Social News 1/5 Project supports green growth, climate change response The Prime Minister has approved a project to support green growth and climate change programmes using loans from the World Bank. The project’s objective is to help build and implement policies and strategies, and improve institutions and financial capacity to serve the implementation of the national strategies on climate change and green growth, as well as the Party Central Committee’s resolution on proactively responding to climate change and intensifying natural resources management and environmental protection. Specifically, a policy framework for 2016-2020 will be built and implemented, while policy dialogues between Government organs, non-governmental organisations, development partners and research institutes will be organised. Several measures to reduce greenhouse emissions will be piloted in selected localities. The project will be carried out over five years, with a 90 million USD loan from the WB’s International Development Association (IDA). 41st anniversary of national reunification marked Vietnam celebrated its 41st anniversary of national reunification on April 30 after the Great Victory in the spring of 1975. The victory under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) ended the US new colonial regime and its aggression war. The Quan Doi Nhan Dan (People’s Army) newspaper editorially praised the glorious victory and called for solid effort in national construction and defense, as well as successfully implementing Party resolution on national development. Various celebrations took place nationwide to mark the event, including an art performance and firework displays in Ho Chi Minh City, jogging event, food and fashion shows in Hanoi. Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue joined a flag hoisting ceremony in Quang Tri province’s Hien Luong river, which symbolized people’s aspiration for national unification. FEALAC network of cultural cities to be set up The central province of Thua Thien-Hue hosted the first meeting of the project on a network of cultural cities in the framework of the Forum of East Asia-Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC) on April 29, drawing nearly 100 representatives from 17 countries. FEALAC is a cooperation mechanism gathering 36 nations in East Asia and Latin America with the aim to establish an official and regular dialogue channel for the two regions. The project’s objective is to intensify international cooperation at the local level between FEALAC members in the fields of culture, sports, tourism and development. At the first session, mayors, experts and representatives of FEALAC cities discussed the relationship between cultural heritage and sustainable development, while considering the establishment of the network of cultural cities. They also exchanged experience in cultural issues, heritage preservation and sustainable development. Keiji Maki from Japan’s Kyoto city shared how the locality had involved each citizen in heritage preservation by taking measures to support them. Meanwhile, Valdes Bolano Sara, a representative from Mexico, stressed the need to raise public awareness of the importance of culture to sustainable development, and strengthen international collaboration in tourism development and cultural diversification preservation. Delegates then approved a joint statement affirming the importance of cultural to sustainable development in general and urban development in particular, as well as the importance of urban heritage protection in the growing urbanisation. They also confirmed the vital role of local people in preserving and promoting heritage values in urban areas and major cities. They reached a consensus on operation regulations of the network, and called on other cities of regional countries to participate in this network. The next meeting of the FEALAC network of cultural cities will take place in San Salvador, Argentina.  TPP brings challenges and chances to female workers The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement offers opportunities and better working environments for female entrepreneurs and workers, but also poses several challenges for them, participants heard in Hà Nội this week. Speaking at an international conference entitled “Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) – Opportunities and Challenges to businesswomen and female entrepreneurs and labourers,” Nguyễn Thị Thu Hà, president of Việt Nam Women’s Union (VWU) said that the number of businesses owned by women account for only 25 per cent of the total nationwide, most of which operate on a small scale. Women face more difficulties than men in realising business ideas as well as attracting resources, she said. VWU has launched a series of activities to support women in the context of global integration. The support includes influencing policy, offering training in entrepreneurship and business administration, suggesting how to approach financial and credit resources, in addition to developing a network of female entrepreneurs, and providing apprentice training for female workers in rural areas, Hà