Future of paper factory uncertain

Experts and officials are trying to decide what to do with a paper factory worth VNĐ3 trillion (US$133 million) in the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Long An that has been out of operation for many years due to technical problems.

Phương Nam Paper Factory’s construction commenced 10 years ago. The factory’s investor, Transport and Communication Development Investment Company (Tradico) under Civil Engineering Construction Corporation No 6, promised to “produce the best quality paper in Việt Nam, equivalent to European standard” from jute plants.

Along with the ambitious plan, local authorities called on residents to plant jute over an area of 9,000ha in the districts of Mộc Hóa, Tân Thạnh and Thạnh Hóa, the Nông thôn ngày nay (Countryside’s Today) newspaper reported.

The investment management of the factory was handed over from Tracodi to Việt Nam’s Paper Corporation (Vinapaco) in 2009.

More than 11,000ha of jute were then harvested and run through paper production machines in 2007 and 2008. However, the production system malfunctioned due to the low quality of the jute plant cutting process in the first stage of paper production.

Foreign and domestic experts in mechanics and industry were invited to address the problem and suggested replacing jute plants with hard wood. All proposed solutions, however, were ineffective and could not bring about any economic benefit.

Nguyễn Xuân Hồng, of Long An Province’s Department of Industry and Trade, said no paper was produced from the machines, despite efforts to use jute and repair the machinery.

Locals who expected to be lifted out of poverty by planting jute have been left destitute by the empty factory. Over 11,000ha of jute planted by locals have rotted and become food sources for mice.

Former Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng accepted the Finance Ministry’s proposal to close the factory in 2014 and ordered relevant agencies to roll out measures to liquidate or sell the factory.

To date, the factory has yet to be purchased, said Nguyễn Văn Được, deputy chairman of Long An Province’s People’s Committee.

More seriously, the whole jute planting area in Long An Province has been wiped out, said Lê Văn Hoàng, director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

NGOs should get State development support

The State should create a fair environment and legal system to help associations and civil social organisations to develop.

This was a comment by the participants of the seminar on the legal environment for social organisations referring to the draft Law on Social Organisation which was co-held yesterday by the Việt Nam Union of Science and Technology Associations and the Non-Governmental Organisation Information Centre.

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Home Affairs, there are more than 500 associations and organisations at central-level, 4,000 ones at city and provincial level, and over 10,000 at district level.

Besides, about 1,200 international non-Government organisations have been operating in the country with the total assistance worth US$3 billion from 1991-2012.

Speaking at the seminar, Dr. Hoàng Ngọc Giao, director of Law and Policy Research Institute, said “the rapid increase in the number of civil organisations in Việt Nam meant bigger roles and effects of associations and civil organisations to society”.

The associations and civil organisations have attracted hundreds of thousands of employees, contributing to job creation, said Giao.

At present, the associations and civil organisations have been widely involved in all fields of society including monitoring activities of the State apparatus.

Notably, the civil organisations have been permitted to contribute their opinions to the Party and State’s policies.

“In short, associations and civil organisations’ contribution to the country’s development for the last years was appreciated by the State, society and international community”, Giao told the meeting.

Meanwhile, Dr. Hàn Mạnh Tiến, chairman of Business Managers’ Association, raised the concern about relations between the business community and civil organisations.

“Three major pillars in a good society are State, businesses and civil organisations”, Tiến said.

“In last years, only the relationship between the State and civil organisations was taken into consideration. So, the legal system was focusing on the ties”, he said.

But in fact, the relations between businesses and the organisations should be enhanced. It was because ten years ago, the civil organisations were given big funds from international NGOs.

However, in recent years, the funds have been dramatically reduced due to many reasons, including the economic crisis.

Luring businesses to granting funds to civil organisations should be considered a strategy of State.

But, presently, few businesses have given funds to the organisations because of a lack of information. Besides, businesses still doubt the financial transparency of the organisations, he said.

At the meeting, the participants agreed that to encourage civil organisations, the State should boost the right of setting up associations and civil organizations, considered a policy of ensuring and protecting human rights and citizenship.

Besides, the procedures of association establishment should be simplified, said Giao.

Under the draft Law on Social Organisation, it takes 105 days to get an operation licence. It is too long, he added.

Job opportunities open up to visually impaired

Besides the stereotypical jobs like masseurs and IT engineers, many other vocations are now available to blind people.

The Job for Blind Facebook fanpage, for instance, has a video which shows the blind working as tele-salespeople, a common enough sight in the country.

