Thứ Hai, 12 tháng 2, 2018

Social News 11/2

BOT National Road 6 case: Warning over contractors’ weak capacity

 BOT National Road 6 case: Warning over contractors’ weak capacity, Project helps provinces improve adaptation to climate change, High supply, low demand affects watermelon farmers 

The investors’ failure to acquire enough capital for construction works on a critical highway connecting Hà Nội and northern localities has threatened to derail the project, once again calling into question the viability of the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model.
With increasing demands for socio-economic infrastructure investment, the Government’s constrained budget requires partnerships with private investors.
However, in the face of the investor’s violations, on January 31, transport minister Nguyễn Văn Thể issued an ultimatum that the investor must fulfill the contract signed with the ministry, or the contract would be terminated within 10 days.
The ministry’s hard-line move is considered too little too late as the project is already a year behind schedule.
The Hoà Lạc – Hoà Bình BOT project (National Road 6) has total investment of nearly VNĐ 3 trillion (US$131.2 million) via a joint-venture between the defence ministry’s Corporation 36 and two private companies, Thành Lộc Construction JSC and Hà Nội Investment and Trade JSC.
The project comprises two components, building the 25.7km of Hòa Lạc – Hoà Bình highway and upgrading the 30.6km Xuân Mai – Hoà Bình section of National Road 6. The latter component was completed in 2015 April and toll collection started in October that year. Meanwhile, progress on the Hoà Lạc – Hoà Bình highway has been stagnant.
According to reports, the transport ministry allowed the investor to collect fees from drivers even though the two components are not completed.
The contract between the transport ministry and the joint-venture states that once the Xuân Mai – Hoà Bình section is completed, the investor can construct a toll station at Km42+730 (Lương Sơn District, Hoà Bình Province) on National Road 6 and begin collecting fees worth VNĐ100 billion from 2015 August 1 to 2016 July 31.
The figure would be used to invest in the Hoà Lạc – Hoà Bình section and the toll collection for the section could commence when the construction works are finished.
The transport ministry contended this term is meant to “shorten the capital payback period.” However, toll fees collected at the BOT station Lương Sơn have surpassed the contract’s figure by VNĐ70 billion, reported Kinh tế & Đô thị (Economic and Urban affairs) newspaper.
Another problem found was that between the three companies in the joint-venture, Corp 36 is supposed to be the ‘main player’ contributing VNĐ150 billion, while Hà Nội Investment and Trade JSC and Trường Lộc JSC contribute VNĐ130.9 billion and VNĐ93.5 billion, respectively.
However, currently, only Corp 36 has fulfilled their duty while there is still another VNĐ89 billion required.
The joint-venture’s insufficient equity forced the Saigon Hà Nội Bank commercial bank to halt disbursement of the remaining half of the loans, despite their earlier commitment.
The bank was originally to supply capital worth nearly VNĐ2 trillion, or 78 per cent of the project’s total investment, based on the investors’ financial plan.
Lưu Việt Khoa, deputy director of the transport ministry’s Project Management Unit 2 (PMU2), said that the bank would resume the disbursement when the investors mobilise all of the required equity.
Even more troubling is the fact that the joint-venture obtained an investment certificate without equity requirements being met.
After three extension windows granted for the investors to implement the project, the transport ministry said that if the contract is concluded prematurely, the investor can no longer operate toll collection at the Lương Sơn BOT station and only 80 per cent of what they have spent on the project will be paid back, while the ministry would retain the remaining 20 per cent.
Professor Từ Sỹ Sùa, senior lecturer at the transport university in Hà Nội, said what happened at BOT National Road 6, similar to other BOT traffic projects else in the country, is due to “borrowed capacity” on the part of the investor.
Sùa contended that in other countries, the investor must be fully self-reliant – in terms of finance, or traffic construction expertise and experience.
Meanwhile, in Việt Nam, investors’ funds come mostly from loans, or specifically, short-term loans, while BOT projects are long-term, leading to weak financial feasibility.
Experts have also pointed out problems in the transport ministry’s bidder appointment mechanism, or selecting a general contractor/investor without going through proper public bidding.