said. According to Đinh Thị Thu Hà, director of Hà Căn Trading Limited Company and vice president of the Female Entrepreneur Association of Thái Bình Province, female workers can enjoy the economic value chain and need to be equipped with labour knowledge and necessary skills to lift themselves out of poverty. To survive and develop in international integration, businesses must have knowledge in terms of legal systems, improving their products’ quality, how to create unique products, make profits and create employment for workers, she said. VN profession-oriented project promotes reality-based education The Strengthening Profession-Oriented Higher Education (POHE) project has supported Vietnamese university education by connecting training with reality, said Dr Nguyễn Thị Kim Phụng, head of the Ministry of Education and Training’s Higher Education Department. The POHE project, funded by the Netherlands Government, was developed in Việt Nam beginning in 2006. It aims to provide university training programmes that have closely-knit relations with the labour market and to provide a labour force to meet the demands of the country’s socio-economic development. After its ten-year implementation, the project has trained about 15,000 students, according to the project’s management board. From an initial ten programmes, the project has grown to currently run 49 training programmes in various sectors including agriculture, training, technology, management and business. The project also created training documents and set up five training centres for lecturers at eight universities in Việt Nam. “Sharing the project’s results and documents with Vietnamese universities will help the country to develop more reality-oriented training programmes,” Phụng said. Quảng Ngãi fishing vessels can’t find enough fishermen Boat owners in the central coastal province of Quảng Ngãi are struggling to find workers to go offshore fishing, Voice of Việt Nam’s (VOV) radio station reported. Nguyễn Văn Tẩn, a ship owner in Quảng Ngãi, said each boat needed 15 workers for offshore fishing, but due to labour shortage, he must let his boat go fishing with only 10 workers. According to fishermen, the labour force cannot meet demand from too many ships with high capacities. Currently, Quảng Ngãi Province has nearly 5,800 fishing vessels, about 3,000 of which are offshore fishing boats. Wages for hired workers onboard are not stable, so many of them have decided to leave the job, fishermen have said. HCM City bans trade in contaminated fish HCM City authorities will work closely with central provinces, where mass fish deaths have occurred because of chemical substances discharged into waterways, to prevent and stop the trade of dead or dying fish from these areas in HCM City. Võ Văn Hoan, chief of HCM City People’s Committee Office, said at a press conference held in the city yesterday: “If we don’t prevent unsafe and unhygienic food, local resident’s health as well as tourism will suffer the consequences.” He said that the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development had issued a ban on transport and trade of dead or dying fish. Hoan said that trade in these fish had already occurred. Many seafood enterprises have shifted seafood purchasing from the central province of Khánh Hòa to the south to ensure safety for customers. HCM City has experienced problems in food supply because of the recent severe drought and saline intrusion in the Mekong Delta. Water supply an ongoing concern Ensuring enough water is available for people’s daily lives should be the top priority amid the severe ongoing drought, said Deputy Prime Minister Trịnh Đình Dũng at a conference in the Mekong Delta province of Sóc Trăng yesterday. The event, held to seek measures to cope with the drought and saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta, saw the participation of representatives from 11 regional cities and provinces affected, including Long An, Tiền Giang, Bến Tre, Trà Vinh, Sóc Trăng, Bạc Liêu, Cà Mau, Kiên Giang, Hậu Giang, Vĩnh Long and Cần Thơ. Deputy PM Dũng asked localities to continue keeping a close watch on the salinisation and mobilise the entire political system, especially the public, in their efforts. They were also requested to swiftly disburse their budgets to support production, instruct local farmers on how to restructure crop production and step up their co-ordination to combat disasters. In the long-run, it is essential for agencies to adjust their climate change scenarios, enhance their weather forecast capacity, build plans to adapt to climate change, devise policies assisting localities hit hardest by natural disasters and strengthen their international collaboration in this field, he said. