Dien Bien accelerates new-style rural area building

The northern mountainous province of Dien Bien aims to have 35 communes complete from 15-19 criteria of the programme on building new rural areas by 2020.

Dien Bien city and Muong Lay town are hoped to qualify as district-level new-style rural areas while all communes in the province will meet at least five criteria of the programme in the period.

The province’s annual income per capita is expected to reach VND18.9 million US$831.6) in 2020, and the poor rural household rate will fall 3-4% annually to 37% according to the 2016 – 2020 poverty standards.

Around 54.6 percent of the local workforce will receive training, and 76.99% of rural households will have access to hygiene water.

The province estimates that over VND1.5 trillion (US$66 million) will be needed for the 35 communes to become new-style rural areas, or an average of 45 billion (US$1.98 million) for each commune. 

In order to realise the targets, Dien Bien will increase guidance and help to the target communes, while improving the efficiency in capital use.

Currently, Dien Bien has only one commune among its 116 to have fulfilled all the criteria on new-style rural area in 2015. 

The national target programme’s criteria cover infrastructure, production, living standards, income and culture, among others, aiming to boost rural regions in Vietnam. A district must have at least 75 percent of its communes meeting all the 19 criteria in order to receive the title of new rural district. 

During the 2011-2015 period, more than VND850 trillion (US$38.25 billion) was mobilised for the programme, of which only 11.6% came from the State budget. The programme is expected to need over VND193 trillion (US$8.7 billion) in the next five years. 

As of September this year, 2,045 communes, accounting for 23%, were recognised as new-style rural areas, along with 24 district-level localities. The figure is expected to hit 50% by 2020.

Book lovers’ week held in HCMC

A book promotion program is taking place at Ho Chi Minh City Book Street (Nguyen Van Binh Street, District 1) from now until December 18. 

The week-long event titled “Happy Readers” offers a big discount of up to 50 percent at booths.

There will be an area displaying thousands of books in various subjects such as science, art, entertainment, literature and others.

The event also includes exchanges between writers and readers, and the introduction of the way how to improve reading for children.

Vietnam strives to provide primary health care to all people

Because the grassroots medical systems are unable to meet people’s treatment demand, the Prime Minister has approved the project to improve the system’s quality in districts in an effort to provide primary health care to all people.

The project which will be carried out from 2016 to 2025 aims to re-structure operating mechanism, financing mechanism, personnel growth to improve service quality of district medical clinics to ensure provision of primary health care service, examination and treatment for local residents. Besides, it strives to link all-round services and preventive medicine and treatment; work closely with hospitals helping reduce pressure for big hospitals.

Noticeably, the project will ensure that most of doctors in commune medical facilities can treat patients with insurance cards and provide primary health care as well as perform 90 percent of technique services by 2025.

In the other hand, most of medical workers in institutes in district can also perform 90 percent of more complicated technique services; communes will have enough medical facilities as per the national 

norms. Medical clinics in communes should provide primary all-round health care for each inhabitant and consultation of health matters as well as rehabilitation, taking care of the elderly people, mothers, children and preventing contagious and non-communicable diseases.

According to the World Health Organization, medical clinics in districts and communes can meet 70 percent of health care demand. Yet medical workers’ skills in district clinics are still limited.

As per the Health Strategy and Policy Institute’s study, 750 doctors in 78 clinics in districts and over 250 physicians and nurses in 250 medical centers in communes have knowledge of five normal diseases including pneumonia in kids, diarrhea in kids, tuberculosis, high blood pressure, and diabetes. While, also the institute’s study showed the rate of wrong diagnosis of high blood pressure is 19 percent, of diabetes type 2 is 14 percent, of diarrhea in kids is 12 percent, of tuberculosis is 9 percent and pneumonia in kids is 3 percent.

HCMC Party leader prompts parking lot construction for Tan Son Nhat Airport

Secretary of the HCMC Party Committee Dinh La Thang this morning prompted Tan Binh district and relevant agencies to solve procedure problems to build parking lots for Tan Son Nhat International Airport and rebuild old apartment blocks.

Mr. Thang was leading a delegation from the Party Committee working with Tan Binh district on how it has implemented the district Party Committee’s resolution in the term of 2015-2020 covering socioeconomic matters, culture, national defense, public security and party development.

He queried Tan Binh district's leaders about years-long problems in building a parking lot at Tan Son Nhat airport. Thousands of taxi cabs and other vehicles have been forced to park in surrounding streets causing traffic jam because the shortage of parking lots at the airport, he said.