Nguyễn Văn Thanh, Chairman of Việt Nam Automobile Transport Association, said in the case of BOT Hoà Lạc – Hoà Bình project, the onus is on the transport ministry.
Thanh urged the ministry to address the issue as soon as possible, as prolonging the project would mean higher accrued interest.
Project helps provinces improve adaptation to climate change
Lessons learned from the strategic mainstreaming of ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) was a good foundation for Vietnam to prepare for climate change, according to Dr. Nguyen The Chinh from the Natural Resources and Environment Strategic Institute. 
Chinh was speaking at a workshop on February 6 reviewing a project on the subject. It was held by the Institute for Strategy and Policy on Natural Resources and Environment in collaboration with the German Development Cooperation Agency. The event marked more than three years of productive collaboration.
The 4-million Euro (4.9 million USD) project funded by the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) worked with the Vietnamese Government to mainstream ecosystem-based measures into pilot models in Ha Tinh and Quang Binh provinces.
"After three years of implementation, the project evaluated the vulnerable ecological situation in Ha Tinh and Quang Binh provinces," Chinh said.
“The project also helped to set up a national plan of land use for 2016-2020, and an updated action plan for climate change preparedness until 2020 in the provinces,” he added. 
The EbA project aims to support efforts in the strategic mainstreaming of ecosystem-based approaches into national policies on climate change adaptation, land-use and development planning.
EbA has been identified as an effective adaptation measure given that Vietnam is heavily affected by the adverse effects of climate change.
Climate change vulnerability assessments have been conducted at both provincial and commune levels to introduce appropriate EbA solutions for implementation in the selected provinces.
From 2016, the project began pilot EbA activities in coastal areas suffering erosion and sand movement in Quang Binh province by planting and rehabilitating coastal forests in combination with livelihood activities, such as cattle-raising, fresh- water fish farming, and vegetable cultivation.
In Ha Tinh, the project piloted EbA approaches in a mountain ecosystem under drought conditions, enriching natural forest by using indigenous plants, oranges and pineapples grown in contour lines - plus bee-raising.
The two areas selected for the pilot EbA approaches shared common characteristics. Firstly, the communities in both areas showed real enthusiasm to participate; and secondly, they lived in areas suffering from difficult economic conditions, with limited access to the technologies required for agricultural production.
Strengthening the capacity of stakeholders at central and local levels was a key aspect of the project.
To improve knowledge and the sharing of information on EbA measures and activities, the project organised a series of training workshops on mainstreaming them into the development planning process.
The project also focused on mainstreaming EbA into the climate-change-adaptation legal framework by supporting Government agencies. For example, the Department of Land Management will implement strategic environmental assessments to collect inputs for revising national land-use planning for 2016-2020; the Department for Planning Management will mainstream EbA and climate-change issues into developing the Planning Law; and the departments of Natural Resources and Environment of Ha Tinh and Quang Binh will mainstream EbA into the updated Provincial Climate Change Action Plans to 2020.
Ivo Litzenberg, GIZ expert, said after three years of implementation, the two provinces had cleaner water resources and a healthier ecological system which was less vulnerable to climate-change impacts.
Land erosion was also reduced, which helped local people produce rice crops on slopes, said Litzenberg.
The project had also helped local people understand the importance of production that was less harmful to ecological systems, he said.
Meanwhile, according to Phan Lam Son, deputy head of Ha Tinh province’s Natural Resources and Environment Department, the project helped people become aware of main reasons for climate change, such as improper use of natural resources, waste discharge and polluting the environment.
Vietnam was assessed as one of nations worst affected by climate change.
If the sea water level rise by one metre, 40 percent of land area in the Mekong Delta, 11 percent of land in the Red River Delta, and 3 percent of land areas along other coastal regions would be submerged.
About 10-12 percent of population would be affected and losses would account for 10 per cent of the country’s GDP, said experts.
Understanding the consequences, the Government has issued several legal documents to deal with the situation, including a National Programme on Climate Change Preparedness, National Strategy on Climate Changes, National Strategy on Natural Calamity Reduction by 2020. 
