Lam Dong: Drought damages 60,000 hectares of coffee

Up to 60,000 hectares of coffee in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong are vulnerable to lost productivity due to the impacts of prolonged drought, said the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The devastating drought has posed risks to agricultural production in the region. Bao Lam district was unable to provide enough water for 16,500 hectares of industrial crops, mainly coffee and tea in March and 200 hectares of coffee in Dam Rong district withered due to water shortages.

According to the latest survey conducted by the provincial Bureau of Water Resource Management, water levels in local reservoirs have been 1 metre lower than the same period last year.

The situation has affected over 1,500 hectares of crops in the province, leading to 30-40 percent drops in productivity from the previous season.

The acute drought is forecast to continue in Don Duong, Duc Trong, Lam Ha and Di Linh districts.

The provincial People’s Committee has urged relevant agencies to take measures to counteract the drought, focusing on upgrading irrigation, dredging ponds and reservoirs and freeing the flow of streams to make full use of water resources.

Hail and whirlwind hit Da Lat

A hail storm and strong whirlwind hit Da Lat city of Lam Dong Province on Thursday afternoon, causing severe damage to property and crops.

The local people said thumb-sized hailstones fell and a whirlwind came at about 1.30pm.

The storm lasted one hour in District 7.

No damage to life was reported.

However, several hectares of vegetables, flowers and strawberries were totally destroyed by the hail storm. Many greenhouses also collapsed in the whirlwind.

The financial loss was estimated to be huge.

Meanwhile, large areas in the northern and central regions have been experiencing hot weather since Wednesday. In the central Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces, several districts suffered high temperatures up to 39oC.

Weather experts forecast hot weather would continue in the northern and central provinces for the next few days, while the Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) region was alerted about possible hail and whirlwind.

Da Nang to monitor trees with GIS

Da Nang plans to use the geographic information system (GIS) in the city's public tree management work, the municipal People's Committee spokesman Vo Van Thuong said.

The plan will cost about VND500 million (roughly US$25,000), which will be sourced from the city's budget.

The municipal construction department has been assigned the work of implementing the plan. The department plans to complete the collection of tree data by 2016.

The GIS will help to position the trees, classify their types and identify the trees' state of health, the department said.

Since 2006, Da Nang has been using software in public tree management. All trees in the city have been numbered and the time of their planting and state of growth have been updated.

Car driver arrested for crash killing teen

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has ordered the northern province of Phu Tho to quickly investigate an accident in which a state-owned car crashed into five schoolboys, killing one and seriously injuring the others.

Phuc, who doubles as chairman of the National Committee for Traffic Safety, ordered Phu Tho police to investigate the cause of the accident and strictly punish the car driver, if found guilty.

The accident happened at 1:30 p.m. on April 1 near a school in Phu Tho’s Thanh Ba District. The sedan belonging to the Phu Tho Province’s Labor Federation suddenly plunged into the left side of the road and crashed into a group of schoolboys standing on the roadside.

One of the victims, 15, died on the spot.

The four other boys, all aged 13, were severely injured. They were rushed to hospital with multiple injuries. Eyewitnesses said the car driver seemed to have lost control of the vehicle shortly before the crash.

Police arrived at the accident site and arrested Nguyen Xuan Hoi, the 32-year-old driver, for questioning.

Tested showed Hoi was not drunk when he caused the accident.

He told police he had tried to evade a motorbike and swerved into the left side of the road, causing the accident.

Initial investigation showed Hoi had been driving on the wrong lane.

He has been taken into custody for further investigation.

Deputy PM Phuc sent condolences to the family of the dead victim and his regards to the injured ones, and asked Phu Tho authorities to provide them with the best treatment.

In 2013, a senior official in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong had his seven-seat SUV crash through a street barrier and plunged into three motorbikes traveling in the opposite direction.

The accident killed one man on the spot and critically injured three others.

But in a move that raised public eyebrow, in late 2013 state prosecutors dropped criminal charges against that official.

First quarter sees increase in Vietnamese overseas workers

More than 25,000 Vietnamese labourers, including 7,733 women, worked overseas in the first quarter of the year, a 10.7 per cent increase compared with the same period last year.

