Ha Noi told to fight sexual harassment in public transport

The National Committee for Traffic Safety asked the Ha Noi People's Committee to combat sexual harassment against women and girls on public transport.

Accordingly, relevant agencies must identify locations, public transport routes and road sections where sexual harassment often occurs. The city must also improve lighting in areas where women are vulnerable to sexual assault, broadly announce telephone numbers for police in case of emergency and give instructions and advice on how to avoid and what to do when encountering sexual harassment.

Women should be provided training in necessary skills to protect themselves in public places, and authorities should encourage them to report sexual harassment and other physical abuse, the committee said.

Additionally, the city must tighten control over areas where sexual abuse is common in order to discover and punish criminals.

Deputy chairman of the Ha Noi People's Committee Nguyen Quoc Hung assigned the municipal Department of Transport, the police and the Ha Noi Transport and Services Corporation (Transerco) to implement the above tasks.

The request was made following a survey of 2,046 people recently conducted in Ha Noi and HCM City by ActionAid Viet Nam and the Research Center for Gender, Family and Environment in Development.

According to the survey, 57 per cent of women aged 16 and above considered streets the locations where sexual harassment against women was most likely to happen.

As many as 87 per cent of women and girls said they had experienced sexual harassment through actions such as whistling, teasing, comments on their appearance and staring at or touching sensitive parts of their bodies.

About 31 per cent of school-aged girls involved in the survey suffered sexual harassment on buses.

Deputy director of Transerco Nguyen Viet Trieu told the VnMedia e-newspaper that the city authorities had not specified the penalties for sexual harassment, so the company could only issue warnings or ban those at fault from getting on the bus.

Discovering violators was important, but it was even more important to have strong penalties in place, he said.

Ha Noi urges speed on bus station expansion

Ha Noi's People's Committee asked the Ha Noi Transport Corporation to speed up construction on the My Dinh Bus Station expansion and assure its completion by January 2015.

Nguyen Quoc Hung, vice chairman of the committee, made the request after inspecting the project and its progress on Monday.

The expansion area was expected to ease the station's current problem with overcrowding. The project started during the first quarter of last year. The company planned to complete construction by the middle of January 2015.

The My Dinh Bus Station expansion was approved last year, with Ha Noi Transport Corporation investing VND55 billion (US$2.5 million). The expansion will be about 13,000 square metres.

During the inspection, Hung also assigned the People's Committee of Nam Tu Liem District to work with police and transport inspectors to crack down on temporary parking lots that overcharge passengers.

My Dinh Bus Station has been operating for ten years. Covering a total area of 20,000 square metres, it hosts more than 200 transport companies with more than 150 bus routes.

Ha Noi launches hotline for infrastructure-related issues

The city recently launched a central hotline for citizens to report infrastructure-related problems.

The 24/7 hotline 04.38445566 will take calls about issues such as urban lighting, trees, electricity and water supply.

The hotline, which is completely free of charge for landlines and mobiles with post-paid plans, will transfer reports or inquiries from citizens to responsible authorities.

The city's Information and Communication department said citizens previously did not know what number to call to report a problem, as the city's infrastructure network was managed by various organisations and enterprises that operated their own hotlines. Some failed to publicise their hotlines, while others did not even have them.

This caused unnecessary delays and meant that problems were often reported too late or not directed to the right authority.

Head of Post and Telecommunications Nguyen Tien Sy said the hotline began operating in July and was approved by the city People's Committee last month. At one point, the hotline received around 20 calls a night.

Citizens were asked to keep track of how quickly repairs were done for the problems they reported. When responsible authorities failed to address the problems in a timely manner, citizens were told to report them again.

Sy said the second phase of the hotline project would focus on implementing IT to improve the hotline's capacity to register, transfer and record calls. A function to handle reports made in English was also being considered.

Illegal printing of calendars discovered

A local company was found illegally printing about 10,000 calendars for 2015 during a surprise inspection on Tuesday by the southern province of Dong Nai's central counterfeit prevention team.

