Institutional reform quality is crucial - deputy minister

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung has expressed concerns over the slower-than-expected institutional process in Vietnam and urged the country to focus on the quality of institutional reform to achieve sustainable development.

Speaking at a seminar on market economy development in Hanoi City on December 22, Dung said Vietnam has been doing a lot of things to boost institutional reform, including the restructuring of State-owned enterprises and public investments and legal improvements. But these are not enough, so the nation keeps moving on with further institutional reform.

“…We have to find out the key to reform quality as the country will lose opportunities if we have to repeat reform processes,” he said.

Unlike other countries, Vietnam is in transition and is developing from a low base with a lack of resources and manpower. Therefore, it is tough for the nation to access and adopt good practices of the world.

Nguyen Dinh Cung, director of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), said Vietnam’s distinctions should not be stressed. If so, the country will always stay outside the globalization process.

The nation should adjust its distinctions to follow international standards, he added.

Raymond Mallon, senior consultant of the “Restructuring for a more Competitive Vietnam”, pointed out a lot of problems faced by the economy, such as slow transformation into a market economy, poor creativity of businesses, and slow development of enterprises.

Magnitude 2.9 earthquake hits Hue district

A 2.9-magnitude earthquake hit the mountainous A Luoi District in the central Thua Thien-Hue Province yesterday (Dec 22).

No damage to life and property was reported. The National Centre for Earthquake and Tsunami Alert is monitoring the progress of the earthquake.

It was the third earthquake in the district this year, following a 4.7-magnitude earthquake in May and a 3.3-magnitude tremor in November.

Residents flee as blaze breaks out at People's Committee office

Residents living near the office of the People's Committee of Ward 7 in HCM City's District 5 and Government officials at the Ward 5's office fled from their homes as a blaze broke out at the ward office at about 10:00am on Tuesday.

Shortly after receiving information about the blaze that started on the fifth floor of the ward office building, fire-fighting forces from HCM City's Districts 1 and 8 sent eight fire engines to the site.

As of 3:00pm, no fatalities or injuries had been reported at the site, which was blocked by local agencies.

Local authorities are investigating the cause of the fire, which was put under control at about 10:30am.

Joint efforts needed to stop fake goods

Authorities, business groups and companies need to co-operate closely to keep out fake products during the upcoming festive season, a conference heard yesterday in HCM City.

At the event organised by the Viet Nam Association for Anti-counterfeiting and Trademark Protection (VATAP), participants said that despite authorities' efforts counterfeit and smuggled products have kept increasing and remain a serious problem.

They feared the situation could worsen soon since New Year and Tet (the Lunar New Year) usually see a spike in the consumption of liquor and confectionery.

Do Hong Chinh, deputy secretary of the Viet Nam Beer Alcohol Beverage Association, said alcoholic drinks are a popular Tet gift and so could spark off fakes.

Any success in combating this is only possible if authorities, industry associations and companies work together, he warned, underlining that since no foreign spirits are allowed to be produced in Viet Nam, any individual or company making foreign-liquor labels would be involved in counterfeiting.

In an interview to the media on the sidelines of the conference, Do Thanh Lam, deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade's Market Management Department, said, "This year market watch forces have found over 100,000 cases with products violating the law, an increase of 15 per cent year-on-year."

Of them 18,000 related to counterfeits, he said.

Most companies and industries did not have a dedicated department for dealing with fakes or developing their brands.

He said companies have to invest in technology and "grey matter" to combat this.

Le The Bao, chairman of VATAP, said companies play a very important role in combating fake products, adding his association appreciated companies that invest money in developing distribution systems including stores committed to selling authentic products.

He promised that the association would work closer with authorities and companies to combat the problem during the upcoming festivals.

Localities take measures to stop foot-and-mouth disease

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) asked provinces and cities to conducts aggressive measures to prevent foot-and-mouth disease in livestock, which appeared in various provinces since November, including Ha Tinh, Thanh Hoa, Lang Son, Lao Cai and Yen Bai, according to the MARD.

More than 480 animals were hit by the disease. The sick animals were then transported to other areas, spreading the disease, experts from the MARD said.

The cold weather in northern and central provinces also contributed to the disease's spread.

Chairmen of province- and city-level people's committees were asked to ban imports of livestock from localities where the disease had broken out.

Leaders in areas where the disease had broken out were asked to take measures such as culling sick livestock, sterilising affected areas and setting up stations to check livestock going in and out of the locality.

