Rules on compulsory military service may be changed

The NA Standing Committee has just discussed making changes to the draft law on compulsory military service.

Many deputies proposed mandatory military service for young men of a period of 18 months, instead of the current 18 to 24 months, depending on the position. However, because of the proposal's timing, if approved, the state would have to choose mainly from university students for positions requiring specific expertise.

Minister of Defense Phung Quang Thanh has spoken up against the proposal, saying that municipal authorities agreed to the 24 month period. A shorter period would not give enough time for training, especially now that more modern weapons are being used.

Thanh said, "Our research shows that the length of service in most countries is two or three years. The least is 21 months."

Minister Phung Quang Thanh said a large number of people used loopholes to avoid military service. In order to address this problem, the draft makes it clear that high school and full-time university students can postpone their duties, but must enlist in the military once they graduate. Students attending in-service or distance training programs are not allowed this exemption and would have to enlist immediately and postpone their education.

However, NA Vice Chairman of the Financial and Budgetary Committee Dinh Van Nha expressed worries about the budget. He said, "Many full-time university students borrow money for tuition from the state budget. If they have to serve in the military service right after graduation, they may not be able to repay their debt. I think we should prolong the payment period or forgive the debts completely."

Minister Phung Quang Thanh also said it would be ideal if every qualified young man could be enlisted, but they would face financial troubles. "If one takes into account even the cost of guns, bullets and all the training, our budget can't cover everything," he said.

He went on to say that, since 90% of the enlisted young men are from farming families, the number of students enlisted would inevitably be changed along with the quality of military personnel as a whole.

Early floods damage hundreds of paddy hectares in delta

The early floods in the Mekong Delta this year have damaged around 220 hectares of paddy of the summer-autumn crop in Hong Ngu District, Dong Thap Province, leaving losses of an estimated VND2 billion.

Swelling river water levels are threatening more farmland, including 10 hectares of vegetables in the upstream district of Tan Hong in the province.

Water levels in Tan Chau and Chau Doc districts in An Giang Province are 0.6-0.9 meter higher than the average of previous years.

According to the centers for hydro-meteorological forecasting of the upstream provinces of the Mekong River, water levels there will continue rising in the first half of this week.

In the Plain of Reeds and Long Xuyen Quadrangle, the current water level is 0.7-1 meter higher than the flooding season of last year. The sluices of Tha Lan and Tra Su dams in An Giang Province have been opened one month earlier than previous years to ease flooding.

Duong Van Ni at the Department of Environment and Natural Resource Management at Can Tho University said the flooding season usually starts in the delta in August.

Scientists have suggested that farmers in the upstream region should finish their summer-autumn crop before floods come and build dikes to protect their crops.

However, scientists also said flooding also helps clean up and enrich farms after winter-spring and summer-autumn crops. But in reality, many farmers still set up solid dikes to prevent floods from flowing into their fields to grow their third paddy crop and this increases the water speed of flooding and threatens daily lives and agricultural production in the region.

Switches have been installed in many vehicles to deactivate black boxes that are supposed to detect when they exceed the speed limit, according to the Directorate for Roads of Viet Nam.

The directorate asked transport departments across the country to tighten inspections and punish drivers, transport firms and black box providers if their equipment failed to transmit data to the directorate or contained a switch that automatically turned off the black boxes in cases of speeding.

Under the Transport Ministry's Circular 55, which took effect last April, transport businesses face one- to three-month suspensions if they fail to provide required information extracted from black boxes. This includes speed as well as driving and stopping time.

This month, the directorate launched a pilot digital map of vehicle speed based on signals from vehicles running on National Highway 5. By the end of last month, the system had received data from 69,200 vehicles, about 60 per cent of the total number reported operating.

However, this percentage dropped to less than 50 per cent in Ca Mau, Binh Phuoc, Khanh Hoa and Dong Nai in the south, Bac Ninh, Ha Noi and Thai Binh in the north and Nghe An, Quang Nam and Ba Ria- Vung Tau in the centre.

Directorate head Nguyen Van Huyen said that there was no regulation empowering traffic police to use data extracted from black boxes to fine drivers for speeding.

