Number of road accidents, fatalities decline in H1

The first half of the year saw fewer road accidents, with just around 12,800 cases compared to over 14,800 cases in the same period last year.

The number of fatalities in these accidents have also come down to 224 with 2,700 injured, which was less than the figures for the same period in 2013, revealed the latest National Traffic Safety Committee's latest report.

The statistics were reported at an online conference organised yesterday to review the country's traffic safety work during the first half of the year and discuss the remaining work for the last months, including land clearance for National Highway 1 and a part of the Ho Chi Minh Road running through Central Highlands and truck weighing control.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, who is also chairman of the National Traffic Safety Committee, expressed his appreciation at the good performance of 10 provinces in reducing over 20 per cent of the number of accident-related fatalities during the first six months.

The provinces receiving praise were mostly in the north. These included Bac Giang, Phu Tho and Lang Son, along with Quang Ninh, Bac Ninh and Dien Bien. The exceptions were Ha Tinh in the central region and Hau Giang, Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan in the south. Bac Giang was the province with the best performance, as it had managed to reduce its fatalities by more than 50 per cent.

Phuc also strictly reprimanded nine other localities where accident-related deaths increased by more than 25 per cent, including the southern provinces of Bac Lieu, Tra Vinh and Dong Nai. Ben Tre, Kien Giang, Vinh Long and Ca Mau were also reprimanded along with the northern provinces of Yen Bai and Lai Chau.

He was also unhappy with six provinces that failed to finish land clearance work for the construction of National Highway 1 and a part of the Ho Chi Minh Road running through the Central Highlands.

He urged these localities to complete land clearance by July 15 and warned that if they failed to complete the work by the deadline, units and individuals involved would be penalised.

Phuc also used the occasion to remind relevant agencies and localities of the priorities of the 2014 road safety year – which is to tighten management over transport-related business activities, control of vehicle weights and targeted reduction of 5-10 per cent in the figures of traffic accidents and accident-related casualties.

He urged the Ministry of Transport to speed up its work on reviewing, revising and finalising legal documents on the conditions for businesses running double-decker passenger buses, which should include a timetable, routes, and age and licence of drivers to avoid recurrence serious accidents.

He also requested the Road Maintenance Fund at central and local levels to allocate adequate funding for the smooth operations of mobile vehicle weighing stations.

Jail terms for three upheld in bribery case

The appeal court of HCM City's People's Supreme Court, yesterday, upheld the sentences of three persons on charges of offering and accepting bribes.

The court upheld the seven-year jail term to the former chief of the southern province of Bac Lieu's People's Committee's Secretariat, Bui Thanh Hong for accepting a bribe from the Bac Lieu Housing Construction and Development Joint Stock Company.

The court also upheld the 13-year imprisonment sentence to the company's former deputy director Tran Thanh Tung for offering the bribe.

The company's former director Pham Minh Quang was also sentenced to 13 years in prison for offering a bribe, reducing one year from the first trial.

Suspects found with fake MobiFone cards

The police in the northern province of Quang Ninh arrested three suspects, and is searching for a fourth for making fake MobiFone recharge vouchers in large numbers.

The four suspects are all men in their thirties from northern Hai Duong Province and the northern city of Hai Phong. The case will be brought to the court for further judgement.

Earlier, on January 16 this year, the provincial police caught a man in Hai Xuan Commune of Mong Cai City in Quang Ninh, transporting a box containing 24,900 MobiFone recharge vouchers worth VND100,000 each from China to Viet Nam. The vouchers were later identified as fakes.

The police said the 24,900 vouchers that they confiscated were just part of a larger number of fake vouchers that the ring brought to Viet Nam.

The four suspects had allegedly used the fake vouchers as credit to borrow VND35 billion (over US$1.66 million) from a bank in Hai Duong. The police said since the vouchers had not been sold in the market, no customers had been affected.

Police penalise ships for illegal sand ops

Police in the northern province of Hai Duong's Tu Ky District, yesterday, decided to punish three ships VND16 million (US$760) for illegal exploitation of sand.

The ships were caught red-handed by local inspectors while trying to illegally exploit sand at Thai Binh river section crossing Ngoc Son commune on Monday.