They include Nguyễn Thị Thanh Thủy, who has been working at the Việt Nam Cacao Joint Stock Corporation (Vinacacao) in District 1 for a year.

Every day she calls the company’s customers to speak about new products, inquire about their sales and listen to problems about products to report to her superior.

Trần Văn Liêng, director general of Vinacacao, said this kind of job is suitable for people with visual impairments who have good communication and problem-solving skills and a pleasant voice.

After having worked with such people, he has found them to be competent and to listen attentively.

The fanpage also lists translating jobs for blind people.

Nguyễn Minh Tuấn, who operates the Job for Blind website, said people with visual impairment can come to his website to find job listings.

Six companies have listed their recruitment needs on the website since it was launched in late June.

The website has been set up by blind people at the Thiên Ân Shelter in Tân Phú District after winning a contest organised by UNICEF under a programme to engage and empower disadvantaged young people.

The Nhật Hồng Centre for People with Visual Impairment in Thủ Đức District posted listings from employers for an IT teacher and stewards at Noir Dining in the Dark Restaurant in District 1.

Both are exclusively for blind candidates.

Nguyễn Ngọc Hiệp, a blind man who is studying education management at the HCM City University of Education, told Việt Nam News that he plans to apply to shelters and centres for disabled people to work as a volunteer after graduation.

“When I work as a volunteer, I could look for part-time jobs on the Job for Blind website.”

Psychology and foreign languages are becoming the favourite majors for people with visual impairment followed by communication and journalism, he said.

He plans to set up a centre for disabled people in a rural area in the future.

Việt Nam has more than one million blind people, but only 20 per cent are employed.

In June the first ever job fair for blind people was held, and the enterprises attending it said they were ready to hire.

Lime kiln workers face hardship

Crushing limestone and building lime kilns is usually considered a man’s job, but dozens of women are performing this work in Đông Tân Commune’s Tân Cộng Village in the northern province of Thanh Hóa.

Working at lime kilns is strenuous, but residents have no choice but to do it to earn a living.

Đắc Thị Hương, 38, a lime kiln owner, said nearly 29 lime kilns in the commune are owned by women.

Women undertake most of the work while men assume the task of transporting lime to other regions for sale.

Hoàng Thị Hoàn, 54, also a lime kiln owner, said that despite their tireless labouring, limestone processing does not yield much profit.

All the work at the kiln is done manually. Limestone is crushed by hand to form smaller lumps. Next, limestone and coals are placed into the kiln, which is kindled at the bottom to heat the lime and start the process of calcination.

In the past, due to a shortage of cement, people often used lime and sand to make mortar for building. Now, lime is used primarily to improve soil quality and fertility, as well as to pave foundations for houses.

Lime kiln owners earn profits between VNĐ500,000 and 700,000 (US$22.4-31.3) per batch of lime, and it takes about 10 days to produce a batch, Hoàn said. Sometimes, they suffer losses if the lime does not meet qualifications.

“Many times we wanted to quit the job, but we couldn’t,” Hoàn told Khoa Học và đời sống (Science and Life) newspaper. “Lime making has been our traditional trade for generations. We don’t know what else to do to earn a living.”

In addition, the trade can help create jobs for other people as well, she said.

Most employees at lime kilns are poor. The job is dangerous and sometimes comes with blood and tears, but they still do it for survival.

Hồ Thị Lý, another worker from Thanh Hóa Province’s Rừng Thông Township, is 63 years old, but she still works at the kilns.

“I’m the most experienced of the workers at lime kilns in the region,” she said, adding that she has been working at local kilns for the past 30 years.

The salary for a worker has increased from VNĐ1,000 to 120,000 ($5.3) per hour since she started, she said.

“Other women of the same age as me are now enjoying a peaceful life while I spend almost all my spare time working outside. I’ve cried for myself many nights,” Lý said.

Lê Thị Lấn, 55, from Thanh Hóa Province’s Rừng Thông Township, has suffered from health problems after years of hardship, but she still has to work to earn money for her mother and sister, who has a mental illness.

Lấn has applied for less strenuous jobs many times, but has been refused due to her age and fragile health. Eventually, she continued working at lime kilns because the owners knew her situation.

At lime kilns, the women are exposed to heavy environmental pollution caused by dust and emissions. They also face high risks of injury and death due to a lack of compliance with labour safety regulations.

