Three big cities launch English Champion 2015

The Vietnam Central Study Encouragement Association, EQuest Academy in collaboration with the Vietnamese American English Centre (VATC) has launched an English contest for primary and junior high school students (English Champion 2015).

The contest will kick off on April 1, 2015, for students from the 4th to 8th grades in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Danang.

Contestants will compete in three rounds to show their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. Competition will follow the knockout format, examining the competitors’ communication and presentation skills.

Last year, English Championship 2014 drew the participation of thousands students from more than 20 primary and secondary schools in the three big cities.

Awards include scholarships and cash (VND6.2 million or US$294 for the winner of the English Championship 2014).

Pilot issuance of Criminal Record Cards by post approved

The Prime Minister has approved a project on piloting the issuing of Criminal Record Cards by post and the on-line acceptance of applications for the card.

Under the project, the National Centre for Judicial Record and the Justice Departments of five centrally-run cities of Hanoi, HCM City, Da Nang, Hai Phong and Can Tho will be the first to receive on-line applications for the card and issue the card by post.

Meanwhile, six other provinces will conduct on a trial basis the issuing of the card by post. These provinces are Lang Son, Nghe An, Kien Giang, Bac Lieu, Tien Giang and Binh Duong.

The project, to be implemented in three years, from 2015-2017, allows citizens in the target localities to send their application and receive the Criminal Record Card by post.

The application forms are available at post offices and on the websites of authorised agencies.

The process of applications is also made public on the websites of authorized agencies.

Dak Lak works to prevent forest fires

The Central Highlands province of Dak Lak has urged districts and forest owners to take all necessary measures to prevent forest fires with the impending dry season.

The province has more than 507,000 hectares of forest, nearly 300,000 of which are particularly vulnerable to bushfire attack and require special attention.

Dak Lak has established 82 forest development units and 580 forest protection teams at the local level, as well as educated ethnic minority families living near or inside the forests on how to prevent wildfires, remove flammable objects and stimulate forest growth.

Hundreds kilometers of fire prevention lanes, a number of fire watch towers, and fire prevention signs were established and reinforced.

Watchers have also been posted on 24-hour lookout duty.

Furthermore, inspection teams were sent to examine district and forest owner capability in preventing wildfires.

No wildfires have been reported in the locality thus far this season.-

Quang Ngai to send farmers to study agricultural development abroad

From 2015 to 2018, the central province of Quang Ngai will send 160 farmers and members of co-operates in the province to Thailand, Malaysia, Japan and China to study experiences in agricultural development.

The statement was made by Le Viet Chu, chairman of Quang Ngai provincial People’s Committee when talking about the VND4.7 billion plan on sending farmers to study experiences of farming, building trademark and buying agricultural products.

Farmers will study high-technology agricultural production techniques, large-scale farming management; apply modern mechanization in agriculture, policies on rural and agricultural development; study experiences in commercial promotion; associate agricultural products with product consumption from production, preservation to package design and trademark building in order to improve the economic value for each agricultural product.

Earlier, in October 2014, the province invited Prof. Dr. Nguyen Lan Dung, president of Vietnam Society for Biology to localities to share experiences in agricultural re-structure to managers and farmers.

1,000 bicycles to be offered poor children

The National Fund for Vietnamese Children (NFVC) has just launched a program under title of “Real Life Journey” with aiming to raise fund to buy bicycles for poor children throughout the country.

This is the second year that “Real Life Journey” program has reached to local underprivileged children. This year, the organizational board targeted a minimum of 1,000 bicycles to present for poor children in 25 provinces and cities nationwide.

On this occasion, the organizational board also launched a writing contest for those who being given bicycles from the program.

So far, the organizational board donated 770 bicycles worth VND 1, 3 billion to underprivileged children in 22 provinces and cities nationwide.

HCM City to build road through Gia Dinh Park

The HCMC government will build a road section through Gia Dinh Park in HCMC’s Phu Nhuan District to link Nguyen Thai Son Intersection and Hong Ha Street in GoVap District and the street leading to Tan Son Nhat International Airport.

The city’s Department of Transport said the road section is part of Tan Son Nhat-Binh Loi-outer ring road, which is now called Pham Van Dong Street, and will be 650 meters in length and 20 meters in width.

A 60-meter-wide section of Tan Son Nhat-Binh Loi Street was designed in 1999 to run from Truong Son Street in Tan Binh District to Nguyen Thai Son Street, but this planned section was put on hold due to protests by the affected households.

