VietNamNet Bridge – The Health National Target Programme period 2012-15 was approved by the Prime Minister on Tuesday. The programme alters the emphasis of the country's health care system from central to local.

The VND12,770 billion (over US$608 million) programme also strives to actively prevent dangerous diseases and detect and stamp out epidemics early to prevent pandemics from occuring.

The programme sets out to improve community awareness about cancer prevention and early detection of cancer. The goal is to increase the rate of cancer patients who are diagnosed in the early stages of the disease to 5-10 per cent and reduce the fatality rate of breast, cervical, oral and rectal cancers.

The programme also aims to make 50 per cent of the population aware of how to deal with high blood pressure.
In addition, the programme will increase early diabetes detection by providing diabetes screenings in communities and completing a nation-wide disease treatment network by 2015.

The programme also aims to maintain vaccination rates for more than 90 per cent of children under 1 year of age in all districts. These vaccinations cover 8 diseases of the national expanded programme for immunisation, including TB, Polio, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenza type B (Hib). Efforts will be put forward to reduce the measles rate to under 1/1,000,000 people and completely eliminate measles by the end of 2012.

In efforts to improve children's nutrition and reproductive health care, the programme mandates that 90 per cent of children under 5 who suffer from serious malnutrition be provided with emergency nutrient intervention, and that fatalities from serious malnutrition in this age group be reduced to 17.3 per cent.

The programme will also help strengthen health care and protection for the armed forces and people at borders, islands, key national defence and security areas, and mountainous and remote areas and make sure they are ready to respond to natural disasters and other unforeseen calamities.

It will provide 70 per cent of island districts with medical facilities and upgrade 100 medical clinics by 2015.

PM approves program to create more jobs, better training

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved a strategic program that will help create more jobs and provide more and better vocational training during the period 2012-2015.

The program aims at creating jobs for 0.8 million laborers through projects supported by the National Fund for Jobs.
The total capital investment for the program will be VND30,656 billion (US$1,471,000), under which 26 high quality vocational training schools will be developed, including five of international standards, to increase the number of trained laborers to 40 percent by 2015.

Under the program, 30 percent of the labor force will seek jobs through employment agencies.

Around 120,000 laborers from poor  economic backgrounds, living close to the poverty line; beneficiaries of social policies; people with distinguished services to the country during wartime; households whose farm lands have been reclaimed; and people of ethnic minority groups, will all benefit from the program.

VNN/VNS/SGGP