Vietnam targets annual 3-4% decrease in ethnic group poverty

An annual 3-4% decrease in the poverty rate of ethnic groups is one of the specific targets of realising Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) towards ethnic minorities associated with the post-2015 sustainable development goal, recently approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.  

Vietnam aims to keep the malnutrition rate among ethnic children under five years old at below 8%, the literacy rate among ethnic people aged ten upwards at over 98%, and the illiteracy rate among ethnic women at below 10% as of 2025.

Additionally, the percentage of ethnic people with HIV/AIDS is targeted to be reduced by less than or equal to 0.3% by 2025, while over 50% of the ethnic group population are targeted to have access to safe water.

In order to achieve those targets, it requires institutionalisation of MDGs towards ethnic minorities into the 2016-2020 socio-economic development strategies and plans of the country and each ministry, sector and locality; enhancement of intersectoral coordination from central to local levels in MDGs implementation; and mobilisation of resources for the fulfillment of MDGs, towards several sustainable development goals among ethnic groups after 2015.

It is also necessary to boost the empowerment of local authorities; facilitate local people’s participation in building and implementing policies on poverty reduction, social security and socio-economic development in the mountainous and ethnic minority areas; and enhance communication work in line with ethnic groups’ cultures and languages to raise awareness and change practices on gender equity, healthcare, hygiene and protection against HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases.

Loss from dead fish reaches US$241,000

Fish breeding cages in Cha Va River. Total initial loss following a mass death of fish five days ago in the river has amounted to VND5.3 billion (US$241,000). — Photo dantri.com

A joint team of investigators from Long Son Commune People's Committee and Agriculture Department reported the total initial loss following a mass death of fish five days ago in Cha Va River in  has amounted to VND5.3 billion (US$241,000).

Fifteen fish-breeding farms in the commune in Vung Tau City were discussing their losses with the southern province's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to find a compensation rate.

Among the 15 farms affected by the loss of the fish, fisherman Duong Van Hung suffered the highest financial loss of VND1.5 billion.

The agriculture department's deputy director, Tran Van Cuong, said the financial loss was estimated, including the cost of fish fry, labourers and feed.

Fish started dying en masse in Cha Va River five days ago. Many fishermen believed the river was polluted by wastewater discharged by nearby seafood processing factories.

Child dies in HCM City flyover collision

A child was killed and eight persons were injured when a bus collided with motorbikes travelling in the opposite direction on Cay Go Flyover in HCM City on Wednesday..

Dr Dinh Tan Phuong of Nhi Dong 1 Hospital said a 16-month-old child was admitted to the hospital's first-aid ward yesterday with serious head and body injuries.

Police reports said the parents were taking the child on a motorbike to school during rush hour. A bus of the Phuong Trang Company suddenly plunged into the road divider, and crashed into seven motorbikes that were travelling in the opposite direction.

The child fell down from the 10m-high bridge.

The mother of the dead child is being treated for brain injuries in Cho Ray Hospital.

Police investigation showed that the bus driver lost control of the wheel, causing the accident.

Vo Thi Thang posthumously awarded State title

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has posthumously granted the “Hero of the People’s Armed Force” title to former member of the Party Central Committee and Chairwoman of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Vo Thi Thang.

Minister Hoang Tuan Anh presented the State noble title to a family representative of Thang at a ceremony held in Ho Chi Minh City on September 10, in recognition of her significant contributions to the cause of national independence, liberty and reunification.

Vo Thi Thang was born in 1945 in the southern province of Long An, a descendent of a traditional patriotic family.

She was repeatedly arrested, tortured, brutally oppressed and mistreated in many prisons on the mainland and in offshore Con Dao prison. However, with patriotism, bravery and great resolution, she always fought for the cause of national liberation during her revolutionary career.

After the National Reunification Day, Thang continued to make active contributions to the country’s development. She was a Deputy to the National Assembly, Deputy Chairwoman of the Vietnam Women’s Union and Chairwoman of the Vietnam National Administration Tourism.