Therefore, the city government decided to build two 20-meter-wide road sections with the former crossing Gia Dinh Park as a replacement. This solution, which was approved by the Government, helped reduce site clearance cost for the project.

Site clearance along Bach Dang Street began early this week, and a number of trees in the park have been chopped down to make room for construction of the road section. Ngo Ba An, deputy director of Urban Traffic Management Unit No.1, said the Transport Department plans to break ground for the section in the middle of this month.

Around 3,900 households have relocated to pave the way for construction of the Tan Son Nhat-Binh Loi-outer ring road, which stretches 13.7 kilometers from Truong Son Intersection near Tan Son Nhat Airport to Nguyen Thai Son Intersection in Go Vap District, the Saigon River and Linh Xuan Intersection in Thu Duc District.

South Korea’s GS Group planned to implement the project under the build-transfer (BT) format within four years starting from 2008, but later asked for approval to extend the deadline until the end of last year. However, a seven-kilometer section of the street has yet to be completed due to slow site clearance, and the section connecting Go Dua Bridge and Linh Xuan Intersection is scheduled to be opened to traffic on Reunification Day, April 30.

Tan Son Nhat-Binh Loi is an important road connecting HCMC with satellite urban areas and neighboring Binh Duong and Dong Nai provinces.

Few industrial clusters have wastewater systems

Statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Trade showed wastewater treatment systems have been built at a mere 42 of 639 industrial clusters nationwide.

Although 639 industrial clusters with nearly 10,800 plants have created jobs for more than 555,000 workers, they have posed a big threat to the environment.

One of the reasons, according to the ministry, is that financial support from the State for technical infrastructure developments including wastewater treatment facilities is much lower than needed. Total funding for this purpose in localities was VND290 billion in the 2011-2014 period, or VND72.5 billion a year.

So far, only 25 of the country’s 63 cities and provinces have issued policies to support development of industrial clusters, including construction of central wastewater treatment systems.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment estimated that some 240,000 cubic meters of untreated industrial wastewater is discharged into rivers a day.

The number of industrial parks and zones has kept increasing in the past decade but investments in waste treatment plants are low. Consequently, a large amount of untreated waste is illegally dumped into the environment.

Can Tho to lift 3,000 poor families out of poverty

The Mekong Delta city of Can Tho plans to help over 3,000 households rise out of poverty in 2015, bringing the local poverty rate from 2.84 percent in 2014 to 1.84 percent this year, the lowest in the region.

To achieve this goal, Director of the municipal Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Thanh Xuan said the city will foster economic development with the aim of generating approximately 202.5 trillion VND (9.47 billion USD) from trade and industrial and agricultural production in 2015, an 11.5 percent increase from 2014.

The city also plans to create 50,000 employment opportunities alongside vocational training courses for 40,000 local residents, raising the city’s rate of trained workers to 50.7 percent, the highest in the region.

Besides, Can Tho city will raise funds to build houses and clean water supply systems for the poor, in addition to extending health care, education, and bill payment support.

In 2014, the locality invested some 38 trillion VND (1.78 billion USD) in and granted another 48 trillion VND (2.24 billion USD) as loans to industrial and agricultural development. The capital flow, in turn, helped the city generate over 181 trillion VND (8.48 billion USD), up 12.5 percent from the previous year.

It also provided 5,500 local poor households with 30 billion VND (1.4 million USD) worth of loans and offered vocational training to 38,000 people.

Last year, more than 50,000 jobs were created, helping nearly 3,250 families escape poverty.

Over 28,000 rural people in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho will receive vocational training in 2015, and at least 90 percent of whom will be helped to land jobs.

The information was revealed at a conference on vocational training for people living in rural areas in the city to 2020 by the municipal Steering Committee for Vocational Training project on January 9.

Le Van Tam, Vice Chairman of the municipal People Committee, said nearly 14.5 billion VND (700,000 USD) has been mobilised from local and State budgets to improve farming techniques, create jobs, and generate income for rural people in 2015-2020.

Chau Hong Thai, Deputy Director of Can Tho’s Department of Labor, Invalids and Social said vocational schools should join hands with businesses so as to generate workers needed by the market.

Additionally, the city should intensify labor export market and restore traditional craft villages, Thai added.

In 2014, more than 23,000 rural people received vocational training, and 75 percent of them were recruited.

Can Tho and other 12 provinces form the Mekong Delta region, which covers a total area of around 40,000 square kilometres with a population of 18 million and is a major aquaculture region and the largest rice production hub of Vietnam.