The latest incident occurred in the northern Hải Dương Province. Just four days ago, a lime kiln collapsed, leaving five people dead. The workers were buried underneath the rubble.

Lê Thị Ngọc, a lime kiln worker, said accidents can happen at any time because the workers don’t have enough safety equipment to protect themselves.

In addition, the temperature at lime kilns is sweltering hot, so everyone’s clothes are drenched in sweat all day.

The future for lime kiln workers is uncertain, as local authorities plan to shut down about 200 manual lime kilns in the central Thanh Hóa Province by 2020.

The decision follows a serious accident that occurred in early January at a lime kiln owned by the family of Lê Văn Thong, 56, in Nông Cống District’s Hoàng Giang Commune, causing the deaths of eight people. The accident was later blamed on carbon monoxide poisoning.

Ngô Văn Tuấn, deputy chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, said lime kiln workers will receive assistance to find new jobs.

While waiting for assistance from local authorities, lime kiln workers like Ngọc still dream of being employed by nearby factories one day.

Đồng Nai enterprises fined for violating labour laws

About 14 out of 58 enterprises in the southern Đồng Nai Province were found violating labour safety, hygiene and insurance regulations in the first six months of this year.

They were fined a total of VNĐ560 million (US$25,200), the provincial Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs has said.

These enterprises either failed to obey regulations governing wages and working hours or had been slow in paying social insurance to employees.

About 12 workplace accidents were reported in the province that left 12 workers dead. The reason for these accidents, according to the department, was that the enterprises ignored safety regulations for their employees.

The department would continue to inspect more than 120 enterprises to ensure implementation of labour safety, hygiene and social insurance regulations till the end of this year.

Figures from the labour, invalids and social affairs ministry showed that on average, the ministry’s inspectors carried out about 5,000 inspections each year, discovering between 25,000 and 30,000 violations and collecting fines of about VNĐ10 billion ($450,000).

Underprivileged communes receive family planning advice

Over 30,000 people living in 10 underprivileged communes in Quảng Bình and Lâm Đồng provinces have received information on reproductive health and family planning from a three-year European Union-funded project.

The local representative of Marie Stopes International Việt Nam, an NGO that provides family planning services, said in the project summary event in Đà Nẵng recently that 94.2 per cent of participants who were of reproductive age had used a family planning service and utilised their community health stations, a 15 per cent increase from the project’s initial run.

She said most of the participants chose to have pregnancy examinations and give birth, and 82.6 per cent of the women received gynaecological examinations at community health centres.

“It’s a significant achievement as the project aims to fill up the gap in information and high-quality service and provide an informed approach for residents in underprivileged communes in the two provinces,” Hằng said.

She said local residents in impoverished and isolated areas could not access reproductive health care and family planning services due to receiving poor service or being deterred by the attitude of the medical staffs.

She said the project focused on improving the level of service, the equipment and the opportunities for local people to easily access the services.

Hằng also said over 23,000 clients had utilised these high-quality services, of which 1,100 had intrauterine devices implanted at communal health centres, with satisfaction levels reaching 87-88 per cent.

The project, with total funds of US$709,000---75 per cent of which came from the European Union---also helped 20,000 women from ethnic minorities in 10 communes of the Đam Rông and Minh Hóa districts in Quảng Bình and Lâm Đồng provinces. The women benefitted from improved family planning and reproductive health services due to the more open, transparent and inclusive policy-making and accountability process.

Cao Thế Cảnh, a member of the accountability monitoring board at Hòa Tiến Commune in Quảng Bình Province, said the project encouraged the local people to seek out reproductive health and family planning services by making the process more convenient and offering enthusiastic, well-mannered medical staff.

Marie Stopes International Việt Nam supports 11 obstetric-gynaecological and family planning clinics as well as networks of social franchised clinics in 31 provinces nationwide.

In 2015, 2.7 million clients visited clinics in these networks, creating 3.6 million CYPs (Couple-Years of Protection).

Hằng said Marie Stopes International Việt Nam was committed to collaborating with Việt Nam to assist in sustaining and meeting the reproductive health and family planning targets of the Vietnamese people.

According to the General Department of Population and Family Planning under the Ministry of Health, efforts were made to control the birth rate in Việt Nam between 1945 and 2014, resulting in a population today of some 90.5 million, 20 million lower than previous estimates.

A National Qualifications Framework, an essential tool to develop skilled workforces

In the context of global integration and competition, a National Qualifications Framework is an important tool to develop a skilled and mobile workforce, experts have said.

