of An Giang, with a total preservation area of more than 433ha. The Óc Eo civilisation existed in the southern plains of Việt Nam in the 10th century AD. In 1937, French archaeologist Louis Malleret examined and researched some areas in Ba Thê and found traces of a portal city with an ancient water canal system. Upon its discovery in 1942, Malleret decided to name the site Óc Eo after a nearby hill. Since then, many sites in the same district have also been excavated, including Giồng Cát, Giồng Xoài, Gò Cây Thị and Gò Da. Traces of the Óc Eo culture, such as antiques, religious objects, and architectural remnants, have also been found in the Tri Tôn and Tịnh Biên districts. Due to its immense historic, cultural and scientific value, the site was listed as a National Relic Site on September 27, 2012. Student with disabilities starts library at rural school Poor children living in Phú Thọ Province’s Thanh Ba District believe that only books can open a door to the world. Unfortunately, not many books, particularly history and art productions, are sold in the area. To improve the situation, a disabled student at the Thanh Ba 1 Secondary School works hard every day on his computer to encourage people to donate books to Thanh Ba students. Phạm Ngọc Thương, 14, has had poliomyelitis since he was two months old. His grandparents sent him to live in Thanh Ba Centre for Disabled Children because his father died while his mother left home to take a job. The centre’s guard gives him a ride to school.   Thương decided to place a bookshelf in his classroom to help his friends improve their reading. He has used social media websites to encourage youngsters around the country to donate and send books to his school. “Many students in Hà Nội and other provinces have delivered their books to help us build our own library,” said Thương. “Every book delivers love and sharing from donors to us.” Thương and his classmates spent more than seven months saving to buy a small bookshelf to store the charity books. They locked the shelf with a key, which was kept by their class manager. They called it “Our Library.” “To borrow a book from the library, you have to sign a paper to guarantee your return. We wanted to keep and deliver the books to our younger friends after we leave school,” Thương said. Thương said he likes reading history books and he dreams of becoming a historian. “Reading can improve your soul and will. All of the stories I have gained from good books offer me opportunities to change my destiny,” he said. Optimizing travel and tourism for economic growth We are a few months into the official beginning of ASEAN and yet so much need be done to establish true regional integration in terms of the travel and tourism related industries, says the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT). At a VNAT sponsored a recent conference in Hanoi discussing the status of the ASEAN integration speakers with near unanimity said it is now time for concrete actions to bolster travel and tourism. The industry generated nearly 4.6% of ASEAN GDP and supported 9.3 million jobs, or 3.2% of total employment in the region in 2015, they said, which clearly evidences its economic importance to the region. For one, they said if Vietnam intends to benefit economically from the tourism industry, it needs to focus on value tourism and enticing tourists who spend money to visit the country, as opposed to simply trying to attract larger tourist arrivals. Intuitively, high tourist arrivals with low revenues may even represent a loss to the nation, taking into account the economic cost of constructing and maintaining necessary services and infrastructure such as airports, roads and bridges. They said Malaysia, for example, recorded 27,437,315 tourism arrivals in 2014, generating US$16.69 billion in revenue. However, Thailand with lower tourism arrivals of 24,779,668 grossed nearly double that amount at US$38.4 billion. Another case of higher tourist arrivals but lower revenue includes Myanmar, which at 3.05 million arrivals, generated US$1.14 billion in revenue, double the revenue of Laos despite having only one-half the number of tourists. Secondly, they said the government needs to work on easing travelers access to the country. If we want more tourists from outside the region to come and spend their dollars in Vietnam, they said, the government should ease access for them. The government should also consider setting up dedicated ASEAN immigration lanes at all of the nation’s international airports following the lead of Bangkok in Thailand and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Third, they said it’s time to start delving deeper into the numbers and looking at tourist compositions instead of just cursory comparative readings of the number of tourists’ arrival figures and irrelevant analysis so commonly found these days. For example, Malaysia has consistently been one of the top contributors to tourist arrivals in ASEAN, but a large proportion of these arrivals are intra-ASEAN, with half of them coming from Singapore. Companies in the travel and tourism related industries in Vietnam need to comprehend the importance of increasing tourism arrivals from other countries in ASEAN such as Singapore. Intra-ASEAN arrivals is much more important to the travel and tourism related industries growth in Vietnam today than the number of arrivals from non ASEAN member countries, they said. Most importantly along these lines, the governments of ASEAN