The MARD also asked localities to raise local residents' awareness about the situation and seek their help in controlling the disease and vaccinating livestock.

Animal health departments were told to advise area residents to choose safe breeding animals, while localities with low rates of vaccination were asked to purchase more vaccines and strengthen supervision to detect the disease in time.

Le Dinh Son, deputy chairman of the Ha Tinh People's Committee, said that the biggest difficulty in controlling the disease was that local residents had the habit of letting their livestock wander despite warnings from authorities. Additionally, many households did not vaccinate their livestock.

As a result, more than 100 animals in the province's Hong Linh Town and Can Loc District were hit by foot-and-mouth disease this year.

Cold front leaves frost in Lao Cai

Frost started appearing in Y Ty Commune of northern mountainous Lao Cai Province early yesterday morning when the temperature dropped to 2.5 degrees Celsius, part of a cold spell sweeping across the northern region.

This is the second time frost has appeared in the province this winter.

Local authorities helped people prevent their animals and plants from freezing.

Drug traffickers charged in HCM City

Binh Thanh District police finished legal documents to prosecute 11 members of a drug-trafficking ring in HCM City.

After investigation, it was revealed that the ringleader was district resident Chau Thi Ha, 47. Ha and two other women from the ring were arrested last Wednesday.

Ha admitted to the police that she bought drugs from the women and then sold them to drug addicts early this year.

The police said it was one of the biggest drug-trafficking rings found in the district.

Programme supports cancer patients

A cancer prevention communications campaign called "For the Health of Vietnamese People" was launched yesterday by the Viet Nam Internal Medicine Association, the "For the brighter future" fund for cancer patients and CVI Pharmaceutical Company.

Under the programme, 50,000 books about cancer risk factors, prevention and treatment will be presented free of charge to 57 cancer treatment units and patients nationwide.

Viet Nam reports 200,000 new cancer cases yearly, of which 80 per cent are discovered in the late period of the disease, according to the National Cancer Prevention Programme. Cancer kills 70,000 Vietnamese people each year.

Forum calls for an end to child abuse

Children in HCM City's District 7 exhibited paintings about victims being psychologically, emotionally and sexually abused to call on the community to join hands to prevent violence against children at a forum last Sunday.

The forum, organised by the HCM City Child Welfare Foundation, was meant to enable children themselves to raise their voices against the issue.

It saw experts and relevant authorities answer questions from them about what they should do to protect themselves from violence.

Luong Thi Thuan, chairwoman of the HCM City Child Welfare Foundation, told them that if they were faced with violence, the best thing was to call the hot line of the City Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs' Children Protection Division or contact their local child protection staff.

"They should not keep silent," she added.

According to Nguyen Van Tinh, deputy head of the Children Protection Division, the first rule in protecting children is to teach them self-defence skills and how to recognise violence which also takes other forms like psychological, emotional, and sexual abuse.

Many children faced ill-treatment at the hands of relatives and peers, he said.

According to figures from district authorities, 44 children were sexually abused this year and three others were victims of violence.

In the last three years 344 children were sexually abused.

Ministry of Public Security figures show that in the country 3,000-4,000 children suffer from violence every year, with more than 100 killed as a result, while 1,000 are sexually abused.

Children were also abused at the workplace, Tinh said.

Recently his division fined a private sewing company in Binh Tan District for employing many children as workers, he said. The children had also been made to work more than 40 hours a week

In a salt making village in Can Gio District, child labour was used, he admitted.

Last week he went to Binh Tan District to rescue six children who were begging on the streets after being abandoned by their father. Their mother, who is in custody for selling drugs, had let them work as beggars for hire before being arrested, he said.

In recent times many newborn babies had also been abandoned, he said.

In Cu Chi District alone, 14 newborn babies were abandoned this year, he added.

Anti-corruption efforts need public participation in order to succeed

Anti-corruption initiatives can only succeed with support from the people, participants at a conference heard yesterday.

The Government Inspectorate held the conference in co-ordination with the World Bank to review the results of the 24 anti-corruption initiatives that earned spots in the 2013 Viet Nam Anti-Corruption Initiative Programme.

Nguyen Huu Loc, deputy head of the Government Inspectorate's International Co-operation Department, said local people were able to participate in many of the initiatives, allowing their voices to be heard in local governments.