High supply, low demand affects watermelon farmers
Farmers in the south-central coastal province of Bình Thuận are facing a crisis with watermelon. The recent fall in prices has led to oversupply but low demand.
The Voice of Việt Nam (VOV) reports that thousands of tonnes of watermelons harvested in Đức Linh District, which grows the largest number of watermelons for Tết (Lunar New Year), have been piled up along the highway.
The farmers sit next to the huge piles waiting for traders, but they are only able to sell just a few or tens of kilogrammes to passersby, reports VOV.
Phan Long Hạnh, a watermelon farmer, said he had grown 30 tonnes of watermelon, but no one bought them. He has suffered huge losses this year due to the decrease in prices - only VNĐ3,500 (US$0.15) for a kilo.
A trader, Nguyễn Văn An, said the watermelon could not be exported to other countries. He explained that a low demand in the north due to cold weather had resulted in the falling prices this year.
Head of Đức Linh District’s Agriculture and Rural Development Office, Trương Quang Đến, said local farmers this year had grown watermelons in 180ha of land for the Tết season, increasing cultivation by 20ha compared to last year.
With a production of 30 tonnes for every hectare, farmers were unhappy with the slowdown in price, Đến said.
Hazards of bootleg mixed with methanol in North Vietnam
According to the Food Administration of Vietnam, the rising number of patients hospitalized due to alcohol poisoning have seen before and after Tet holidays (the Lunar New Year).
Amongst of them, the number of bootleg mingled with methanol accounts for 50 percent. Worse, wine not only causes poison but also risk to people’s health.
In the days near Tet, the Poison Control Center at Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi has admitted more emergency cases.
Medical workers receive three or four drunkards a day; many of whom had liquor mixed with industrial methanol whose concentration is hundred times higher than permitted resulting in patients losing their consciousness.
Dr. Nguyen Trung Nguyen who is responsible for poisoning center said that lately, poisoning cases due to drinking liquor mixed with methanol are on upward trend.
Most drunk patients were taken to hospitals late with serious poisoning symptoms. Through treatment procedure, medical workers said that most of patients have bootleg without clear indication of origin or liquor mingled with industrial spirit.
As per the Food Administration of Vietnam’s statistic showed in five years, the country recorded 28 poisoning cases infecting 193 people and driving 179 people to hospitals.
Worse, 34 people were killed in poisoning cases. In 2017 alone, 10 poisoning cases was reported with 119 infections and 115 hospitalization cases.
Deputy head of the administration Nguyen Hung Long said that as per a study, the rising cases of hospitalizations are seen just days before and after Tet holiday. In five years, the number of poisoning cases in these days has increased by 40-50 percent compared to previous months.
Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien expressed her concern because the proportion of death due to drinking alcohol is 70 percent. The country has seen deaths because of alcohol mixed with methanol in the first days of the lunar year.
Head of the administration Nguyen Thanh Phong said that poisoning cases will rise because the market still has unsafe liquor, bootleg and unoriginal products. Additionally, to earn profit, producers are willing to violate the regulation and buyers have low aware of fake liquor and local government also neglect control.
Health Minister Tien said that the Ministry is amending the law of wine and be submitted it to the government in June.
Moreover, the Ministry will propose alcohol tax meanwhile Mr. Phong said the Ministry and relevant agencies would strengthen supervision and issue harsh punishment on violators in wine production.
At present, 328 registered big liquor manufacturers make 360 million liters of wine annually while 320 legal small manufacturers make below one million a year excluding wine made by families across the country. It is estimated by 2025, the country will have 440 million liters of wine.
Flu patients increase due to cold weather
Following increasing flu hospitalizations, the Ministry of Health yesterday sent its urgent dispatch to departments of health nationwide asked to adopt preventive measures against flu.
The Ministry pointed out that last months of 2017 and early 2018, development of flu in the world has been complicated ; for instance, China recorded cases of flu with A/H7N9 virus while seasonal flu outbreaks has occurred in the US and flu due to virus A/H1N1 has seen in South Korea.
