Facelift for HCM City Post Office stirs criticism

A facelift for HCM City's 130-year-old post office has stirred critics for being too garish, even through the colours used matched those of the original building that is a landmark of the city.

The building, at 2 Paris Commune in District 1 was built in 1886 by the French colonial government and, along with the Notre Dame Cathedral and Saigon Tax Centre, is considered a symbol of HCM City, making it a popular destination for foreign tourists and attracting thousands of visitors a day.

Local authorities spent nearly VND5b to restore the façade, the project starting in September 2014 and scheduled for completion ahead of next month's Tet.

The post office is decorated mainly in orange-yellow with white trim and highlights, which was its original colouring and symbolised the colours of the Vietnam post and telecommunication industry.

On January 6, the building’s front has been completed while refurbishment of the surrounding area continues.

With the facelift, the building has attracted much attention from local residents as well as domestic and foreign visitors.

While many are pleased with the fresh face, some say it is too showy and dazzling.

One member of the public said the colours are too gaudy, and say it is out of harmony with neighbouring buildings.

“The building has lost its unique and ancient beauty,” one member of the public said.

Foreign professor awarded Vietnam friendship insignia

Chairman of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations Vu Xuan Hong presented the insignia “For Peace and Friendship among Nations” to Professor Frederick Brown from the US’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Hanoi on January 9.

The insignia was given in recognition of his contributions to reconciliation, healing the wounds of the war, and the normalisation and development of bilateral relations between Vietnam and the US.

The professor expressed his honour to receive the award and promised to continue to support for Vietnam in all aspects, and consolidate relations between people of the two countries.

Born in 1928, the professor has shared many ideas to promote the Vietnam-US ties as the head of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs under the US Department of State in the late 1970s.

Many years later while working in the education field, the professor supported Vietnamese students to pursue learning at the SAIS.

Jetstar Pacific offers cheap tickets at VND5

The low-cost carrier Jetstar Pacific is offering cheap one-way tickets starting at just VND5 on local routes from 12 p.m. of January 8 to 11.

The special rate will be applicable for flights departing in March, April, May, September and October on routes including Thanh Hoa-Buon Ma Thuot; Buon Ma Thuot- Hai Phong; HCMC-Quy Nhon; HCMC-Dong Hoi and HCMC – Tuy Hoa.

The price will be also applied for flights from Quy Nhon/Dong Hoi to HCMC; Hai Phong/Thanh Hoa to Buon Ma Thuot from February 1-19.

The carrier is also selling cheap airfares at VND155,000-VND355,000 on domestic routes from the North to the South.

Vietnam building in top ten by social value

The Farming Kindergarten project in Dong Nai Province designed by Vietnamese architect Vo Trong Nghia and his associates was voted to be in the top 10 buildings by social values of 2014, reports Thanh Nien newspaper.

The list was selected by Designboom, one of the most famous websites on art and architecture in the world.

The chosen buildings from kindergartens to universities are a combination of native elements and nature. Most importantly, they help to improve the surrounding living environment.

Farming Kindergarten is expected to solve the problem of climate change and educate children about the importance of agriculture. The construction not only creates a flexible playground for children but also helps them understand and come closer to nature.

Two year old stabbed baby saved

Surgeons of the Children Hospital have saved a two year old boy who was taken to the hospital in serious condition after being stabbed by his father on January 8.

The boy from the southern province of Dong Nai’s Long Khanh District was hospitalized with injuries in lung, spleen and stomach. The boy was in a severe shock, unconsciousness and doctors soon took blood pressure which was zero due to severe bleeding.

The size of injury in the breast is 4 cm and the point of the  knife went through the breast causing an injury of 3 cm in spleen.

The toddler lost 500ml blood. Though he went through the severe condition, he was still unconscious and put on ventilator.

Doan Van Truong, grandfather of the boy said that the boy’s father stabbed his wife and son and committed suicide. The mother died, the boy was in critical and the father was being treated in a hospital in Dong Nai Province.