VACI 2013 awarded nearly VND7 billion worth of funding for carrying out the initiatives, with 17 per cent of the projects implemented by state agencies and 29 per cent by non-profit organisations.

More than half of the projects were implemented in northern mountainous provinces such as Ha Giang and Hoa Binh.

However, participants agreed that many projects did not calculate risks during implementation. The lack of co-ordination with local authorities was another major hurdle.

Ngo Manh Hung, deputy head of the Department of Corruption Fighting, Government Inspectorate, said there must be a mechanism to ensure long-term co-operation between relevant agencies and stakeholders so that these initiatives could be expanded at the local level after the programme ended.

Viet Nam Anti – Corruption Initiatives (VACI) has financed 77 initiatives since it was launched in 2011. Nineteen proposals were chosen for VACI 2014, themed "More transparency, integrity and accountability."

Investigation launched into bridge repair work

Expansion joints were installed on Ngu Huyen Khe Bridge in Ha Noi's Dong Anh District after Tien Phong (Vanguard) reported that the bridge had cracks as wide as 5cm.

The newspaper also reported on December 6 showing that the bridge's interior structure was made of wooden boards and sandbags.

The bridge, part of the VND40 billion ($US1.8 million) Highway 5 Extension Project, opened to traffic on October 9. After the incident, both experts and the public asked why the bridge was opened before it was finished.

Pham Van Duan, deputy director of the project management board, said there was no misconduct and the city's People's Committee was fully informed of the decision to open the bridge.

He said that even though the expansion joints were not finished before the bridge opened, the wooden boards and sandbags provided temporary reinforcement.

The solution was proposed by the project's contractor, 319 Corp. of the Ministry of Defence, and was approved by the construction consultant unit, the Institute of Transport Science and Technology under the Ministry of Transport, according to Duan.

After completing the bridge's asphalt cover, contractors removed the wooden boards and sandbags and finished installing the expansion joints.

"It was perfectly normal for the contractor to remove the temporary cover to install the expansion joints. There was absolutely no damage to the bridge in the two months it was open," Duan said.

Former dean of the University of Construction Nguyen Van Hung, however, did not find that explanation satisfactory.

"Using wooden boards and sandbags, temporary or not, to replace the bridge expansion joints was unacceptable from a safety point of view," Hung said in an interview with Tien Phong.

The National Committee for Quality Assurance will inspect the bridge before the official opening date on December 31.

Such incidents have occurred frequently in recent months. In May, cracks were reported in the $133 million National Highway 18 through northern Quang Ninh Province, only two weeks after the road opened.

Additionally, a 73m-long crack was found in the $1.5 billion Ha Noi – Lao Cai expressway just three days after it opened in September.

41.6 million land-use right certificates granted

Provinces and cities across Vietnam have to date granted 41.6 million certificates of ownership to a total land area of 22.9 million hectares, which accounted for 94.8 percent of the used area that requires the certification.

According to deputy head of the Land Management General Department Le Thanh Khuyen, up to now, all of the country’s 63 localities have completed their planning on land use up to 2020.

In 2014, the department helped the localities deal with difficulties in land clearance and compensation and resettlement, especially those related to key projects.

It also intensified inspection over land use and management in order to avoid law violations, while simplifying administrative procedures involved.

The office’s head Nguyen Manh Hien, who is Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, said that in the following year the office will continue perfecting legal documents guiding the enforcement of the revised Land Law, and speeding up communication activities to increase public awareness of land-related laws and policies.

It will also establish a modern land data system to serve the State management and use and provide adequate information to develop the property market, he added.

Anti-corruption initiative programme reviewed

The Government Inspectorate and the World Bank (WB)  reviewed the 2013 Vietnam Anti-Corruption Initiative Programme (VACI) at an December 23 conference in Hanoi with a view to combating corruption and strengthening transparency in State-run agencies.

The programme with winning projects out of the 130 entries proposing measures to fight corruption, has received great support from social organisations and local communities.

Many of the outstanding projects are carried out in remote or ethnic minority areas involving the community’s surveillance and communications to raise public awareness, education, and IT application.

According to Ngo Manh Hung, deputy head of the Anti-Corruption Department under the Government Inspectorate, apart from expanding feasible projects, the parties concerned need to step up coordination to ensure the sustainability of the programme.

“Vietnam Anti-Corruption Initiative Programme 2013” was the second in the Vietnam Anti-Corruption Initiatives (VACI) series, including an innovation competition and a knowledge exchange forum.