This was revealed by the department of overseas labour (DOLAB) under the labour, war invalids and social affairs ministry.

In March, only about 8,560 labourers went abroad for work. Of them, more than 2,500 were women.

Nearly 6,000 Vietnamese workers are working in Taiwan, including 1,678 women, while 1,618 Vietnamese workers, including 563 women, are working in Japan. As many as 262 workers, including 20 women, went to South Korea, and 328 workers, including 210 women, went to Malaysia. Many Vietnamese labourers work in the Middle East countries.

During the first quarter, Taiwan received the maximum number -- more than 16,800 -- of Vietnamese labourers, comprising more than 65 per cent of the total number of Vietnamese overseas workers.

Fire razes coconut fibre-processing company in Ben Tre

About 75 fire fighters were mobilised at midnight on Wednesday to extinguish a fire blazing inside a warehouse owned by Dua Vang Ltd. Co. in the southern Ben Tre Province.

Colonel Nguyen Quang Minh, head of the provincial Police's Fire Fighting and Prevention and Rescue Police Division, said on Thursday that the fire broke out at around 11.30pm in the workshop that processes dry coconut fibre in Tan Binh Commune, Mo Cay Bac District.

Fire fighters from the neighbouring Mo Cay Nam District and provincial forces also joined in the attempt.

A total of five specialised fire engines and numerous water pumps were employed to put out the blaze, which was completely extinguished only after seven and a half hours.

Initial reports indicated that the whole 500 square metres (sq.m.) steel-framed and iron sheet-roofed warehouse collapsed and all coconut fibres inside were burnt down.

The fire-fighting forces succeeded in preventing the fire from spreading to the administrative areas of the company, as well as local residents' houses nearby.

Colonel Minh said this was the second large-scale fire to break out in the province within a week.

On March 27, a fire broke out inside the warehouse of Cay Dua Clothing and Apparel Ltd. Co. in Quoi Thanh Commune, Chau Thanh District, which had burnt down more than 1,000 tonnes of cloth and destroyed the entire 3,000sq.m site. The loss was estimated to be VND10 billion (US$460,000).

Dong Nai firm to compensate injured worker

The Dong Nai Province people's court ordered a mechanic company in Bien Hoa to compensate a worker who went into a coma after receiving an electrical shock.

Dong Hiep Phat Mechanic Co Ltd in Tan Bien Ward, must pay the worker, Vu Ngoc Dung, VND464 million (US$21,340). Dung has worked for the firm since 2012, earning VND2.5 million ($115) per month.

But he lost consciousness a month after the shock while at work, and would remain in a vegetative state for the rest of his life, according to doctors at the southern Mental Health Hospital.

Previously, the company paid Dung VND71 million ($3,260) for initial treatment costs.

MoT holds talks on bus services

An online conference was organized by the Ministry of Transport on Wednesday to discuss measures for modernising the country's bus stations and improving their quality of service.

Deputy Minister of Transport Le Dinh Tho said that in accordance with the country's standards, bus stations must integrate a variety of transport services, such as running short and long-distance buses and taxis.

However, many of the country's bus stations failed to meet those criteria, especially those located in remote and mountainous areas.

The minister said there was a gap in the quality of services rendered at the old and the newly renovated stations, with the latter having been improved and operated under a public-private partnership model.

In addition, local agencies and authorities had failed to co-ordinate efforts in planning and managing bus stations in the respective territories.

Poorly enforced regulations and the lack of an effective control mechanism had contributed to the rampant unfair business practices employed by these makeshift and illegal stations.

Tho pointed out that inefficiency in traffic route planning was another shortcoming of traffic authorities. "Some stations were overcrowded, while others were experiencing less traffic, compared with capacity," he said. "It is well within the scope of the authority's ability to regulate traffic, but we have still failed to figure out an effective arrangement."

Representatives from bus stations also voiced their concerns over the lack of consistency and transparency in traffic route planning.