He recommended that starting next year, drivers be fined if exceeding the speed limit by 35km/h. As of 2016, those exceeding the limit by 20 km/h would be fined.

Chairman of Ha Noi Transport Firms' Association Bui Danh Lien said that drivers, transport firms, black box providers and management agencies must co-operate to improve the quality of black boxes. When the black boxes failed to function, that should be blamed on the producers, rather than drivers or transport companies, he said.

High-tech applications crucial for agriculture

Problems associated with transfer of high-tech applications need to be solved to help promote the growth of the HCM City High-Tech Agricultural Park (HHAP), heard a seminar held in HCM City yesterday.

"Policies which attract agricultural and rural investors, especially in high-tech agriculture cultivation, must be completed, along with adjustment of policies of agricultural production co-operation," said Nguyen Hai An, director of the Park's Incubation Centre.

Dr. Nguyen Tan Binh and Dr. Huynh Thanh Dien, lecturers of Van Hien University, pointed out that transferring high-tech application faces hindrances, including the inability of farmers to use new technology, limited capital, and small land plots unsuited for high-tech applications.

"Enterprises are participating in high-tech agricultural research but they are not directly taking part in real production," Binh said.

To solve the problem, he suggested that public-private partnerships be established in high-tech agricultural research and development.

"Local authorities should promote research trends and develop agriculture as well as invite enterprises to take part from the very beginning. The work should not be done only by research institutes and universities," Dien said.

He also emphasises the important role of farmers in transferring new plantation technology and asked that they be trained often.

From now to 2020, the HHAP will include four regions, with the first the current location of 88ha in Pham Van Coi commune, Cu Chi District, which is focused on plantations.

Another 200ha will specialise in fresh pet-fish research, and 90ha will be allotted for marine research in Can Gio. The fourth will be in Binh Chanh District and will specialise in animal-feed research.

The park, which was set up in 2004, has gained achievements but it has been limited because of haphazard investment and a poor support system that could attract enterprises. In addition, products have not been very popular with customers.

There are 29 high-tech agriculture parks in the country.

VN to host Southeast Asian talent management conference for 1st time

An annual Southeast Asian conference on the latest perspectives on effective leadership will be held in Viet Nam for the first time next month.

Organised by talent management solutions provider Profiles International South East Asia, the 2nd annual International Talent Assessment and Development Conference (ITADC) will take place on September 11-12 at the Pullman Saigon Center in HCM City.

Fourteen international experts in training and developing people from the US, Ireland, UK, the Philippines, Singapore, and Viet Nam will discuss three new global perspectives on effective leadership and 12 best practices and case studies on talent management.

ITADC 2014 is expected to attract 150 attendees.

SAV to focus on IT infrastructure

The State Audit of Viet Nam (SAV) would focus on developing information technology (IT) infrastructure and boosting IT applications during the next three years, heard a conference on the sector's development on Thursday.

Addressing the event, SAV deputy audit general Doan Xuan Tien said that improving IT applications was one of eight key strategic priorities to develop the sector by 2017.

The other measures relate to improving the legal framework and impact of SAV, increasing the number and skills of its auditors, improving capacity in applying international practices and developing audit plans.

An official from the SAV's Centre for Information Technology, Pham Thi Thu Ha, said that the SAV would upgrade its integrated auditing database centre to approach a centralised information system within the next two years.

By 2017, all auditing offices nationwide would have their information technology facilities upgraded and connected with the database centre.

She said that the SAV was developing a network security system together with programmes to collect and analyse data for mapping audit plans.

SAV was also developing a software programme to manage audit plans, processing, results and the implementations of SAV's recommendations to Governments and audited organisations, she said.

"Funding and human resources are two major difficulties in strengthening the applications of information technologies in the audit sector," she said.

Viet Nam's audit sector was striving to improve methods and operations while trying to meet the specialized requirements of auditing, she said.

According to the World Bank specialist, the SAV was an integral part of Viet Nam's public financial management architecture, which includes budgeting, accounting, internal audit, external audit and legislative oversight.

Comprehensive external audits by the SAV would be crucial to helping the government with implementing public financial management reforms and the National Assembly in performing its oversight function, said Christopher Fabling, World Bank senior financial management specialist.