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Đức Phát said salinity is expected to be a lingering issue, adding that a closer eye must be kept on its development to offer suitable technical solutions to the local farming sector. The conference was informed that about 225,800 households in the Mekong Delta are facing water shortages. More than 208,000ha of rice, over 9,400ha of fruit trees and about 2,000ha of shrimp farming areas have been affected by the drought and saltwater intrusion. Statistics released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development show that since the end of 2015, saltwater has encroached about 50-150 km into the mainland in areas around the Vàm Cỏ, Tiền and Hậu rivers, much higher than the average figure recorded in previous years. Although water released from hydroelectric dams arrived in the region in early April, only half of the regional farming land has been cultivated, as the amount of water that arrived is still not enough. 25% of Vietnamese children under five anaemic One in every four Vietnamese children under five years suffered from anaemia last year, according to data released by the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) yesterday. More than 50 per cent of these children suffered from the condition due to the lack of iron in their blood, affecting their physical development, NIN Vice-Director Nguyễn Thị Lâm said. She said people living in the mountainous and rural areas were most vulnerable. It was, therefore, necessary to add iron micronutrient supplements to the daily meals of women and children. This was already one of the key activities undertaken by health agencies for many years. On the same day, NIN also tied up with the Nestle Việt Nam Company Ltd. to spread a programme with a message “add micronutrient supplements to children’s nutrition in rural areas”. The programme targeted 10 northern and central provinces, including Thanh Hóa, Nghệ An, Thái Bình and Nam Định, Bắc Giang, as well as Phú Thọ, Hưng Yên, Bắc Ninh, Vĩnh Phúc and Hải Dương. It is expected 60,000 mothers in rural areas to approach knowledge about micronutrients through 600 conferences on nutrition this year. The programme was successfully implemented in 13 Mekong River Delta provinces last year when 45,000 mothers were trained and enhanced their knowledge on the importance of  iron micronutrient in children’s daily meals. Waste disrupts lives of Hanoians The ditch running through Trung Liệt Ward in the city’s Đống Đa District gives off a foul odour as all manner of household waste is being thrown into it. The 1km-long ditch, filled with garbage and discarded furniture, was supposed to be turned into a road. Construction has been underway for nearly a year, but only two-thirds of the work is complete, leaving it to become a large dumping ground. “The ditch has been polluted for years. When the building company began the project, many locals continued to throw waste into the ditch, making the pollution even worse,” Hồ Thị Thúy, a local, said. This ditch has now become a breeding ground for mosquitoes and flies, affecting the people’s health, she added. “Waste (blocking the ditch) prevents wastewater from flowing through it, causing the water to remain stagnant, which produces a foul smell and has led to an increase in cases of asthma and respiratory diseases among the elderly and children,” Bùi Thị Nhàn, a representative of the ward’s People’s Committee, said. According to Nguyễn Quang Dũng, a technician with the construction unit, the authorities were to be blamed for the slow progress of the work, but the improper disposal of waste was due to a lack of awareness among residents. Locals in the area want the construction unit to speed up the work and fill in the sewers along the road, rescuing them from the polluted environment. Workers suffer from food poisoning in Mỹ Tho City Doctors of Mỹ Tho City’s health centre in the Mekong Delta province of Tiền Giang saved 16 local workers from food poisoning yesterday. Patients from the Mỹ Tho City-based Choi & Shin’s Vina Ltd. Co. were hospitalised after eating lunch at the company’s kitchen. According to witnesses, many workers showed symptoms of dizziness, vomiting and diarrhea. Some workers even lost consciousness immediately after eating the lunch. Of those affected, 16 workers with serious symptoms were taken to the health centre. Doctor Võ Phúc Hậu, chief of Tiền Giang Province’s Health Department’s food hygiene and safety office, said samples were sent to a testing centre to determine the cause of the food poisoning. Choi & Shin’s produces garment products for export. The company’s kitchen in co-ordination with the city’s An Phú Service and Commercial Ltd. Co. supplies 1,000 rations to workers every day. Experts share new technique for genetic disease detection Health experts exchanged experiences at a workshop today in Hà Nội on the application of the microarray-based Comparative Genomic Hybridisation (CGH) technique in reproductive health support and genetic disease detection. Participants learnt aCGH is a powerful technique for identification and characterisation of copy number variation (CNV) across the genome in CNV analysis and cytogenetic studies. “CGH microarrays provide high resolution and flexibility for genome-wide or customized zoom-in profiling of genomic aberrations without amplification or complexity reduction,” Yang Lee Chee from Agilent Technologies, South Asia-Pacific and South Korea, said. Chee said the advanced technique has been applied effectively and extensively in