Local authorities have increased measures to prevent illegal sand exploitation, including conducting regular inspection.

More than 10,000 families in north-western HCM City are set to be relocated to make way for a modern ecological and urban area, according to the Cu Chi District People's Committee.

The Northwest Metropolitan Area (NMA)'s zoning plans envisage a total area of more than 9,000ha in Cu Chi and Hoc Mon districts that will be divided into nine zones.

Developers have already been identified for two of the zones - Berjaya International University in Hoc Mon and Tan Phu Trung Industrial Park in Cu Chi — while the remaining are looking for investors.

Speaking at a meeting on Thursday, Nguyen Viet Dung, deputy chairman of the Cu Chi People's Committee, said the 10,000 families live on a total area of nearly 2,000ha.

The NMA administration should have a roadmap to spell out which zones are to get priority in implementation and the time frames for it, he said.

It should also inform the affected residents about it so that they can feel secure about their future, he said.

Ho Van Dung Anh, deputy head of the Northwest Metropolitan Area Authority, said competent agencies should allow the conversion of agricultural lands in these residential areas into housing lands.

Of the 2,000ha occupied by the families to be moved out, around 80 per cent is already housing land.

When developers buy these lands, they have to pay compensation to the occupants in accordance with regulations, he said, possibly referring to the fact that housing lands fetch higher prices.

The Northwest Metropolitan Area Authority has urged the city administration to soon announce broad regulations for urban and architectural planning, based on which it could draft specific regulations for developing the NMA.

HCM City green-lights new buses

HCM City will get 1,680 new public transport buses from now through 2017 following approval from the People's Committee.

They will all have the same colour scheme to ensure consistency, electronic signboards and global positioning systems.

Of them 300 80-seat vehicles to be manufactured by the Sai Gon Transportation Mechanical Corporation will operate on compressed natural gas while the rest, of various sizes, will run on diesel.

The People's Committee will help transport companies and co-operatives obtain loans on easy terms to buy the buses, with the operators only having to pay 30 per cent of the cost upfront.

Speaking to Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberated Sai Gon) newspaper, Duong Hong Thanh, deputy director of the city Department of Transport, said the 80-seat buses would run on main routes.

Most of the main routes run through large roads and so the operation of large buses would not affect the traffic much, he said.

It was decided to buy 560 large vehicles following calculations based on passenger demand on the routes, he explained.

To improve the services, his department would continue to review and adjust routes to allow passengers easy and convenient access to buses, he said.

It would create free parking lots for motorbikes and bicycles at bus stations and terminals so that people can leave their personal vehicles there and use buses, he said.

It would study one-way streets to allow buses to run both ways on some of them, he said.

The department would improve the work ethic of bus drivers and their assistants and use gadgets to monitor the operation of buses, he said.

Buses would remain the city's chief mode of public transport until 2020 since the first metro line and bus rapid transit route would only be operational in 2017-18, he said.

There are more than 3,000 buses running on 200 routes, meeting 10.7 per cent of people's transport needs. The city spends more than VND1 trillion (US$47.6 million) a year to subsidise their operations.

Buses carried 624.9 million passengers last year and the department hopes to increase the number to 650 million this year.

Minister vows to fix damaged roads

Transport Minister Dinh La Thang has asked road agencies to identify the causes of and solutions to subsidence on major roads across the country by the end of this year.

The deteriorations have appeared on many major roads including National Highway No1 and No5, part of National Highway No3 from Ha Noi to Thai Nguyen and the Noi Bai- Lao Cai Expressway.

The problem has caused headaches for the transport sector and stirred public outcry with cracks even appearing on new roads opened only a few weeks or months prior.

Speaking at a workshop held by the ministry on Tuesday to discuss road degradation, transport officials and experts urged for the Government to tighten control over the quality of asphalt used to build roads, road construction and design and overloaded vehicles.

Head of the ministry's Sciences and Technology Department, Hoang Ha said that the subsidence was more common at major turns or at the top of sloped sections of roads.

He said that contractors were using poor quality materials, inflexible designs among different parts of the roads or use the same pavement types for different kinds of roads in different geographic and weather conditions.