The framework would also be a tool for higher education facilities to set out graduation standards, Lê Anh Tuấn of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s Training Department said.

It would support recognition of qualification, promote quality of education and learning as well as international collaboration, he told a symposium held in HCM City on Tuesday.

Most member countries of the ASEAN Economic Community have national frameworks, he said.

Nguyễn Thị Thu Thủy of the Ministry of Education and Training’s Department of Higher Education said her ministry is working with the Ministry of Labour, Invalid and Social Affairs to develop one based on the ASEAN Qualification Reference Framework (AQRF).

AQRF acts as a framework to enable comparisons between qualifications for skilled labour in various ASEAN member states.

With the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) being formed - at the end of last year - agreements mutually recognise education, experience, licences and certifications obtained in any of the ASEAN member countries in eight professions, including tourism, Thủy said.

Education and training in tourism need to prepare for a free flow of skilled workers under the AEC, she said.

Đồng Xuân Đảm, head of the National Economics University’s international education institution, said tourism school graduates fail to meet skill and foreign language requirements and employers have to retrain them after recruiting.

Thus, tourism and hospitality companies would opt for skilled workers from other ASEAN member countries, particularly for senior management positions, to improve their competitiveness, he warned.

Tourism schools need to improve their quality of training to keep pace with international integration, he warned further.

Assoc Prof Hoàng Minh Phúc of the HCM City University of Fine Arts said the quality of the Vietnamese workforce remains low and lags far behind that of the region.

The World Bank ranks the quality of Vietnamese labour 11th among 12 Asian member countries, he said.

Poor English proficiency is also a major barrier for Vietnamese workers, he said.   

The country has 156 tourism training establishments.

Adolescent girls need more attention

Investing in education and health care for adolescent girls is necessary, contributing to bringing into full play Vietnam’s golden population structure in economic development, a Vietnamese official has suggested.

Le Canh Nhac, deputy head of the General Department of Population and Family Planning under the Ministry of Health, said adolescent girls should receive optimal conditions to grow up safely and healthily.

He made the suggestions in the context that a large number of girls worldwide have been forced to get married before the age of 18, resulting in 20,000 girls aged between 15-17 in developing countries giving birth each day.

Up to 10 percent of global girls said they had been raped before fifteen. Of note, suicide and complications in pregnancy are the leading killers of girls between the ages of 15-19, the official said.

Such statistics raise a global alarm over the early marriages facing adolescent girls, he noted.

A research study conducted by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) pointed to gender violence, lack of access to medical and educational services and the failure to bring relevant policies into life as root causes leaving girls behind, according to Luong Quang Dang from the General Department of Population and Family Planning.

He, therefore, underlined the need to erase the gap between girls and boys, put an end to gender violence, empower girls and women and change out-dated social concepts.

UNFPA Chief Representative in Vietnam Astrid Bant said the fund has implemented communication programmes to help young girls exercise their rights, including the rights to accessing information and services regarding reproductive and sexual health.

Such activities aim to help all Vietnamese women have healthy and safe pregnancies, she added.

Besides, the fund has been working to improve access to contraceptive measures for unmarried Vietnamese youths, especially young migrants in difficult circumstances and those from ethnic minority groups or removed and far-flung areas.

The fund also helped to include living skills and education about HIV and reproductive heath in curricula at schools.

The UNFPA has determined “Investing in adolescent girls” as the theme of the 2016 World Population Day in order to call on governments, organisations, communities and families to pay more attention to teenage girls.

HCM City plans new bridge to industrial hub Dong Nai

Ho Chi Minh City is asking for permission to build a new bridge and make it easier to travel to the neighboring industrial hub Dong Nai.

In its proposal sent to the government, the city said a construction company plans to invest VND5.7 trillion (US$255.6 million) on a suspended bridge across the Dong Nai River that will link HCMC’s District 2 and Dong Nai’s Nhon Trach District.

More than a fifth of the cost is for site clearance and compensation. The project has received support from Dong Nai's government.

The four-kilometer bridge will serve cargo transport between HCM City’s Cat Lai Port and industrial parks in Dong Nai, the proposal said.

It will also give travelers a new option. Ferryboats shuttling between HCM City and Dong Nai remain a popular means of transport.

The boats serve more than 45,000 vehicles daily and the number can double on holidays.

There is also an expressway but many still prefer the ferries to save time.