prenatal screening and cancer detection in many countries worldwide. The head of the Vinmec International Hospital’s Stem Gene Technology Centre, Lê Thị Thanh Hương, said that the new technique is seen as a “gold” standard for providing overall evaluation on the change in chromosomes, especially genetic disorders that cause prenatal heart diseases, Down and DiGeorge syndromes. Hương said the advanced technique can be used for early detection of cancer, prenatal and congenital malformations in pregnant women at 12-16 weeks gestation period, instead of waiting for a few weeks for detection by classical cytogenetic methods. The technique can provide accurate results after eight hours at the same cost as the traditional method. The technique will be applied for the first time at the Vinmec hospital in May and is expected to be extended to other central hospitals later this year. Midnight fire awakens Linh Đàm building residents A fire occurred in the parking area of building No. 1B in Hà Nội’s Linh Đàm residential quarter around 1.20 yesterday. No one was killed in the fire that destroyed six motorbikes and damaged tens of others. Local residents said the fire led to a lot of smoke spreading to the floors above the parking area. Firefighters arrived at the spot in 10 minutes and successfully controlled the fire in half an hour. The local authority is investigating the cause of the fire. Last September, a fire broke out in a 35-storey building in the Linh Đàm residential quarter. The fire began in a technical box on the 17th floor and was followed by smoke spreading to the upper floors. A lading machine was used to rescue 25 people from the top floors. One month later, a fire, which reportedly started in the basement of the 34-storey CT4 building in the Xa La urban area, damaged two parking levels in a 1,533sq.m area. Some 200 motorbikes, 45 bicycles and one car were also burnt, according to reports. Ignorance of fire safety regulations and negligence by investors and residents of high-rise buildings were highlighted following the blaze in Hà Nội. Binh Thuan to launch measles-rubella vaccination for juveniles The central province of Binh Thuan next month will launch a measles–rubella vaccination programme for about 43,400 people aged 16-17 in 10 districts in the locality. According to the provincial Preventive Health Centre, the campaign is aimed at eliminating the disease by 2017. 11th and 12th grade high school students and those who were born from January 1, 1998 to December 31, 1999 will be eligible for vaccinations. In 2014 and 2015, about 293,000 aged 1-14 in Binh Thuan received injections in a measles–rubella immunisation campaign. The province has not detected any cases of measles since the beginning of the year.- Vietnam testing bird flu vaccine on humans Vietnam has started the second stage of human trials of an indigenous bird-flu vaccine, testing its immunization effect. A statement from the Khanh Hoa Province health department said it is cooperating with the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology to test the vaccine against the H5N1 virus strain of influenza A on 300 locals aged between 18 and 60. Each will get two shot 21 days apart before undergoing six blood tests to check how they are protected and decide the optimal dose. The virus has an incubation period of 21 days. The IVACFLU-H5N1 vaccine was created by the Institute of Vaccine and Medical Biologicals (IVAC) based in the central province's capital town of Nha Trang with support from the World Health Organization. The first stage of human trials was done successfully on 75 people in April 2015. There will be further tests before the vaccine is licensed for commercial production. WHO reported 650 human infections of the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus in 15 countries since it recurred in 2003. Around 60% died, including at least 65 in Vietnam, which has had one of the highest fatality rates in the world. Experts from the vaccine institute said only a small number of producers are making bird flu vaccines and at a price not affordable to low- and middle-income countries. So the low-cost Vietnamese product would be of vital importance, they added. Cho Ray Hospital ups high-tech treatments Chợ Rẫy Hospital in HCM City in the last year has applied a number of advanced techniques in diagnosis and treatment, including organ transplans and PET/CT scans, according to the hospital director Nguyễn Trường Sơn. The hospital conducted research on kidney transplants from non-heart beating donors, a national research assigned by the Ministry of Science and Technology. “It has brought great scientific value and benefit to the country’s organ transplant system, Sơn said at the hospital’s annual scientific symposium, held yesterday in HCM City. Over the last year, the hospital has used positron emission tomography and computed tomography (PET/CT) scans to plan radiation therapy as well as microwave ablation (MWA) technique to destroy liver tumours and diagnostic accuracy of [99mTc] TRODAT-1 SPECT imaging in early Parkinson’s disease, among other advanced techniques. At the symposium, leading professors and physicians from Chợ Rẫy hospital and other hospitals in the southern region, along with Japanese counterparts, made 160 presentations in various specialties, including resuscitation emergency, grammatology and orthopedics, neurology, otorhinolaryngology, urology and oncology. Inspectors find dirty water in apartments Inspections of three apartment buildings found the water quality did not meet the Ministry of Health’s standards, Võ Nguyên Phong, deputy director of Hà Nội’s Department of Construction, said.  