Deputy minister of Industry and Trade (MoIT) Tran Tuan Anh tells how petrol prices and supply sources rising tension in the world could impact on local firms’ performances.

The total trade gap in the first two months of the year reached 628 million dollars, or 4.1 percent of the export turnover.

VietNamNet Bridge – The Institute of Geophysics has forecast that this year Vietnam will be impacted by around 45 geomagnetic storms, with the intensity up to the highest level (G5).

Experts have said Viet Nam should enhance revenues from additional sources as revenue from oil, a significant contributor to the State budget, is expected to decline over the next several years.

Viet Nam Football Federation (VFF) has refused to employ international referees for the V-League 2012 after a series of mistakes local referees made in the beginning of this season.

Vietnam’s online training market will develop strongly in the next one or two years due to an increasing number of Internet users and the uptrend in attending online courses, experts in the education sector forecast.

Though having spent big sums of money of the state budget, relevant agencies have not done much to ease the water pollution and reduce the water loss level.

The Ministry of Construction is considering the establishment of a housing development fund to help low-income earners become home owners.

President of the Republic of Chile Sebastian Pinera Echenique will pay an official visit to Viet Nam from March 21-25.

The Ministry of Health and HCM City officials will work together to send medical staff and equipment to areas in the south to fight an outbreak of hand-foot-mouth disease.

Truyen Kieu (The Tale of Kieu), the national epic poem written by Nguyen Du in the 18th century, has been staged by the Youth Theatre's experimental theatre group as a theatre piece using a combination of contemporary and traditional forms.

When night falls, the ancient town of Hoi An, a World Cultural Heritage Site, becomes sparkling and fanciful in the light of thousands of lanterns. From somewhere, the chants of the Quang area sung by young women resound, fascinating visitors.

A lot of commercial banks are providing gold keeping service, but they do not collect fees, while they even pay dividends to the clients. Experts believe that this is a disguised type of attracting gold deposits.

VietNamNet Bridge – In the last three years, many bears were trained at a bear rescue station to resume their natural instinct, but they have not been released back to the forest yet--why?

Credit loans provided for electricity projects; Fuel price rises hit coal electricity producers; Fitch lowers HAGL’s outlook to ‘negative’; Travel firms with collateral allowed to negotiate rates; Mekong Delta fails to lure FDI  

Foreign investors have great hunger for Vietnam’s lucrative food industry.

VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Construction is inspecting the sale of state-owned houses in Hanoi, particularly the use of earnings from these houses.

The financial market has been seething in recent days with information about the merger and acquisition deals of banks. Who are the biggest beneficiaries from the rumors?

Viet Nam and Thailand will foster co-operation in the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) industry under an agreement inked yesterday in Ha Noi.

VietNamNet Bridge – To date, no agency or institution has claimed the responsibility for building nursery schools for IZ workers’ children. That explains why the school development plan still remains on paper over the last 20 years.

VietNamNet Bridge – If the sea level rises by one meter, nearly 40 percent of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta will be flooded, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s (MoNRE) latest scenario of climate change in Vietnam.

2011 was considered an eventful year for the pay-TV market with the presence of AVG. Viettel, a telco, is going to jump into the business field. Experts believe that high definition (HD) TV would be the advantage of pay-TV service providers.

Hanoi has an old quarter of 36 streets, each being closely attached to a traditional trade that is clearly shown by its name, such as Hang Muoi (salt) Street selling salt, Hang Manh (curtain) Street selling bamboo curtains, etc.

VietNamNet Bridge – Everyday at 2am, Nguyen Van Thuan, a local government official for Pho Cuong Commune in Duc Pho District, Quang Ngai Province, has to get out of bed and go down to a nearby pond to fish.

Travel agents in Vietnam are making a concerted effort to market domestic tourism, offering huge discounts and promotional programmes since the beginning of the year.