Chairman of Tan Binh district People’s Committee Chau Van La said that there are many empty land pierces surrounding the airport but they concern many central agencies and ministries. So the district has been unable to speed up the parking lot project.

Deputy director of the Department of Transport Tran Quang Lam said that the city is considering two investors to build parking lots at Gia Dinh Park where is adjacent to the airport.

Disagreeing with Mr. Lam’s statement that the department is quickly implementing the projects, Secretary Dinh La Thang said that the projects have lengthened for a few months while thousands of investors are willing to attend. If procedures had been solved quickly, they should have been able to build a smart parking lot within four months.

He required the Transport Department to work with relevant agencies to conduct surveys and find locations to immediately build parking lots and no longer wait or talking around.

Being required by Mr. Thang, chairman Chau Van La reported to him five large problems waiting for the city People’s Committee to solve.

Of these, the largest difficulty is from assessment and approval of compensation measures for projects to rebuild old apartment blocks.

The secretary required director of the Department of Construction Tran Trong Tuan to report the problem. According to Mr. Tuan, the department has suggested the city People’s Committee to authorize Tan Binh district to assess compensation levels for these projects.

Mr. Thang continued querying director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Nguyen Toan Thang, who said that the city’s People’s Committee has approved compensation levels for housing land but yet for apicultural land. So the department is still waiting for the city’s decision.

Secretary Dinh La Thang concluded that the slow implementation of parking lot projects and old apartment blocks’ rebuilding is because authorized agencies have not well coordinated together besides a shortage of a mechanism to facilitate the process.

He prompted the agencies to better work together and take drastic actions right now unless the city will be unable to obtain its targets including rebuilding half of 474 downgraded apartment blocks by 2020. HCMC should continue giving districts more administrative power to solve problems in their areas including traffic jam, flooding and environmental hygiene.

At the meeting, Mr. Thang asked leaders of the Steering Center for Flood Control Program about anti-flooding works but only a deputy head of the center’s drainage division was present. Other leaders were busy to assess yearend emulation activities.

Mr. Thang proposed the city Party Committee Office to issue a document strictly criticizing the absent because their unserious working manner choosing the week long scheduled event to host their yearend meeting.

New 100b road develops cracks, caves in

The construction of Provincial Road 537 was completed just recently, but the section passing through Yên Thành District’s Hợp Thành Commune has already developed huge cracks and started caving in.

Now, machines and workers have been deployed by the road contractor to the site for repairs.

In the beginning of this month, An Toàn Giao Thông (Traffic Safety) newspaper had reported that the road, also known as Road No 33, was ready and open to traffic.

The 21km Provincial Road 537 upgrade project was approved by the provincial People’s Committee at a total cost of VNĐ95 billion (US$4.2 million). 

Within weeks, the section from Village 1 to Village 3 in Hợp Thành Commune got severely damaged. Though it is just a half-kilometre stretch, the road has developed numerous cracks and there’s subsidence, that is, a part of the road has sunk below ground level. The worst-affected section is in Village 3, where there are cracks running up to dozens of metres.

Local residents said they don’t understand why the road has got so badly damaged.

“It is the main route in the district’s east region, passing through numerous communes, with busy traffic flow. Within just a couple of months [since its completion], it has cracked and sunk in, which can cause accidents,” a resident of Village 3 said at a meeting between locals and government officials. “The contractor is carrying out repairs, but the authorities must look into why the damages happened and where the responsibility lies.”

Lê Hồng Trường, vice chairman of Hợp Thành Commune People’s Committee, confirmed the state of the road. According to him, the 2km section from Lý Nhân village to Phú Thành Commune has also got damaged. “There could be many reasons for this, including a weak roadbed. During construction, the contractor did do ground consolidation, but apparently it has not worked. We have asked the contractor to resolve the issue quickly.”

Trần Văn Tuấn, director of the management board of all construction projects in Yên Thành District, said that except for the section passing through Hợp Thành Commune, Provincial Road 537 is complete and has been handed over. He said the ground consolidation work was done when the road was being built, but as it is mostly mud below the foundation, there were several weak points that caused the cracks and subsidence. 

Four fishermen missing off Quảng Ngãi Province coast

Rescue forces have been seeking four fishermen missing from a fishing boat that sank off the coast of Quảng Ngãi Province during the incessant rainfall of the past week.

The Centre of Flood and Storm Prevention in the Central and Central Highlands regions said the fishing boat, QNg 11150TS, was towed safety to Sa Kỳ Port in the province on Friday, but four fishermen have yet to be found.