Following complaints about the water quality from the residents of these apartments, Nguyễn Đức Chung, chairman of Hà Nội’s People’s Committee, instructed the relevant agencies to investigate.  A joint inspection team, including representatives of the department of health, the Ministry of Public Security and Hà Nội Water Supplying Company, took water samples for testing. The three apartment buildings inspected were Sông Hồng Parkview at 165 Thái Hà, CT9 in the Định Công urban area and CT6A in the Đặng Xá urban area. The test results for the three buildings indicated that the source of the water met legal standards, but the water in the underground tanks did not, Phong said.  He blamed the project investor and management of the building for the poor quality of the water.  The Hà Nội Department of Construction has requested the relevant agencies to present solutions to settle the problem, ensuring that high-quality water is provided for households.  To prevent a reoccurrence, Hà Nội authorities plan to hold a meeting with the leaders of 16 districts and the management units of apartment buildings in the city to monitor the water quality in the water tanks. Uber launches xe om-hailing service for Vietnam, challenging pioneer Grab Ride-share rivals Uber and Grab have extended their battle in Vietnam to a new arena: xe om, the motorbike taxi typical of the Southeast Asian country. Grab, a startup that began as an app allowing people to hail traditional taxis via smartphone, introduced the option to catch xe om drivers in Vietnam in May 2015, forcing its competor Uber to toss its hat into the ring. As with Grab, Uber was initially an app allowing people to book a private car via smartphone before officially launching its UberMoto service on April 21 for users in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The Vietnam launch comes shortly after the debut of UberMoto in Thailand and Indonesia, whose streets, as with Vietnam, teem with motorbikes. UberMoto allows users to hail a xe om by inputting their departure and destination locations into the app, at a fare of VND3,700 a km. The minimum cost of a ride is VND10,000. As with its car service, payment is accepted both in cash and by card. (US$1 = VND22,300) Uber is also calling for motorbike owners in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to enlist as drivers. In Vietnam, most ‘traditional’ xe om drivers are self-employed and fares are highly negotiable. Almost immediately after UberMoto was launched, Grab announced that it cut fares in the same two cities for its own xe om-booking service, GrabBike. In Hanoi, the new fare is set at VND9,000 for the first two kilometers, and VND3,500 for every additional kilometer. The respective fares in Ho Chi Minh City are VND12,000 and VND3,800. The previous prices were VND12,000 for the first three kilometers, and VND4,500 each for the subsequent kilometers. Grab and Uber are considered game changers in Vietnam’s taxi market and are both increasingly favored by local passengers, with traditional cab drivers reeling. GrabCar, which is Grab’s service that allows people to hail a private car, exactly the same as Uber’s app, was earlier this month allowed to operate legally in Vietnam, after having been under fire for its debatable legality and subject to repeated protests from local taxi associations since it entered the Vietnamese market in 2014. Irradiation technology improves food safety As more consumers across the country seek to eat fresh and healthy, the Vietnam government is helping to improve the safety of leafy greens and other foods by improving irradiation technologies. On April 22, the Hanoi Irradiation Centre placed into operation an upgrade to its facilities that will help ensure harmful bacteria and pathogens such as E coli 0157:H7 and salmonella are killed on even the most delicate vegetables. The new process will also help extend the shelf life of foods in the bargain, said Dang Quang Thieu, director of the Centre. Mr Thieu said irradiation technology has been used effectively for years to protect ground meat, vegetables and other products by essentially pasteurizing the food without cooking it or causing undesirable changes in product quality. It’s done by applying a higher dose than is used for medical X-ray imaging, yet less than harmful levels of some irradiation methods. “The problem the leafy green industry is confronted with is that there is absolutely no kill step in the process of cleaning, rinsing and bagging the product. There is nothing the industry can do,” explained Mr Thieu. At the launching ceremony, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Tran