Hospitalizations of flu cases in many localities are on upward trend;  the spring-winter weather is conducive to respiratory ailments.
Accordingly, the Ministry ordered its sub-departments in cities and provinces to increase information of preventative measures against flu, early detection, and isolation in houses. People should go to medical clinics when they experience bad flu.
People are advised to keep away from crowded and wear facemask when contacting ill people. Moreover, they should increase personal hygiene, cover their mouth when sneezing and have vaccination against flu.
Hospitals are required to isolate patients, provide emergency and strictly control cross-infection. Medical workers must early detect cases of flu to provide treatment to serious cases and conduct tests to discover flu pathogen, closely control and prescribe medications carefully to deter drug-resistance.
Departments of health in the country need to liaise with health animal department and relevant agencies to supervise flu outbreaks in poultry. These units must thoroughly handle the outbreak to curb spreading to people.
Furthermore, they have to tighten control on sale and transportation of smuggled poultry through border crossings.
Meantime, the north has recorded skyrocketing cases of flu mostly kids because cold waves hit the region from end of January in Hanoi. At present, the National Tropical Disease hospital admits over 100 patients including adults and kids; half of them are hospitalized.
The situation is same in other hospitals namely the National Children, Bach Mai, Duc Giang, Dong Da, Saint Paul. Worse, some kids are suffering complications like pneumonia, even some of them must use ventilators.
According to medical workers, seasonal flu is acute ailment with symptoms of headache, fever, fatigue, running nose and coughing. Viruses A (H3N2), A(H1N1), B and C are culprits to cause seasonal flu.
When having seasonal flu, adults can recover within two to seven days. However, kids and senior people with chronic heart, lung, kidney diseases or anemia will easily suffer from severe complications even death.
Da Nang implements online appointment scheduling with doctors
People’s Committee in the Central City of Da Nang assigned the departments of Health, Home Affairs and Information and Communications to implement online appointment booking with doctors in hospitals and medical clinics in districts, communes.
To book online appointment with doctors, residents in Da Nang City can access to online service via the website http://www.danang.gov.vn, then store all information of name, date of birth of patients, cellphone number, email, health insurance. The system will give feedbacks and send SMS message to patient’s mobile phone.
The system automatically is pre-installed the number of patients a day to ensure not many people make online appointment booking with doctors in a day causing anger for those directly visit the medical facility at the same time. For instance, the maximum of people who book online appointment in a day is 20.
People can call phone number 0236.1022 to book an appointment. 
When visiting medical facilities, people should show the appointment confirmation sent via email or handphone. 
According to People’s Committee, the procedure was submitted for the departments of Health and Home Affairs’ opinion in early February, 2018. The Department of Home Affairs will appraise the project in 15 days, and then the system will be operated.
Before, Da Nang City applied appointment booking service for vaccination from November 1, 2017 assisting people to save time.
With synchronous application in medical sector, the city will go near to smart health model contributing to push up it into smart city soon.
Road maintenance fund collects over VND7 trillion in 2017
Workers asphalt a section of Mai Chi Tho Avenue in HCMC’s District 2. The road maintenance fund has helped upgrade many deteriorating roads nationwide 
The road maintenance fund collected VND7,143 billion (US$314.5 million) from road users nationwide last year while spending on road maintenance totaled VND8,142 billion.
According to a report by the Central Road Maintenance Fund, road maintenance fee collections as of December 31, 2017 rose 11.8% against 2016 to VND7,143 billion, also 16.65% higher than the 2017 plan. On average, the fund received VND27 billion a day.
Meanwhile, the Government spent VND8,142 billion last year repairing and upgrading more than 20,500 kilometers of national highway managed by five Road Management and Maintenance Departments and 51 Transport Departments, and repairing 243 bridges.
Many storms and floods triggered heavy rains and landslides that damaged roads in mountainous provinces last year, making road maintenance costs surge.
Le Hoang Minh, chief of office of the Central Road Maintenance Fund, said the fund has basically met the nation’s road maintenance demand.
