VIETNAM NEWS HEADLINES MARCH 9
10:23
Two military officials
detained for involvement in Viet A case
Investigators
under the Ministry of National Defense have filed charges against two
officials of the Hanoi-based Military Medical Academy for their alleged
involvement in Viet A Technology Corporation’s price gouging of Covid-19 test
kits. Colonel Ho Anh Son, deputy director of
the academy’s Institute of Biomedicine and Pharmacy, was prosecuted and
arrested for alleged embezzlement and abuse of power while on duty.
Meanwhile, Senior Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Hieu, head of the academy’s
Materials and Equipment Supplies Department, faced the same charges for
allegedly violating bidding regulations and causing serious consequences. Son was head of a project to research
and produce Covid test kits in collaboration with medical tech firm Viet A
Company. Last week, the Central Inspection
Committee said in a statement that the academy’s Standing Party Committee had
violated the principle of democratic centralism and working regulations; had
been irresponsible and shown laxity in leadership and supervision to allow
officials at the academy to violate regulations when proposing and
implementing national-level scientific and technological tasks, including the
research and production of Covid test kits and purchase of test kits from
Viet A. In late December last year, a few days
after Phan Quoc Viet, chairman and general director of Viet A, was arrested,
Colonel Son told news site VnExpress that Viet A had participated in the
Covid test kit research team since the early days given the urgent demand for
serving the country’s Covid fight. As for the Viet A case, investigators
have pressed charges against 21 people and seized assets worth VND1.6
trillion in total.  9th Da Lat Flower Festival to be held by year-end The 9th Da Lat Flower
Festival is scheduled for the end of this year under a proposal of Lam
Dong province’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The biennial national and
international cultural-tourism event, organised by the provincial People's
Committee of Lam Dong, aims to honour the flower industry in Da Lat, promote
tourism and trade, and call for domestic and international cooperation
and investment in the province. Last year, the locality decided to
skip it due to the complicated development of the COVID-19 pandemic. All
funding for the event was used to provide computers and telecommunication
services for students with difficult circumstances in the locality. Another flight now on way to
repatriate Vietnamese in Ukraine A Bamboo Airways flight is en route
from Hanoi to Warsaw to bring home nearly 300 Vietnamese people fleeing
war-ravaged Ukraine. The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner departed
from Noi Bai International Airport at 1:55am on March 9 and is scheduled to
land at Warsaw Chopin Airport at 9:00am (local time), or 15:00pm (Hanoi
time), the same day. It will stay there for about 3 hours
for passengers for boarding, technical inspection and refuelling. The flight is expected to arrive back
in Hanoi at around 5:15am the next day, three hours later than the initial
schedule. First Vietnamese-Czech
honoured for service to Czech Republic Trinh Tan, a Vietnamese-Czech
engineer, was among 38 citizens honoured in 2020 for his contributions to the
Czech Republic's national service. A ceremony to present the award to
those who made important contributions to the European country in the past
two years as announced by President Milos Zeman was held in Prague on March 7
(local time). Tan, born in northern Thai Binh
province of Vietnam, graduated from the University of Mining in Ostrava. He
is currently president of the Vietnamese association in the Moravian-Silesian
Region and member of the region’s Ethnic Minority Council. The engineer was honoured for his
contributions to strengthening the Czech Republic-Vietnam relations. When
COVID-19 broke out, he launched a campaign calling on the Vietnamese
community to make and present tens of thousands of masks, protective gloves
and financial assistance to hospitals, nursing homes and social welfare
institutions in the European nation. The Vietnamese community of more than
7,000 is the third largest group in Moravia. Its members actively engage in
annual cultural activities of the locality and support nursing homes, orphans
and people with disabilities. Vietnamese delegation attends
gender equality-relating meetings The Vietnamese mission to the United
Nations (UN), World Trade Organisation, and other international organisations
in Geneva attended gender equality-related meetings held on March 8 to mark
the International Women’s Day. Held under this year's theme of
“Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”, the event aims to
recognise the contributions by women and girls who are leading the way in
climate change adaptation and response and building a sustainable future for
all as advancing gender equality and tackling climate change are the greatest
challenges to humanity in the 21st century. The mission took part in webinars
entitled “Empowering women in green trade" and “Sharing experiences
relating to gender mainstreaming in national policy”, and attended an
exhibition on the contributions of female leaders to multilateralism and
progress in the areas of peace and security, human rights and development. Hanoi aims to attract more
tourists to cultural relic sites Hanoi authorities are working to
attract more tourists to the capital city's cultural relic sites, especially
when the country completely reopens the tourism sector from March 15. Due to impacts of COVID-19, the number
of tourists to popular destinations in the city has remained modest although
municipal authorities allowed the opening of the sites in February, . Huong Pagoda, which used to receive
about 5,000 visitors each day, is seeing only about 1,000 tourists on a daily
basis. So far, the popular spiritual tourist destination has welcomed 60,000
visitors, equivalent to that in only one day in peak season in previous
years. Similar situation has been seen in
many other relic sites such as Van Mieu-Quoc Tu Giam, Thang Long Imperial
Citadel, and Hoa Lo prision. To adapt to the new situation and draw
more visitors, cultural relic sites in the city have flexibly applied
measures to improve their image and provide more attractive products for
visitors, including a gift presenting programme in Thang Long Imperial
Citadel and special night tours of Hoa Lo prision. Hanoi aims to welcome 9-10 million
visitors, including 1.2-2 million foreigners, this year and 12-14 million
tourists, including 2.5-3.5 million foreigners, next year. Vietnamese from Ukraine
receive continuous support in Czech Republic, Slovakia A committee has been established by
the Embassy of Vietnam and the association of the Vietnamese people in the
Czech Republic to help evacuate Vietnamese fleeing war zones in Ukraine. It has raised nearly 600,000 CZK
(25,700 USD) in cash for the evacuees and received 20,000 EUR (21,830 USD)
from the association of the Vietnamese people in Czech which will be spent on
food, medicine and other necessities for those fleeing to Poland and Romania. Additionally, it has collected
donations of food, drinking water, blanket, clothes and medicine from local
people for the needy from Ukraine. Many expats have voluntarily driven the
Vietnamese from the border with Ukraine to temporary shelters in Czech while
others have given accommodation and food for them. As of March 8 morning, close to 200
Vietnamese people had been evacuated from Ukraine to Czech. In Slovakia, the Vietnamese Embassy
estimated to have evacuated over 100 Vietnamese nationals from Ukraine to the
country, most of whom chose to go to other European countries. Vietnamese expats in Slovakia have
been busy arranging accommodations and travel from border for their fellows
from Ukraine and providing them with food and other necessities. Vietnamese
associations in Kosice near the border with Ukraine have sent rescue teams to
the border gates day and night to offer help to them. Over 10,000 EUR in cash and a large
volume of food and necessities have been raised for those in need. New law promotes awareness of
environmental protection The 2020 Law on Environmental
Protection, which took effect at the beginning of 2022, has timely
institutionalized many new policies of the Party and State related to
environmental protection. The law is also gradually harmonised
with international laws with amendments related to environmental quality
management towards protecting people's health. For the first time, the law defines a
residential community as a subject of environmental protection, which
promotes the role of residential communities in environmental protection
activities. It also comprises new regulations on
strict control for projects with high risk of adverse environmental impacts;
post-inspection for projects using advanced and environmentally friendly
technologies; and cuts many administrative procedures. In particular, the new law also adds
solutions to protect environmental components, promote waste separation at
source, and manage and deal with waste. About 270 Vietnamese
nationals to be repatriated from Poland on March 10 Around 270 Vietnamese nationals
fleeing the conflict in Ukraine are expected to return to Vietnam on March 10
on a flight conducted by Bamboo Airlines from Warsaw, Poland. The flight is scheduled to depart from
Warsaw, Poland on March 9 and arrive at Noi Bai airport in Hanoi on March 10