Meanwhile, a low pressure, which emerged in the East Sea early yesterday morning, is expected to dump heavy rain and bring strong winds in the eastern and southern areas of the East Sea.

The centre said the tropical low pressure will move from five to 10km north-west-west every hour, bringing winds with a speed of 40-60 km per hour, and whirlwinds and gales from 62-88 km per hour in the East Sea.

Flood water has been receding in some areas of Quảng Ngãi and Bình Định Provinces.

According to the latest report from the centre, 12 people have been killed and five injured in the flooding in Bình Định, Quảng Ngãi and Khánh Hòa provinces between December 5 and 10.

Robots upgrade surgery quality for Vietnamese

A 64-year-old woman from District 12, who suffered from obstruction of the flow of urine, is one of the first ten adult patients benefiting from robotic surgery at Bình Dân Hospital in HCM City’s District 3.

“When I was told that I would recieve robotic surgery, I felt very secure. Advanced technology and qualified doctors helped make the surgery better,” she said.

Another initial patient benefiting from robotic surgery at the hospital were from the central province of Quảng Ngãi. He suffered from a colorectal tumour for many years. The robotic surgery was performed to remove the tumour on November 22.

All of the first ten patients were provided free surgery.

Dr Trần Vĩnh Hưng, the Bình Dân Hospital’s head, said that the hospital started to use robots to assist its doctors to perform surgeries among adult patients last month in order to improve quality and reduce the number of Vietnamese patients going overseas for examination and treatment.

“Not only well-off patients but also those who cannot afford get benefits from the advanced techniques at the hospital,” he added.

The hospital is suggesting that the Ministry of Health approve the advanced technology in the list of insurance covered medical techniques.

It is providing free surgery to first 40 patients, Hưng said.

“The robotic surgery helps solve limitations of traditional open surgery,” he said, adding that it brings minimal invasion, less bleeding and helps reduce the risk of fatality during surgery.

Moreover, robots help enable surgeons to operate precisely.

Through a magnified 3D high-definition vision system, surgeons can better control surgery and direct the robot’s hands to bend and rotate 540 degrees, far more than a human hand.

At the hospital, the robotic surgery is performed for cancers of the stomach, colon/rectum, liver, pancreas, lung, prostate, and eight other diseases. 

In the country, the National Hospital of Paediatrics in Hà Nội performed the robotic surgery among children patients in 2014.

Robots have been used to assist laparoscopic surgery in many countries in the world, such as the US, Japan, and Korea, since 1980.

According to Dr Vũ Lê Chuyên, chairman of Việt Nam Urology and Nephrology Association, in the urology field, robotic assistance is very necessary to perform surgery on the prostate and bladder, which are difficult for surgeons to access.

Professor Lê Quang Nghĩa, chairman of HCM City Gastrointestinal Surgery Society, said that this is a higher level of the laparoscopic surgery, bringing large benefits for patients.

Hưng said that the hospital aims to becoming a training centre for robotic surgery in the country and region.

The chairman of city People’s Committee Nguyễn Thành Phong said that the city always encourages hospitals to apply advanced technologies.

The Bình Dân Hospital should train using robots to assist surgery for doctors from other hospitals in the city in order to increase the number of patients benefiting from the advanced technology, Phong said.

“Using robots in surgery is one of the first steps to help the city to reach the goal of becoming a smart city,” he added.

Central city builds kindergarten for workers’ children

The central city of Đà Nẵng and the American Half the Sky Foundation have started construction of a care centre and kindergarten for needy children to be completed by 2019.

The 3,800sq.m kindergarten will be built with a total investment of US$3.8 million, of which $3.4 million is funded by the Half the Sky Foundation, for 250 children of workers at the Hòa Khánh Industrial Park.

The project, the first by Half the Sky Foundation in Việt Nam, will include office buildings, multipurpose rooms, classrooms and a playground for children from six to 36 months.

According to the city, over 30,000 workers, 60 per cent female, work at Hoà Khánh industrial zone in Liên Chiểu District, but the district has only 36 licensed public and private kindergartens and more than 210 unlicensed childcare facilities operating regularly.

The city also said Japanese JP Holdings plans to invest in a high quality kindergarten education project in the city from next year, with estimated capital of $5 million. 

VN cardiologists proficient in latest procedures: Heart Institute

The country’s medical facilities are using the latest procedures to treat cardio-vascular diseases, according to the Việt Nam Heart Institute in Hà Nội.