"Overloaded trucks make the situation worse," Ha said, citing that from northern Ha Nam Province to Thanh Hoa, 23 per cent of trucks were found to be overloaded, most of which were carrying three times the permitted weight.

Tran Xuan Sanh, director of the ministry's Project Quality Management Department said that lackluster materials, outdated technology and inexperienced contractors were behind the poor quality roads.

Minister Thang ordered that by next month, road project management boards and investors would have to make plans to repair degraded roads, cracks and subsidence.

He added that design consultants, supervisors, road project management boards and contractors would need to improve their performance and boost independent assessment.

He asked the Project Quality Management Department to examine roads with expired warranties in the three months following.

The department also requested contractors to fix problems or they would be held responsible, Thang said.

Minister Thang said that he was also willing to approve any solution that could prevent subsidence over the next five years.

Cities target leprosy reduction

All provinces and cities are expected to achieve key indicators related to leprosy elimination by 2015, according to the agency that provides technical guidance to hospitals for the national leprosy prevention programme.

There are four main criteria: a leprosy prevalence rate of less than 0.2 per 10,000 population; less than one new case per 100,000; less than 15 per cent degree-two disability among new patients; and all medical staff and local authorities should have basic knowledge of the disease.

Fifty two provinces and cities achieved the four indicators by 2013.

Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, An Giang, Kien Giang, Binh Phuoc, and Tay Ninh hope to achieve them by the end of this year, and the remaining city and provinces — HCM City, Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, Gia Lai, and Kon Tum — by the end of 2015.

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Xuyn said that for the purpose they should focus on activities to detect new cases and rehabilitate patients with leprosy.

At a national meeting on accelerating leprosy elimination held yesterday (June 25) by the National Hospital of Dermato-Venereology in Ninh Thuan Province, Assoc Prof Dr Tran Hau Khang, manager of the country's leprosy prevention programme and director of the National Hospital Of Dermato-Venerelogy, said the rate of new cases decreased from 1.04 per 100,000 in 2004 to 0.29 last year.

The prevalence rate also fell from 0.10 per 10,000 in 2004 to 0.02. The rate of new patients with degree-two disability dropped from 16.9 per cent to 16.54 per cent, but the speed of change was slow, he said.

The country has 18,000 leprosy patients with degree-two disability, one of the challenges facing the programme, he said.

He called on provinces and cities that have achieved the targets to continue with the programme, warning that a failure to do so could see outbreaks again.

But a drop in the funding for the programme is causing difficulties especially for those provinces and cities planning to achieve the targets by 2015.

Xuyen called on health officials in provinces and cities to take the initiative to carry out examinations to detect new cases early, treat patients with free multi-drug therapy, and reduce disabilities.

Dissemination of information about the disease, prevention of disabilities, and rehabilitation should be strengthened and health officials on the programme should be provided training, she added.

Luxembourg funds healthcare centres in mountainous provinces

The northern mountainous Cao Bang Province's Health Department and the Luxembourg Agency for Development Cooperation this morning ( June 25) inaugurated a new health centre in the Dam Thuy Commune, Trung Khanh District.

The centre, spread over an area of 950 square metres, was built with an investment of more than VND2.2 billion, or US$104,000, from Luxembourg's development grant.

It is expected to provide better healthcare to about 5,000 people, mostly from the Tay ethnic group in the commune.

The healthcare centre is part of Luxembourg's support to the healthcare policy for the poor in the northern provinces of Cao Bang and Bac Kan.

Under the project, the construction of other 11 healthcare centres, worth VND26.8 billion or $1.25 million, is scheduled to finish next month in the two provinces.

AFD funds GI development project in Mekong Delta

The French Development Agency (AFD) will earmark US$2 million for the four Mekong sub-region countries to build Geographical Indications (GI) for their agricultural products.

The 2014-2017 project, with funding sourced from the French government, will be implemented in Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.

At a launch ceremony in Hanoi on June 25, Michel Drobniak, Economic and Commercial Counsellor of the French Embassy in Vietnam, said the project helps the beneficiary countries strengthen the legal system on GI and reinforce the recognised system at the national level.

GI is a very important system, especially when Vietnam is negotiating free trade agreements (FTAs) with big partners, including the EU, he said.