To ensure the efficiency of the fund, the Ministry of Transport has asked the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam to have detailed information about deteriorating and narrow bridges and roads to have as accurate calculations as possible for road maintenance demand and cost.
Vietnam urged to improve job quality
Vietnam should quickly take measures to create better jobs in the technology-driven economic development process, heard a seminar on “Outlook for Vietnam Employment” held on February 7 by the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.
Kinh Te Do Thi newspaper cited a report by the World Bank (WB) presented to the seminar as saying that Vietnam’s unemployment rate is quite low. However, most jobs in the country are in production and service sectors with low added value, as up to 75% of jobs are generated by agricultural households and household businesses.
Nearly half of agricultural laborers are farming low-yield rice. Especially, most businesses in the informal sector provide low added-value goods and services and 75% of manufacturing jobs are in the assembly sector which has the lowest added value in the production chain.
The World Bank in its report suggested that Vietnam make proper investments to ensure that the economy and enterprises will brace for new development trends in the region and the world. Such preparations will help create better jobs.
To do so, the Government should have policies to encourage local enterprises to participate in businesses that create high added value. The State should support enterprises to shift their business to knowledge-based stages in the regional and global value chains, according to the report, which also stresses that laborers must also prepare themselves for such jobs by acquiring new skills.
In the long term, the number of jobless people may reach 10-70% due to impacts of automation. However, the trend will help create new jobs in the design, research-application, marketing, after-sales services, logistics and agriculture sectors.
According to the WB report, the consumer market is growing rapidly in Asia, with more than 80% of households in developing countries in Asia having disposable incomes by 2030. Meanwhile, the rate is two thirds in Vietnam.
Increasing income and fast urbanization will diversify jobs in Vietnam. Besides, the increasing demand for processed products and services of Vietnamese consumers will raise the number of workers in these sectors.
Moreover, the country will need many employees to take care of elderly people due to the falling birth rate and longer life expectancy.
Cocktail Party coming this weekend
The Bartender street 2018 will be organized at Thu Thiem New City in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 2 from February 9-11.
The event will offer special cocktail menus with yummy, fruity drinks that are made from tropical fresh fruits of coconut and pineapple.
Cocktail lovers will have also a chance to enjoy delicious finger foods, take part in a game to create their own cocktail and take a picture with German-engineered Volkswagen vehicles, new Beetle and Passat models in Volkswagen Studio.
There will be a wide variety of activities, such as a calligraphy street where calligraphers gather to write nice words written in calligraphy to customers on the occasion of Tet (Lunar New year) holiday, Pool Bar, fashion show, music performances
The event is organized by the Vietnam Tourism Education Association under the Viet Nam Tourism Association.
Health sector ensures enough Tamiflu for patients
Because flu patients increase dramatically resulting in shortage of Tamiflu, Deputy Head of Drug Administration of Vietnam Do Van Dong yesterday ensured enough drug for treatment demand.
The administration took initiatives to direct pharmaceutical enterprises to closely coordinate with relevant agencies to forecast demand. On the basis of demand, enterprises will make its plan to provide the drug.
Through initial survey of importing quantity, supply of the medication will meet the demand of treatment; however, Mr. Dong also pointed out that hospitals should have more in its stock for preparation of large outbreaks of the ailment.
He added that Tamiflu drug with Oseltamivir have been approved to circulate in the country.
According to the present regulation, the drug is imported as per the market demand. The medication is mostly provided to specialized medical clinics when flu outbreak occurs. Patients can take the drug under doctors’ prescription.
Moreover, the drug with Oseltamivir can not replace vaccination; therefore, he advised people to take vaccination against seasonal flu.
On the day, the Ministry of Health continued warning of the complicated flu development in the world and in the country with increasing hospitalizations in some localities.
To curb the spreading of the ailment and reduce patient overload and cross –infection in hospitals, the Ministry ordered its departments of health to step up information of flu to people.
Moreover, cases of flu should be early detected, isolated in houses. People are advised to go to nearby medical facilities soon when they experience serious symptoms of flu.
Hospitals are assigned to classify serious patients and slight ones to isolate and provide timely treatment as well as organize special section to curb cross-infection.