Twelve people were injured in a coach accident in the southern province of Dong Nai's Bien Hoa City yesterday.

The 16-seat coach collided with a tanker truck while travelling from Bien Hoa to the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau.

The victims are being treated at two local hospitals, where five of them are in a serious condition.

The case is under investigation.

Baby chokes on seed, suffers brain damage

 The HCM City Paediatrics Hospital No.1 is treating a 15-month-old child from Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, who is in a vegetative state after a kumquat his mother squeezed into his mouth when he was convulsing due to high fever squirted a seed into his bronchial tube, causing him tochoke.

Truong Huu Khanh, head of the hospital No.1's neurology and infectious diseases ward, said on his Facebook page that "dropping a kumquat seed into the bronchial tube leads to a shortage of oxygen to the brain" with reference to the child's vegetative state.

Though the seed was taken out of the bronchial tube, the damage had been done because of the prolonged shortage of oxygen to the brain, he said.

His hospital gets many emergency cases caused by squeezing kumquat or lemon into the children's mouth to stop convulsing, he said.

Parents should never do such a thing because it is unscientific and often deadly dangerous, he added. Instead, they should observe what exactly  

happens to the child to describe to the doctor later when they take them after they stop convulsing, she added.

Firecracker smuggler arrested in Quang Ninh

Border police at the Hoanh Mo Border Gate in the northern province of Quang Ninh yesterday arrested a man for smuggling 49kg of Chinese firecrackers into Viet Nam.

Bui Duc Thanh, 25, was arrested in Hoanh Mo Commune with the smuggled firecrackers on his motorbike.

All the firecrackers have been seized.

Two heroin traffickers arrested in Thanh Hoa province

Police of the central province of Thanh Hoa detained two individuals who trafficked two bricks of heroin (about 350gr each) and injured three police officers on late January 7.

Local police said on January 8 that the arrested were Thao Van Di, born in 1961, from Viengxay district, Laos’s Houaphanh province, and Thao Van Po, born in 1966, from Nhi Son commune, Thanh Hoa’s Muong Lat district.

They used a gun and knives to resist on-duty police officers after being stopped in Nhi Son commune for violating traffic rules.

Apart from the heroin bricks, police also seized one CKC rifle, 11 bullets, two knives, and many other objects.

The duo later admitted that they brought the drug from Laos to Thanh Hoa for selling.

The case is under further investigation.

Unseasonable rain harms farmers in Ca Mau

Watermelons grown across 1,200 hectares of land in Ca Mau, the southernmost province in Vietnam, rotted due to unseasonable rain over the last few days, according to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The damage from the atypical rains was estimated at over 3 billion VND (141,000 USD).

A local farmer in Cai Nuoc district, Tran Thi Thoi, said hundreds of watermelons, destined to serve the increasing demand of upcoming Lunar New Year (Tet) and expected to substantially boost her family’s income, were all destroyed.

The rain also flooded an additional 3,000 hectares of other agricultural products, including a significant loss of shrimp, in the province.

Tran Chi Thao, another local farmer living in Phu Tan district, said he lost 250 million VND (11,650 USD) invested in shrimp raising after his shrimp farm was wiped out.

The unprecedented damaging weather patterns has left huge farming losses, floods, and traffic congestion.

Vinpearl Phu Quoc wants to join conservation of Dugong

The Vinpearl One M ember Company Ltd Phu Quoc , owner of a recently-opened five-star resort on the country’s largest island Phu Quoc, has asked for permission to take up the rescue and care of Dugongs, a rare marine mammal species.

According to Huynh Vinh Lac, vice head of the Kien Giang provincial People’s Committee Office, the company said it is ready to receive and take care of Dugongs captured by fishermen or those rescued by relevant authorities.

The company will also conduct communication activities to raise public awareness about the rare species and conservation work.

Dang Thanh Thuy, director of the company, said that with modern facilities of its aquarium and nearly ten years of experience in taking care of sea creatures, the company is capable of taking good care of the animal, which is facing high danger of extinction.

