Phung Xuan Nha, Minister of Education and Training, speaks to Vietnam News Agency on his ministry’s resolve to maintain the principles of fairness, objectivity and transparency for future high school graduation exams.

 Some 94,500 enterprises have been newly established or have resumed operations so far this year, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

 VietNamNet Bridge – Customs officials in HCM City discovered 40 shipments of various drugs in the first six months of 2018 and seized 54.5kg.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Experts have urged authorities in the Mekong Delta region to use cutting-edge technologies to restructure the agricultural sector in the face of climate change.

 Vo Minh Quang, a 12-year-old student from Giang Vo Secondary School in Hanoi, won first prize at the eight Mozart International Piano Competition, which took place in Bangkok, Thailand, from July 22 to 24.

Well-known artist Tri Nguyen shared how he developed such a deep attachment with the Vietnamese ‘dan tranh’ and his upcoming musical projects in the near future.

 Natural disasters have caused total losses of some VND2.5 trillion (US$107.8 million) so far this year, heard attendees at a conference on natural disaster prevention and control in southern Vietnam.

 The number of tourists coming to Vietnam by sea in July has declined by an estimated 74.6% as Tropical Storm Son Tinh struck coastal provinces from Thai Binh to Ha Tinh some 10 days ago.

 HCMC authorities have sought to find farms which could be turned into tourist sites, in a bid to increase the incomes of farmers. However, many farmers have said they would find it difficult to offer tourism services.

 Vietnam and the United States are discussing a plan to launch direct air links between the two countries. Los Angeles is being considered the first destination for air services, according to the Ministry of Transport.

 Authorities of the central city of Danang plan to build a system of drains for coastal wastewater in Ngu Hanh Son District.

Singaporean businessman Neo Gim Siong Bennett will take over as general director of Sabeco from August 1, 2018, marking the control of ThaiBev over Vietnam’s largest brewer.

 The Department of Transport in HCM City has issued new draft regulations on the using of pavements which states that pavements less than 1.5 metre-wide and narrower will be reserved for pedestrians.

 Five excellent short film projects will receive funding of VND200m (USD8,000) each from the CJ Cultural Foundation Korea and CJ CGV Vietnam during the first CJ Short Film Project which is being held from June 15 to November 16 in Vietnam.

 The My Parking app, which collects automobile parking fees via drivers’ smart devices, will be used on 23 streets in HCM City beginning on August 1, according to the HCM City Department of Transport.

  Vietnamese shares are expected to go up in August as investors look forward to listed companies’ earnings prospects in the remaining five months of the year, especially banks and financial firms.

 Foreign investors may soon be able to buy shares at companies providing paid radio and television services.

 Viet Nam is among the top three investment destinations in Southeast Asia for Singapore-based companies in the next two years, according to an HSBC study released on July 26.

 VietNamNet Bridge – At the close on July 20 the share price of Tay Ninh Cable Car Tour Joint Stock Company (TCT) stood at VND67,000, slightly up for the year but with a gain of 40 per cent from a year ago.

 Viet Nam has for the first time ever become China’s biggest trade partner in the ASEAN bloc, with two-way trade hitting over US$10 billion for every month of 2018.

 Vietnamese enterprises need to improve their capacity to produce raw materials, components and machines of high quality to meet requirements of Japanese manufacturers in the country, experts said at a meeting held in HCM City last week.

 The US has maintained its leading position as Vietnam’s largest export market having spent US$21.6 billion on Vietnamese products in the first half of the year, accounting for 19 per cent of the country’s total export value as of July 15.

 Shortage of capital is hampering the operation of many small cashew factories in Viet Nam.

 The profitability of Vietnamese banks is strengthening as robust economic growth fuels credit demand and supports an improvement in asset quality, but challenges are also apparent, Moody’s Investors Service says in a recent report.

 The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) plans to publish a list of e-commerce websites and mobile applications that violate laws and regulations on online trading.