Japanese investors have shifted their focus from manufacturing industry to service as the growing domestic market in Vietnam offers a very promising prospect for the sector.

Vietnam is willing to host foreign film productions after the fresh success of “Kong: Skull Island” shot in northern Ninh Binh, Quang Ninh and central Quang Binh provinces.

The People’s Court of northern mountainous Hoa Binh province has sentenced nine out of 23 drug smugglers to death on charges of “illegally trafficking drugs, illegally possessing military weapons and not denouncing crimes”.

 HCM City’s police have busted a weapon trading ring in the city.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training of Cambodia signed a memorandum of understanding on labour cooperation in Hanoi on March 22.

Dien Bien has arrested 56 suspects since early March and commenced criminal proceedings against 15 cases of destroying 18.6 hectares of forest in Muong Nhe district, a hotspot of illegal deforestation and migration.

The Department of Animal Health under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development reported on March 22 that a new outbreak of A/H5N1 virus has been discovered in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho.

 Five people were killed and about 40 injured in London on Wednesday after a car plowed into pedestrians and a suspected Islamist-inspired attacker stabbed a policeman close to Britain's parliament.

  The Philippines plans to make a strong protest against China’s preparatory work for an environment monitoring station on the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the East Sea, Justice Minister Vitaliano Aguirre said on March 21.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Laos Nguyen Ba Hung on March 22 sent greeting flowers from Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and the Vietnamese Embassy to the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party.

 Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army Pham Ngoc Minh received Nuchit Sribunsong, head of the Office of Policy and Plans under the Royal Thai Army’s Directorate of Joint Operations, in Hanoi on March 22.

 Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Francis Gurry vowed to keep assisting Vietnam in intellectual property field at a meeting with Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Ngoc Thien in Hanoi on March 22. 

 President of the Council of States of Switzerland Ivo Bischofberger will make an official visit to Vietnam between March 28 and 31.

Malaysian Deputy Defence Minister Mohd Johari bin Baharom told his Vietnamese counterpart Phan Van Giang at a meeting on March 22 that the two countries have great potential to cooperate in the defence industry.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong held a working session with visiting Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Netherlands Marjolijn Sonnema on March 22.

 National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan on March 22 received Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Vietnam Vitezslav Grepl, who considered parliamentary ties critical to the two countries’ friendship and cooperation.

 Vietnam highly values and welcomes the outcomes of the strategic partnership between ASEAN and New Zealand, Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung said at the 24th ASEAN-New Zealand Dialogue held in Christchurch, New Zealand on March 21-22.  

 National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and Norwegian Ambassador to Vietnam Siren Gjerme Eriksen lauded the growing ties between the two countries during a meeting in Hanoi on March 22. 

VietNamNet Bridge - MOIT is consulting with Long An and HCMC local authorities about the location for the Long An Power Center, which HCM City opposes. 

Losses recorded by Tiki, one of Vietnam’s most popular e-commerce providers, raises questions about the state of the industry.

The scientists from the HCM Biotechnology Center have succeeded in using Agrobacterium rhizogenes bacteria to create hairy roots of Ngoc Linh ginseng (Panax vietnamensis Ha et Grushv) which contains active saponin.

VietNamNet Bridge - Low profit margins and high operating costs are daunting problems for investors in the e-commerce sector.  

According to the 2016 Wealth Report, Vietnam had 168 super-rich people in 2015 and the number is going to increase to 403 by 2025. Seven out of the ten richest people on the Vietnamese stock market trade in real estates.

The time when students had to search for information about schools and study opportunities is over. It is schools that now have to try every possible way to attract students.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Louis Armstrong once said “if you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.” Luckily for Hanoians, they now have a chance to find out, without causing too much offence to Satchmo.