The draft Common Results Framework, developed to assist the SAV's Development Strategy, should provide the basis for the SAV and its development partners.

One of its foundation projects is the completion of revised IT Plan to 2020, overseen by the Information Technology Centre.

HCM City: Over 1,500 new classrooms ready for new school year

As many as 1,527 new classrooms will be put into use in Ho Chi Minh City to better serve the 2014-2015 school year, which will begin in September.

The information was released by Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Education and Training Le Hoai Nam at a conference looking at preparations for the new academic year in the city on August 14.

Of that amount, 620 classrooms are designed for primary schools, 461 for high schools, and 30 others for special education, he said.

Up to 90 of 108 new schools to be inaugurated are nurseries as part of an effort to ease pressure on preschool education in the city, he added.

The southern economic hub is set to have a total of 2,124 schools in the 2014-2015 school year with more than 1.5 million students.

Vietnamese in Switzerland gather ahead of national day

The Vietnam mission to the United Nations, the World Trade Organisation and international organisations in Geneva, Switzerland met with the Vietnamese community ahead of the 69 th anniversary of August Revolution (August 19) and the National Day (September 2).

Ambassador and head of the mission Nguyen Trung Thanh informed them that Vietnam has been on its path of deeply integrating into the world with diplomatic, economic, trade and investment ties with over 200 countries worldwide.

On this occasion, the community in Switzerland also expressed their wish for a prosperous, and peaceful Vietnam.

Outstanding youths honoured for following President Ho’s example

The most outstanding young people in the campaign of studying and following President Ho Chi Minh’s moral example were honoured at a ceremony in Hanoi on August 17.

The ceremony is part of a three-day congress that brought together 200 delegates representing more than 25 million young Vietnamese in the country and abroad who have responded actively to the campaign initiated by the Party Politburo three years ago.

Addressing the ceremony, Nguyen Dac Vinh, First Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union’s Central Committee and also Chairman of the Vietnam Youth Union, said the campaign has reached every youth union cell and youth union member, bringing about profound changes in young people’s political awareness.

Le Hong Anh, Politburo member and permanent member of the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat, hailed the youth union organisations for their creative approach in popularizing the campaign.

He stressed the youth unions’ role in educating young people on morality, lifestyle and ideals, particularly the country’s fine traditions, patriotism, national pride and voluntary and pioneering spirit.

The congress, held in Hanoi from August 15-17, sent a message to young people nationwide, calling on them to nurture aspirations and ambitions as well as the firm will to realise them, while continuously striving to become citizens useful for both family and the country.

Labour confederation chief presents gifts to Quang Ngai fishermen

During a working visit to the central province of Quang Ngai on August 16, President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL) Dang Ngoc Tung offered 155 million VND (7,300 USD) to two fishermen whose fishing vessels were chased and seriously damaged by a Chinese ship two days ago.

On the occasion, trade union of the PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corporation presented 800 national flags to An Vinh and An Hai fishing trade unions.

The Vietnam Trade Union Tourism company handed over each 100 million VND (4,700 USD) to Quang Ngai fishing trade union and Ly Son district chapter of the VGCL.

Meanwhile, the VGCL’s Labour Protection Institute granted 30 million VND (1,400 USD) to An Vinh fishing trade union.

While in Quang Ngai, VGCL President Tung also attended a groundbreaking ceremony for new VGCL branch office in Ly Son.

Vietnam makes strides in applying int’l labour standards

Vietnam has made remarkable strides in the application of international labour standards, a means to ensure sustainable corporate growth and rights of workers, experts said at a Ho Chi Minh City workshop on August 14.

Adopted by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 1998, the set of standards groups the freedom of association and collective bargaining, the abolition of all forms of coercive, forced and child labour, and discrimination at work.

Deputy Director General of the Department of Legal Affairs under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) Mai Duc Thien acknowledged that some standard labour practices are made into the law, but several others remain under consideration, citing the freedom of establishing associations as an example.

It is due to the fact that Vietnam has yet to have a full legal framework and infrastructure to make it a reality, Director of the MoLISA’s International Cooperation Department Le Thi Kim Dung explained.