Justice Ministry has share of responsibility in Penal Code errors

With the role of presiding over drafting the Penal Code 2015, the Ministry of Justice has share of responsibility in errors causing the code effectiveness’s delay, said Deputy Minister of Justice Tran Tien Dung who is also the ministry’s spokesman at a press conference yesterday.

The National Assembly has issued a resolution to delay the effective time of the Penal Code 2015 to amend and supplement a number of articles.

At a press conference, Mr. Dung said that the amended Penal Code had been built in accordance with the sequence of legal document issue regulated at the Law on Legal Document Promulgation 2008.

In the upcoming time, the ministry would work with relevant agencies to modify the Penal Code and wait for instructions from higher authorities about who will be held responsible for the errors and how they will be handled.

Head of the Criminal and Administrative Law Department Nguyen Thi Kim Thoa said that authorized agencies have examined to Article 200 of the Penal Code and none of them has proposed to change Article 292 on conditional business sectors. The article is not contradictory with the Investment Law 2014.

However, experts said that Article 292 contains largely legal risks for businesses. For instance, virtual gold trading is illegal and might face criminal charges although it is neither banned nor conditional sector in the Investment Law 2014.

Related to compensation to Mr. Luong Ngoc Phi who was wrongfully convicted in a fraud case in the northern province of Thai Binh, deputy head of the State Compensation Department Tran Viet Hung said that the Ministry of Finance has officially allocated VND23 billion (US$1.03 million) to compensate Mr. Phi.

However, conducting the compensation comes with the competence of the judiciary. Therefore, the department has yet to receive any official document about this.

Mr. Hung said that is a legal framework problem which the department has proposed to change in the draft State Compensation Law in the upcoming time.

Answering press queries on lawyer practice certificate revocation to Cao Van Hung, former principal investigator in the unjust sentence of Mr. Huynh Van Nen, deputy head of the Justice Support Department Nguyen Thi Mai said that the department has sent documents to the Lawyer Association in Binh Thuan province and the Forest Protection Unit in Ham Thuan Bac district to verify information related to the former investigator such as working time, his behaviors and background.

The department has worked with the Vietnam Bar Federation and the Binh Thuan Lawyer Association to consider the revocation and completely handle the case, she said.

Deputy Minister Tran Tien Dung required the agency to speed up the case’s process and announce results in the next press conference of the ministry in the third quarter.

According to the Ministry of Justice, they looked into 1,443 legal documents and found 58 illegal including 22 documents issued by ministries and agencies and 36 by local authorities in the first half this year.

So far, the ministry has already handled nine documents, had solutions for 16 others and worked to settle 33 documents.

Private hospitals struggling to find patients

There are many new private hospitals up and running in HCMC but a majority of them are grappling with lower-than-expected patient visit rates although their equipment is modern, according to the HCMC Department of Health.

This is a paradox as public hospitals have long been overwhelmed by increasingly large numbers of patient visits.

At the department’s recent press conference on the healthcare sector’s plan for quarter three, Nguyen Ngoc Duy, head of the general planning office under the department, said HCMC hospitals receive more than 30 million patients a year, with 40-60% of them coming from southern and central provinces.

Hospitals and healthcare facilities in the city served 34 million patients last year, 23% of the country’s total of 146 million, but private hospitals accounted for nearly seven million patients. Figures showed that 96,458 foreign patients visited hospitals in the city last year and 85% of them went to private hospitals.

Duy said most foreign patients are Cambodians and Laotians. Foreign patients mainly go to Family and FV clinics because their facilities and equipment meet European and the U.S. standards and they are insured by foreign insurance companies.

Last year saw a number of private hospitals established in the city, including Phuc An Khang Hospital in District 2, Vinmec Hospital in Binh Thanh District, Tan Hung General Hospital in District 7, Kangnam Beauty Hospital in District 3, Ky Hoa Beauty Hospital in District 10, and Trans-Asia General Hospital in Cu Chi District. However, many of them are facing fewer-than-expected patient visits despite their modern medical equipment and facilities.

Nguyen Tan Binh, director of the HCMC Health Department, said high fees might be a reason behind the situation. In addition, private hospitals lack human resources although some of them partner with public hospitals, such as the HCMC Oncology Hospital and Cho Ray Hospital and People’s Hospital 115, to provide medical services for patients.

Gov’t issues plan to curb infections in health centres

Việt Nam’s national action plan for prevention and control of hospital infections between 2016 and 2020 will focus on improving effectiveness at health facilities to ensure patient and staff safety.