It aims to raise the proportion of the industry and trade sectors to 97.5 percent of its economy by 2019, up 4 percent from 2014, in an effort to become an economic hub of the Mekong Delta by 2020.

Vietnam ready for ASEAN People Forum 2015

More than 30 delegates from Vietnam’s civil society organisations gathered at a conference, the second of its kind, in Hanoi on January 9 to get prepared for the ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN People Forum 2015, slated for April 22-25 in Malaysia.

Participants heard reports on the results of the second preparatory conference held from December 11-12, 2014 in Malaysia, as well as Vietnam’s preparations for the event.

They also gathered comments and opinions of the organisations on the draft Forum Statement, which is expected to be approved at the third preparatory conference in Malaysia on January 23-24, and submitted to the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in the same month.

Delegates also agreed to set up specialised groups based on four main pillars, namely peace and security, equality in the development, democracy and human’s basic rights, and discrimination and injustice.

Since the first version of the conference was held for the same purpose on October 2, 2014 in Hanoi, Vietnam’s civil society organisations have actively contributed to the preparation of the regional forum.

Children, elderly in Tien Giang equipped with swimming skills

As many as 350 children and elderly persons in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang were equipped with swimming skills via seven classes held with assistance from Australian volunteers.

This is the fourth year members of the AWSOM volunteering group have opened classes of this kind in Tien Giang, with the help of province’s Union of Friendship Organisations and relevant agencies.

The classes, running from January 4-9, are also part of a programme on preventing and reducing drowning on Mekong River in 2015.

Bev Chrismas, founder of the AWSOM Group, said the learners are taught how to swim properly and react if falling into water.

The right way to save a drowning person is one of topics discussed in the classes along with skills for children to survive in a region with many water bodies and rivers.

The volunteers also held workshops for parents and My Tho city’s Association of the Elderly on why it is necessary to have swimming and rescue skills.

Drowning is one of the leading child killers in Vietnam, with over 3,300 deaths in 2012, equivalent to about nine cases every day. The figure is 10 times higher than the average figure of regional developing countries. Half of the victims were bathing in ponds, lakes, rivers or the sea without adult supervision.

Child Friendly Programme benefits disadvantaged children, mothers

The care and protection of children and mothers in the coastal central province of Ninh Thuan has made significant progress thanks to a Provincial Child Friendly Programme funded by UNICEF and UNFPA.

The 5.3 million USD project, which is being implemented for the period 2012-2016, has five components covering education for children; children protection; children’s survival and growth; social policies and administration; and the health of mothers.

Vu Minh Tuyen, deputy director of the project’s management board, said some initial results have been achieved in devising, supervising and assessing child-friendly social-economic development plans.

Authorities at grassroots level have become more active in establishing a safe environment for children, helping reduce negligence, abuse and exploitation of children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, the disabled, the poor and ethnic minority children.

The project has to date completed 133 out of 164 planned activities, reducing the rate of malnutrition among under-five children to 18.8 percent. The rate of drop-out in three target districts has dropped to 0.3 percent.

At the same time, outdated marriage practices such as child marriage has decreased remarkably among local ethnic minority community, especially the Raglai.

Pesticide market lacks thorough supervision

Many pesticides currently sold are fake or smuggled, as the granting of licences to pesticide dealers has not been properly supervised, Plant Protection Department head Nguyen Xuan Hong said at a recent conference.

"Many dealers spent only one week studying to get a licence to sell pesticides," Hong said. "Those dealers did not care about the quality of the products, but only profits."

Viet Nam currently has more than 20,000 pesticide dealers, according to Viet Nam Pesticide Association chairman Tran Quang Hung.

"Even worse is that the dealers have the most direct impact on farmers' decisions to buy pesticides. About 70 per cent of farmers listen to the dealers' suggestions," Hung said.

Nguyen Thi Cuong, a farmer in the central province of Nghe An's Yen Thanh District, complained about the ineffective pesticides that she bought from dealers for years.

"The market now has so many brands and it confuses me. I just buy any pesticide that the dealers suggest," Cuong said.

Seven per cent of pesticide samples sold in Viet Nam were substandard and illegal pesticides from nearly 3,000 pesticide manufacturers and dealers were confiscated and destroyed last year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Pesticide Association chairman Hung added that Viet Nam was still building its "pesticide dealer industry" as almost 100 per cent of chemicals and 90 per cent of additives used in pesticide manufacturing were dependent on imports.

