The Mekong provinces of An Giang and Kien Giang have worked together to efficiently use water resources, combat natural disasters and cope with their aftermath.

 Vietnamese Grandmaster Vo Thi Kim Phung has 5.5 points after seven games to rank 20th out of 175 chess players at the ongoing London Classic FIDE Open in England.

 The Regional Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Centre No. 3 on December 9 took a foreign sailor seriously injured on board a Panama-flagged cargo ship off Vietnam’s territorial waters to hospital for treatment.

 A forum connecting Vietnamese startups in the United States and Vietnam themed “Lessons from Silicon Valley: Vietnam’s path to startup success” was organised in San Francisco city on December 9.

 The 11th annual Hanoi Half Marathon returned to the capital city on December 10 with the theme “Run for Bears – End Bear Farming”, attracting hundreds of runners from 43 countries.

 Philippine authorities have exhumed a cadaver that was supposed to be the body of Pham Minh Tuan, captain of ship Royal 16 who was kidnapped in the Philippines on November 11, 2016.

 The private business sector in Vietnam is vital for the economy, however, obstacles and challenges remain, which can only be overcome through the combined efforts of policymakers and business leaders next year.

 Vietnam recorded a trade surplus of 2.76 billion USD in the first 11 months of the year, or 1.4 percent of total export turnover, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).

 Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Co. Ltd. (BSR) has signed crude oil supply agreements with two trading companies – Glencore Singapore and Socar Trading SA – to supply the Dung Quat refinery for the 2018-25 period.

 A meeting was held in the central city of Da Nang on December 8 to review the outcomes of a drug crime communication and crackdown campaign along Vietnam-China border.

Thua Thien - Hue has decided to allocate 32.6 billion VND (1.44 million USD) to preserve and develop garden houses in 2017-2020, heard a conference to review two years of the province’s resolution on garden houses protection.

 Six Tibetan bears were successfully rescued from a farm in Thuan An township of the southern province of Binh Duong by the Animals Asia on December 8.

VietNamNet Bridge - Retailers are rushing to develop online sales by offering technological solutions to attract more customers.

 The State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) collected 137 billion VND (6 million USD) after auctioning 5.35 million shares of Vinaconex on the Hanoi Stock Exchange on December 8.

 There has been considerable discussion in the media recently about the urgent need to cut the nation’s bulging public workforce because it has become a heavy burden on the State Budget and the economy as a whole.

 Vietnam has promptly worked with relevant Taiwanese agencies to handle a fishing vessel accident with some Vietnamese on board, of whom one remains unaccounted for.

 Customs officers in the Chinese Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region have confiscated 368.5 kg of ivory, which were trafficked from Africa into the country via its border with Vietnam.

HCM City is facing numerous difficulties as the population is rising sharply.

 Nationwide growth in FMCG bounced back in third quarter after dipping in previous quarter, according to latest Nielsen report.

The Mekong Connection Initiative believes that Vietnam should become the major importer of electricity from Laos.