They include transcatheter aortic valve implantation, mitral valve repair, bio-absorbable polymer drug eluting stents which can reduce the possibility of blood vessels narrowing again, and stem cell therapy.

The country has nearly 45 centres that perform cardiac surgeries, Dr Nguyễn Ngọc Quang of the Institute told the angioplasty summit held in HCM City last week by the Interventional Cardiology Association of HCM City.

As many as 5,000 patients get catheter interventions for congenital, structural and valvular heart disease every year.

But a mere tenth of people with heart diseases get treated, Quang said.

An estimated 200,000-300,000 people suffer from heart diseases every year, he said.

Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of death in the country, often caused by hypertension, smoking, and dyslipidemia, he said.

The country sees these risk factors increase in adults year after year, he added.

According to the Việt Nam Heart Society, one in every three Vietnamese adults is at risk of getting cardiovascular diseases.

The country also faces ageing and cardiovascular diseases among seniors, he said, adding this is a “health burden”.

The country’s 45 medical centres that perform cardiac procedures estimate that in the last five years nearly 70 per cent of all heart patients suffered from acute coronary syndrome, Quang said.

More than 200 cardiologists attended the summit, which was organised by Hoàng Đức Company, a distributor of medical devices made by US company Boston Scientific.

Prof Nguyễn Lân Việt, chairman of the Việt Nam Heart Society, said keeping abreast of the latest developments in cardiac intervention is necessary for Vietnamese cardiologists to be confident about treating serious cases.

HCM City director wins short film contest on traffic safety

An amateur director in HCM City, Phan Hoàng An, has won the Uống Có Trách Nhiệm (7 Film Fest – Responsible Drinking) short film contest.

The contest was organised by the National Committee for Traffic Safety to raise awareness about drunk driving.

An won six prizes for his film Mầm Non Dưới Đáy Chai (Sapling in the Bottle), including best film, director, scriptwriter, cinematography, actor and supporting actor.

The film tells the story of 11-year-old Đậu (played by Bảo Bảo), who works and lives with his older brother at a pub in the Mekong Delta. Seeing drunken people scares and worries him.  

To reduce his anxiety, Đậu plants a tree in a wine bottle. One day, there is a fight in a shop. He grabs his tree, runs out of the shop, and is suddenly hit by his drunken brother who is transporting wine for the shop.

The film ends when Đậu falls and loses consciousness while still protecting his tree.

Director Hàm Trần, one of three judges, praised the cinematography well, meaningful plot and particularly Bảo Bảo’s natural and excellent acting.

“It’s a miracle,” An said after receiving the prize at the awards ceremony at Galaxy Cinema in HCM City on Thursday night.

He said that he would use the cash prize to continue filming, especially films on traffic safety.

“I hope to raise people’s awareness about traffic safety,” said the 28-year-old director, who worked in communications before switching to filming.

“I have learned a lot from professional filmmakers at the 7 Film Fest,” he added.

In August, the organisers chose seven directors and seven screenwriters from hundreds of entries. They were paired into seven groups consisting of a director and a screenwriter.

They learned about filmmaking from talented directors and then made their own films.

The films were screened for the public at local cinemas, including CGV, Galaxy and BHD cinemas, and on social networks like YouTube. The judges and the audiences voted for the winners.

Vietnamese-American Charlie Nguyễn, the contest’s production manager, said that six films were screened this year, and each of them told a true story that reflected the topic of responsible drinking.

Hà Nội artist tells his story through collage, acrylic works

Hà Nội-based artist Nguyễn Tuấn Dũng’s collage artworks and 14 acrylic paintings on newspaper are being shown at the My Story exhibition at Craig Thomas Gallery.

The works depict images of objects familiar to farming families like Dũng’s, such as plough machines, bicycles and instant noodles.

“The objects remind me of my childhood with my family. They are a source of inspiration for the works,” said the 26-year-old, who is from Thanh Hóa Province.

“I have an interest in daily news. So I use images of these objects and newspapers to connect my story and contemporary issues in society,” he added.

Dũng uses clippings of newspapers as a background, and then draws on them.

“I choose eye-catching headlines, text and images to highlight what I want to portray in my work,” he said. “I hope that viewers can empathise with the messages that I am trying to send through my paintings.”

Dũng graduated from the Hà Nội Industrial Arts University.

In March, he had a solo exhibition titled Friend at the Việt Nam Fine Arts Association in Hà Nội. My Story is his first solo exhibition in HCM City.

The exhibition runs until December 31 at 27i Trần Nhật Duật Street in District 1.

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