With her dedication and enormous contributions to the country, Thang received a number of domestic and foreign noble titles such as the second-class Independence Order, the first-class Labour Order, the Friendship Medal of the Cuban Council of State, and the Friendship Medal of the Royal Kingdom of Cambodia.

She died in Ho Chi Minh City on August 22 at the age of 69.

Vietnamese, Lao localities cooperate in combating drug smuggling

Coordination in combating drug smuggling between the northern mountainous province of Dien Bien and northern Lao provinces has proved effective.

The assessment was made at a meeting on September 9 to review Dien Bien’s implementation of a plan to address the complicated drug-related crime situation in the locality.

Statistics showed that since January, officers from Dien Bien and Laos’ Phongsaly and Luang Prabang have detected 162 drug-related cases, arrested 185 suspects and seized 6.6 kilograms of heroin, nearly 20,000 synthetic pills and over 4 kilograms of opium.

Looking forward, Dien Bien province will continue cooperating with Lao localities in dealing with cross-border drug smuggling and expanding public communications on the matter.-

Initiative to curb greenhouse gases underway in Da Nang

Da Nang has officially begun building its provincial-version of the 2050 Energy and Emissions Calculator model, as heard during a workshop held in central Da Nang City on September 9.

Initiated by the UK Government as an open source model, the calculator has thus far had respective versions established in many other countries, including Vietnam. It allows the user to explore all high-level energy and emission pathway options the country, territory or region faces. For each possible 2050 pathway, the user can further investigate impacts on land-use, electricity, energy security, energy flows and costs, among others.

According to Tran Van Luong, Deputy Head of the Industrial Safe Techniques and Environment Agency under the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the tool encourages public engagement as it only requires an internet connection to access.

Da Nang is expected to establish its model in March 2017.

The agency’s Office Chief Hoang Van Tam said local experts are working on developing the tool based on the national version.

Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Ngoc Tuan noted Da Nang, a vulnerable locality concerned with climate change, highly welcomes the method adoption for a greener future.

Andrew Holt, First Secretary Economic and Political at the British Embassy in Hanoi, highlighted the project as a stark instance of Vietnam – UK cooperation, saying it will help Vietnam reduce greenhouse emissions and improve its air quality.-

Japan Healthful Lifestyle Exhibition to open in HCM City

The Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) in HCM City will hold the first Japan Healthful Lifestyle Exhibition at HCM City's Youth Cultural House starting from today.

Thirty-five enterprises in various fields will present their products and medical devices for children and adults at the three-day exhibition.

Japanese people have the world's longest average life expectancy thanks to the strong development of the industry, said a press release from JETRO.

The exhibition will introduce essential products, services and medical devices, as well as the secrets of having a long and healthy life.

Antimicrobial resistance practices shared in Vietnam

Experiences on coordination, implementation and collaboration in combating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Vietnam have been shared at a workshop in Hanoi.

Among attendees at the workshop were representatives from the World Health Organisation (WHO), Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU) and the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The event, which was organised by the Ministry of Health on September 10, provided a platform for experts in the field to share AMR control practices and propose solutions to effectively implement the national action plan on combating drug resistance in Vietnam.

According to the delegates, the discovery of antibiotics was a turning-point in medical history, as they are used in not only the human health sector but also in farming and breeding.

However, the inappropriate use or abuse of antimicrobial drugs has been associated with an increase in drug resistance, threatening the effective treatment of a growing range of infections, particularly those caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria, viruses or fungi, while also resulting in economic losses, excessively lengthy treatment and high mortality rates.

The attendees believed AMR to be one of today’s prominent global issues, causing millions of deaths and billions of USD in economic losses every year, especially in developing nations.