"Public-private model stations were dependant on the city's long-term traffic route planning for operation and returns on investment. Sudden changes in the city's planning have placed us in a difficult situation," the Director of the Ha Noi-based Nuoc Ngam Bus Station Nguyen Van Lap said.

The President of the Viet Nam Automobile Transportation Association, Nguyen Van Thanh, urged the country's traffic authority to formulate more policies to encourage and support bus stations built with the public-private model, as well as to adopt measures to improve transparency during the planning process.

There are 478 bus stations across the country. Of these, 213 were equitised or became entirely privately-owned.

Children's right to nutrition needs global collaboration

Human rights, including the right of children to have good nutrition, were discussed by international members of parliament at a conference held here yesterday.

The conference was organised by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) in co-ordination with the Viet Nam National Assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee.

The conference entitled The role of parliamentarians in the fulfillment of children's right to nutrition followed last week's Inter-Parliamentary Union meeting.

Participants, including parliamentarians from around the world, Vietnamese and international specialists on women and children raised a series of issues on ensuring the rights of mothers and children.

They also shared experiences, debating the effective participation of parliaments. They also focused on the negative side of private business involved in child care.

Vice Chairman of Viet Nam's National Assembly, Uong Chung Luu, spoke of the key role of parliaments in designing a legal framework for children's rights.

He called for collaboration at regional and global levels in fulfilling chidren's right to nutrition.

"Child nutrition is one of the important millennium development goals, contributing to the reduction of child mortality," said Luu.

Christiane Rudert, a nutritionist from the UNICEF East Asia-Pacific regional office, spoke of the global picture of malnutrition with a focus on Asian countries.

She also produced a global map showing the high rates of stunted children in South Asia and breastfeeding practices in the region.

She said 161 million children under five were too short for their age, claiming that of the 51 million children that were malnourished, 17 million of them were far too thin..

Rudert said that severe wasting contributed to two million deaths a year. She also said about 42 million children were overweight and at risk of chronic illness, such as diabetes, and about two billion people were deficient in key vitamins and minerals, especially iodine, iron, vitamin A and zinc.

Christine warned a prevalence of under-nutrition which remains unacceptably high despite economic and development progress.

She said improved breast feeding could lessen the problems and called for a strong political commitment to scale up programmes.

Sharon Garin from the Philippines said her country was implementing a national programme to bring nutrition to all children through their parents.

The improvement of the population's awareness on mother-and-child nutrition, including knowledge on reproductive health care, were the focus of the programme, said Garin.

Downtown street blockage causes traffic chaos

The blockage of parts of Pasteur and Le Duan streets in HCMC’s District 1 since Tuesday afternoon has led to severe traffic congestion on nearby streets during peak hours.

Many road users have not been well informed of alternative routes after the Pasteur Street section between Han Thuyen and Alexandre de Rhodes streets and the Le Duan Street section between Pham Ngoc Thach and Nam Ky Khoi Nghia streets were closed.

Many office workers in the downtown area worry that traffic congestion will occur during peak hours until May 6 when the road sections are blocked to make room for preparations for the 40th anniversary of the city’s liberation on April 30.

Nguyen Thanh Chung, director of the HCMC Department of Transport, told the Daily that the road blockage for more than one month was proposed by the unit in charge of organizing celebrations of this important event, not by the department.

Chung said in addition to setting up a stand in the blocked area, the unit needs much time for security arrangement.

After the Government approved a plan for holding activities to mark the 40th year of Vietnam’s reunification on April 30 late last year, the Ministry of Public Affairs held a meeting on security measures for the event.

Ho Chi Minh City Expo 2015 opens in Cambodia

The Vietnam-Cambodia Trade, Service and Tourism Exhibition 2015 (Ho Chi Minh City Expo 2015) opened on April 1 in Battambang province, 300km to the northwest of Cambodia's capital city of Phnom Penh.

Over 50 Vietnamese enterprises are showcasing their products at about 80 pavilions at the exhibition.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Vice Chairwoman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Nguyen Thi Hong said the annual event aims to introduce high-quality Vietnamese products to Cambodian consumers.