The Dugongs are herbivorous marine mammals that spend their entire life at sea and are better known as “sea cows” for their habit of grazing on sea grass. In Vietnam, they can be found only in waters around Phu Quoc Island and Con Dao Island.

They are hunted for food, oil, traditional medicine and jewelry, and listed globally as vulnerable to extinction.

The Red Book of Vietnam has also put the Dugong on the list of “critically endangered” animals as the population is less than 100 around both Phu Quoc and Con Dao islands.

Students’ Day celebrated in Hanoi

A ceremony was held in Hanoi on January 7 to mark the 65 th anniversary of the Vietnam ’s Students’ Day (January 9), and to present “Sinh vien 5 tot” (Five-Virtue Student) and “Sao Thang Gieng” (January Star) awards to outstanding students nationwide.

Over the past 65 years, under the leadership of the Party and President Ho Chi Minh, student movements and the Vietnamese Students Association (VSA) have grown and developed substantially during revolutionary periods, stated Le Hong Anh, Politburo member and standing member of the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat.

Hailing the achievements made by generations of students, he urged the VSA to continue promoting tradition and enhancing unity among students.

He also urged Party and Government agencies, as well as the Vietnam Fatherland Front and the entire society, to work with the VSA to develop a generation of knowledgeable and virtuous students.

According to Le Quoc Phong, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union Central Committee and President of the VSA Central Committee, the association currently has over 1.3 million members.

In keeping with their values of solidarity and mutual support, Vietnamese students have developed a positive reputation within society through numerous social movements, including blood drives and summer volunteer campaigns, he noted.

During its development, the VSA has actively served as a bridge between the Party and State and students, an important force in all schools, he said.

At the ceremony, the VSA present the Five-Virtue Students award to 41 outstanding students who showed good morality, high academic achievement, good health, exemplary voluntary service, and impressive community engagement.

As many as 100 students with excellent academic achievements were also presented with the January Star award, initiated in 2000.

Hanoi’s public security force urged to proactively deal with hostile forces’ plots

Minister of Public Security, General Tran Dai Quang has asked the public security force of Hanoi to proactively enhance the assessment and analysis of situations, in order to prevent and overthrow plots from hostile forces.

General Quang made the request during a conference held by the Hanoi Department of Public Security on January 6 to sum up the department’s performance in 2014 and devise a working plan for 2015.

He urged the force to consult the capital authorities regularly on measures to ensure security and order, particularly safety for important events in the capital and the country.

Speaking at the conference, Secretary of Hanoi Municipal Party Committee Pham Quang Nghi praised the efforts of the city’s public security force in ensuring political and social security. He asked the force to regularly launch campaigns against crimes, especially at public places, for a happy and safe Tet festival.

In 2014, the public security force worked closely with the capital’s agencies, authorities and people to ensure security and order, control crimes and prevent activities of criminal bands. Nearly 4,000 cases and over 5,700 criminal violations were detected and investigated while 1,236 criminal gangs were dismantled.

They thwarted those abusing patriotism to provoke protests and riots, particularly in industrial and processing zones, contributing to ensuring the capital’s business and investment environment.

Vietnam eager to embrace SMAC technology

Seizing the social, mobile, analytics and cloud (SMAC) technology will help create value and stimulate growth for Vietnamese ICT businesses, according to FPT Software Chairman Hoang Nam Tien.

Speaking at a recent seminar at Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park in Hanoi to discuss ways to test the SMAC and ensure the quality of the SMAC-based services, he added that ICT businesses must participate in the global trend, reinforcing they cannot operate outside the "game".

He also revealed that his compnay will need at least 600 IT workers this year, 100 of which will be comprised of engineers with expert understandings of SMAC testing.

Neopost Software Community Director Jerome Modolo said SMAC and SMACT (social, mobile, analytics, cloud, internet of things) are new and rapidly growing trends.