The Bien Hoa city-based Thien Khai Production Trading Service Co., Ltd failed to provide legal documents for the calendars as well as another 1.5 tonnes of unfinished calendar papers. A representative of the company admitted the calendars were printed by the company without a legal contract.

The company also purchased fake anti-counterfeiting stamps from the black market to stick on the calendars.

The local authorities are continuing their investigation.

Chicken smuggled from China seized

Border gate officers in the northern province of Quang Ninh yesterday seized about 15,000 chicks smuggled from China on a truck carrying fake license plates.

Local truck driver Le Van Hung, 29, admitted being hired by an unknown man to transport the chicks.

All the chicks were destroyed by local authorities.

Health ministry launches online public services

The Ministry of Health introduced on-line public services level 4 to help food production and trading companies in applying for certifications on meeting food safety regulations and conditions.

Service level 4, the highest of the four administration service levels in the country, is expected to create more convenient conditions in the registration process for enterprises involved in the healthcare sector.

The on-line registration service level 4 will allow people, businesses and management units to perform administrative formalities, submit required forms, handle documents and payments and receive results using only a computer connected to the Internet.

Speaking at the launching ceremony today, Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said that the application of information and technology in health administrative management aimed to improve management efficiency, which will result in better handling of community health concerns. In addition, this move will provide more convenient means to offer public services to the people.

"The application of on-line service level 4 is one of the steps taken by the Ministry of Health towards administrative formality reform," proclaimed Tien.

"It will create favourable conditions for enterprises, especially in terms of reducing expenses and time, and increase the transparency and publicity in health administrative management," said Tien.

Tien added that the ministry would extend the level 4 on-line public services to include drug and medical equipment management in 2015.

The ministry started a pilot registration for advertising the content of dietary supplements and food with micronutrients under ministry management early August this year.

Viet Nam Food Administration Director Tran Quang Trung said that nearly 600 enterprises that had registered for advertising the content of their dietary supplements and food with micronutrients have been issued authorisation by the on-line service system since the beginning of August.

Sao Thai Duong JSC Marketing Director Hoang Van Giap said that the on-line service in food safety management would create transparency and publicity, as well as ease the difficulties encountered by enterprises in the implementation of administrative procedures.

Levels of public service registration

Level 1: Procedures to fill in the required forms and information about time and service cost are available on-line.

Level 2: The service allows the user to download the required forms to be printed out and filled in later.

Level 3: The applicant can fill in and submit the forms on-line.

Level 4: Service payments can be settled on-line. Transaction results are available either on-line or by post, upon request.

Hydropower project comes to a halt

The central Quang Tri provinces Peoples Committee halted the work of the Darkrong 4 hydropower project yesterday because the contractor is unable to implement it.

Thuong Hai JSC had been awarded the contract in May 2008, but had failed to fulfill its duties without any valid reason.

The committee said that no significant progress was made by the contractor to start the project.

The firm will have 20 days to hand over all documents related to the project, and transfer the management of the projects site to the local authority.

New school model applied in primary schools nationwide

The new school model for Vietnam (VNEN) program has been applied in primary schools nationwide since the 2012-2013 academic year that focuses on reforming teaching method and assessment to childrent in line with new standards. It could be considered as a better method to children for the wider world and help them to speak out what they think.

Looking at the Vietnamese language period of Class 2C in Da Thanh Primary School in the suburban district of the central highlands city of Da Lat, students were divided in to teams to discuss the lesson.

Team leaders are dignified in their speech showing their real role in leading the peers. Teachers just act as facilitators and will only intervene in case of necessity.

Teacher Bui Thi Kim Dung of Class 2C said that she and her colleagues spent a lot of times guiding students the new learning methods by actively reading books and searching for more documents to supplement the lesson in textbooks.

When students get accustomed to the new learning method, teaching is simpler. With better self-awareness of learning, students are confident to deliver their speech before the class; and there should be a close coordination between teachers and parents to encourage practice at home, said teacher Dung.