The event is an effective bridge connecting Vietnamese enterprises with Cambodian customers, and helps the two countries' enterprises exchange information and open up new business opportunities, she noted.

Governor of Battambang province, Chan Sosphon spoke highly of Ho Chi Minh City’s initiative to organise the event, adding that it provides a good shopping opportunity for the Cambodian people on the occasion of the traditional Chol Chnam Thmay New Year festival.

A number of activities are scheduled to be held during the exhibition, including art performances, free medical examinations and the offering of gifts to needy residents in Battambang, among others.

The exhibition will run until April 5.

U.S. offers free courses for local teachers of English

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, in conjunction with the University of Oregon and Coursera, has developed the Shaping the Way We Teach English series.

This free course is for English as Foreign Language (EFL) educators, both those intending to pursue this field as a career and those already working in the field, who want to revise and refresh their teaching methods and approaches.

Interested people can register for the course online at Coursera.org: https://www.coursera.org/course/shaping1landscape, which will begin on April 6. Once registered, participants will get access to the free course materials in five sessions.

The American Center in HCMC will host five in-person discussion sessions from April 9 to May 14. English Language Fellow Caroline Nabors will facilitate the discussion sessions every Thursday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the center on level 8 of the Diamond Plaza at 34 Le Duan Boulevard in HCMC’s District 1.

Participants will receive a certificate of completion if they attend at least four out of five discussion sessions and submit evidence of the online course completion to the American Center.

For registrations, visit http://moocteachingenglish.eventbrite.com. Registration is on a first come, first served basis.

Epidemic outbreaks found in HCM City

At least seven schools in HCM City have been closed for cleaning after students contracted several contagious diseases over the past several months, with health authorities urging vigilance on hygiene to contain potential outbreaks.

Seven children and one care taker at Tuoi Ngoc Kindergarten were sick with chickenpox on January 1, and In February, ten students at Nguyen Du Primary School were found with chickenpox. The disease was found at two other primary schools in March.

Students at Hoa Mi and Son Ca kindergartens were infected with hand-foot-mouth disease, while many students at Tran Quoc Toan Primary School had mumps.

The Centre for Preventive Medicine in HCM City immediately carried out measures to clean classrooms and put schools under monitoring in order to prevent further infection.

Dr. Nguyen Tri Dung, director of HCM City Centre for Preventive Medicine, said hot weather was an ideal environment for the spread of viruses.

In the first three months, the city had 1,155 hand-foot-mouth cases. The city's hospitals also reported 3,000 dengue fever cases, an increase of 43 percent compared to the same period last year -- two people have died.

The health sector has put contagious respiratory diseases under close monitoring and is carrying out more preventive measures to maintain healthy living environments, especially as many people move around the country during the six-day holiday of Liberation Day on April 30 and May Day on May 1.   

Vietnam has topped Southeast Asian nations on the growth of beer and wine consumption though it ranks eighth in GDP in the region, according to Vu Thi Minh Hanh, deputy head of the Hanoi-based Health Strategy and Policy Institute.

Vietnam has been on the top in the region on the growth of beer consumption since 2010.

At the conference on the prevention of ill effect of beer and wine held today, Hanh said Vietnam spends around US$3 billion a year for beer and VND16 trillion (US$744.2 million) a year for trademarked wine.

The spending on wine of $744.2 million is counted on the lowest price of wine, she added, meaning that the real expenditure for wine is still higher than that due to different prices of wine in the local market.

The amount of wine self distilled at home in Vietnam is estimated to reach tens of millions of liters a year, and is excluded in the above-mentioned number.

The average consumption of beer and wine in the world has not increased in the last ten years, around 6.2 liters of wine per capita a year.

Meanwhile, it has almost doubled in Vietnam in the same period. Each Vietnam people consumed an average of 3.8 liters of wine a year in 2003-05, and 6.6 liters a year in 2010, according to Hanh.

It is forecast that each Vietnamese people will drink an average of seven liters of wine a year in 2025.

Tran Thi Trang, deputy head of the legal department under the Ministry of Health, said at the meeting that alcoholic beverages have direct involvement in three kinds of cancer and seven other kinds of cancer indirectly.