HCMC-Can Gio- Vung Tau high-speed boat put into operation
The Ho Chi Minh City Transport Department said that a high- speed boat route connecting the Bach Dang Wharf of Ho Chi Minh City, Can Gio District and Vung Tau City will be put into exploitation.  
According to Greenlines DP Technology Co Ltd, a main investor of the project, the boat service is strictly examined in term of technology and departure procedures before putting into the operation on February 10. 
Total seven boats having capacity of 50- 132 passengers per boat will operate on the route. 
The 85 km route travelling through Bach Dang wharf- Sai Gon River, Nha Be, Long Tau, Nga Bay, Tac Suat wharf  (Can Gio district), Ganh Rai and Ho May Eco-Tourism Park (Vung Tau city).  
After putting into exploitation, the ticket price for the Bach Dang– Can Gio trip will cost VND 200,000 for adult.
Especially, staffs, officials, residents of Can Gio district, children with age of 6-11, elderly will be discounted 50 percent of ticket price (around VND 100,000). 
Vietnamese heroic mothers, war invalids, disabled ones, children under six years old will be free of charge.
Ticket price from Can Gio district to Ho May Eco-Tourism Park (Vung Tau city) will be VND 100,000. 
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Transport Department, it is the first high- speed boat running on route of Ho Chi Minh City- Can Gio – Vung Tau.
In the coming time, the city will continue opening other high- speed boats to meet the demand of travelling and developing the city's maritime tourism. 
Vietnamese man gets death for murdering children, sexually assaulting woman
A Vietnamese man in Hanoi has been condemned to death for killing two young girls and raping a woman, with his parents serving suspended sentences for failing to report his crimes.
Dao Van Hung, a 32-year-old resident of Phu Xuyen District, Hanoi, was tried for murdering Thu T., 10, and Thi T., 9, who were his next-door neighbors, and sexually assaulting Nguyen T., 27, a local woman, according to the indictment by the Hanoi People’s Court on February 7.
The first crime came to light only after he was arrested for the second.
According to investigation results, Hung graduated from a major university in Hanoi, had employment for a certain time in the city before living with his mentally deranged elder brother in a house next to his parents’ on the outskirts of the capital.
On an evening of May 2016, he killed the two girls and buried their bodies in his back garden.
Hung said that he murdered them in order to find out why no local women had ever been interested in him.
His parents were all aware of his wrongdoing, for at the time they were crying over the children’s bodies lying on his bed, reproaching him for causing them to suffer, according to the crime record.
He begged his parents to shroud the killing in secrecy, over which they agreed.
In the other case, on the afternoon of November 19, 2016, Hung carried two bags containing three knives and ten pointed iron bars to a rice paddy of his village, and waited to rape any passing woman.
Ten minutes later, he blocked Nguyen T.’s way, and then dragged her to a nearby ditch for forced sex.
Seeing the victim’s family coming to her rescue, Hung threateningly brandished a knife and ran back to his house, on whose top he stood holding more knives and some of the metal bars until the end of the same day, when he was captured by police.
Hung admitted his child murder under police questioning, but was denying all the crime and rejecting multiple questions about the killing in court, while his parents declared their son was the culprit.
He also refused to apologize to the two girls’ families, saying that he was not involved whatsoever in the kids’ death.
Standing trial with Hung were his parents, who were convicted of harboring and failure to denounce him to police.
The parents admitted their guilt and asked to be granted a suspended sentence, with the court ruling that the father would receive 15 months’ probation and the mother 12 moths’ probation.
The father said that his two sons suffer from mental illness, for he was exposed to Agent Orange when he was a soldier during wartime.
Rail link planned between HCM City and Cambodia's casino kingdom
Transport officials from Vietnam and Cambodia have agreed to push forward with a plan to build a railway between Ho Chi Minh City and Bavet, home to a special economic zone and a casino kingdom.
The plan was revealed this week at a meeting between Cambodian Transport Minister Sun Chanthol and Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Nhat, the Khmer Times said on February 8.