However, SMAC testing is still in the early development stages, with suppliers only using existing resources and gradually adjusting their products and services to meet modern trends and customer needs.

He added that very few companies have made breakthroughs in the field of SMAC testing, which creates an opportunity for young IT workers to find creative solutions through knowledge and ingenuity.

According to IDG and Gartner reports, there will be 2.18 million “social” users by 2015, bringing in 34 billion USD, with the number of "mobile" users expected to increase to 1.3 billion, generating 735 billion USD.

Two of the largest corporations working in the “cloud” sector, Big Data and Cloud, predict large returns and are preparing for increased demand. Big Data intends to hire an additional 4.4 million engineers and expects to earn 232 billion USD, and Cloud hopes for 207 billion USD.

In Vietnam, the SMAC revolution has received special attention for its development and integration of the ICT market, involving numerous businesses and boosting their capacity for production and competition.

Between 2014 and 2016, mobile phone usage, including the number of 3G users, is expected to increase dramatically. Services, such as OTT (over-the-top) and social, will contribute over 80 percent of online communications, online video, and mobile digital content.

These will help enhance multimedia communications via personal computers, smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs.

Recent booms in multimedia communications - now covering more than 50 percent of the Vietnamese population – will present new opportunities to expand and conduct SMAC testing.

Technological innovation vital to increase competitiveness

Technological innovation is important to help Vietnamese businesses enhance their competitiveness and create new, high-quality products and services, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said.

He was addressing a ceremony in Hanoi on January 8 to launch the National Technology Innovation Fund, which was established by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

He hailed the ministry’s efforts to set up the fund which serves as an important financial institution of the State to boost technological innovation among businesses.

The establishment of the fund also illustrates the Vietnamese Government’s resolve to boost economic growth and renovate growth models based on science and technology.

With the chartered capital of 1 trillion VND (46.7 million USD), the fund aims to promote businesses’ creation of new products and services that have a high level of technology and added value.

It was set up in accordance with Decision 1342/QD-TTg issued by the Prime Minister in August 2011, and Decision 1051/QD-TTg in July 2013.

Fauna & Flora Int’l programme helps reduce deforestation in Kon Tum

A programme implemented by Fauna & Flora International with sponsorship from the European Union since January 2012 has yielded positive conservation results in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum.

The 251 million VND programme (11,797 USD), part of the Asia-Pacific Community Carbon Pools Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+ CCP), has helped reduce deforestation and forest degradation, as well as decrease the number of forest fires in Hieu commune of the Kon Plong district.

At the same time, it improved the livelihood of locals, who depend on forest resources for their living.

All major forest areas have been allocated to locals for management, in return they are paid for their forest care. As a result, forest protection has improved remarkably and illegal timber exploitation cases are detected and handled in a timely manner.

Locals were also provided with training on managing forest areas and to use forest resources effectively.

The Hieu commune has nearly 17,900 hectares of forests, home to numerous rare flora and fauna species, including the grey-shanked douc langur and yellow-cheeked gibbon.

Between 2002 and 2011, over 1,600 hectares of forests in the locality were lost.

Fertilizer plant in Bac Giang poisons river

A fertilizer plant in Bac Giang Province has been accused of seriously polluting a local river, causing a mass die-off of fish and threatening the health of the local populace.

Authorities said tons of dead fish were found floating in the Thuong River on January 1 at a section of the river near discharge outlets of the Ha Bac Chemical and Fertilizer One-member Limited Company. Dead fish were found from Tho Xuong Ward in Bac Giang City and Phuc Man Hamlet in Xuan Huong Commune of Bac Giang Province.

The provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment launched an investigation and preliminary findings are that the company discharged untreated wastewater into the Thuong River.

On January 5, the company explained it had been testing an expanded urea production chain on December 30 and some valves in the system leaked. The chain was shutdown for maintenance.

A day later, the company resumed testing the chain, but said the pumping system broke down on the morning of January 1, prompting a second halt. Wastewater from the cleansing of equipment, including ammonia, flowed into the common drainage system in Bac Giang City and poured into the Thuong River.