She added Vietnam is compiling a law to prevent the ill effects of wine and beer.

VNA intensifies information supply for Vietnamese in RoK

Articles in the Vietnam News Agency (VNA)’s Tin Tuc (News) daily will be posted on the National Farmers’ newspaper’s website (www.nongmin.com) from the Republic of Korea (RoK) in a bid to provide information and news for the Vietnamese community living in the country.

The two sides inked an agreement on cooperation on April 2, in which the National Farmers’ newspaper, one of the RoK’s leading newspapers, will organise a column dedicated for Vietnamese readers.

In July 2013, the Tin Tuc newspaper became the first in Vietnam to cooperate with the RoK’s Nonghyup (Agricultural) Bank in publishing and providing the Tin Tuc daily to the bank’s customers at its 5,200 transaction points across the RoK.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, VNA Deputy Director General Le Duy Truyen appreciated the cooperation between the two newspapers.

With a network covering all 63 Vietnamese localities and 30 countries worldwide, the agency operates over 60 information products including the key information source Tin Tuc newspaper, he said.

The cooperation between the two newspapers is in line with the VNA’s policy of intensifying the provision of accurate information for both domestic and international readers, including the Vietnamese community in the RoK as well as Vietnamese-speaking Koreans, he added.

Accelerated customs clearance requires coordinated efforts

Closer coordination between customs and agencies concerned is required to enable speedier customs clearance, shared participants of a teleconference in Hanoi on April 2.

Under a resolution recently issued by the government, the duration for clearing exports and imports through customs is to be cut to less than 10 days and 12 days, respectively, by late 2016, in order to be on par with the average of the ASEAN-4( Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand).

To that end, it requires determined efforts from the customs sector and other units, said Deputy Head of the General Department of Customs’ Customs Reform and Modernisation Committee Le Nhu Quynh.

According to the 2013 report by the General Department of Customs, 28 percent of the time needed for customs clearance is consumed by the customs sector, with the remaining by other State management agencies including the Ministry of Industry and Trade, border gate management units, storage enterprises, port authorities and logistics firms.

Pham Thanh Binh, a customs advisor from the US Agency for International Development’s Governance for Inclusive Growth programme, spoke of shortcomings in specialised management of cargos subject to customs clearance, including overlapping and cumbersome procedures.

Deputy Head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Export-Import Department Do Thi Thu Huong called for the streamline of legal regulations to reduce overlapping management and shorten customs clearance process.

Regulations on tracking the origin of goods and customs incentives to firms were also clarified at the event.

Bac Lieu asked to further cut poverty in ethnic minorities

The poverty rate in ethnic households in the Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu is cut down by 2-3 percent a year on average thanks to the implementation of State policies specifically designed for these groups, a provincial official said on April 2.

Bac Lieu is currently home to the Kinh, Khmer and Hoa (Chinese) ethnic groups with the Khmer and Hoa numbering over 110,000, or 10.2 percent of the local population.

Policies designed for ethnic groups, including those on residential land, production land, vocational training, and health insurance, have been strongly implemented, Vice Chairwoman of the provincial People’s Committee Le Thi Ai Nam reported at a working session with Minister-Chairman of the Government’s Committee for Ethnic Affairs Giang Seo Phu.

All poor and near-poor households have been provided health insurance cards and benefited from preferential treatments as stipulated in the State’s regulations, she added.

The official asked the Government to increase financial assistance for the implementation of ethnic minority policies and provide special policies on tax, credit, and craft villages so as to attract investment and create jobs for ethnic workers.

Speaking highly of Bac Lieu’s achievements in ethnic minority affairs, Minister-Chairman Phu pointed out the life of local ethnic minority people still face an array of difficulties.

He told the province to make thorough surveys of poverty-stricken families so as to work out appropriate measures to rapidly reduce poverty in the ethnic minority community.-

Gender violence examined in relation to legal services

Vietnam's judicial system fails to clearly define or set aside punishment for gender violence, due to which, gender violence victims - mostly women - encounter difficulty in accessing legal services.

