Social News 12/12 Free treatment offered for poor patients with severe tumours, hematoma   Dr McKay McKinnon of the Surgery SOS charity Organisation in Chicago offers free surgery to poor patients with tumours and hematomas that are difficult to treat. Free examinations and treatments were provided to around 25 poor patients with tumours and hematomas on December 8 at HCM City University Medical Centre. The exams, which are offered to patients who have conditions that require difficult surgery, have been provided by the centre’s doctors and Dr McKay McKinnon of the Surgery SOS charity organisation in Chicago since 2011. The programme’s first patient was a man from Ðà L?t who had a 90 kilo tumour. McKinnon said the programme offered Vietnamese doctors exposure to advanced technologies in surgery. The funds for the programme are collected from Dr McKinnon and friends. The Surgery SOS charity Organisation was set up to raise funds to help poor Vietnamese patients. Saigon Notre Dame Cathedral to undergo extensive roof renovation Ho Chi Minh City's municipal government has approved a proposal to restore the roof of the Saigon Notre Dame Cathedral, according to the Infonet news site. The cathedral, located in District 1, is one of the most popular tourist sites in the city. Any restoration work to the building needs prior approval from the local government as it is a protected heritage site. The restoration of the roof, 91m in length and 35m in width, will be carried out from 2017-2019 and will be financed by the Ho Chi Minh City Archdiocese. In June last year, Father Ho Van Xuan, a representative of the Ho Chi Minh City Archdiocese, said that a project to restore the cathedral was being considered as some parts of it had degraded due to the weather. The restoration work will be conducted carefully to "keep the original beauty" of the cathedral, said Xuan, who will act as head of the project’s management board. The management board has already hired the Saigon Construction Quality Control JSC to assess the condition and decided that the top priority is to fix leaks in the roof. There are around 50,000 tiles on the roof of the cathedral, and one of the most difficult aspects of the project will be to source the Marseilles tiles used in the original construction, according to Xuan. The restoration project will be split into three phases: the roof, the interior and finally the two bell towers. The walls of the cathedral, which have been defaced by vandals, will also be repainted. The church will still hold weekend masses for parishioners during the restoration work, according to the archdiocese. The Saigon Notre Dame Cathedral was built by French colonialists between 1863 and 1880. It has two bell towers with a height of 58 meters (190 feet). 2017 UPU letter-writing contest launches in Hai Duong The Ministry of Information and Communications on December 10 ceremoniously launched the 46th International Universal Postal Union (UPU) Letter-Writing Competition for 2017 in Hai Duong Province. Millions of youth all over the globe, up to age 15, have participated in the annual International Letter-Writing Competition for Young People at the national and international levels since it began in 1971. The contest is an excellent way of encouraging literacy in children. It develops their skills in writing composition and their ability to express thoughts clearly on paper. The competition also makes them aware of the important role postal services play in the world. Each year, the UPU International Bureau announces a theme. Participating countries then organize the competition at the national level with support from its Post and local education authorities. All entries must be submitted through the national Post. Each country chooses a national winner and submits this entry to the international round, held by the UPU. An international jury, chosen by the UPU International Bureau, judges the letters and selects the winners and entries worthy of a special mention. The theme selected for the 2017 competition is – Imagine you are an advisor to the new UN Secretary-General; which world issue would you help him tackle first and how would you advise him to solve it? The topic was chosen to celebrate the election of the new UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, who will take office in 2017. Children are encouraged to use their imagination as they write to the Secretary-General envisioning a positive change they would like to see in the world. All member countries are invited to participate by organizing a competition on the national level before sending their top composition to the UPU. Each country's best letter must be submitted to the International Bureau no later than 5 May 2017. Established in 1874, the UPU, with its headquarters in the Swiss capital Berne, is the second oldest international organization worldwide. With its 192 member countries, the UPU is the primary forum for cooperation between postal sector players. It helps to ensure a truly universal network of up-to-date products and services. On the occasion, a certificate of merit and cash award of US$1,500 was presented to Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, a ninth grader at the Nguyen Trai secondary school in Hai Duong who won the first prize at both the national and international rounds in last year’s competition. She is the second student to win first prize. The first was Ho Thi Hieu Hien, a student from the central city of Da Nang, who won in 2010. Vietnamese students have won a total of 12 prizes, with two first prizes, one second, three third and six consolidation prizes. Vietnam airlines