The plan, issued yesterday at a conference held in HCM City, aims to improve policies, technical processes and professional documents.

Accordingly, more than 80 per cent of hospitals in the country will have standard sterilisation units by 2020. Currently, 46.5 per cent lack the units.

Software, tools and a database for a national surveillance system on control of hospital infections will be set up in 2017.

More than 50 per cent of provincial-level hospitals will carry out surveillance and will quarantine patients with microorganisms that are resistant to antimicrobials.

They will report periodically to the national surveillance system in 2018.

Under the plan, more than 70 per cent of hospitals in the country will keep watch on microorganisms in water, air and surface at areas with a high risk of transmission such as rooms for surgery, drip feeds and dialysis in 2018.

At least three centres on training for control of hospital infections will be established at hospitals in the northern, southern and central regions.

Dr Lương Ngọc Khuê, head of Health Examination and Treatment Department, told Việt Nam News that the implementation of more and more medical techniques required an increased control of infections.

“Hospital infections occur in not only Việt Nam but around the world. However, the rate of hospital infections in the country is still higher than in other countries,” Khuê said.

A study conducted by the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in 2013 among 3,671 patients at 15 intensive care units in 15 hospitals in the northern, southern and central regions showed that the rate of hospital infections was 27.3 per cent.

The central-level hospitals had a higher rate of such infections.

Trần Minh Hiệp, deputy head of Nguyễn Đình Chiểu Hospital, complained that the hospital had an Infection Control Ward, but the control’s effectiveness was still low.

Because the hospital was built tens of years ago, the building and its facilities do not meet the Ministry of Health’s regulations on hospital infection control, Hiệp said.

Lê Văn Tuân of the World Health Organisation in Việt Nam said that each hospital should create a detailed plan according to its conditions and seek sources for funds to implement the plan based on the national regulations.

Dr Nguyễn Thị Thanh Hà, deputy chairwoman of the HCM City Infection Control Society, said that patients and their relatives who take care of them during their stay at hospitals should join hands with health staff to prevent infections.

Hospital infections could worsen diseases, prolong hospital stays and, most importantly, create microorganisms resistant to antimicrobials, Hà said.

“Patients and their relatives have low awareness of maintaining hygiene at hospitals, leading to an increase in bacteria.”

It is vital to improve education and encourage them to follow hospital regulations on infection control, especially regularly washing hands, she said.

“Sharing of beds and patient overload at Việt Nam’s hospitals offer a conducive environment for infection to increase.”

The Ministry of Health uses infection criteria to assess hospitals as safe for patients or not.

It has also organised many campaigns to reduce the risk of hospital infections -- such as one to wash hands among health staffs and patients.

Thủ Đức Hospital in HCM City, for instance, organises these campaigns every year. On Tuesday, the hospital called on staff and patients to sign commitment for hospital infection control.

Hà said one of the challenges to controlling hospital infection in Việt Nam is the shortage of professionals specialising in this issue.

These professionals are required to have a deep understanding of environmental hygiene, care and treatment of patients and hospital architecture appropriate for infection control, she said.

Public hospital fees were increased by 30-50 per cent last March, with 30 per cent of the hikes to be earmarked for infection control, meaning hospitals would have more resources to combat infection, she said.

“Another benefit when hospital infections do not occur is that the cost of antibiotics for treatment reduces.”

According to the health ministry, five years after it sent a circular on hospital infection prevention and control, 20.8 per cent of hospitals around the country had not set up an infection department as of last year.

More than 93.2 per cent had been irregular with surveys on hospital-acquired infection since 2010.

Housing support for national contributors needed

Nearly 6.9 trillion VND (313 million USD) are needed to realise a housing support programme for contributors to the country’s revolution between 2016 and 2018, according to the Ministry of Construction’s Agency for Management of Housing and Real Estate Market.

In the first quarter of this year, as many as 78,456 households benefited from the programme and more than 11,000 others are on the waiting list, including over 5,700 which will build new houses and the remaining eligible for repair and renovation support.

During the second stage from 2016-2018, 265,700 households will receive financial assistance throughout the process.

In the first stage from 2013-2015, the programme assisted around 80,000 households nationwide at a total cost of about 2.5 trillion VND (113.6 million USD).

According to the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 22/2013/QD-TTg, the contributors who want to build new houses or make repairs will be offered 40 million VND (1,800 USD) and 20 million VND (900 USD) per household, respectively.

VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/TT/TN/Dantri/VNE