"A Government support policy is essential to develop the network of pesticide manufacturers in Viet Nam," Hung said.

Rubber farmers switch crops in southeast

Many rubber farmers in the south-eastern region, the country's main rubber growing area, have cut down their trees and switched to other crops like pepper and coffee following losses caused by the relentless fall in latex prices.

Nguyen Thi Le, who grew rubber trees on 4ha in 2005 in Binh Duong Province's Bac Tan Uyen District, has cut down nearly 2ha.

In 2014 the price of latex declined dramatically from VND30,000-40,000 (US$1.4 -1.9) a kilogramme to VND10,000, she said.

"The income from selling latex is not enough to hire workers to tap rubber trees. So I decided to cut about half of my rubber trees.

"To earn profits from the remaining rubber trees, my family has to tap [them] and not hire workers."

In neighbouring Binh Phuoc and Tay Ninh provinces too, many farmers have switched from rubber to crops like coffee, pepper, cassava, and sugarcane.

In Tay Ninh, for instance, farmers cut down 1,749ha of rubber trees in the first 10 months of last year, according to the province's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Of the figure, 218ha had trees less than five years old while the rest were above 10 years old.

A significant increase in global prices of latex in 2009-13 persuaded many farmers to plant the trees as the area under rubber trees in the country increased from 454,100ha in 2004 to 955,600ha in 2013, exceeding the Government's plans by 12 per cent, according to the Plant Cultivation Department.

Authorities in Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, and Tay Ninh provinces encourage farmers not to cut down rubber trees but instead wait for prices to recover.

Nguyen Tan Binh, director of the Binh Duong Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said farmers had been cutting down rubber trees on hundreds of hectares despite authorities' warnings.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat has instructed competent agencies to ensure sustainable development of rubber farming by focusing on improving yields and reducing costs.

An agriculture extension programme for rubber farmers and a programme to improve management of rubber seedlings would be established soon, he said.

Provincial agriculture departments should give priority for training farmers in cultivation and tapping techniques, he added.

Individual farmers and companies grow half each of the country's rubber.

Tet gifts for impoverished workers

The Dong Nai province Labour Federation has planned support activities to help disadvantaged workers and their families enjoy the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday, which falls in mid-February, 2015.

As many as 1,040 labourers in Dong Nai will be offered bus transport to their hometowns free of charge.

The group will also present nearly 5,000 Tet gifts to the families of impoverished labourers, valued between 400,000-700,000 VND (19-33 USD), said Nguyen Phuoc Manh, Vice Chairwoman of the Federation.

They will organise art performances, trade fairs, and other events for families who cannot afford to return home for Tet, as well as offering free health check-ups, Manh added.

In a similar move, the Da Nang City Labour Federation will offer material and spiritual gifts to local disadvantaged workers in honour of Tet.

They have also guided trade unions to monitor the payment of wage and Tet bonus for workers, while working with relevant authorities and local businesses to address any concerns in a timely fashion.

Efforts to expand health insurance coverage to HIV patients

Vietnam is taking measures to expand health insurance coverage to more HIV/AIDS patients, as only 30 percent are currently covered.

These measures are part of efforts to gradually shift the payment of treatment fees from foreign-funded project and programme resources to the country’s health insurance fund.

The health sector is encouraging people living with HIV to go to local medical facilities where health insurance cards cover all of their treatment costs, instead of outpatient clinics.

Unfortunately, many patients are still avoiding visiting medical facilities near their homes over concerns that relatives, friends and neighbours will become aware of their HIV status and stigmatise them, posing a significant barrier to covered health insurance treatments.

To widen the health insurance coverage, experts propose applying health insurance card payments in outpatient clinics and HIV test centres under the Health Ministry’s Preventive Medicine Department, the preferred access sites for people living with HIV.

According to the Director of the general hospital of Tinh Bien district in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang, Duong Hoang Dung, their outpatient clinic has been working as a facility of the general hospital since April of 2012, facilitating the acceptance of health insurance cards in outpatient clinics.

Currently, 415 out of the 542 known HIV/AIDS patients in the district have insurance cards, or an impressive 76.5 percent. Health insurance has also helped Tinh Bien reduce international project spending by roughly 60 million VND (2,820 USD) on check-ups and treatment.

Looking forward, the health sector plans to mobilise resources from the State budget to simplify access to insurance for people living with HIV, including subsidising part or all of the insurance card fees for those living near or below the poverty line.