Danang women helped improve anti-violence skills

Representatives of the Women’s Union chapters in central Danang city are attending a training course that will equip them with skills to mobilise the community’s support in curbing violence against females and girls.

The course is teaching learners how to efficiently utilise SASA!, an effective model specially designed for preventing violence against women and HIV infection via the engagement of people across all levels of society.

During their learning journey, participants will share personal experiences, discuss topics as well as proposing possible measures to deal with the pressing issue that has caused serious consequences globally.

Teacher of the course, Robyn Yaker from the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), said the training aims at building capacity for learners to adapt SASA! model in their community, thus, spurring local-level activism and social mobilisation.

The UN Women will join hands with Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries to eradicate domestic abuse, she added.

The 3-day event, co-organised by the municipal women’s union, the UN Women and Spanish-based non-governmental organisation PyD, started on December 23, seeing the attendance of observers from Laos.

It will set part of the human-resources-building basis for a UN Women’s 2013 - 2015 programme, which focuses on advancing the implementation of laws and provision of services to women experiencing violence in Asia and the Pacific, particular in Southeast Asia.

Thua Thien-Hue honours AO victims excelling in life

As many as 66 victims of Agent Orange/dioxin were honoured for excelling themselves at a conference in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue on December 23.

The conference was also to mark the 10th founding anniversary of the provincial Association of AO/dioxin victims.

Among more than 15,000 exposed to the toxic chemicals, nearly 14,000 are still alive, but a majority of them have their exposure seen even in their third-generation offspring.

A So airport in A Luoi district is a hotspot of dioxin contamination as is the nearby area, where 150 kids aged below 18 were recorded to have been struggling against serious health problems.

The association has so far had 63 chapters grouping over 3,000 members, linking benefactors at home and abroad with victims.

It has raised nearly VND3 billion (US$142,000) that went to home building, vocational training, free medical check-ups and gifts for sufferers.

It has established 10 nursing and vocational training centres at the service of the disabled and AO children.

At the event, five organisations also received certificates of merit in recognition of their care to AO victims.

Workshop discusses dams, reservoirs management

Reservoir maintenance, water resource management and natural calamity mitigation were discussed by Japanese and domestic experts at a workshop on irrigation system management on December 23 in Hanoi.

The event was co-organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and the Japan Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

Sumihiko Noguchi from the ministry of Japan stressed the need for regular maintenance of dams to ensure their safety and operation. He recommended that Vietnam apply a regular inspection system for dams.

Meanwhile, MARD Deputy Minister Hoang Van Thang said his ministry is working on a programme on ensuring safety for reservoirs and dams, adding that Vietnam, with international assistance, has improved safety for reservoirs, especially large ones.

Vietnam is now home to nearly 7,000 operational irrigation and hydropower reservoirs, according to Dong Van Tu from the ministry’s Directorate of Water Resources.

However, 1,150 reservoirs require repair and upgrading, while 320 have become unsafe, especially in rainy season, most being small scale ones built three or four decades ago.

Participants also discussed ways to improve management capability for local residents and authorities in the field.

Community-based activities help curb human trafficking in Nghe An

Community-based communication activities and prevention measures have proved effective in reducing human trafficking in the central border province of Nghe An.

The Women’s Union in Nghe An began the activities in 2012 in the mountainous districts of Con Cuong, Tuong Duong, Que Phong and Quy Chau, where many girls and women have fallen victims to trafficking due to poverty and poor knowledge.

The union has held group talks and provided newspapers and leaflets to local women on how to recognize and avoid the tricks employed by traffickers. The union has also worked with the local law enforcement to keep a close eye on vulnerable groups and suspect individuals, while providing financial support and vocational training for returning victims to settle down.

Since early this year, as many as 28 training courses for nearly 1,500 locals on the rights of migrant workers have been conducted, in the context of increasing number of Nghe An residents moving to Laos for work.

Additionally, a number of workshops have been held across the province to enhance labourers’ legal understanding and capacity to protect themselves when working in other countries.

In the coming years, Nghe An authorities plan to boost vocational training and develop craft villages to create jobs, thus improving income and living condition for residents in rural and remote areas.

Foreign-funded project benefits farmers in central region

A project funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the World Bank (WB) has helped improve the competitiveness of farmer households in the central and Central Highlands regions after five years of implementation.

