Central localities promptly overcome Wutip’s aftermath

Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai on October 1 toured the central province of QuangBinh to inspect the damage caused by typhoon Wutip in Bo Trach district and Dong Hoi city.

Deputy PM Hai asked local authorities to promptly total up the damage, search for the missing people, and support those who have lost family members and houses.

He also urged healthcare institutions to quickly recover to ensure emergency aid and treatment for the injured and timely carry out sanitation and cleansing works.

The typhoon, the tenth to hit Vietnam this year, made landfall in QuangBinh on the afternoon of September 30, claiming five lives and injuring 140 people. Two in the province are still missing.

It also caused VND4.5 trillion (US$210 million) in economic damage. Nearly 350 houses collapsed in the wind, while more than 150,000 others and hundreds of schools and medical stations had their roofs blown off, and over 100 fishing vessels were sunk.

The central province of Ha Tinh , another locality severely damaged by Wutip, are also carrying out all necessary measures to help locals.

Authorities in the coastal districts of Loc Ha, KyAnh and Thach Ha mobilised local people and military forces to re-roof houses and dam sections of damaged dykes.

Two people are missing and another two were injured in central NgheAn province. Residents have been warned of the risks of landslides and flooding in the coming days.

Also on October 1, the Vietnam Red Cross announced it will provide financial assistance for families that lost members during the typhoon.

Rare lorises sent to national park safety

The Cat Tien National Park received two lorises that are listed in Viet Nam's Red Book on Sunday.

The mother and baby are said to be in a good condition.

They will be taken to the Rescue Centre for Endangered Wild Animals before being sent to the park.

Lorises have a high aesthetic value, and are often used in taxidermy.

New landfill site in operation in Cu Chi District

As the Landfill Site No.2 at Tay Bac Cu Chi Solid Waste Treatment Complex will stop receiving waste by end of this year, the Ho Chi Minh City Urban Environment Company has opened up Landfill Site No.3 recently.

Landfill Site No.3 covers an area of 22.68 hectares and was set up with an investment cost of around VND976 billion. With capacity for 2,000-4,000 tons of waste per day and operating with KBEC technology of South Korea, the new site comprises of a liner system, ground water collection and conveyor facility, leachate collection and landfill gas collection facility, with total height of 35 meters for burial, of which 15 meters is underground.

The four-compartment landfill will be able to handle a total of 6.5 million tons of waste. Construction at the first compartment is complete and the other three will be finished by end of 2014.

A/H1N1 flu kills another in Dien Bien

The Dien Bien Provincial General Hospital on September 30 confirmed another death from A/H1N1 flu, bringing to two the number of fatalities this year.

Patient Nguyen Van Teo was hospitalised on September 23, showing symptoms of coughing, breathing difficulties and general aches and pains, doctor Quang Van Pinh said.

During his treatment, his illness became progressively more serious and he subsequently died on September 29.

His blood sample results tested positive for A/H1N1 influenza.

Currently, Dien Bien Hospital is treating a 7-year old boy who has flu-like symptoms such as coughing, high temperatures, and pain in his lungs. He is suspected of being infected with A/H1N1 strain.

He is currently in isolation at the hospital and his blood sample was sent to the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology for testing.

UK, Vietnam foster education cooperation

A seminar on the UK-Vietnam cooperation in education and training was held in Hanoi on September 30 within the framework of the UK’s Great Week in Vietnam.

The seminar, co-organised by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) and the UK Embassy, pointed out three key challenges in professional skill training: the educational system does not meet recruiters’ demands, the students lack practical skills, and there is the widening gulf between the training programme and output quality.

Participants said Vietnam has a shortage of teachers and trainers but has a plenty of opportunity to develop professional skills.

At the seminar, MoLISA Deputy Minister Nguyen Ngoc Phi and Director of the British Council Chris Brown signed a memorandum of understanding on vocational training cooperation between the two sides over the next three years.

Accordingly, they will strengthen cooperation in building dialogue policies and a professional network for vocational training, improving English capacity for vocational training teachers and managers, and raising the capacity of schools and trainees to take part in national, regional and international skills contests.

As scheduled, in 2013-2014, the General Department of Vocational Training, British Council, UK National Institute for Vocational Education and Vietnam National Coal Mineral Industries Group will cooperate in setting up a pilot vocational skill council to develop skill criteria for the mining industry.

In addition, they will hold a policy seminar with the participation of leading experts from the UK and Southeast Asian countries to help Vietnam implement its vocational training development strategy by 2020.