Sun said the two governments are currently working on a feasibility study and looking for private investment. The Bavet-Ho Chi Minh City line will be around 250km long, shorter than a previously planned line from Binh Phuoc Province that was scrapped due to high costs.
The new link will be part of a region-wide railway to connect Singapore to China’s Yunnan Province via Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, Sun said, as cited in the report.
Bavet is the largest city in Svay Rieng Province and one of Cambodia’s special economic zones. It is home to textile and bicycle factories, but its core business is casinos that are often frequented by Vietnamese gamblers who are not allowed to place their bets at home.
Cambodia and Vietnam are also planning an expressway linking Phnom Penh with Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's commercial hub.
Calm seas let people return to Lý Sơn
After rough seas halted all sea travel for more than a week, thousands of people are now flocking to buy tickets to return to Quảng Ngãi Province’s Lý Sơn Island District for Tết. 
Vessels connecting the island and Sa Kỳ Port started running again on Wednesday. More than 1,200 travelled to the island on six vessels on the same day.
Nguyễn Hồng Khanh, said he had bought a ticket to return to the island for the Tết holidays, but was stranded in Quảng Ngãi City because of the bad weather.
Lê Tấn Hải, director of Sa Kỳ Port Management Board, said the port had worked with the provincial Maritime Administration to dispatch an additional 11 vessels to serve travelling demands.
Nguyễn Tấn Lự, captain of Chín Nghĩa 02 Vessel said his firm would help ensure that no one was left behind due to lack of vessels.
Nhâm Xuân Sỹ, director of the provincial centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting, said another cold spell bringing rough seas was expected to hit the province on Sunday.
Various activities bring better Tet to the needy
Various activities have been held in many localities to help the needy enjoy a warm traditional Lunar New Year (Tet), the most important festival in a year of Vietnamese people.
In the southern province of Dong Nai, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour and Mobifone company on February 8 presented 1,200 train tickets to poor workers in Dong Nai, Binh Duong and Long An to return to their homelands in the northern and central regions for the holiday.
The programme was first launched in 2016. So far, 4,400 travel tickets have been delivered to the needy.
The same day, in the Mekong Delta province of Vinh Long, the Vietnam Red Cross Society’s representative office in the southern region and the provincial Red Cross Society granted gifts worth 500,000 VND each to 100 local poor households and victims of Agent Orange/dioxin.
According to President of the provincial Red Cross Society Le Dong Nhac, the organisation has mobilised 32,500 gifts for those in need.
Meanwhile, the northern province of Phu Tho’s Labour Federation has implemented a number of activities to support labourers, including offering gifts to poor workers, assisting poor households in building houses. So far, trade unions in the locality have given nearly 2,000 Tet gifts to poor workers.
At the same time, Le Minh Hung, Vice President of the Labour Federation of the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang said that the federation has worked with some agencies to give nearly 1,200 travel tickets worth over 600 million VND to workers in the locality, while presenting nearly 14,000 poor labourers with nearly 5.4 billion VND in cash, along with Tet gifts worth over 2.5 billion VND to 12,000 needy people.
The federation plans to hold a Tet celebration for workers in industrial parks as well as call on enterprises to present 5,000 gifts and at least 500 travel tickets to poor workers, he said. It will also give financial assistance to 21 households to build new houses, added Hung.
Former chief judge Pham Hung of Supreme People’s Court passes away
Pham Hung, former Chief Judge of the Supreme People’s Court and a National Assembly deputy for many terms, passed away on February 4 at the age of 91.
Hung was born in 1927 in Cuong Chinh commune, Tien Lu district of the northern province of Hung Yen. He joined the revolution in August 1945 and became a member of the Communist Party of Vietnam in May 1946.
He served as a member of the Party Central Committee in the fifth, sixth and seventh tenures, and Chief Judge of the Supreme People’s Court from July 1981 to June 1998. He was a National Assembly deputy of the seventh, eighth and ninth tenures.
In recognition of Pham Hung's contributions to the nation and the revolutionary cause, a State-level funeral will be held for Hung on February 10. After cremation, he will be buried at the cemetery in his home village.
VNN

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