At a seminar to review the project in Hanoi on December 22, Pham Quang Toan, deputy director of the project management board, said the 75 million USD project was carried out during 2009-2014 in the central provinces of Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Binh Dinh, Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan and Lam Dong, Gia Lai and Dak Lak provinces in the Central Highlands.

It aimed to increase farmers’ access to the market through the application of new production technologiges, the re-organisation of production groups and the enhancement of business links.

It also helped protect natural resources and the environment via applying sustainable and environmentally friendly production processes and use technologies that save water, enrich land and control chemical residues.

Thanks to the project, the income of local farmers, especially women and ethnic minorities, remarkably improved, Toan said, adding that based on its success, the donors pledged to continue support a new project on developing sustainable agriculture in the country.

According to project director Dang Minh Cuong, as many as 154 research subjects was carried out, while 105 production unions were set up and 98 of them operated effectively during the five-year project. It also helped build and upgrade 186 essential infrastructure works for production.

Poverty-alleviating credit policy benefits ethnic minorities

Ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands have benefited from the big poverty-alleviating credit policies of the Government as well as credit programmes funded by local budget.

According to the Steering Committee for the Central Highlands, those credit programmes helped cut the rate of poverty in the region by 2.7 percent points this year.

Lam Dong province posted the largest reduction of 3 percent, and it also has the lowest poverty rate in the region, at only three percent of all households.

Besides preferential loans for household economic activities, the provinces have provided landless ethnic households with land for housing and farming with more than 57,748 hectares granted so far.

In addition, over 140,915 hectares of forest have also been allocated to 7,320 households to take care of.

Furthermore, over 168,000 people, including many from ethnic minorities, have received vocational training. Thousands of workers who come from ethnic families have been given jobs in forestry and agricultural companies.

The committee said the region aims to cut the poverty rate by at least three percent next year.

Police arrest Singaporean for making porn discs

Vietnamese police have arrested the general director and four of his subordinates at a Hong Kong-invested company in the northern city of Hai Phong for producing pornographic digital video discs (DVDs), a banned commodity.

The city police on Sunday detained Heng Lian Choo, 48, general director of Huge Gain Holdings Co. Ltd. in the Do Son Industrial Park, his 23-year-old deputy Huang Sheng Ping, of Chinese nationality, and three company employees on charges of “manufacturing, stockpiling, transporting and/or trading in banned goods” and “disseminating debauched cultural products” pursuant to Articles 155 and 253 of the Penal Code.

The three employees include Xu Quan Sheng, a production team head of Chinese nationality; and two Vietnamese workers, Pham Thi Lam, 34, and Vu Thi Hang, 32.

The police also searched Heng’s offices and home the same day.

The arrests were made after police raided the company on December 16 and discovered a large number of pornographic DVDs among its products.

Police also found five disk printing machines used to make porn discs.  

After an inspection police seized a total of 324,000 porn discs and all equipment and facilities that had been used to make such discs.

At the time of the raid last week, 38 people were working for the company, including seven foreigners: a Singaporean, two Indonesians and four Chinese nationals.

The police had questioned Heng before arresting him and the four subordinates.

Huge Gain was licensed in 2003 to manufacture and process non-program CD, CDR, VCD, DVD and DVDR discs.

Since 2013 the company had produced porn VCDs and DVDs in large quantity to sell in Vietnam and export to other developing countries, police said.

On average, the company exported up to nine million discs monthly, investigators said.

The Ministry of Public Security has directed the Hai Phong police to expand their investigation and track down others involved in the serious case.

Hanoi: Workshop on preventing osteoporosis in community

About one quarter of Vietnamese women in post-menopause suffer from osteoporosis, said experts from the Institute of Social and Medical Studies (ISMD) at a workshop in Hanoi on December 23.

Director of the ISMD Nguyen Truong Nam said the condition has many repercussions on the individual, her family as well as society, adding that the workshop aims to find specific intervention solutions to prevent and reduce osteoporosis in Vietnam.

Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) showed that over 600 billion USD is spent on curing osteoporosis related diseases each year globally.

The ISMD’s Deputy Director Le Thi Bach Mai said low intake of calcium-rich foods, particularly a low intake of dairy foods, in the typical Vietnamese diet is one of the main reasons for a lack of calcium among Vietnamese, which pose a high risk of osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis is a condition where the bones have lost calcium and other minerals, become fragile and tend to fracture more easily.-

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