morning. Over the past few days, the Party and
State have directed ministries and agencies to urgently carry out citizen
protection work for Vietnamese people living in war-ravaged areas in Ukraine. On March 8, a Vietnam Airlines flight
carrying 287 Vietnamese people leaving Ukraine arrived at Noi Bai. The
passengers included 71 children aged under 12. Nearly 55,000 people in HCM
City find jobs in two months Nearly 55,000 people in Ho Chi Minh
City have found jobs in the first two months this year, including 28,000 in
February, according to the municipal Department of Labour, Invalids and
Social Affairs. The department also plans to provide
vocational training for 371,000 labourers in 2022. Safe reopening creates
opportunities for Vietnam's tourism recovery The Government has agreed with a
proposal of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and other public
agencies on safely reopening tourism activities by air, road and sea in a new
normal condition starting March 15. The ministry is now completing its
related plan for submission to the Government and the Prime Minister as soon
as possible, creating favourable conditions for both tourists and local
services providers. Regarding "vaccine
passport", not many countries have so far recognised Vietnam’s
vaccination certificate, making it difficult to bring Vietnamese tourists
abroad and causing imbalance in international air transport. Therefore, more
negotiations are needed for the industry to access more abundant and better
sources of tourists. To ensure the recovery of Vietnam's
tourism, it is necessary to improve the quality of products, facilities, and
human resources. The VNAT will propose training and re-training programmes
for tourism workers as well as the extension of support policies,
particularly in terms of finance and credit, for businesses and employees in
the industry. The VNAT unveiled that it will
continue to vigorously implement the "Live fully in Vietnam"
communication campaign, especially on digital platforms; participate in major
international tourism fairs in key markets; and work with Vietnamese
representative agencies abroad to spread information on Vietnam's tourism. Text message campaign raises
fund for women in border areas A text-to-donate campaign to support
women in border areas has been jointly launched by the Vietnam Red Cross
Society Central Committee, the Vietnam Women’s Union, and the National
Humanitarian Portal 1400. Mobile service subscribers can join the
programme by texting ‘BC’ to 1406. Each text message will contribute 20,000
VND (0.88 USD) to the fund. The two-month campaign, running until
April 28, aims to ease difficulties and improve livelihood of poor women in
those areas. After the first two days, it received
more than 5,400 text messages. Vietnam Airlines ready to
conduct other repatriation flight Vietnam Airlines will conduct its
second flight to Romania to repatriate Vietnamese people moving out of war
zones in Ukraine which is set to arrive in Hanoi at March 11 noon. The first flight from Bucharest
arrived at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi at 11:30am on March 8. A representative of the national flag
carrier told the Vietnam News Agency that it has been ready to operate the
second flight, noting that it is the airline’s honour to join the
Government’s efforts to bring Vietnamese citizens from Ukraine home in a timely
and safe manner. With experience from the first flight,
the prepared flight plan and the personnel currently present in Romania,
Vietnam Airlines is ready to operate its second one at the request of the
Government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it added. This will also be the third
repatriation flight of the country. Project looks to support
2,600 persons with heavy disabilities The ‘Hold My Hands II’ project to
improve the quality of those with heavy disabilities has been launched at the
budget of 2 million USD sponsored by the US Agency for International
Development (USAID). It will be carried out in the three
provinces of Binh Dinh, Quang Nam and Kon Tum in Vietnam’s central region in
the 2022-24 period, aiming to develop a network of caregivers and volunteers
providing home care for about 2,600 people with disabilities in the
localities, including 2,330 in Binh Dinh and 150 in Quang Nam. In addition, about 200 persons with
disabilities will receive assistive tools and home repairs to improve the quality
of the care and promote independent living. To develop a sustainable system
offering care for those persons, the project will collaborate with the
Vietnam Nurses Association to standardise the training programme for
caregivers, and with public and private care centres on a pilot model on