as well as the private sector need to support the strengthening of travel and tourism in ASEAN through the creation of commissions of businesses that are committed to regional tourism development. MHI subsidises tuition to spur industrial tech Beginning April 2016, Japan-based Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd will accept the first applications for its overseas study support programme, under which up-and-coming Vietnamese students will be funded to study at Japanese universities where they will be exposed to  state-of-the-art technology used by the industrial giant. MHI has been awarding scholarships to students who study engineering in Vietnam and the company starts support for students studying in Japan from this year. Photo:(C) MHI The five-year programme aims to realise the September 15, 2015 agreement between Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training (MoET). The main objective of this agreement is the development of human resources so as to spur on the machinery industry in a rapidly industrialising Vietnam. To this end, each year MHI will provide financial support to underwrite five Vietnamese students’ study in Japan. Applications for the opening year of the programme is required to be sent before May 1, 2016. “The global market, including Vietnam, is evolving constantly. We have set up this programme to help able-minded Vietnamese students further their academic achievements, and to later work in the rapidly-changing global economic scene. I look forward to the success of this programme towards Vietnam’s development, and in fostering opportunities to work together in the future,” said Kenichi Sonoda, general manager for MHI’s Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City liaison offices. MHI has great expectations for competent Vietnamese students to come and study in Japan, gain valuable experience, acquire new knowledge, and then return home to play an important role in their home country’s development. Committed to the development of young people – the drivers of their country’s future – MHI has been involved in joint initiatives with Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST) for six years, and Vietnam Electric Power University (EPU) for five years, by establishing courses in the fields of nuclear energy and aeronautical engineering. MHI is one of the world’s leading comprehensive heavy industry companies supplying widely-diversified products underpinned by advanced technologies, e.g., a variety of power generators, aircraft, space rockets, ships, transportation systems, distribution and logistics, environmental facilities, industrial machinery, automobile-related products, and defence-related gear. Last November, MHI successfully launched the first flight of MRJ, the next-generation regional jet it has been developing. The launch of the H-IIA No.30 rocket on February 17, 2016 was also a success, delivering into orbit the ASTRO-H (Hitomi) X-ray space observatory to study black holes.   MHI is engaged in diversified operations in Vietnam. In the power sector, the company has supplied machinery to Phu My, a highly-efficient gas turbine combined cycle (GTCC) power plant (1,090 megawatts) based in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau. Achieving an outstanding operational performance, this plant has made a significant contribution to promoting economic development in the country. Another key ingredient for social infrastructure development is steel. MHI also supplies cold-rolling as well as hot-rolling steel production machinery to local firms in Vietnam. In addition to supplying quality products and machinery, MHI has established its operation centres in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi to promote businesses that are closely linked to local communities. More specifically, the company built MHI Engine Systems Vietnam (MHIES-V) just outside of Ho Chi Minh City for emergency diesel generators and MHI Aerospace Vietnam Co., Ltd (MHIVA) in the Hanoi suburbs for assembling structural components for commercial-use aircraft. These MHI projects contribute to local development through the transfer of technology from Japan and also by creating jobs – a win-win situation for both MHI and Vietnam. Over 46% female workers have gynaecological diseases A representative from the Department of Population and Family Planning in Ho Chi Minh City has said at a meeting to review activities in the period 2011-2015 that as many as 46 percent of female workers have gynaecological diseases. Female workers suffer gynaecological disease because they do not know safe sex practices leading to many of them having gynaecological diseases. Head of the Department of Population and Family Planning Tran Van Tri said that the city is crowded and the proportion of female in child-bearing age accounts for over 32 percent; hence the reproductive health care is facing difficulties. As per the Department’s statistics, last year, over 70 percent of female workers did not know how to practice safe sex and 46 of them suffered gynaecological diseases. From 20 to 30 percent female students and workers have not been provided enough information of reproductive health care and family planning methods. Subsequently, to help them to avoid this disease, Tri said that in the period 2016 - 2020, his Department will increase free tests of reproductive infections for 15,000 female workers annually. VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/TT/TN/Dantri