From the 2012-2013 academic year, Da Thanh Primary School has applied VNEN for second and third graders and til now it has been taught for fifth graders.

Principal Le Thi Kim Oanh said that teaching quality is improved and students become more confident. Teachers’ skill is enhanced in an attempt to intruct their students to cope with the new method.

According to teachers, VNEN helps form friendliness and students are not afraid when their teachers give them the question. The modest and diffident students become more active to raise questions of what they don’t understand to teachers and their peers. Especially classes have some K’Ho ethnic minority students who are very shy and modest also become active.

Nguyen Kim Long, head of the Primary Section of the Department of Education and Training in the central highlands province of Lam Dong, said that VNEN has been applied in 18 primary schools in the province.

Director of the MoET's High School Education Department Vu Dinh Chuan said the application of the new model as per the decree No. 29 on education reform is expected to pave the way for the next new teaching methodology.

VNEN will be implemented in junior high schools in the northern provinces of Lao Cai, Ha Giang, Hoa Binh, the central province of Khanh and the central highlands provinces of Dak Lak and Kon Tum.

Currently, the program has been implemented in 63 provinces and cities with 746,000 primary student participants.

Elephants push back against human encroachment

A growing number of incidents involving elephants pushing back against human encroachment on their natural habitat has prompted the Ministry of Planning and Investment to step up a monitoring programme to limit conflict.

Under the VND74 billion (USD3.5 million) plan, the Dong Nai Natural and Cultural Reserve will be upgraded, with VND45 billion coming from the state and the balance from the provincial budget and other sources.

The Dong Nai Forest Ranger Unit said the province had 20 elephants about ten years ago, but only 11 are left in Dong Nai Natural and Cultural Reserve.

Elephants are dying of starvation in Dong Nai Province.

Local residents are concerned about the threat of elephant stampedes on their livelihoods. Villagers in Nghe An Province say the number of incidents of elephant attacks, at least one of them fatal, has been increasing due to the reduction of natural jungle, which is causing a food shortage for the wild pachyderms.

Authorities of Vinh Cuu District People's Committee say they use torches and gongs to chase the elephants away.

"From 2013 to the first nine months of 2014, there were 300 stampedes," a committee official said. "The stampedes destroyed 100 hectares of sugarcane, 50 hectares of cashew tree and other crops."

The elephant monitoring project is being put out to tender. About 30 kilometres of electric fencing will be erected in Vinh Cuu District to contain the elephants and protect local people and crops.

The fence, both solar powered and connected to 220V mains power, is to prevent elephants from entering certain areas, but will not inhibit the travel of other, smaller creatures. It is hoped the project can be completed within 12 months.

Tran Van Mui, director of Dong Nai Natural and Cultural Reserve, said reserves in other provinces are using similar methods.

Le Viet Dung, deputy head of Dong Nai Forest Ranger Unit said a more effective plan would be to relocate 1,200 households living in and near the reserve, but local authorities say such a measure would be too expensive due to the limited amount of funds available for wildlife management.

Paid Christmas escorts trending among young Vietnamese

In recent years, an increasing number of young Vietnamese who do not want to spend the holidays alone have turned to escort services, many of which charge millions of VND, to avoid a lonely Christmas.

T.N, a Vietnamese living aboard, said that he wanted to bring a girlfriend out with his group of friends on his visit to Vietnam. "Everyone was bringing their wives or girlfriends, and I already said that I was bringing mine," he said.

According to many who work in this area, when it was first introduced, there were not many people who thought it was a good idea. But over time, demand picked up.

Now it is easy to go online and a special, if temporary, someone to provide company.

T.N said, "My requirements are simple. The girl should have a fairly good appearance, speak English and must allow me to hold her hand." He said at first the company did not agree on the holding hands part, but finally gave in when he was insistent.

"The deal was that I need to send the girl home by 10pm," he said. "I have many friends who are girls, but I feel like if I asked them along they might misunderstand my feelings. Plus, I wouldn't feel comfortable."