providing the services. Exhibition introduces
traditional musical instruments of Vietnam's ethnic groups An exhibition displaying traditional
musical instruments of Vietnam's ethnic groups is scheduled to take place at
the museum of Can Tho city in the Mekong Delta from April 7 to 11. According to the Ministry of Culture,
Sport and Tourism, visitors can also attend the event virtually on the
websites of the Vietnam Exhibition Centre for Culture and Arts and the Can Tho
Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The exhibition will showcase
traditional musical instruments of ethnic groups across the nation from North
to South as well as the images of artisans performing them. It will also
feature real performances of these instruments. Most of Vietnamese in Ukraine
safely evacuated: official The majority of the Vietnamese people
in Ukraine have been safely evacuated from war zones, and authorities will
continue working to have appropriate plans, according to Deputy Minister of
Foreign Affairs Pham Quang Hieu. Hieu, who is also Chairman of the
State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs, was among the officials
present at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on March 8 noon to welcome
287 Vietnamese people who were evacuated from Ukraine and on board the first
repatriation flight in Romania. Talking to the press at Noi Bai
airport, he said since the fighting broke out, one of the top priorities of
the Party, State, Government, and Vietnam Fatherland Front is to guarantee
the safety of overseas Vietnamese citizens and businesses. The Government demanded a special
working group be set up to move the citizens out of war zones and assist
those who wish to return to the homeland. As the coordinating body, the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been working closely with relevant ministries
and sectors to order Vietnam’s representative agencies in Ukraine and
neighbouring countries like Poland, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia, in
cooperation with Vietnamese associations, to immediately evacuate those in
the worst war zones, the official noted. National Tourism Year 2022
logo released The Quang Nam provincial People’s
Committee debuted a logo for the National Tourism Year 2022 ahead of its
opening ceremony on March 25. Images of Chua Cau, also known as
Bridge Pagoda, and the My Son relic site are featured, with the aim of
introducing local cultural heritage sites to international tourists. The logo also consists of four
foremost tones, including green representing green tourism, blue for the
ocean, orange yellow for cultural heritage, and red for Vietnamese culinary. The opening ceremony of the national
tourism programme is scheduled to take place at Ky Uc island in Hoi An
Ancient Town of Quang Nam province on March 25. The closing ceremony is slated for
late December at the VinWonders Nam Hoi An amusement park in Thanh Binh
district. Approximately 200 cultural and tourism
events of national and international levels will be held throughout the
tourism year. One-man opera to regale HCM
City in non-classical settings A one-man-opera, “The Recital: Thế
Huy, tenor,” will kickstart a classical music performance this Friday. Held at the Toong Cộng Hoà co-working
space, the event holds the promise of opening up new possibilities for
classical music to be enjoyed in non-classical contexts, and by larger groups
of mass audiences, organisers said. As the first public solo performances
of classical singer Thế Huy and professor - researcher Trần Như Vĩnh Lạc,
‘The Recital’ draws its main materials from famous love stories familiar to
Vietnamese people including the unsent love letters of Beethoven. The performances are part of
‘Blossom’, a cultural initiative by GocCreation that seeks to “foster
meaningful cultural experiences in the wake of a devastating global
pandemic.” “The Recital” comprises two
performances: "Roméo et Juliette" which was done last week; and
"Absent heart, present love - Beethoven and the love letters that
remain” which will take place this Friday. Singer Thế Huy (lirico tenor) will
sing in the original French and German texts, with piano accompaniment by
professor Trần Như Vĩnh Lạc. Fire-prevention set for Hội
An’s old houses A fire-prevention and warning system
project has been reviewed for ancient houses in the ancient town of Hội An
after a two-storey brick and timber house in the Old Quarter was damaged by
fire on Monday. In just two hours, a 100-year-old
house on Nguyễn Thái Học street, used as a coffee shop, was completely
damaged in the blaze. Local police said a short circuit caused the night-time
fire. Director of Hội An City's Centre for
Cultural heritage management and preservation, Phạm Phú Ngọc, said the VNĐ200