Vietnam and the UK will also conduct visit exchanges to share real experiences.

Greetings to Khmer people on Sene Dolta Festival

A delegation from the Steering Committee for the Southwest region on September 30 visited and presented gifts to monks at a number of Khmer pagodas and families in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang, celebrating Sene Dolta Festival.

Lieutenant General Tran Phi Ho, deputy head of the committee, extended greetings to the monks, nuns and Khmer people, wishing them a happy festive season.

He called on them to exert a greater effort to educate the Khmer community on the policies and laws of the Party and Government, promote national solidarity and vigilance against sabotage schemes by hostile forces, while joining the local governments to build a prosperous homeland.

Sene Dolta Festival is one of the largest annual festivals of the Khmer people, alongside Chol Chnam Thmay (New Year) and Ooc Oom Bok, a festival to thank the Moon for a good harvest.

During the festival, which lasts from October 1-4 this year, Khmer people gather together to pay tribute to their ancestors and enjoy traditional songs and dances after a hard working year.

The majority of the Khmer population in Vietnam lives in the southwestern region, which has 453 Khmer pagodas.

Vietnam helps Laos train political lecturers

The Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics and Public Administration on September 30 opened a training course for lecturers from Lao politics and public administration schools.

During the three-month course, participants will be provided with studying and teaching skills at politics schools, thus meeting requirements on education innovation and theoretical research in line with the Revolutions of the 8th Congress of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party.

The trainees will make fact-finding tours of several localities in Vietnam.

UN helps VN tackle child exploitation

The United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) on September 30 handed over equipment to support investigations of child sexual exploitation crimes in central Khanh Hoa and southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau provinces.

The equipment, including office machines and software programmes worth US$27,000, was part of a US$7.5-million project funded by the Australian Government to combat the sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism in the Mekong sub-region.

UNODC Vietnam Country manager Zhuldyz Akisheva said that the facilities were expected to enhance the capacity of justice and law enforcement officers and ensure expert investigations, offender identification and appropriate support for child victims.

Senior Lt.Col Tran Van Toan, deputy director of the Criminal Police Department, said this kind of crime was quite new and is a more complex issue in the country, posing challenges to the police.

A big challenge to elderly care services

Rapid population aging is posing a big challenge to Vietnam’s social security system, especially when Vietnamese people’s incomes remain low and medical services have yet to meet the elderly’s needs.

Professor Duong Quoc Trong, General Director of General Office for Population and Family Planning, says the rate of population aging in Vietnam will likely rise to 0.5-0.6% in a couple of years from estimated 0.4%, and the number of people aged 100 and over increased from 3,000 in 1999 to 7,200 in 2009.

Currently Vietnam has approximately 8.15 million senior citizens, accounting for 9.4% of the total population. The General Statistics Office (GSO) forecast the number of people aged 60 and over will make up 10% of the population in 2017, marking the start of the aging phase.

Elderly people are encouraged to practise morning exercises to improve their health

The General Office for Population and Family Planning statistics show elderly Vietnamese people still lead a hard life. Up to 70% of the elderly maintain routine work every day to earn a living; 60% live in specially difficult circumstances; and 95% suffer from chronic diseases.

The elderly mostly live off agricultural production in rural areas, and many of them do not have partners. The percentage of the elderly living with their children has diminished, while the percentage of the elderly living alone or with spouses has increased.

Monthly pensions and other social allowances are the main source of income for the elderly in Vietnam. However, they only make up one fifth of the current minimum wage.

When population begins aging in the coming years, job structure will change significantly, shouldering the economic burden on the young workforce.

Do Manh Hung, vice chairman of the National Assembly Committee for Social Affairs, says Vietnam has only three gereology departments at hospitals, and public medical services for the elderly are developing slowly.

He points out the fact that although the Law on the Elderly was promulgated in 2011, discrimination against the elderly has occurred here and there. Many elderly people have been even prevented from taking part in social activities by their children.

Experts suggest together with introducing and implementing policies for senior citizens, the government develop public services, reform the life insurance system, and provide more physical and material assistance for them.

According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Vietnam should slow down the aging process by encouraging the elderly to participate in social activities, doing household economies, and taking care of their health themselves.

Vietnam, Cuba youth unions foster ties

Communist youth leaders of Vietnam and Cuba have vowed to work more closely together in the future.