found selling tickets for not-yet-approved extra flights Vietnam’s airlines have been selling tickets for the upcoming Lunar New Year, the busiest travel time of the year, for a couple of months when it turned out their extra-flight plans may not be approved. The 2017 Lunar New Year, or Tet in Vietnamese, falls late January, but people in big cities normally start flying back to their hometowns weeks before the New Year’s Eve to observe the country’s traditional holidays with their beloved. Airfares usually shoot through the roof during this special occasion but easily sell out, and people therefore tend to book tickets even months before departure. However, early ticket buyers are sitting on hot bricks, when the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) recently announced that the planned additional flights of local carriers have yet to be approved - and may never be. Three Vietnamese airlines, flag carrier Vietnam Airlines and low-cost Vietjet and Jetstar Pacific, all announced they will add thousands of flights during Tet, and already started to accept booking over the last two months. Vietjet plans to add 1,500 flights during Tet, having started sales for 1.5 million tickets with departures between January 15 and February 15, 2017. The no-frills carrier said there is huge demand for flights from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to northern and central destinations, adding Tet tickets are selling out. Jetstar Pacific has also announced an addition of 1 million seats for the busy travel time, up 25% from last Tet. In the meantime, Vietnam Airlines said it will add nearly 900 flights, or 185,000 seats, for travels between January 15 and February 13, totaling the number of seats available during Tet to 1.6 million. Despite these widely publicized plans, it turns out that the airlines have sold tickets for additional flights even before they are allowed to offer the extra services. “These announced additional flights are only based on the plans of each carrier, not the final official figures,” CAAV head Lai Xuan Thanh told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper. Thanh said it is not simple to add new flights, as “a carrier has to have enough resources.” According to the official, 67% of the extra flights have departure time between 11:00 pm to 7:00 am the following day. “Aviation employees are not allowed to work overtime, given the importance of their job,” he said, implying that there will be not enough airport personnel to work after midnight. Thanh said the extra flights may even paralyze operations of the Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport. “In 2016 the flight frequency at Tan Son Nhat is already 28 percent higher than normal rate,” Thanh said. “If the frequency is raised further, the whole airport will be completely stuck.” Thanh underlined that even during the busy Tet occasion, the frequency at Tan Son Nhat must be maintained at 40 landing/takeoff per hour. “The CAAV will also thoroughly check the operation capacity and service ability of each carrier and will not approve their extra-flight plans if they fail to ensure these requirements,” Thanh said. “If you offer additional flights and then fail to serve passengers, they will get a lot angrier than usual.” Dang Tuan Tu, director of Tan Son Nhat, said the airport also needs the final approval from the CAAV for the additional flights, rather than just the announcement from airlines. Tu made no secret that his airport will continue to be overloaded during Tet. The airport is expected to handle some 32 million passengers by the end of this year, far surpassing the designed capacity of only 25 million passengers a year, according to the director. Passengers who already bought Tet tickets said they do not care about the business between airlines and the aviation watchdog, as “the carrier should by all means offer service as stated in the tickets it sold to passengers.” “It is not about money, as we may get a refund for the booked tickets,” said Trang, a Ho Chi Minh City-based worker who plans to fly home in the north-central province of Ha Tinh. “What matters more is we are unable to return home for Tet.” Commenting on the risk passengers now face with the additional flights, Thanh said the airlines have to take full responsible for their passengers. “Just because airlines have already sold tickets for additional flights does not mean that CAAV must approve these services,” Thanh said. The CAAV added that it is carriers who wanted to be allowed to sell tickets before getting approval for additional flights in the first place. Under the old regulation, airlines were only allowed to start selling tickets after they obtained approval for the extra services. “But airlines later petitioned that they be allowed to sell tickets in advance, and they will be fully responsible for any problems that may arise, to which the government has agreed,” Thanh said. Labour exports hurt by lack of foreign language skills   Few countries have as many of their citizens working abroad as Vietnam, or depend so greatly on labour exports for economic vitality, says the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs. According to the Department, it has supplied an enormous amount of guest workers, nearly 55,600 to foreign markets under official arrangements since 2011, eight out of 10 of whom were unskilled workers. Out of the total some 31,000 guest workers went to the Japanese market; 12,000 to Taiwan; 5,000 to Malaysia; 3,500 to the Republic of Korea (ROK); and 4,100 worked in other markets. The jobs created for these workers provided a lifeline for these workers