Development project to boost Ly Son island tourism

A socio-economic development project worth 2.839 trillion VND (132 million USD) in Ly Son island district in the central province of Quang Ngai has been approved, vtv.vn reported on January 12.

The 330ha project will provide various services to meet diversified standard-to-luxury demands. The island is also expected to have beaches, villas, entertainment complexes and civil aviation services, besides a dock for yachts, among others.

The state budget will contribute 4 percent of the total investment, equivalent to 120 billion VND (5.5 million USD), and the rest of the capital will be mobilised from investors.

The project will be divided into two phases. The first phase will run from 2015 to 2020, while the second phase will be between 2021 and 2025.

It is estimated that 40,200 tourists will arrive in Ly Son Island district this year. The number is expected to increase following the completion of the project, with the opening of new services such as resorts, seaplane services and entertainment parks.

Host recruitment for Fulbright English teaching Assistantship Program 2015

The US mission to Vietnam on January 12th announces the recruitment season for Vietnamese host institutions interested in the English Teaching Assistantship Program (ETA) in the 2015 - 2016 school year.

The deadline to submit application is by 17:00 pm on February 28th.

Aiming to support English teaching and learning at Vietnamese educational institutions, this program invites gifted high schools, universities, and colleges outside Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city, throughout Vietnam to apply to host a native English language speaking teaching assistant for one academic year, from September 2015 to May 2016.

ETAs responsibilities include teaching English through listening and speaking lessons, as well as cultural exchange programs.

First launched in Vietnam in 2008, the ETA program seeks to foster English learning in Vietnam and provide a cultural exchange between Americans, Vietnamese students, and host institutions, to foster mutual understanding and cooperation.

ETAs are US college graduates eager to teach English overseas and serve as cultural ambassadors of the US.

Promoting overseas Vietnamese's resources to develop the country

The number of overseas Vietnamese, especially businessmen, intellectuals, returning to Vietnam to invest, live and work is increasing. The volume of remittance is also increasing dramatically. This shows that the potentials and strengths of the overseas Vietnamese community is very huge.

It is necessary to have breakthrough mechanisms and policies to effectively exploit the resources in social-economic development of the country.

There are over 4 million Vietnamese people in countries and territories across the world. They are young, dynamic people, who have great potentials in investment, business, management, science-technology and work in speciality fields and spearhead sectors such as electronic industry, information, machine manufacture, cybernetics, biotechnology, nanotechnology, economic management, banking, securities.

According to the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the total remittance of Vietnam in 2014 is estimated to be about USD11-12 billion, mainly from the US. This is an extremely impressive figure in the difficult economic situation today.

Therefore, besides removing obstacles on mechanisms and policies, it needs to promote the strength of the national origin of each Vietnamese person living away from the fatherland.

Contributions of the overseas Vietnamese to socio-economic development is not small, especially in fields of investment, technological application, scientific research and training. Many overseas Vietnamese intellectuals, scientists are invited to participate in domestic activities such as Professor Ngo Bao Chau has been invited to be the head of the Vietnam Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics, Professor Truong Nguyen Thanh as the head of the Ho Chi Minh city Institute for Computational Science and Technology.

However, the process of overseas Vietnamese entrepreneurs and intellectuals working in Vietnam has arose problems such as differences in thinking and working style, which are measurable barriers for cooperation programs. The application of scientific research has less effectiveness, meritocracy and payment of researchers have not been appropriate.

Many overseas Vietnamese experts and intellectuals have reflected that they lack research conditions such as laboratory, international relations, strong working team, difficulties in research grant, meritocracy and remuneration.

They also want to be provided full information about socio-economic development situation of the country; being supported in fields of cooperation, investment, exchange with administrations; ensuring the legitimate and legal rights of overseas Vietnamese in the country; creating favorable conditions for them to buy house in Vietnam; implementing the "one-door” mechanism for resolving the administrative procedures for overseas Vietnamese; amending and supplementing a number of provisions on recruiting overseas intellectuals to management positions of domestic agencies.

To solve the above problems effectively, overseas Vietnamese desire the government to build a breakthrough mechanism to meet their legitimate and practical aspirations to attract their affection, intelligence, economic resources, positions and influence to contribute to the development of the country and international integration.

The overseas Vietnamese, especially businessmen and intellectuals, always foster the patriotic spirit, national self-esteem so they are willing to contribute their talents and energies to the homeland. Therefore, the government should have specific mechanisms, policies to invite investment, creating interesting working environment and meritocracy to attract them.

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