During talks held in Havana, Phan Van Mai, Permanent Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union (HCMCYU) Central Committee and Yuniasky Crespo, First Secretary of the Cuban Young Communist League (YCL) Central Committee, have voiced their mutual support.

Mai, who is also President of the Vietnam Youth Federation, briefed his host on outcomes of the HCMCYU’s tenth National Congress and its major programmes.

The HCMCYU is dedicated to improving education and awareness-raising work among young people to fulfil their role as pioneers in national construction and defence, he said.

He praised the YCL’s contributions to the World Federation of Democratic Youth and the organisation of the World Festival of Youth and Students.

He said Vietnam could learn from Cuba as its youth representatives take a more active role in the international arena and hoped the two sides would work together more closely in the time to come.

For his part, Yuniasky Crespo thanked the HCMCYU for its backing of Cuba, considering this a manifestation of the close ties between the two countries’ youth.

While introducing the YCL’s current tasks, the Cuban youth leader affirmed that the Cuban Party and Government always work to raise the awareness and patriotism of its young people.

During his stay in Cuba from September 23-29, Mai met with President of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples, Kenia Serrano, and was briefed on major programmes of action being launched by the institute.

He also paid a courtesy visit to Oscar Martinez, Deputy Head of the International Relations Department of the Cuban Communist Party, and laid wreaths at the Memorial of Jose Marti, Cuban’s national hero, and the statue of late Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh.

Lao national arrested for smuggling cocaine

A passenger from Laos has been arrested at Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat airport for allegedly smuggling 2.4 kilograms of cocaine into Vietnam.

The airport’s customs branch named the suspect as Khamchanh Daovone, 27, on September 29.

The branch has worked with the municipal Division of Drug and Crime Control and airport police to transfer the case to the city’s Drug Crime Investigation Police.

The airport’s customs force has worked hard to reduce the number of illegal drugs being transported into Vietnam.

One million Vietnamese children malnourised

Around one million Vietnamese children currently suffer from malnutrition, causing thousands of deaths.

National Institute of Nutrition Deputy Director Nguyen Thi Lam revealed the figures at a seminar in Hanoi on September 28, saying Vietnam’s malnutrition rate is much higher than in other countries in the region.

2012’s National Institute of Nutrition statistics show one in every five Vietnamese children under five is underweight and one in every three has stunted growth.

Lam said malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies impact children’s height, skeletal development, general health and wellbeing, and learning capacity.

Vietnam Paediatrics Association Deputy President Prof. Nguyen Gia Khanh described how rather than being determined by genetics alone, around 80% of a child’s height is decided by nutrition, physical activity, and the environment.

Prof. Khanh noted probiotics and beneficial bacteria can help children absorb food nutrients and aid digestion.

Lam warned a three-year-old child suffering stunted growth risks underdevelopment when fully mature. Better nutrition can raise national height averages, she said.  

She urged parents to give children foods rich in vitamin A, D, iron, calcium, and zinc, such as eggs, eel, liver, cereals, and milk.

Local people expressed support for the Government's exclusion of hydro-power projects No 6 and 6A on the Dong Nai River from an electricity development master plan, with the decision being announced by Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai last week.

"If scientists and the media had not sounded the alarm about the negative impacts these projects would have had on the environment (for nearly seven years), over 300ha of primary forests in the Cat Tien National Park would have been destroyed," said Dr Vu Ngoc Long, Head of the Southern Ecology Institute.

Earlier last month, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment had petitioned the Government to reconsider No 6 and 6A as well as all other hydro-power projects in the Dong Nai River Basin. It said the Government should do a comprehensive review of the two since an environmental impact assessment found that many issues still need to be clarified.

The ministry made its suggestion after sending a report to the Government Office about the proposed construction of the two power plants by Duc Long - Gia Lai Co. It said the two projects require 372.23ha of forests, including 128.37ha in Cat Loc, a core zone in the Cat Tien National Park.

In its environmental impact report, Duc Long - Gia Lai pledged to afforest the area but its report did not show the areas or contain plans for afforestation. It also failed to mention the estimated loss of bio-diversity at Cat Tien and other ecological losses in the region. Measures proposed to minimise the biological impacts were infeasible, according to the ministry.

Its report said no measures have been spelled out to protect the fauna and flora while the impact on stream flows in the lower section would affect the ecology, water levels, and the areas of swamp in Bau Sau Ramsar.