The price normally is usually around VND1 million for three hours if the escort leaves before 10pm. Dates that last until midnight cost extra. Despite the steep prices, the service is thriving among young Vietnamese.

One Vietnamese girl explained that she wanted to hire a boyfriend to come with her to a party because she thought it might be painful to be alone when she sees her ex boyfriend with his new girlfriend.

Ha Giang targets minority poverty

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh said that Ha Giang province needs to solve its ethnic minority land issues, especially for those living in the province's poorest areas, yesterday at the province's Second Ethnic Minority Peoples Congress.

The Deputy PM said that province authorities should also focus on preserving forests and implementing policies that maximise the province's potential.

In response to the Deputy PM's requests, Ha Giang People's Committee said that the province would work harder to implement beneficial policies for ethnic minority communities over the next five years.

The People's Committee added that the province would improve its management of investment funds, further develop agriculture and preserve local traditions and cultures.

Ha Giang is a mountainous province in the north of Viet Nam, and one of three poorest provinces in the country. The largest minority in the province is the H'Mong people who constitute one-third of the population. The province's economy depends on its tourism, mining and processing industries.

During the last five years, Ha Giang province has made some remarkable achievements. Chief among them was the reduction of poor households from 35.28 per cent in 2011 to 26.95 per cent in 2013, and raising the average income by 6.67 per cent to VND16 million (US$762) in 2014.

The province also improved the infrastructure in mountainous and ethnic minority areas, and maintained a healthy GDP growth rate of 10.35 per cent from 2011 to 2013.

In 2013, the province's industrial production brought in VND 3.2 trillion ($152 million)—double 2010's numbers and 58.3 per cent higher than 2013's target number.

Ha Giang's tourism sector was a major contributor to the province's growth, promoting local cultures and the Dong Van Karst Plateau. In the first eight months of 2014, the province recorded 410,000 visitors, nearly equal to the total number of visitors last year.

HCM City mulls new way to measure poverty

HCM City, a pioneer in raising the poverty threshold above the national level, plans to adopt the Multi-dimensional Poverty method with support from the United Nations Development Programme.

At a seminar titled Multidimensional Poverty Measurement held in HCM City on Tuesday, officials said the city has adjusted the poverty line seven times, raising it much higher than the national level.

In 2014-15 it was set at an annual income level of VND16 million, while the "near-poverty" line was between VND16 million and VND21 million.

At these levels, the city has a poverty rate of 2.43 percent and a near-poverty rate of less than 3 percent, meaning it achieved the poverty reduction target a year ahead of schedule.

Hua Ngoc Thuan, deputy Chairman of the city People's Committee and head of the city's Steering Committee for Poverty Reduction and Improved Household Livelihoods, noted the importance of poverty alleviation but warned about the risk of people sliding back into poverty.

According to the committee, a one-dimensional poverty approach based on income is insufficient because it is not able to measure several elements in people's daily lives.

Adoption of the UNDP's multi-dimensional approach can measure the delivery of public services, he said.

According to the UN body, the character of urban poverty is different, being less defined by livelihoods and more by deficiencies in key capabilities and capacities, all linked to access to public services.

A 2012 survey found that the city had no poor people if based on the national standard, but the ratio of households facing a shortage of public services such as healthcare, education, and clean water was high. But since most of these families were not technically poor, they were not eligible for free or subsidised public services.

With the UNDP's support, the city has piloted the multi-dimensional approach in four districts for monitoring, evaluation, and policy formulation before adopting it city-wide between 2016 and 2020.

"Multi-dimensional poverty approaches have achieved global traction by providing a robust alternative to – and complementing – income-based measures," UNDP deputy country director Bakhodir Burkhanov told the seminar.

"They are particularly applicable in middle-income countries like Viet Nam and in such urban context as HCM City where poverty is more complex and defined by a number of interlocking deprivations," he was quoted as saying on the UNDP website.

There are enormous opportunities for the city's work to further inform the national process, and to provide a template for replication elsewhere in Viet Nam."

The seminar was organised by the HCM City Steering Committee for Poverty Reduction and Improved Household Livelihoods and the UNDP in collaboration with the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative.