To meet international standards, Vietnamese firms should come up with better workforce training schemes, she suggested.

Nguyen Trong Nghia, a representative from the Vietnam United Sweethearts garment company in the southern province of Dong Nai, said his company holds regular dialogues with workers, making it easier for them to do their good jobs.

Vietnam has so far ratified 21 out of 189 ILO conventions, and five out of eight ILO fundamental conventions.

HIV/AIDS control work faces budget shortage

The biggest problem for the prevention and fight against HIV/AIDS is budget shortage, said Vice Chairman of the National Assembly’s Committee for Social Affairs Dang Thuan Phong.

Addressing a recent workshop in Hai Phong on HIV/AIDS control policies, the law maker said foreign aid for the work has been reducing as Vietnam enters the group of middle income countries. The government also plans to abolish the national target programme on preventing and fighting HIV/AIDS, drug and prostitutions, which means the work will no longer receive priority in investment, he said.

Meanwhile, the country continues to aim higher in this field, targeting providing ARV treatment for 100,000 HIV carriers from the current 48,000, and Methadone therapy for 80,000 drug users by the end of next year compared to the current 16,000.

Kristan Shoultz, UNAIDS Vietnam Country Director, suggested that Vietnam needs initiatives and drastic actions to sustain the results of the past 15-year effort in HIV/AIDS control.

She said the UNAIDS’s initiative on a strategic investment case for HIV aims to work out effective tools in allocating and optimising all resources for HIV/AIDS control activities.

Participants at the workshop were also introduced to the national investment strategy on HIV/AIDS control in the 2015-2020 period.

Kon Tum ethnic students learn native languages

Ethnic primary students of Bah Nar and Jrai across the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum will learn their mother tongues which have been added to the curricula for the 2014-2015 academic year.

Earlier, the initiative was done on an experimental basis in some areas.

Beyond that, the Vietnamese language education will target more ethnic pre-school kids and students.

The pilot model of boarding schools will continue and spread across the province.

The provincial education sector, meanwhile, will keep up its job to produce a contingent of qualified teachers and education managers, partly by renewing mechanisms involved.

In the 2013-2014 school year, Kon Tum earmarked 183 million VND (8,700 USD) as rewards for 136 high school students who did well on their university entrance exam.

During this period, 819 students took Bah Nar language course at 10 schools while 255 students learnt Jrai language in five schools in Kon Tum city, and the districts of Sa Thay and Kon Ray.-

Deputy PM requests Ho Chi Minh highway acceleration

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked the Ministry of Transport and the Ho Chi Minh Highway Project Management Board to make a concerted effort to complete the project’s phase 2 on schedule.

At the 15 th founding celebration of the Ho Chi Minh Highway Project Management Board in Hanoi on August 16, the Deputy PM said the road has contributed to reducing poverty, especially in ethnic minority-inhabited and remote areas where it goes through.

Lam Van Hoang, head of the management board said his unit will do its best to accomplish the road two years before the deadline of 2020 if its proposal of using the project’s saved expenses is accepted.

Ho Chi Minh highway is the largest-ever project in Vietnam as it runs across the country with a total length of 3,183 km. As many as 2,000 km of the road were opened to traffic.

The management board is making every effort to put the remaining part into use before 2020, Hoang stated.

According to Hoang, the project’s third phase after 2020 will focus on upgrading several routes of the road to high-speed ones in line with the approved plan.

Cambodia pledges to continue search for Vietnamese soldiers’ remains

Leaders of military regions and localities in Cambodia have pledged to continue assisting Vietnam in the search and repatriation of the remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers who died in Cambodia during the war.

The Cambodian officials made the commitment during working sessions with the Vietnamese government’s special committee for this work, during which the committee presented the Cambodian military regions and localities with financial assistance to help with the search in their areas.

On August 15, Vietnamese Defence Attaché to Cambodia, Colonel Nguyen Anh Dung handed over the financial aid to officials of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces’ Military Region 4 and authorities of four provinces in the region, completing the delivery of the 310,000 USD aid package for 2014.

The special committee on the search and repatriation of Vietnamese soldiers’ remains said nearly 5,000 sets of remains of Vietnamese soldiers are still in Cambodia. Both countries have to date found and returned the remains of over 16,000 Vietnamese martyrs. They plan to bring home 4,500 sets of remains by 2020.