This was stated by experts during a two-day workshop that began in Hanoi on April 1. The workshop discussed gender stereotyping in the justice system and women's access to justice in cases involving gender-based violence. It also reviewed penal procedural codes, discussions on which attracted representatives from the Ministry of Justice, United Nations (UN) Women, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the Centre for Studies and Applied Sciences in Gender, Family, Women and Adolescents (CSAGA).

CSAGA Director Nguyen Van Anh said the latest national research on domestic violence, which was conducted in 2010, showed that 87 percent of the women taking part in the research had not sought support from authorities or any other public services. As many as 66 percent of domestic violence victims did not feel satisfied with the mediation carried out in the community, and more than 70 percent of the mediation cases did not achieve expected results.

Anh said the process for accessing legal support was so complicated.

"Moreover, present norms regulated that if domestic violence victims wanted to receive legal support, they must be poor women, old women, disabled women or women from ethnic minorities, thus the number of women receiving legal support was limited," she said.

The law directs that couples in disagreement must be supervised after the mediation, but in fact, no inspectors were assigned to do the job, she added.

For instance, a woman had chosen to remain anonymous in Hanoi's Ung Hoa district after recently being bitten by her husband. Even though the Chairman of the Commune's People's Committee and Head of the Commune's police had come to her rescue, she was advised to keep calm and resolve the case herself. Returning home, she was bitten once more by her husband for dishonouring him before the local authorities, Anh said.

Nguyen Thi Kim Thoa, Director of the Department of Criminal and Administrative Law under the Ministry of Justice, said the Laws on Labour, Domestic Violence Prevention and Control, Human Trafficking Prevention and Control and the Penal Code should be revised and harmonised and the necessary amended regulations should be added.

Information about shelters for domestic violence victims should be announced in public. Workers at the shelters should be imparted knowledge about the relevant laws so that they can give proper guidance to the victims.

Anh added that legal support teams, with participation of students and teachers from law universities and schools, should also be set up.

"Compulsory alcohol detoxification for people indulging in domestic violence should be included in legal regulations as reality has proved that alcohol makes domestic violence more serious," she said.

Ca Mau forests fire-prone

Prolonged intense heat and strong winds have led to droughts and fire alerts in forests across U Minh Ha and Hon Khoai island areas, according to the Forest Management Department in the southernmost province of Ca Mau.

There have been 37,915 hectares of U Minh Ha cajuput forest and 533 hectares of forest in Hon Khoai island drying completely, including more than 7,000 hectares with a high risk of fire.

Water is rapidly draining at nearby locations.

In a bid to prevent forest fires, Ca Mau has implemented a number of precautionary programmes, including around-the-clock patrols, fire drills, and logistics planning.

The local U Minh Ha cajuput forest covers 75,000 hectares, including a valuable 8,000-hectare primeval forest within the Vo Doi national forest.

Learning center established to promote social sustainability

The Asian Institute of Technology and international development partners established a Vietnam Learning Center on Environmental and Social Sustainability on April 2 to foster knowledge exchange and capacity building relating to environmental and social safeguards and standards in Vietnam.

The center is being established with initial funding support from the Australian Government and other development partners.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed on April 2 to this effect. This was the result of efforts by different development partners, including the World Bank Group, Asian Development Bank (ADB), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and Asian Institute of Technology Center in Vietnam.

“Vietnam’s SEDS seeks more environmentally and socially sustainable development. This requires attention to environmental and social safeguards in executing the country’s huge infrastructure development program,” said Victoria Kwakwa, the World Bank Country Director for Vietnam. “The mission of this center is to help fill the gap in Vietnam’s social and environmental safeguards capacity.”

The learning center, housed at the Asian Institute of Technology Center in Vietnam, will offer capacity building to project management units, district and provincial authorities, consultants and other stakeholders in social and environmental issues.

“Vietnam has taken great strides in recent years in introducing legislation dealing with social and environmental safeguards, and is rightly seen as leading the way in Asia in  areas such as payment for forest ecosystem services,” said Tomoyuki Kimura, Country Director for the Asian Development Bank. “The challenge now is to ensure that the country develops the necessary technical skills and capacity to effectively implement its safeguard requirements.