Viet Nam is among 32 countries in the world to pioneer the research and application of multi-dimensional poverty measures.

This helps the country better understand the root causes of poverty and design better-targeted policies and programmes.

Pesticides circular lacks safety push

A draft circular on managing pesticide, compiled by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, lacks stipulations that would help make Vietnamese-produced pesticide safer, officials said yesterday at a forum in Ha Noi.

Nguyen Van Thieu, vice chairman of the Viet Nam Pesticide Association, said at the forum that the items under the draft circular would make it more difficult for domestic companies to produce and trade pesticide.

Although it would be necessary to tighten management of pesticides, taking safety standards from other countries and applying them in Viet Nam would not work, Thieu said.

For example, current regulations state that safety testing must be done by certified laboratories before pesticides are imported into Viet Nam. But domestic companies have said the testing is too expensive. However, costs could be reduced, Thieu said, if testing were done in the country instead of abroad.

He said the circular also lacked provisions encouraging companies to use bio-products, or materials, chemicals and energy derived from renewable biological resources. The more environmentally friendly substances are expected to eventually replace pesticides using high levels of toxic chemicals, he said.

Tran Quang Hung, chairman of the pesticide association, said many items on the circular didn't make sense and were difficult to understand, which might lead to inconsistent implementation.

According to the association, shortcomings in policies as well as shortages of development-oriented policies were to blame for Viet Nam's underdeveloped pesticide production.

Pham Thi Thu Hang, the general secretary of the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said a lack of Vietnamese pesticides forced the agricultural sector to import pesticides. It has paid US$1 billion for pesticides from foreign countries each year, she said.

Viet Nam has a lot of potential for producing pesticides, and high demand, she said. But for now Viet Nam only imports, extracts and packages pesticides.

Tran Oanh of the Viet Nam Plant Protection Association, said the Plant Protection Department – the body that monitors issues related to pesticide – should organise a meeting where companies and agencies can ask questions about the circular.

Hanoi to have 62 new rural areas this year

Hanoi is expected to have at least 62 out of 386 communes that become new-style rural areas this year, nearly double the 2013 figure.

A working group of the Steering Committee for the Programme 02-Ctr/TU on the development of agriculture and rural areas revealed the news during a conference to review four years of its activities in the outlying district of Ba Vi on December 17.

Beyond that, 165 communes set target of meeting 14-18 out of 19 criteria for new rural development, and 155 others satisfy 10-13 criteria.

A set of the above 19 criteria were defined under the National Target Program on New Rural Development which was approved in 2010, covering infrastructure, production, living standards, income and culture targets that localities have to meet.

In agriculture sector, the output value generated by more than 1ha farming land in Hanoi is estimated at 231 million VND (11,000 USD) as of late this year.

Cultivation and forestry make up 40.3 percent while animal husbandry and fisheries account for 56.5 percent, with services as the remaining.

Chairing the conference, Deputy permanent Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee and head of the committee Nguyen Cong Soai praised the working group for counselling local authorities on a scheme to build new rural areas.

He asked the group to reconsider policies on farming land, mechanisation and vocational training for farmers.

The same day, the municipal Vietnam Women’s Union also convened a meeting to size up the four-year programme lasting next year.

Da Nang honours 255 mothers

The central city of Da Nang on December 17 bestowed the “Vietnamese heroic mother” title upon 255 women whose husbands and children laid down their lives for national liberation.

Addressing the ceremony, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Van Huu Chien stressed that the city is always grateful for the dedication and sacrifice by martyrs and heroic mothers.

Over the past years, generations of the municipal leaders have exerted every effort to build Da Nang into an industrial and modern city, he said, calling on authorities and relevant organisations to continue support for those who made contributions to the nation.

In the past few years, Da Nang has paid much attention to taking care of both the material and spiritual lives of wounded soldiers and martyrs’ families. It is the first locality in the country fulfilling a plan to build and repair houses for policy beneficiaries.