Ca Mau: forest land zoned for organic rice cultivation

The southernmost province of Ca Mau is zoning 20,000ha of the U Minh Ha (Lower U Minh) forest for growing organic rice for export by 2020 under a recently approved plan by local authorities.

Director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Van Su said the plan has been carried out right from the 2014 – 2015 crop with 2,500ha of rice cultivated on part of the forest.

The area is expected to increase over the next years and reach 10,000ha by 2017 and 20,000ha by 2020.

In recent years, Ca Mau has piloted the cultivation of rice on part of the U Minh Ha forest, which originally harbours cajuput trees, and harvested encouraging results.

Rice grown without chemical fertilizers in the forest generated nearly 4.7 tonnes per hectare while the province’s average only approximates 4 tonnes per hectare.

Scientists said such productivity is thanks to U Minh Ha’s favourable conditions such as naturally fertile soil and fresh water all year round.

Su said the current productivity of 500,000 tonnes of rice per year is only sufficient to feed the province’s population of 1.2 million.

With organic rice fields in the forest, Ca Mau expects to raise its rice output and export 100,000 tonnes of this produce every year from 2020, he added.

Ba Ria-Vung Tau launches vaccination campaign against measles

More than 261,000 children under 14 in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau will be vaccinated against measles-rubella as part of a 2014-2015 vaccination drive announced by the local Health Department on August 15.

The first phase of the large-scale campaign will be implemented from mid-September to the end of October, targeting children in the age group of 1-5.

The second will be carried out from November to December for primary school students, while the last from January to February 15, 2015 for the remaining.

The local health sector targets all children to become immune from the disease and priority will be given to poor communes and those having low rate of vaccination.

According to the provincial Preventive Medicine Centre, Ba Ria-Vung Tau has recorded nearly 30 measles cases, with no fatalities so far this year.

Efforts made to prevent new avian flu strain A/H5N6

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has issued an emergency dispatch asking cities and provinces nationwide to deploy measures to prevent the new avian flu virus A/H5N6.

Localities were requested to focus on controlling illegal cross-border poultry smuggling to avoid the spreading of A/H5N6 and other bird flu strains in Vietnam .

The ministry also urged for strict quarantine and inspection of poultry as well as close control of poultry transport and trading in each locality.

Along with raising public awareness of the deadly strain, the MARD advised farmers to report to local authorities immediately in case of any abnormal sickness or death of their poultry.

All fowls tested positive for the virus must be destroyed following guidelines of veterinary agencies.

Recently, the deadly viral strain A/H5N6 has been detected in a flock of chicken in northern Lang Son province bordering China , and a duck flock in the central province of Ha Tinh next to Laos .

Genetic sequencing of samples showed that the virus is 99 percent similar to the deadly A/H5N6 strain reported in Sichuan , China .

The flocks were destroyed immediately, while the infection areas were disinfected. So far, no additional infection has been reported in these localities.

According to the World Health Organisation, A/H5N6 is a highly pathogenic strain but there is no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission despite occasional instances of apparent inflection between family members.

Vietnam seeks to push biomass power development

A consultation workshop on biomass power investment guidelines for Vietnam was held in Hanoi on August 14, providing information on investment procedures in the field in the country.

The workshop was part of the Renewable Energy Support Programme (RESP), which has been carried out in Vietnam by Germany’s development cooperation organization (GIZ) with support of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety since 2012.

Werner Kossmann, RESP technical advisor said the project’s goal is to make it easier and less risky for investors to invest in the biomass energy sector in Vietnam , thus contributing to realising the target set forth in the National Power Development Plan No 7 (NPDP 7) on power generation from biomass sources.

Earlier, the Prime Minister issued Decision 24/2014/ND-CP, specifying support mechanisms to develop biomass power projects in Vietnam .

Accordingly, biomass power projects can enjoy preferential treatments in terms of investment capital, investment credit, export credit and import tax exemption for materials and other goods that make fixed assets for the projects.

The decision is expected to step up public and private investment in the field.

VNN/VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/ND