Vietnam has been accelerating AMR control by devising the national action plan on fighting AMR between 2013 and 2020, establishing a number of AMR supervising bodies and formulating regulations on pharmacy practices, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Xuyen said in her remarks.

An aide-memoire on the prevention of drug resistance was signed on June 24 by the Ministries of Health, Agriculture & Rural Development, Industry & Trade, Environment & Natural Resources and Vietnam-based development partners, including the Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO), WHO, OUCRU and CDC.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) International of the United Kingdom and OUCRU have taken part in a joint project funded by the Newton Fund where British experts support Vietnam to design policies and guidelines on AMR prevention.

South Korea supports VN green growth

Vietnamese experts thanked their South Korean partners for their support of Viet Nam's Green Growth Strategy (VGGS) implementation, which was under review at a conference on Tuesday in Ha Noi.

The South Korean partnered VGGS' implementation project was funded by the Korea International Co-operation Agency (KOICA) with a US$2 million sponsorship starting in July of 2013.

In response to the country's various social and environmental challenges arising from rapid industrialisation and economic development, the VGGS was established in 2012. It has been tasked with reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of the country's economy sector, and boost ‘green' business sectors.

At the closing ceremony of the co-operative project on Tuesday, experts agreed that KOICA was instrumental in developing national action plans to minimise the effects of climate change.

The Korean partners were also praised for helping build a more concrete legal system that can incentivise and monitor green growth in Viet Nam.

Similarly, they were recognised for improving the Ministry of Planning and Investment's staff capacity through training and study tours in South Korea.

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Pham Hoang Mai personally extended his thanks at the conference.

In the last two years of the project, Bac Ninh, Ben Tre and Quang Nam provinces set up pilot projects to develop green growth initiatives. Bac Ninh Province has plans to set up an environmental management system in traditional craft villages and enterprises. Ben Tre Province will focus on preserving and developing old bamboo trees. Quang Nam Province has, so far, proposed several nature protection and eco-tourism development projects.

HCM City needs to do more for ethnic groups

HCM City needs to provide more loans, vocational training, jobs, and health insurance to ethnic minorities to improve their lives, a workshop heard on Wednesday.

As of last year more than 500,000 ethnic minorities lived in the city, or six per cent of its population, with the Hoa, Khmer and Cham accounting for the largest numbers.

Last year the city spent VND4.9 billion (US$218,000) on more than 10,700 poor and near-poor ethnic minorities, including disadvantaged students and workers.

The Viet Nam Fatherland Front and other organisations found jobs for 1,725 ethnic minority people and built 148 houses besides upgrading 183 houses for them,Dr Nguyen Thi Hoai Huong of the HCM City Institute for Development Studies said.

Policies to waive tuition fees for Cham and Khmer students were introduced in 2013-14 because the latter have low living standards, with most working as casual labourers.

The Cham's academic standards are low and most work as daily-hire employees or sewers or run small businesses, she added.

The Hoa are not deprived, she said, adding that in districts 11, 5, 6, and Tan Phu where most of them live, their businesses account for more than 30 per cent of the local economies.

Pham Van Pho, deputy chairman of Viet Nam Fatherland Front branch in District 6, said businesses owned by the Hoa in his district account for 36 per cent of the total of 6,076.

Thanks to policies to boost the economy, businesses, including those owned by the Hoa, have developed, he said.

Hoa students learn their language at school, he added.

Huong said to conserve ethnic minority languages, the city People's Committee's Ethnic Minority Division provides a monthly subsidy to 50 disadvantaged ethnic teachers who teach their languages.

The city offers incentives to small scale industries run by ethnic minorities and traditional crafts, she added.

But despite these efforts, the proportion of poor ethnic people was higher than their ratio of the population, according to statistics the People's Committee released in June: There were 3,850 poor ethnic households, or 8.07 per cent of the total poor.

Another 1,480 households were close to the poverty line.

Loan sharks feed off poor, naive workers

Many poor workers have difficulty borrowing money from banks due to complicated red tape, so they are forced to borrow at high interest rates from private lenders.