In 2014 alone, 950 houses were repaired and built at the total cost of 22.6 billion VND (1.1 million USD). The figure is expected to increase to 1,000 next year.

An Giang: 35 Khmer ethnic students awarded scholarships

The “Vu A Dinh” Fund presented scholarships to 35 Khmer ethnic students in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang at a ceremony on December 17.

Those students, who are from poor families in Tinh Bien and Tri Ton districts, have had outstanding academic performance.

Speaking at the ceremony, Former Vice President Truong My Hoa, who is President of the fund, said the granting of scholarship aims to encourage ethnic children from disadvantaged background to keep up their good work.

An Giang province is home to around 80,000 Khmer ethnic people who account for 4.2 percent of its population. Schools in the province teach subjects in both Vietnamese and Khmer languages.

Established in 1999, “Vu A Dinh” Scholarship Fund has so far given over 50,000 scholarships to students from poor ethnic communities and helped build schools, bridges and houses for the poor.

It has been raising money for the construction of schools in islands as well as implementing a number of specialised education projects.

Vietnamese, Lao border guard units set up twinning ties

The Quang Chieu frontier post under the Border Guard Command of the central province of Thanh Hoa and Company 215 under the Military Command of the Lao province of Houaphan established a twinning relationship on December 17.

The event is part of activities to mark the 70th founding anniversary of the Vietnamese People’s Army (VPA) and the 25th anniversary of the All People National Defence Festival (December 22).

From now on, the two sides will work together in fostering the traditional friendship, protecting the common borderline, and preventing cross-border crimes.

Joint border patrols will be conducted every three months and whenever an emergency situation calls for, with the two sides to inform each other at least 7 days in advance.

They also agreed to hold quarterly meetings to review the border protection and management work with a view to timely dealing with emerging problems.

Catholics solidarity committee maps out 2015 plan

The Committee for Solidarity of Vietnamese Catholics on December 17 held its second plenary conference in the 2013-18 tenure, focusing on reviewing patriotic movements among the Catholic community in 2014 and drawing out plans for 2015.

A report at the event said that patriotic movements among the national Catholic community have become stronger and more effective in 2014, the first year that the committee has implemented the regulations and resolutions issued during its sixth National Congress.

Local committees in provinces and cities launched various movements designed to suit the specific characteristics of each locality, such as the drive to build “model parishes” in Hanoi, Quang Ninh and Ha Nam, a movement encouraging Catholic parishes and families to join hands in building new-style rural areas in Nam Dinh, and a campaign promoting the role of Catholic mothers in Dak Lak.

Religious dignitaries, parishes and Catholics nationwide have contributed tens of billions of VND and hundreds of thousands of working days to build infrastructure in their localities in response to the national campaign to build new-style rural areas.

In addition, charity continued to be a focus in the Catholic community’s activities, the report said, highlighting such examples as Father Huynh Cao Thuong in Ben Tre province’s Giong Trom district who donated more than 500 million VND to charity besides giving out one tonne of rice each month to the needy, or Father Phan Van Dien in Nam Dinh province who helped raise donations to build 50 houses and drill 20 water wells for the poor while providing 100 lonely elderly people in the province each with 100 kg of rice every year.

In 2015, the committee plans to continue enhancing patriotic movements among the community, and organize the fourth national congress to honour role models among the Catholic community.

Addressing the event, Vice President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee Le Ba Trinh lauded the community for its active role in promoting patriotic movements, as well as the pioneering role of the committee’s members in the movements.

He said he hopes the committee continues to coordinate more closely with the VFF as well as other relevant agencies in order to convey the legitimate wishes of the Catholic community to the authorities, while popularising policies and laws of the Party and State as well as socio-economic plans to the churches, religious organisations, priests and followers, thus enhancing social consensus about the cause of national construction and defence.

The VFF leader pledged that the VFF will support and create all possible favourable conditions for the Catholic community to implement patriotic movements, helping raise the role and social prestige of the Committee for Solidarity of Vietnamese Catholics in the nation and among Catholic community.

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