Farmers will first benefit from their products if they are protected beyond national borders, he said, adding GI also helps Vietnamese consumers easily gain access to high-quality products.

During the past decade, the interest in an enhanced protection system for geographic indicators, a recognised system of certification for unique regional foods and agricultural processes, has grown considerably around the world, particularly in Asia. In Asia alone, the number of registered GI products now exceeds 120.

National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam (NOIP) Director General Ta Quang Minh stressed that Vietnam has a wide range of high-quality agricultural products which bring reputation and high economic value.

The use of GIs will promote the competitiveness of Vietnamese agricultural products and create more income for local people, contributing to hunger elimination, poverty reduction and sustainable development in rural areas, he said.

Currently, Vietnam has 38 famous products certified GIs including Shan Tuyet Moc Chau tea, Tam Xoan Hai Hau rice, Van Yen Cinnamon, Phu Quoc fish sauce, Buon Ma Thuat Coffee, Doan Hung pomelo and Binh Thuan green dragon fruit.

Japanese minister shares experience in promoting hi-tech agriculture

Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Hayashi Yoshimasa on June 25 visited Saigon Hi-Tech Agriculture Park in Ho Chi Minh City where he shared Japan’s experience in developing high-technology agriculture as well as the application of biotechnology.

He hoped the two sides will have more chances to share farming knowledge and discuss the management of Japanese cooperative model.

Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Le Thanh Liem said promoting high technology and the application of biotechnology in agriculture has been one of the city’s priorities.

Although the sector accounts for only 1% of the city’s GDP, it plays a significant role in economic development of five outskirt districts.

He said Ho Chi Minh City hopes to learn more from Japan, so that local farmer can produce high value products recognised globally like those of Japan.

After five years of operation, Saigon Hi-Tech Park, the country’s first and largest of its kind, has become a centre for researching and transferring agriculture technology of Vietnam. It has also trained agricultural experts for not only the southern region but the whole country as well.

The park is hosting 14 projects in plant variety production, orchid cultivation, clean vegetable, mushroom, herbal and ornamental plant farming and biological products for agriculture.

Taiwanese projects benefit needy children in central province

Underprivileged children in the central province of Quang Tri have benefited from a number of projects by a Taiwanese non-governmental organisation over the past 16 years, heard a meeting on June 25.

The projects of Zhi-Shan Foundation (ZSF) from China’s Taiwan have been carried out since 1998 at a sum of VND32.5 billion (US$1.5 million).

During the period, the ZSF has presented more than 1,000 scholarships worth some VND1.2 billion (US$57,100) every year to children with disadvantaged backgrounds.

Since 2000, it has given free surgeries totally worth about VND7.5 billion (US$357,100) to 670 children with deformities and helped rehabilitate the disabled under 18.

Under another project supporting pre-school education since 2004, four nurseries have been built at a cost of VND5 billion (US$238,000) in Gio Linh, Cam Lo and Hai Lang districts while local staff trained in nutrition practice and health care.

It aims to ensure access of all children in the target localities to education and reducing the rate of malnourished ones to below 10%.

On this occasion, the Quang Tri People’s Committee recognised contributions of the ZFS by awarding certificates of merit to three individuals.

Local authorities and the foundation also presented gifts to 914 students who achieved outstanding academic results.

Founded in 1995, the ZFS engages in long-term humanitarian international aid and development work.

Official urges new waste strategy

Urban waste treatment should be handed over to private operators since public facilities have proved inefficient, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai has said.

Speaking at a meeting with HCM City and Long An Province officials at the Da Phuoc Integrated Waste Treatment Facility in HCM City's Binh Chanh District last Saturday, he said: "The models of public operation of waste treatment has not been successful, and so we should encourage private firms who have sufficient resources and advanced technologies to invest in this sector."

There are 458 dumping sites in the country at present but only 26 of them are environmentally safe, he pointed out.

He said Da Phuoc's waste treatment facility operated by the Viet Nam Waste Solutions Inc (VWS) is appropriate for the country and should be supported by relevant authorities.

Da Phuoc has a daily processing capacity of 10,000 tonnes of waste but now gets a mere 3,000 tonnes a day, he said.