Nguyen Thi Le, lives in Ha Noi's Long Bien District, told the Lao dong (Labour) newspaper that she borrowed VND150 million (US$6,600) from a woman named Yen.

Yen called herself director of a private company and persuaded Le to sign a commitment to move Le's land-use rights to Yen as security. Then Yen disappeared with all of Le's certificates after giving her VND80 million ($3,500).

Senior lieutenant-colonel Tran Thi Thuy, from the Police General Department, said that lending money for high interest was illegal. He said it had led to hundreds of bankruptcies and the loss of thousands of billions of dong.

The bankruptcies were also associated robberies by desperate business people. This had led to 41 murders and 588 robberies from 2010 to 2014. Recently, Thuy said, financial companies were allowed to lend money using simplified procedures. However, some workers still lamented that the interest rate was as high as the illegal lenders.

The finance companies offer interest rates of VND1,500-2,000 ($0.06-0.08) per million dong per day.

Tran Thi Hong Hanh, general secretary of the Viet Nam Banking Association, said that catching illegal lenders was difficult, so the better measure was prevention.

He said poor workers who did not have stable jobs and property to put up as security to borrow money from banks and financial companies should be given more knowledge about illegal high interest rate.

He said the Viet Nam Bank for Social Policies and other organisations offering credit funds should be expanded to help low-income workers.

Hanh also proposed that the Ministry of Industry and Trade take more control over pawnshops.

Hanh said that the Civil Code banned lending money for high interest, but did not regulate punishment for it, whereas the Penal Code stated that the highest sentence for violations was three years.

Conference hears concerns over aging population

On the afternoon of September 8 a conference on future retirement trends was held to discuss the issues arising from an aging population in Vietnam and elsewhere in East Asia and to make suggestions on how these may be overcome.

Prudential Vietnam and the Global Aging Institute (GAI) organized the conference, attended by representatives from the United Nations Population Fund and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA).

Mr. Richard Jackson, President of GAI, told the conference of the results of a survey on the challenges posed by retirement in East Asia. Respondents included existing main earners and retirement pension recipients and the research asked respondents to talk about their general attitudes towards retirement and their own retirement expectations or experience. It was conducted in ten countries and territories in East Asia: Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

The research found that the majority of Vietnamese respondents said that they are greatly concerned about “Being Poor and in Need of Money” when they retire. Sixty-two per cent of Vietnamese respondents said that ideally the government is most responsible for providing income to retirees.

Mr. Phung Dac Loc, Secretary of the Association of Vietnam Insurers (AVI), said that in Vietnam there are 10 million people with social insurance and 2.3 million receiving pensions, which indicates that Vietnam’s social insurance fund will be inadequate by 2032. Moreover, Vietnam has a policy of encouraging people to only have two children, which will result in its population structure becoming old quite quickly and young people will have to work harder to provide for the retirement needs of their older compatriots.

Largely agreeing with Mr. Loc, Ms. Tran Thi Thuy Nga, Director of the Department of Social Insurance at MoLISA, said there are 11 million Vietnamese covered by social insurance but most are in the formal employment sector and take out voluntary social insurance. As Vietnam's population ages there are insufficient numbers of people looking to self-finance their retirement.

Ms. Ritsu Nacken, UNFPA Deputy Representative, said that Vietnam has had an aging population since 2011. The proportion of old people increased to 10.5 per cent in 2014 and will reach 23 per cent in 2040. One-fifth of elderly people live below the poverty line and more than one-third are still working in agriculture or the informal employment sector with unstable incomes.

The GAI research suggests reform to improve participation rates in social insurance by improving the adequacy of the State pension system and educating the public about the critical role of financial services in retirement savings. Forty-three per cent of Vietnamese respondents to the survey said they trust financial services companies to help them prepare for retirement.