billion (US$8.7 million) fire-prevention project was in the final stage for
approval by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sports. Ngọc said the project would include a
series of early-warning sensors and firefighters at old houses in the town
later this year, but awareness of fire risks needed to be raised among owners
of old homes. He said the Old Quarter, covering
300,000 sq.m, preserved 1,200 relic sites and around 1,000 old houses, but 60
per cent of old houses were rented out, often for tourism services. Business
people at the rental houses often shut down shops, and nobody stayed at
night. If a fire occurs inside the houses at
night, firefighters are not alerted quickly because of a lack of fire alarms. Perfect event for literary
lovers nationwide Activities within the framework of
Việt Nam Book and Reading Culture Day 2022 will take place from March 15 to
April 30, and is expected to attract thousands of literary lovers from across
the country. Highlights include the launch ceremony
for 2022 Reading Culture Ambassador Contest and a virtual book introduction
competition as well as many seminars on books and reading culture. Many new titles will be introduced and
readers will have the chance to exchange and talk with best-selling authors. The building of databases, sharing
electronic documents and establishing book and reading clubs will also be on
the agenda. Việt Nam Book and Reading Culture Day
2022 (April 21) is an annual festival that always been well received by the
community. This year’s theme is "Chấn hưng văn hóa và phát triển văn hóa
đọc" (Cultural revival and development of reading culture). Quang Binh Discovery Marathon
to kick-start tourism season Quang Binh Discovery Marathon-2022
will take place on March 12 and 13, kicking off the central province’s
tourism season this year. According to the Ministry of Culture,
Sports, and Tourism, the race will be organised at 900 sq.km Phong Nha – Ke
Bang National Park, which UNESCO labeled as a global heritage site in 2003.
The park is home to over 300 caves and grottoes that date back 400 million
years. Racers are expected to compete in the
distances of 42.19km; 21.09km; 10km; and 6km. Can Tho to host National ‘Don
Ca Tai Tu’ Festival in April The Mekong Delta city of Can Tho will
host the third National ‘Don Ca Tai Tu’ (traditional musical art form of the
south) Festival in April, according to a plan announced by the Ministry of
Culture, Sports and Tourism. Themed ‘Southern ‘Don Ca Tai Tu’ -
Preservation and Development’, the festival will take place from April 5 to
10 at Binh Thuy district’s square, Can Tho city. The event will feature an opening
ceremony entitled ‘Essence of Vietnamese folklore arts’, performances of ‘Don
Ca Tai Tu’ by art troupes from 21 cities and provinces of the southern
region, and an exhibition of traditional musical instruments from Vietnamese
ethnic groups. Cao Bang breaks up two Covid
test kit trafficking rings The law enforcement of the northern
province of Cao Bang has busted two major Covid-19 test kit trafficking
rings, seizing over 15,000 test kits. At 12.00 p.m. on March 7, the police
stopped a vehicle with plate number 11C-05616 running on National Highway 3
in Hung Dao Commune in Cao Bang City for a check after noting suspicious
signs. After examining the vehicle, the
police discovered it was transporting 10,800 Covid test kits without clear
origin. The driver of the vehicle was
identified as Le Van Quan, aged 19, who lives in Trung Khanh District in Cao
Bang Province, admitting that a Chinese man hired him to transport nine bags
from Tra Linh Town to Hanoi City, for VND2 million. On February 28, the provincial traffic
police stopped a vehicle traveling on National Highway 3 in Hoa An District
for a check at 5.00 a.m., after discovering several suspicious bags of
pineapples. Some 5,000 Covid test kits were contained inside the bags. The
police are expanding an investigation into the rings, the local media
reported. HCMC pilots health checkups,
treatment with chip-based ID cards Director of the Ho Chi Minh City's
Social Security Agency Phan Van Men informed that the hospitals in Ho Chi
Minh City had piloted the chip-based ID card usage in replace of health
insurance cards. Accordingly, residents can use
chip-based ID cards synchronized information with health insurance cards to
replace health insurance cards. If the chip-based ID cards show
information related to social insurance and health insurance participation,
patients will be received health checkups and treatment as per current
regulations. If the people’s information is not
appropriate, patients will have to use health insurance cards along with
identification cards. Source: VNA/SGT/VNS/VOV/VGP/SGGP |
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