Government News 6/2 Deputy PM lauds southwest steering committee’s contributions   Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue speaks at the event  Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue has praised the Steering Committee for the Southwest Region for its achievements in socio-economic development, security-defence, ethnic and religious affairs, poverty alleviation and new style rural areas building throughout 15 years of operation. He made the remarks while attending a conference held in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on February 5 to review the steering committee’s activities in 2017 and the past 15 years. The steering committee has made significant contributions to the region’s economic restructuring, particularly agriculture shake-up in response to the climate change, Hue noted. Terminating operations of the Steering Committees for Northwest, Central Highlands and Southwest Regions approved by the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee, Politburo and Secretariat does not mean putting an end to their functions and missions. Relevant ministries, sectors and local authorities will coordinate to carry out the tasks, he said. He asked deputy head of the southwest steering committee Son Minh Thang to tackle remaining work before receiving new mission assigned by the Politburo. In the past 15 years, the committee helped the Politburo and the Secretariat and the Prime Minister define breakthroughs to develop the Mekong Delta region in the fields of transport, irrigation, education, agriculture development and support for local ethnic people. It also worked to remove bottlenecks for key construction projects like Can Tho bridge, Can Tho airport, Ho Chi Minh City-Trung Luong expressway and investment projects in Phu Quoc island. The committee’s efforts have cast a new look for the whole region. Economic growth during 2001-2010 was at 11.7 percent per year while the figure for 2011-2015 was 8.55 percent per year. Improvements have been seen in the livelihoods of ethnic people and those living in remote areas. Particularly, the Mekong Delta gained impressive achievements in 2017 with stable economic growth, agricultural production exceeding set targets and sound development of service sector, education and healthcare. HCM City willing to maintain collaboration with Cambodian localities   Tran The Luu, member of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee’s Standing Board, (R) receives Lieutenant General Mon Sopheap   Ho Chi Minh City is willing to continue taking measures to enhance its friendship and connection with Cambodian localities in order to further develop the Vietnam-Cambodia traditional friendship and comprehensive cooperation. The statement was made by Tran The Luu, member of the municipal Party Committee’s Standing Board and head of the committee’s Commission for Internal Affairs, at his reception on February 5 for Lieutenant General Mon Sopheap, Deputy Commander of the Special Military Region under the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF), who is leading a delegation to visit the city ahead of the Lunar New Year (Tet) festival. Luu affirmed that the local leaders always support the effective development of relations between the municipal High Command and the Special Military Region. Mon Sopheap, in reply, confirmed that the Special Military Region and the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces at large are willing to collaborate with the Vietnam People’s Army, including Ho Chi Minh City’s High Command. He thanked Ho Chi Minh City and the municipal High Command for supporting Cambodia’s people and RCAF, which has helped nurture and develop the friendship and solidarity between the two countries’ armies and people. NA, VFF leaders present Tet gifts to needy people   NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Nhan presents gifts to chidren with cancer  National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan presented gifts to children with cancer under treatment at the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion in Hanoi on February 5 as Tet (traditional Vietnamese New Year) holiday is approaching. Ngan gave 100 gift packages to cancer children living in difficult circumstances in the hospital during a charity event, namely “Xuan yeu thuong, Tet cho benh nhan ung thu” (Spring of love, Tet for cancer patients), in the hope of bringing them a warmer Tet. Speaking at the event, she praised the effectiveness of the Supportive Fund for Cancer Patients – Bright Future which has acted as a bridge for love and sharing between donors and impoverished patients for the last six years. The NA leader also spent time at the bedside of children in critical condition, embracing them and telling them to keep faith and fight cancer. The Supportive Fund for Cancer Patients, found by the Ministry of Health, has teamed up with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper to hold the charity event since 2013. Since then, the fund has provided over 18 billion VND in financial support for more than 19,200 poor cancer patients and given free cancer screenings for about 70,000 people. On the same day, President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee Tran Thanh Man presented gifts and extended Tet greetings to officers and soldiers at Nhon Hung Border Guard Station in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang. He also visited and gave Tet gifts to 100 state policy beneficiary families and poor households in the districts of Tri Ton and Tinh Bien that share border with Cambodia and are home to a large community of ethnic minority people. About 70 percent of the districts’ population are from the Khmer ethnic group. Hanoi hopes to further ties with Mozambique   Chairman of the People’s Committee of Hanoi Nguyen Duc Chung (R) hosts Mozambican Ambassador Gamaliel Munguambe   Chairman of the People’s Committee of Hanoi Nguyen Duc Chung had a meeting with outgoing Mozambican Ambassador Gamaliel Munguambe in the city on February 5. The ambassador said that during his term of office in Vietnam, he had chances to work with many municipal leaders and found out abundant cooperation potential between Vietnam and Mozambique as well as Hanoi and Maputo. Chung congratulated the diplomat on fulfilling all tasks assigned by the Mozambican Government. He expressed his hoped that in any position, the ambassador will continue working for strengthening friendship between the two countries as well as two capital cities, thus lifting up bilateral ties to a new height. He voiced his support to the initiative of setting up twinning relations between Hanoi and Maputo in the future. Vietnam attends ASEAN SOM in Singapore   A view of the ASEAN Senior Officials’ Meeting (ASEAN SOM) which opened in Singapore on February 5  A Vietnamese delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung, head of Vietnam ASEAN SOM, attended the ASEAN Senior Officials’ Meeting (ASEAN SOM) which opened on February 5 in Singapore to prepare contents for the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat (AMM Retreat). The delegates agreed on the agenda and working programme of the AMM Retreat that will take place in Singapore on February 5-6, including implementing the outcomes of the 31st ASEAN Summits (in the Philippines in November 2017), and the main priorities of ASEAN in 2018 and the world and regional situation. Besides, ASEAN SOM heads reviewed the implementation of the Master plan on ASEAN Political – Security Community, cooperation themes of ASEAN in 2018 and the bloc’s external relations, including the methods to build the Code of Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (COC). ASEAN and China are scheduled to start COC negotiations in Vietnam in March. The meeting also looked into draft documents to be submitted to the Foreign Ministers. VNN