Regarding the risk to customers from financial services for retirement, Mr. Wilf Blackburn, Chief Executive Officer of Prudential Vietnam, told VET that in Vietnam funds from policies are managed inside the country and are therefore unaffected by exchange rate fluctuations. Prudential Vietnam primarily uses such funds to purchase Vietnamese Government bonds, so the possibility of losing money is extremely low.

Ministry of Health urges local governments to prevents bird flu transmission

Because bird flu outbreaks occurred in some provinces are threatening residents’ health,  the Department of Preventive Medicine under the Ministry of Health yesterday sent a document to local governments, asking to applying measures against bird flu transmission from chicken to people.

Accordingly, the Department of Preventive Medicine asked provincial departments of health where the bird flu outbreaks have been reported to increase information to residents about the disease, closely liaise with veterinary agencies and local governments to supervise and curb the outbreaks.

Moreover, cases of bird flu infection should be early detected for treatment, hence medical facilities must be ready to provide treatment to ill people, prepare medication and equipment and report the disease status to the Ministry of Health and provincial People’s Committees.

The recent outbreaks of A/H5N1 bird flu occurred on the 1,000 strong flock of duckling in a farm in Luong Son commune, Ninh Son District in the central province of Ninh Thuan. Of 1,000 ducks, 220 were diseased and 20 died of the disease.

Before, in the Mekong Delta region veterinary agencies also detected outbreaks of bird flu A/ H5N1 in farms in My Loc Commune in Tam Binh District of  Vinh Long province and Tham Don Commune in My Xuyen District in Soc Trang province.

Meantime, outbreaks of bird flu A/H5N6 were reported in a farm in Xuan Giao Commune in Bao Thang District of the northern province of Lao Cai and two farms in Tinh Ha Commune in Son Tinh District of the central province of Quang Ngai.

Over 1,300 kilogram durian soaked with dubious chemical buried

The Environmental Crime Prevention Police (PC49) in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak yesterday destroyed more than 1,300 kilogram of durian fruits soaked in dubious chemical.

Before, on September 6, police officers from PC49 raided two businesses Sang Huong and Minh Tam in Krong Pak District, founding workers of the two facilities soaking and spraying dubious chemicals to accelerate ripeness of fruits.

In Sang Huong business facility police officers also discovered 24 additional chemical bottles which bears the brand “Trai Chin” (Ripened Fruit) and 686 kilogram chemical soaked durian.

In Minh Tam facility many chemical bottles with various brands were detected; accordingly police seized all chemical and 727 kilogram durian.

According to the applicable laws, police in Dak Lak decided to issue a fine of VND 30 million (US$1,334) for each facility.

Vietnam draws on international experience in labour dispute settlement

International experts shared experience in handling conflicts in employment relationships at a seminar in Ho Chi Minh City on September 10.

Participants underlined the need to complete labour dispute procedures, explaining that employment conflicts are increasing while conciliation, mediation and arbitration mechanisms remain ineffective.

The seminar heard that Vietnam’s employment standards are still low or have failed to meet international levels regarding wage, working conditions and labour hygiene and safety, coupled with fraud in social, unemployment and health insurance.

Bui Sy Loi, Deputy Head of the National Assembly (NA)’s Committee for Social Affairs, made it clear that the steps taken before a dispute reaches to litigation are critical in preventing the conflict from worsening.

Since employees have a disadvantageous position in both finance and power compared with their employers, labour procedure-related legal regulations should be distinct from those on civil procedures, he said.

Echoing Loi’s views, a representative from the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs said employees have limited access to evidence managed by employers during the process of labour dispute procedures.

Given this, many foreign countries have forced employers to present proof of their innocence, the representative said.

Domestic and international experts at the seminar, jointly held by the NA committee and the International Labour Organisation, also discussed building labour dispute procedure regulations in Vietnam’s Civil Procedure Code and the role played by trade unions in protecting labourers’ legitimate rights.

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