and their families to get financially ahead, lift themselves out of poverty and learn life skills that will benefit them for the rest of their lives. Nguyen Thi Ly, headmaster of Thu Duc College of Technology, noted that as many as 300 of the school’s graduates had been placed by the Department to work in Japan and all of them are excited about the high rate of pay they earn. One graduate reported he saved US$40,000 after working just three years in Japan. Huynh Ho Dai Nghia from the Labour Export Department of the Saigon Garment Company echoed Mr Ly’s comments, noting that nearly all workers sent to the Japanese market reported the salaries are high. Not only do they describe being able to save a lot of money, said Mr Nghia, but almost all of them say they returned home with broader knowledge and professional working skills. A few even reported they saved enough money and got the skills to start their own businesses. Nguyen Xuan Lanh, an assistant to director of Esuhai Company that employs thousands of workers for businesses in Japan, Taiwan and the ROK, also noted these markets have high demands and opportunities for guest workers to earn large sums. The company earlier this year sent nearly 1,000 engineers and trainees to Japan and all report the money is excellent, he noted. However, far too many guest workers are being held back by their lack of foreign language skills said Tran Viet Phu, deputy director of HCM City Vocational College of Economics and Technology. The City currently has 46 companies and 23 branches that are qualified to export labour abroad, said Mr Phu. In addition, the City’s vocational colleges have signed training agreements with Japan and the ROK to train workers. However, the number of trainees is not sufficient to meet the actual demand, most notably due to lack of foreign language qualifications. Due to the cost and time consideration, some companies have been cutting corners and not paying proper attention to ensuring workers are adequately trained prior to sending them overseas. Most notably they do not meet the foreign language working requirements and as a result they cannot function in a foreign environment and their labour contracts are consequently being terminated early. Consequently, the lack of foreign language skills is holding labour exports back, noted Mr Phu. To boost labour exports, controls need to be put in place to better train and test candidates for the guest worker program to develop a workforce with high-level foreign language skills adequate for employment abroad. Vietnam man dreams of conquering North Pole Sporting a dusty, weather-beaten look topped with a man bun, 28-year-old Vietnamese man Hoang Le Giang is competing against international applicants for a chance to conquer the North Pole. Giang has been a popular name in Vietnam’s social media community since registering for the Fjällräven Polar voting contest, a competition that will award the winner with a 300-kilometer sled trip through the North Pole next April. Fjällräven Polar was established in 1997 by Swedish sled drivers Åke Nordin and Kenth Fjellborg after organizing their first sled trip through the Scandinavian Arctic. With Giang’s resume as an experienced trekker with seven climbs in the Himalayas under his belt, having traveled to 30 different countries, one may find it surprising to learn that the virile-looking man had suffered from asthma and obesity as a kid. It may come as a bigger surprise that Giang only began mountain-climbing five years ago. “I was always a rebel at school,” said the Bon Jovi fan, “I would tell my literature teacher ‘no’ when she asked whether I liked a certain book. It was my way of letting my feelings as a reader be known.” Giang said his favorite song from the American rock band Bon Jovi is It’s My Life, a song he described as reflective of his once powerful ego. “I have become less of a rebel and more of a thinker since I took up mountain climbing,” Giang said, “When you climb, you have enough time by yourself to reflect on your life.” One of Giang’s most crucial moments in his travels took place last April while climbing in the Nepali village of Chomrong when the earthquake hit. “Everything happened so quickly, and in that precise moment, suddenly I felt more worried for my family than for myself,” Giang recalled, “What if my family members were forced to endure loss just because of my personal satisfaction?” Since then Giang has altered his outlook on the dangers of adventurous trips and taken preparatory safety measures more seriously. As of December 9, Giang’s entry for Fjällräven Polar is leading the vote count with nearly 35,000 votes, nearly 12,000 votes ahead of Mongolian Erka Erdenee. With less than a week until the contest ends, Giang’s prospect of winning his dream trip is bigger than ever. Giang said him winning the voting contest would be a powerful message for other youths and that “when your enthusiasm is big enough, you can achieve anything in life no matter how average you are”. “After all, I’m just as average as anybody,” Giang said humbly. Fresh Vietnamese grads dissatisfied with life in the workplace: survey When it comes to being happy and satisfied at work, fresh graduates in Vietnam are reported to have the lowest level of happiness in the region, according to a survey conducted by employment websites JobStreet and JobsDB. The survey covered 50,000 graduates across seven countries and territory, and revealed that the average satisfaction rating of Vietnamese graduates is 4.9 on a 10-point scale. Filipinos are the happiest workers (6.5), followed by Indonesia (6), Thailand (5.9), Malaysia (5.5), Singapore (5.2) and Hong Kong (5.1) Another survey in the second quarter of 2016 of nearly 1,200 fresh graduates in Vietnam also said that 75% of the respondents viewed salary as the most important factor when it came to finding a job. Meanwhile, job description -- the crucial factor that can determine whether the job is suitable for the candidate - was their fourth priority. These factors have affected the satisfaction levels of the Vietnamese labor force, Job Street said. The employment website added that average salaries in Vietnam have risen in 2016, but many fresh graduates are still unrealistic about their starting salaries. “Maybe new graduates are being paid less than what they were expecting," said marketing manager of JobStreet Duong Thi Ngoc Hai, "but I think they should devote their time to learning from new experiences and improving both hard and soft skills rather than aiming for a high-paid position.” JobStreet quoted many employers as saying that graduate students ought to put themselves in the shoes of employers, who need time to adjust salaries in line with their employees' capabilities and performance. Tran Duc Huy, a businessman who runs an interior design company, said that fresh graduates, apart from asking for higher salaries, are different from the previous generation. “They are more intelligent, more innovative, but also more demanding, less hard-working and less loyal.” Female Vietnamese worker dies after robbers set her on fire in Angola A female Vietnamese worker in Angola was killed and another seriously injured after robbers set them on fire at the hostel they were staying in, according to the Vietnamese embassy in the African country. About 10 days ago, a group of robbers broke into their hostel in Huambo Province and bound Hoang Thi Van, 29, and two other workers - one Vietnamese and the other Angolian. When the workers failed to hand over their money, the robbers poured fuel on them and set them on fire. Other workers heard the victims' screams and rushed to the scene. Van died in hospital on December 9 while the other Vietnamese worker was seriously injured, said Nguyen Dinh Ky, chairman of Thien Cam Town in Vietnam’s central province of Ha Tinh, Van's hometown. The Vietnamese embassy in Angola is enlisting support to help repatriate Van’s body as her poor family cannot afford the transport costs. Van is not the only Vietnamese worker to be killed in the African nation. In March, two male Vietnamese workers also from Ha Tinh, Dang Quoc Nghia, 44, and Nguyen Viet Hau, 33, were killed by armed robbers. 130,000 overseas Vietnamese to return home for Tet holiday The Business Association of Overseas Vietnamese expects about 130,000 overseas Vietnamese to fly home for the upcoming Lunar New Year, or Tet, the country's most important holiday. Nguyen Hong Hue, chairman of the association, said the estimate is based on visa application data. The number of returning Vietnamese overseas is forecast to sharply increase from mid-December to mid-February, with an estimated 3,000-4,000 arrivals daily. Tet begins on the first day of the first lunar month, which falls on January 28 next year, but festive celebrations can stretch over days both before and after that. The official break for the upcoming Tet is one week. Tan Son Nhat, the country’s largest international airport, will be under more pressure during this holiday season. The airport, designed for both domestic and international flights, has become increasingly strained. It is expected to handle up to 31 million passengers by the end of this year, far beyond its maximum capacity of 25 million, said Lai Xuan Thanh, director general of the Civil Aviation Administration. Customs officials at the airport said they stand ready to make sure that customs check only takes about 25-27 seconds. There are around five million Vietnamese overseas, according to the World Bank. By 2014, 1.3 million Vietnamese immigrants resided in the US. It was followed by Australia with 227,000 Vietnamese immigrants, Canada with 183,000, and France with 126,000, according to mid-2015 estimates by the United Nations Population Division. Remittances from Vietnamese overseas remain a key source of funds for the country's economy, equivalent to about 8%-10% of gross domestic product. Vietnamese-Americans alone sent back about US$7 billion last year. The number is expected to reach US$8 billion this year. Vietnam recorded roughly US$13 billion in overseas remittances last year, slightly up from US$12 billion in 2014, according to the World Bank. Poland’s Independence Day celebrated in HCM City The Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations and the Vietnam-Poland Friendship Association’s HCM City chapter held a get-together in HCM City on December 9 to mark the 98th Independence Day of Poland (November 11, 1918-2016). Attending the event were Szymon Widarski, Polish Vice Ambassdor to Vietnam, representatives of the Polish community in HCM City and Vietnamese alumni in Poland. Nguyen Dang Cuong, President of the Vietnam-Poland Friendship Association’s HCM City chapter, recalled Poland’s struggle for independence, stating that Vietnam and Poland share an aspiration for peace and both are ready to sacrifice for independence and territorial sovereignty. Szymon Widarski thanked the HCM City people for bridging the two cultures over the past time, thus helping strengthen the friendship and mutual understanding between the two countries’ people. Arts festival honours diverse ethnic cultures An arts festival dedicated to the unique and diverse culture of ethnic minorities in Vietnam will take place at Hoan Kiem Lake