The company did not deal with the breakdown until the morning of January 2.

The department concluded that the company did not have a contingency plan for its wastewater treatment system before testing its expanded production chain, nor did it have a plan to deal with urgent environmental incidents.

Results from wastewater tests showed that the company violated regultions on environmental protection, with several indexes in safe wastewater 30 times higher than acceptable levels.

Thousands of households in Bac Giang City use tap water draw from the Thuong River.

The provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment has asked the company ordered the company to draw up response plan for environmental incidents and submit it to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment for consideration.

Local authorities will closely monitor the company to ensure it complies with environmental protection regulations.

Hanoians avoid coldness at tunnels

Many people in Hanoi have recently decided to come to tunnels to do physical exercises to avoid cold and rainy weather.

Over the past few days, many people have gathered at Nga Tu So tunnel in Dong Da District to walk and cycle. Lots of people said that they felt warmer when doing physical exercises at tunnels.

Chu Thi Qua, 60 years old, in Tay Son Street said that she came to the tunnel to avoid the cold and rainy weather. The tunnel is quite open and has enough light as well as safe, particularly for elderly people.

However, another resident Vu Duc Thao, 68 years old, said that the tunnel gate on Nguyen Trai Street has become a place for people to discharge wastes and even a temporary market. He expected management agencies’ intervention to deal with the situation.

Australia funds 14 projects in south

The Australian consul general in HCMC, John McAnulty, yesterday awarded funds through the Direct Aid Program (DAP) 2014-15 to 14 projects in 11 southern cities and provinces.

These projects are varied from community healthcare to small-scale infrastructure works. Further DAP funds have also been awarded to projects in northern provinces through the Australian Embassy in Hanoi.

DAP is a small-scale community based grants program designed to assist individuals, community groups, NGOs, and other organizations that do not have access to large-scale aid programs. Every year the Australian Consulate General receives a number of applications.

“Over the past three years I have visited a number of DAP projects throughout central and southern Vietnam. I am always touched to see the huge difference our small amount of funding can make to people’s lives, like the excitement of rural kids who can wash their hands using clean water directly from a water system funded by DAP,” said Consul General McAnulty.

Child Friendly Programme benefits disadvantaged children, mothers

The care and protection of children and mothers in the coastal central province of Ninh Thuan has made significant progress thanks to a Provincial Child Friendly Programme funded by UNICEF and UNFPA.

The 5.3 million USD project, which is being implemented for the period 2012-2016, has five components covering education for children; children protection; children’s survival and growth; social policies and administration; and the health of mothers.

Vu Minh Tuyen, deputy director of the project’s management board, said some initial results have been achieved in devising, supervising and assessing child-friendly social-economic development plans.

Authorities at grassroots level have become more active in establishing a safe environment for children, helping reduce negligence, abuse and exploitation of children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, the disabled, the poor and ethnic minority children.

The project has to date completed 133 out of 164 planned activities, reducing the rate of malnutrition among under-five children to 18.8 percent. The rate of drop-out in three target districts has dropped to 0.3 percent.

At the same time, outdated marriage practices such as child marriage has decreased remarkably among local ethnic minority community, especially the Raglai.

300 workers hospitalized after lunch at factory

More than 300 workers in Nam Sung Vina factory in Thap Hong Ky Industrial Park in the central province of Nghe An are being treated in many hospitals in the province after suffering from food poisoning symptoms yesterday.

Nam Sung Vina Company produces outdoor hand-made clothing and employs hundreds workers. According to the victims, after having lunch at the company yesterday, many of them developed belly pains, vomiting, diarrhea, and headache. They were rushed to the General Hospital in Dien Chau District and another general hospital in the district.

As the two hospitals were full and could no longer receive any victims, so many patients were being treated in the factory. Workers said the foods which they ate yesterday include meat, vegetable soup, and mixed vegetable. Most of victims are female workers.

VNN/VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/ND