During a conference co-hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the People’s Committee of the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on September 22, Nam said Vietnam earned nearly 2.4 billion USD from exporting 4.97 million tonnes of rice in the first eight months of this year, up 20.7% in volume and nearly 9.9% in value from the same period last year. 

-A Vietnam-India business matching event was held in Hanoi on September 22, on the occasion of the Vietnam visit by 42 enterprises of the India-Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IVCCI).

- Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has assigned urgent tasks to particular ministries and agencies to deal with current economic difficulties in the new situation during a Government law-building session on September 22.

The PM noted that the world economy is facing numerous difficulties due to a growth slowdown and soaring inflation. The central banks of the US, the EU, the UK, and Japan have also moved to hike interest rates and appreciate their currencies, which has substantially affected other countries, including Vietnam. 

- President Nguyen Xuan Phuc, on behalf of Party and State leaders of Vietnam, will attend the state funeral of late Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo in Tokyo, Japan, from September 25 - 28, the Foreign Ministry announced on September 22.

- President Nguyen Xuan Phuc on September 22 met with 263 children representing all 54 ethnic groups across the country who are in Hanoi for the fourth Ethnic Children’s Festival.

- Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired the Government’s monthly meeting on law-building in Hanoi on September 22.

At the meeting, the Government members listened to the draft National Master Plan for the 2021-2030 period, suggested building the Notary Law, the amended Law on Mineral Resources and the Law on amendments and supplements to several articles of the Pharmacy Law, and extending the implementation of the National Assembly’s Resolution No.30/2021/QH15 on COVID-19 prevention and control.

- Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh called for a global approach, and international solidarity in response to climate change in his message to the informal Leaders' Roundtable on Climate Change in New York, co-chaired by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Egyptian President on September 22.

The event was initiated by Guterres to unify awareness and promote strong political commitment to climate finance, greenhouse gas emission reduction and energy transition, in the lead up to the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) to be held in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt in November.

- Director of the Ministry of Information and Communications’ International Cooperation Department, Trieu Minh Long attended a Symposium on “ASEAN Identity and Strengthening ASEAN-RoK Cooperation: Now and Beyond” on September 22. The event was held by the ASEAN Secretariat in-person in Indonesia and connected via teleconference with representatives in 10 ASEAN member states and the Republic of Korea (RoK).

- Vietnam’s consistent policy is to protect and promote the basic rights of people, Spokeswoman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Le Thi Thu Hang said during the ministry’s regular press conference on September 22.

Hang made the statement in reply to reporters’ queries on Vietnam's reaction to some international human rights organisations’ controversial opinions about Vietnam's candidacy for the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) as they believe that the country's achievements in this field are poor and lack cooperation with the UNHRC.

-Vietnam and Cambodia have saved over 1,000 Vietnamese citizens who have been tricked to work illegally in Cambodia, said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang during a regular press conference in Hanoi on September 22.

Hang said the ministry and Vietnamese representative agencies are paying close attention to protecting citizens as a great number of Vietnamese nationals have been scammed into illegal labour in Cambodia by brokers.

-Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Nguyen Thi Hong has issued decisions on revising up several interest rates by 1%, starting from September 23. Under the Decision No. 1606/QĐ-NHNN dated September 22, the refinancing interest rate will be set at 5% per year, rediscount at 3.5%, and overnight inter-banking lending rate at 6%.

- Vietnam values cooperation with Argentina’s Buenos Aires and wishes to diversify goods traded with the province, Ambassador Duong Quoc Thanh has said. At his September 21 meeting with Buenos Aires Governor Axel Kicillof, Thanh recommended the sides further beef up collaboration between localities in various sectors of Buenos Aires’s strength such as agriculture and energy. 
 
-  Various Japanese enterprises are planning to expand their investment in Vietnam, where business insiders of Japan assess as the second most attractive investment destination after the US, according to Chief Representative of the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) Najakima Takeo in Hanoi.

Takeo said although Japan’s direct investment into Vietnam declined in the first half of 2022, it still posted impressive growth of over 59% in 2021 and over 45% this year, the highest rate among the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). 

- Global investors are planning to restructure their investment flows, a move predicted to take place strongly from now to 2023 and create opportunities for Vietnam, heard a conference on September 21. Registered foreign investment totaled 16.7 billion USD as of the end of August, down 12.3% from a year earlier. However, the investment disbursement rose 10.5% to 12.8 billion USD and capital addition to existing projects up 50.7% to 7.5 billion USD. 

- Universities nationwide are implementing more than 400 joint training programmes with foreign countries for the undergraduate level, as per statistics from the Ministry of Education and Training’s Department of International Cooperation.Of the programmes, 186 were licensed by autonomous higher education institutions and 222 by the ministry. 
 
- Around 10,000 households in the Mekong Delta provinces of An Giang, Dong Thap and Bac Lieu and Can Tho city have received training on the adoption of sustainable rice-farming practices and rice quality improvement, as part of a project underway since 2018, heard a conference on September 21. The conference took place in Can Tho to review the results of the project Better Rice Initiative Asia phase II (BRIA 2)

– Market-oriented Smallholder Value Chains Project (MSVC), or MSVC-BRIA 2, aiming to promote SRP standards for sustainable rice cultivation in the four localities. 

- AMG C43, a famous sport sedan model of Mercedes-Benz, will be assembled in Vietnam in the time ahead, according to Mercedes-Benz Vietnam Director-General Bradley Kelly.

Mercedes-Benz Vietnam has seen an acceleration in the upgrade and development of domestic car production and assembly lines in recent years. That’s why in 2021 and 2022, it has invested 33 million USD in developing six state-of-the-art technologies, some of which have made debut in the Vietnamese market, Kelly told the Mercedes-Benz Driving Festival 2022 that kicked off at the F1 circuit in Hanoi on September 21.