To reduce the pressure on dumps using outdated technologies, he ordered HCM City authorities to send more waste to Da Phuoc, increasing the volume it treats to 7,000 tonnes per day.

Nguyen Huu Tin, deputy chairman of the city People's Committee, said Phuoc Hiep dump in Cu Chi District should be closed down due the environmental problems its outdated technology causes.

The 3,000 tonnes it currently treats daily would be transferred to Da Phuoc instead, he said.

To resolve the problems that could arise after the closure of Phuoc Hiep, Da Phuoc would offer jobs to its 300-odd workers, Huynh Thi Lan Phuong, deputy general director of VWS, said.

Phuong also unveiled plans to set up a green waste-treatment plant in Long An Province.

Located on 1,760 hectares in Tan Lap commune in Thu Thua District, the plant will use advanced technologies from the US to treat solid waste, including industrial, medical, and household wastes from eight provinces in the Southern Key Economic Zone.

To cost $700 million, the plant will employ 6,000 to 10,000 workers and handle 40,000 tonnes of waste per day.

But its construction has been delayed due to paper work, Phuong said.

"It took us 15 months to [get permission to] adjust the registered capital of the project.

"We have asked relevant authorities to make it faster."

Hai approved of VWS's green waste-treatment plant in Long An and ordered HCM City and Long An authorities to complete all formalities so that the company can start working on it.

Ha Noi to inspect flood prevention preparations

Ha Noi will set up 13 teams to inspect storm and flood prevention efforts ahead of this year's storm season, according to an official from the city's Flood Prevention and Control Office.

The groups will examine local dyke systems and irrigation works, said the Office's chief Do Duc Thinh at a press briefing this week.

Vice Chairman of the municipal People's Committee Tran Xuan Viet said at a recent press briefing that it was essential to have specific plans to help mitigate the consequences of disasters brought on by unusual weather patterns and climate changes.

He stressed that focus needed to be given to plans to evacuate local people and to ensure the safety of construction projects or houses in low-land areas or along rivers.

Thinh, who is also Director of the Ha Noi Department of Dyke Management and Flood Control, said the department had developed various contingencies for the rainy season.

He said small floods did not usually happen in the city in June but this month had witnessed dangerous whirlwinds and rains.

Heavy rain that lashed the city on Wednesday night caused flooding in some areas of the city, while heavy rains on June 4 led to the death of a taxi driver after a large tree collapsed nearby. Nearly 100 large trees had been uprooted and many electricity poles were brought down during the storm.

The Ha Noi Water Drainage Company estimates that there are about 10 inner-city sites that will be vulnerable to flooding during the rainy season.

The rainy season usually begins in July but this year it is expected to arrive earlier this month.

According to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, about 10-12 storms and tropical depressions may appear in the East Sea this year, 4-5 of which will directly affect mainland Viet Nam.

The Red River Delta in the north may be hit by 2-3 storms or tropical depressions, mainly in July, August and September.

RoK helps build vocational school in Quang Ninh

The construction of a vocational school in northern Quang Ninh province began on June 23 under a cooperation agreement between the Governments of Vietnam and the Republic of Korea (RoK).

Costing around 326 billion VND that are sourced from the RoK Government’s Official Development Assistance and the local budget, the school will cover 22,400 square metres in Hoanh Bo district.

The school is expected to become operational in June, 2015. It targets to train about 700-1,600 students per year in five majors of mechanics, electricity, food processing and preservation, construction material production, and tourism.

It will also provide retraining courses for workers towards generating high-quality human resources serving the province’s “green” economy.

Apart from Quang Ninh, four similar schools have also been built in Hanoi, central Quang Ngai province, and southern Binh Duong and Ca Mau provinces.-

Hanoi plans to raise per capita average housing area

Hanoi is striving to raise its per capita average housing area to 23.1 square metres by the end of 2015 as stated in the capital’s housing development programme for the 2012 – 2020 period.

Accordingly, Hanoi aims to provide every people in its urban areas with 26.6 sq.m. of housing and those in rural zones with 20 sq.m.

The programme, recently approved by the Prime Minister, targets 89.7 percent of housing in the city built permanently, up from 88.6 percent in 2011.