fountain (Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc Square) on December 11 morning from 9:30am. The festival will gather over 100 members of different groups nationwide, including Khmer, Tay, Gia Rai, Pa Co, Muong, Pa Then and Mong. All dances and songs are rehearsed, curated, and performed by ethnic people themselves, just as they do in everyday life. Following the huge success last year, the fourth festival, themed "Indigenous knowledge - Spring of life", aims at the practical values of indigenous knowledge, a complete system accumulated and refined after thousands of years. The event is organised by the Institute for Studies of Society, Economics and Environment (iSEE). The festival will also take place on December 13 at the Vietnam National Academy of Music, 77 Hao Nam, Hanoi, with exhibitions, traditional games, performances and interactive activities. Entrance is free. Malaysia-Indonesia-Vietnam Culture Week concludes The Malaysia-Indonesia-Vietnam Culture Week wrapped up in the northern province of Thai Nguyen on December 10, with nine artisans and teams honoured for their excellent contributions to the event’s success. The event, kicked off on December 8 at the Thai Nguyen’s Museum of Cultures of Vietnam’s Ethnic Groups, was part of efforts to preserve and promote a number of traditional trades, including weaving, batik painting and producing handicrafts. The event also aims to encourage creativity in the trades, thus creating new tourism products. The 25-member Malaysian delegation was led by Princess of Terengganu, while Indonesian team was headed by Venny Afwany Alamsyah, a batik artisan. Vietnam also sent 30 artisans from five ethnic minority groups to the event to introduce traditional weaving, embroidery and fabric dying of Vietnam. According to the organising board, the event was a success, leaving strong impressions to visitors, while inspiring youngsters of ASEAN countries and the three countries in particular in promoting the values of traditional arts, especially weaving, printing and batik dying. An art performance of Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia was also held at the closing ceremony. Hanoi food fest features culinary arts of other countries The flavours of international cuisine and entertainment activities will be offered during the annual food festival held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The event will take place on December 11 at Van Phuc Diplomatic Compound, 298 Kim Ma Street, Hanoi. Visitors to the festival also have ample chance to enjoy music and dance performances at the more than 117 food displays and learn more about culinary arts of other countries. There will also be a wide variety of charitable events raising money for the needy and disadvantaged for which the donations have been earmarked for the support of orphans and people with disabilities. Entrance fee is 10,000 VND (0.5 USD). VNA seeks to improve quality of publications on ethnic minorities  The Vietnam News Agency (VNA) held a conference on December 9 with leaders from 16 northern mountainous provinces on ways to improve the quality of VNA’s specialized pictorial newspaper on ethnic minorities and mountainous region. Addressing the conference in Tuyen Quang province, VNA General Director Nguyen Duc Loi stressed that the Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Region Pictorial is the only bilingual newspaper serving ethnic minority communities across 45 provinces in the country. Given the importance of the publication, the General Director said the VNA always pays particular attention to its quality from the format to content, as well as the distribution of the newspaper to readers. He added that the VNA has signed agreements on information sharing and dissemination with the Steering Committees of the Northwest, Central Highlands and Southeast regions, and the Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Region Pictorial is an important channel to implement the agreements. Since July, 2012, the VNA has published 11 bilingual versions of the Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Region Pictorial in Vietnamese and 11 ethnic languages, with 68,000 copies each edition. In the northern region, the Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Region Pictorial is published in Vietnamese-Mong and Vietnamese-Tay with 25,000 copies each edition in 16 provinces. Since January, 2017, the VNA will publish the newspaper’s Vietnamese-Chinese version. Nguyen Hong Thang, Vice Secretary of Tuyen Quang provincial Party Committee, said the Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Region Pictorial gradually meet ethnic minorities’ demand for information in Tuyen Quang. Delegates to the conference recommended that the newspaper should try to ensure the accuracy when translating from Vietnamese to ethnic languages, improve distribution network and introduce the newspaper to local schools. Vietnam hands over four sets of remains to US A ceremony was held at the Noi Bai international airport in Hanoi on December 9 to hand over four sets of remains believed to be of US servicemen who went missing in action during the war. The remains were discovered during the 125th joint field activity between Vietnam and the US, conducted between October and December this year. The remains will be sent to Hawaii for further examination. This is the 139th transfer of American servicemen’s remains since 1973. Speaking at the ceremony, a US Government official hailed the humanitarian policy, goodwill and cooperation of the Vietnamese Government and people in searching for US servicemen missing in action during the war. Searching for the remains of US servicemen in Vietnam is part of humanitarian cooperation between the Vietnamese and US Governments. The two-decade war in Vietnam claimed the lives of 58,000 Americans and at least three million Vietnamese. 