Viet Thanh presented a certificate to the Centre for its contributions to the field of atomic energy over the past few years. U.S. help VN investigate disease outbreaks The fourth annual National Field Epidemiology Training Program Scientific Conference was held in the central city of Da Nang recently, showcasing over 35 public health research projects from national, regional, and provincial public health institutes in Viet Nam. Organized by the Viet Nam Ministry of Health General Department of Preventive Medicine, the three-day conference also included the graduation of two classes of Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) fellows, the introduction of the seventh class of FETP fellows, and the launch of an alumni network to strengthen information sharing and training of FETP alumni.   FETP fellows are on the frontline of any strong public health system. When a disease outbreak occurs, such as in the recent Zika virus cases in Viet Nam, they are the ‘disease detectives’ that go into the field and investigate the outbreak. Through the program, they receive hands-on training and mentoring to use scientific approaches to identify causes and trends of public health issues, said Country Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Viet Nam Dr. Anthony Mount. Supported by the U.S. CDC, WHO, Training Programs in Epidemiology and Public Health Interventions Network (TEPHINET), and South Asia Field Epidemiology and Technology Network (SAFETYNET), FETP in Viet Nam is a two-year program led by the Ministry of Health General Department of Preventive Medicine and aimed to  train epidemiologists who can rapidly respond to disease outbreaks and other public health events. Over 300 workers hospitalized due to food poisoning Police in the southern province of Binh Phuoc and the provincial Department of Food Safety and Hygiene are conducting an investigation of food poisoning causing the hospitalization of 325 workers. 325 workers of three companies Lisheng, Xinren, Sung Ju in the Industrial Park Minh Hung in Binh Phuoc Province’s Chon Thanh District were taken to the district’s General Hospital and Binh Long Town’s General Hospital as they had symptoms of food poisoning on April 21st. After workers ate their lunch in the company, they experienced fatigue, vomiting, diarrhea and some of them even fainted. Deputy head of Chon Thanh District General Hospital Dr. Ho Van Thang said that all workers were in stable condition yesterday. In the evening of April 21, 100 workers were discharged while 43 others who were in more serious condition had to stay in the hospital for further treatment. As per initial investigation, the three companies Lisheng, Xinren, Sung Ju ordered lunch from a local restaurant and menu of three companies is the same. Drought causes loss of $4 million in Khanh Hoa Drought from the beginning of 2016 has inflicted a loss of 90 billion VND (4 million USD) to the agricultural sector of the south central coastal province of Khanh Hoa. According to the province’s steering committee on disaster prevention and rescue, the scarcity of rain from the beginning of this year greatly reduced the water level at the Da Ban reservoir to 20 percent of its designed volume, leading to 1,400 hectares deprived of water and damage of 54 billion VND (2.4 million USD). The affected areas mainly lies in the western part of Ninh Hoa town like Ninh Son, Ninh An and Ninh Than. Besides this, 1,150 hectares of fruit and commercial trees were damaged, with an estimated loss of 33 billion VND. From the beginning of 2016, precipitation in Khanh Hoa has been only 10mm, far below previous years’ average levels of 30-60mm. The water level in rivers has also dropped by 89 percent in comparison with the average levels of many years, and 49 percent against last year. The local reservoirs’ total current volume is 117 million cu.m or 47 percent of their design capacity. Hot weather will continue over the next months, further reducing 90-95 percent of water volume in rivers, against the average figure of many years. The provincial People’s Committee has instructed localities to prioritise the supply of water to daily activities and industrial production and guide locals to shift towards other crops to conserve water. In 2016, the province recommended the government provide it with 66 billion VND (2.9 million USD) to fight drought, 10 billion VND to supply clean drinking water and 2,000 tonnes of rice to give to needy households. The locality will allocate rice for 44,500 individuals during the third quarter of this year, each with 15 kilogrammes per month. HCM City gets new private hospital Vạn Phúc Hospital Co Ltd is spending VNĐ750 billion (US$3.3 million) to build a 500-bed hospital with 17 wards at Vạn Phúc Riverside City in Thủ Đức District. It is expected to start operating in October 2017. The Vạn Phúc Sài Gòn General Hospital is the company’s third, said Đào Cảnh Tuất, head of the hospital. The company has two hospital systems and two health clinics in the neighbouring province of Bình Dương. VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/TT/TN/Dantri