From now to the end of 2015, Hanoi will build 540,000 sq.m of housing to accommodate 41,000 students and another 1.6 million sq.m for workers at industrial parks.

At the same time, about 20,000 apartments with a total flooring space of 1.8 million sq.m will be constructed for those who rendered services during wartime, civil servants, military personnel, low-income earners, and other beneficiaries.

By 2020, the average housing area for each people in the capital will stand at 26.3 sq.m with respective figures in urban and rural areas of 29.1 and 22.1 sq.m.

Meanwhile, the rate of permanent housing will be raised to 91.2 percent.

Under the plan, Hanoi will also suspend commercial projects that have not been licensed in its downtown.-

Ben Tre accelerates progress of public projects

The southern province of Ben Tre has been accelerating a Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Output-Based Approach (WASHOBA) Programme funded by a social organisation, enabling thousands of locals to benefit from the work soon.

The East Meets West (EMW) has funnelled some 500,000 AUD (nearly 472,000 USD) provided by Australia to the province to construct nine clean water supply stations. Once finished, they will benefit more than 4,600 households in a number of districts.

To date, three out of the nine have been completed. Ben Tre’s Clean Water and Rural Environmental Sanitation Centre is mobilising necessary resources to soon finish the remaining works.

The EMW has also granted more than 3.6 billion VND (169,130 USD) in non-refundable assistance to help the province build 4,250 toilets for local households.

However, the progress of the project is quite slow due to the lack of effective collaboration between stakeholders.

Vice Chairman of the provincial Peoples’ Committee Tran Anh Tuan said the province will ask the stakeholders to quicken the progress of the project and seriously realise their commitments to the organisation.

WB-funded project helps modernise land management system

A conference examining the implementation of the Vietnam Land Administration Project (VLAP), which was designed to help Vietnam develop a modern land management system, was held in the central province of Khanh Hoa on June 23.

Hosted by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) and the World Bank in Vietnam, the event brought together over 100 delegates from state agencies and nine localities involving in the project.

The MoNRE-built project has a total investment of 100 million USD, including 75 million USD funded by the WB. It has been carried out from 2008 in Hanoi, the northern provinces of Hung Yen and Thai Binh, central Binh Dinh, Khanh Hoa and Quang Ngai provinces, and the Mekong Delta provinces of Tien Giang, Ben Tre and Vinh Long.

Scheduled to be completed by June, 2015, the project aims to develop a perfect land management system in the targeted cities and provinces and to help people utilise land information services, including instructions on land use right certificates.

Speaking at the event, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Nguyen Manh Hien urged authorities at all levels to speed up the granting of land use right certificates to the users.

He also stressed the need to intensify communications on the project to people, while focusing on solving difficulties in deploying the project.

Under the project, more than 30,400 ha of land were measured and drawn on an administrative map and over 250,000 land use right certificates issued in the first half of this year.

To date, nearly 1.59 million land use right certificates have been handed over to people in the benefited localities, according to the MoNRE.-

Medical sector seeks investment in human resources

The Ministry of Health (MoH) held a meeting with foreign medical partners in Hanoi on June 24 to discuss measures to further develop human resources in the medical sector.

Participants included representatives from several embassies, development cooperation agencies, United Nations organisations, international banks, 12 medical universities, 7 hospitals and nine medical centres.

MoH Deputy Minister Le Quang Cuong said developing medical human resources plays an important role in improving the quality and efficiency of healthcare services,  adding human resources development is one of the sector’s 7 priorities in the 2011-2016 period.

Cuong said he hopes participants will put forward new training methods and share Government’s orientations and action plans in line with development partners’ contribution to the important field.

Dr Takeshi Kasai, Chief representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Vietnam, said the meeting aims to set two major orientations for the medical partnership group and Vietnam in the future – new working mechanisms for the medical partnership group and educational reform.

The first step towards improving the quality of healthcare services is to reform education and train medical staff, he said.

Delegates agreed that the number of medical staff has increased significantly in recent years, however, it does not meet the real demand, especially in the remote and mountainous areas. The quality of services has been improved but there remain many challenges.

In the coming time, the healthcare sector will train general doctors and ensure the quality of education and training in this field.

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