ADB is delighted to be supporting the learning center and believes it has a major role to play in developing highly skilled safeguard professionals in Vietnam, and so contributing to the country's move towards a path of environmentally sustainable growth, Kimura said.

Given the surge of investments in infrastructure sector and Vietnam’s challenges on environmental pollution and climate change related vulnerability, the center is expected to play a critical role, in building long-term capacity on environmental and social aspects of development projects and programs in Vietnam on a sustained basis.

Vietnam, Germany strengthen vocational training

German Industry and Commerce Vietnam (GIC) is funding an exchange programme in two German cities between Vietnamese and German stakeholders and decision makers on vocational training.

The trip, which takes place between June 22 and 26 in Magdeburg and Nuernberg, is part of a co-operative programme between the German Federal Ministry and Vietnam.

Vietnamese participants will be taught about the structure of the German vocational training system, take a tour of vocational schools and private training centers, and seek opportunities with German partners.

Germany's vocational training system, which combines theory and practice, has been applied in Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh City exhibitors head to Cambodia

Nearly 50 exhibitors from Ho Chi Minh City are showcasing their products at the Vietnam-Cambodia Trade-Service-Tourism Exhibition 2015 (Ho Chi Minh City Expo 2015) in Battambang city, 300km to the northwest of Cambodia.

On display at 80 pavilions are agricultural machinery, processed food, plastic products, and electronic equipment, among others.

The annual event is a venue to provide Cambodian consumers with a range of high-quality products, Vice Chairwoman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Nguyen Thi Hong said in her opening remark on April 1, adding that it is expected to continue to be an effective bridge connecting Vietnamese businesses with Cambodian customers.

Chan Sosphon, Governor of Battambang province, spoke highly of the HCM City’s initiative to organise the event, stressing the exhibition will consolidate and elevate the traditional comprehensive cooperation between their two nations.

Numerous activities are scheduled to take place during the five-day exhibition, including cultural exchange programmes, art performances, free medical examinations and the offering of gifts to Vietnamese nationals and impoverished residents in Battambang.-

Fish released in honour of Vietnam Fisheries Day

Nearly 1 tonne of shrimp and fish fry were released into rivers and ponds in Mo Cay Bac district, the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre on April 1 as part of activities to mark the Vietnam Fisheries Day (April 1, 1959-2015).

Held by the provincial Fishery Association, the annual event also aimed to raise public awareness of legal regulations on aquatic resources, and the role of resources preservation for sustainable fisheries.

The same day, the department of agriculture and rural development of southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province organised a fishery festival in honour of the Day, during which nearly 500,000 shrimps and 30,000 butterfishes were let out into the sea.

According to Cao Xuan Tieu, Deputy Director of the department, with a 160km coastline, the locality’s annual sea catch reaches nearly 300,000 tonnes, while aquaculture output is 15,000 tonnes, generating jobs and stable income for 99,000 labourers.

With the same purpose, the Fishery Department of the Mekong Delta province of Vinh Long also set free 147,000 fish fry on the occasion.

Vinh Long has 2,600 ha of aquaculture farms.

Phu Yen celebrates 40 years of liberation

The central coastal province of Phu Yen celebrated the 40th anniversary of its liberation with a ceremony on April 1.

Addressing the event, Secretary of the provincial Party Committee Dao Tan Loc recalled the province’s liberation day, highlighting the victory in Phu Yen was a milestone towards national reunification.

The province has made strong socio-economic achievements with an annual economic growth over 11.5 percent from 2010 to 2014, he added.

Last year, Phu Yen’s average income per capita reached 29.8 million VND (1,400 USD) and its impoverished household rate decreased to 9.73 percent.

On behalf of the Party, Senior Lieutenant General Ngo Xuan Lich, Chief of the General Department of Politics under the Vietnam People’s Army, lauded Phu Yen’s achievements and contributions to current national development initiatives.

The province should orient itself towards comprehensive and sustainable growth, he said, stressing that Phu Yen holds an important strategic position in the development of the region.-

VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/Dantri