1,000 more bus trips in HCM City during New Year The HCM Public Passenger Transport and Management Centre has said 1,048 more trips will be operated on 17 city bus routes between December 31 and January 2 to cope with the New Year rush. The centre said on December 8 that increasing the number of trips would improve passengers’ safety and comfort, and instructed bus operators to prepare well, saying if the number of passengers increased sharply, they should be ready to operate more buses. The centre will also operate 25 additional inter-provincial buses at the Mien Tay Coach Station on December 30 and 31. Deputy PM inspects flood-hit areas in Binh Dinh, Quang Ngai Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung on December 9 visited Tuy Phuoc district in the south central province of Binh Dinh, one of the hardest hit areas by recent floods where many villages are still being isolated. The Deputy PM asked for the relocation of residents living near the bank of Ha Thanh river in Luat Le village to safer places, while requesting Binh Dinh’s authorities to give timely support to flood victims. The province should roll out measures to assist families facing difficulties, while mobilising forces to help locals repair their houses to resume normal lives and production after the flood. According to Ho Quoc Dung, Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, flood has killed 16 people and injured five others, while collapsing 225 houses, uproofing 120 others and destroying nearly 20,000 hectares of rice fields and harming many transport and irrigation works. Deputy PM Dung directed the Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development, Health, and Industry and Trade to help Binh Dinh overcome consequences of the disaster, especially restoring damaged roads. The same day, the Deputy PM visited the family of Nguyen Minh Hai in Phuong Quang commune whose house was destroyed by flood, and the bereaved family of Dao Minh Tai in Nhon An commune, An Nhon town. Tai was swept away and killed by floodwater on the way home from school on December 8. According to Chairman of Binh Dinh provincial People’s Committee Ho Quoc Dung, the two consecutive floods over the past month killed 16 persons and injured 5 others. A total of 225 houses in the province collapsed and nearly 20,000ha of rice was destroyed. Total losses were estimated at 800 billion VND (over 35.4 million USD). Also on December 9, Deputy PM Dung visited and handed over gifts to flood victims in Binh Dinh’s neighbouring province of Quang Ngai. The recent floods killed 10 people in the province, leaving four missing and inundated 1,800 houses. More than 700 hectares of rice fields and over 3,500 hectares of crop were damaged. National Highway 24 and 24C as well as many provincial roads were also affected. The Deputy PM required the locality to timely deliver aid to flood victims to ensure no one suffers from hunger. Priority should be given to recovering farming production, repairing houses and public works and preventing diseases. President meets armed forces voters in HCM City President Tran Dai Quang on December 11 met voters from armed forces in Ho Chi Minh City, during which he lauded their responsible opinions as well as valuable proposals. He noted that in 2016, Vietnam has seen many important achievements in socio-economy, culture, defence-security and external relations. However, the country has also faced newly-emerged crimes, including high technology crimes as well as traditional and non-traditional challenges, he said. The President affirmed that the strengthening of defence-security is key for the success of socio-economic development plan and international integration of the country, which also requires for armed forces’ good preparation and readiness to safeguard of the country’s sovereignty, unification, territorial integrity in all circumstance. He underscored that armed forces should focus on strengthening political education as well as fostering close relationship with people and loyalty to the Party, nation and people, while actively engaging in popularising Party and State’s law and policies and socio-economic development, poverty reduction and natural disaster response. He highlighted the need for armed forces’ reform and higher training quality, along with accurate forecast of destruction schemes of hostile forces and their wrongful arguments. President Tran Dai Quang clarified the significance of the building of armed forces as well as strong and pure Party organisations in armed forces, as well as the pioneer role of the forces in implementing the Party resolutions on Party building as well as in the fight against morality degradation. During the meeting, the President answered to the voters’ questions on a number of current problems, including the slow issuance of legal documents that hinders the implementation of laws, while acknowledging their opinion on the need for specific regulations for the authority, equipment and tools to handle administrative violations. He also agreed with voters’ ideas to integrate defence-security with socio-economic development in plans and strategies in specific fields, as well as the re-verification of major projects on defence-security and the defining of responsibility of individuals and collectives for loss of the projects. VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/TT/TN/Dantri/VNE