The hydro-power projects also pose other disadvantages. Work on related support facilities such as transmission lines and roads to support them will have an adverse impact on the environment and socio-economic conditions. This will also affect Nam Cat Tien National Park. The projects could also affect the subsistence of locals who earn their livelihoods from farming, aquaculture, and fishing in the lower sections and impact Nam Cat Tien National Park's application for world heritage status.

"The Party Committee, the People's Committee, and National Assembly deputies from Dong Nai repeatedly voiced the 'disadvantages' of these projects," the Deputy Chairman of the province People's Committee, Nguyen Thanh Tri, said. He added that these two projects would also have made the global community lose confidence if the core zone of Nam Cat Tien National Park had been destroyed.

Last week Bui Phap, Chairman of Duc Long - Gia Lai's management board said the company respects the Government's decision and would focus on other businesses. "This is a national issue. We should think about national interests rather than the company's benefits," he told the Nguoi Lao Dong (The Labourer) newspaper.

Campaign launched to curb drink driving

The National Committee for Traffic Safety launched a three-month campaign to strengthen communication, patrol and punishment over drink driving violations this morning.

Vice head of the committee Nguyen Hoang Hiep said this was one of 12 key measures to curb road traffic accidents this year.

In addition to activities to raise public awareness over the issue, this campaign also targets alcohol producers, especially domestic ones, who can join by printing warnings on their products, he said, noting that in Viet Nam, four foreign producers did so including Heineken and Tiger.

According to a survey by market researcher Euromonitor International, Viet Nam, with population of about 90 million people, sees a yearly beer consumption increase of ten per cent. Each person, on average, drinks about 30 liters of beer per year, which is more than the average amount for other South east Asian country and ranks forth in Asia, just behind Japan, Korea and China.

According to the World Hospital Organisation, drink driving is a major cause for road traffic injuries in Viet Nam.

Statistics from the major hospitals show that 30 per cent of the people that died in road accidents were found to have a blood alcohol content exceeding the allowed level of 50 mg per 100 ml of blood.

Private universities complain about government policies

The private university system is potentially facing its end under the current policies, said the experts at a conference about private universities held in Hanoi on September 26.

According to the expert changes in the university entrance exams and the grading system are biggest threats.

With the same scores from university entrance exam, students are likely to choose the schools that charge less. However, many experts said private universities should be allowed to recruit students who have scores lower than those taken by public schools. There are many universities that have available slots and students who want to study but who cannot because of low marks.

As a result, those students often choose to study abroad if they can afford it. Meanwhile, domestic private universities are in need of students and their fees in order to upgrade the school and attract good lecturers.

Dr Ngo Tu Lap from Vietnam National University in Hanoi said, "When the government allowed the establishment of private universities they were made into a commercial market. Yet the university entrance exam and its passing marks have prevented private universities from accepting students. Without students, the universities cannot survive. Every student should be allowed to use their money to study and the entrance exam is violating this right."

Headmaster of Hoa Binh University said, "Rich students choose foreign universities, students that have good marks choose public universities so only students with low abilities come to private universities."

According to Tran Hong Quan, president of the association of private universities, in 83 private universities, only 15 universities are having great difficulties. "We won't protect universities that violate regulations, however, there are facilities that suffer from difficulties because of various other problems and they need help. Private universities can't be blamed for the quality of Vietnam higher education. The Ministry of Education and Training should ask the question why the enrollment rates at private universities is so low."

Quan went on to say that in the past 20 years, the government has issued two regulations about operation of schools that have established by organisations and three about schools that have been established by individuals. However, Quan said these two models of private schools are not understood thoroughly.

In addition, there are many policies that sound attractive but in fact, they are impractical. Several private schools complained that they even have had to pay income taxes as if they were enterprises.

Health authority warns predators with heavy fines

Patients including children and adults with the pink eye disease waiting at the Eye Hospital in Ho CHi Minh City to see doctors

With the ‘pink-eye’ or conjunctivitis disease spreading rapidly in many localities in Vietnam in recent days, the Drug Administration of Vietnam has announced that any company or pharmacy taking advantage of the outbreak to increase fees will be severely penalized.

The Drug Administration has asked Departments of Health in cities and provinces, as well as hospitals and pharmaceutical companies to prepare enough medication for ‘pink eye’ prevention.

Local health departments have been urged to stand ready to provide immediate medicines, facilities and timely assistance to localities and units in dealing with outbreaks of ‘pink eye’.

As the pharmaceutical sector has prepared as many as 200 medications, medical clinics should contact drug producers to stock enough medication for prevention.

Source: VEF/VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/Dantri