The construction work at the international terminal of Cam Ranh International Airport in Khanh Hoa province is expected to finish by March next year, an official said.

Phan Le Hoan, director of Cam Ranh International Terminal JSC, said the terminal would be operational by July, thanks to the credit loan of more than VND2.98 trillion from Vietcombank and Vietinbank six months ago.

The construction began in September 2016 with an estimated investment capital of VND3.73 trillion, 80 per cent of which was to come from the two banks.

As planned, the project’s first phase will finish by the end of the first quarter next year, with the capacity to serve 2,000 passengers during rush hours and four million passengers per year. However, owing to the prolonged rainy season last year and the lack of capital, the construction process was delayed by two months.

The company has carried out more than half of the work of the first phase, including the two-storey terminal with a total area of 50,000sq.m. The construction work for the car parking area and the apron for wide-body aircrafts is being carried out now.

In the first half of this year, the airport received nearly three million passengers, a year-on-year increase of 31 per cent, of which, more than 1.6 million passengers were foreigners. The airport expects to welcome six million passengers this year.

The province invested more than VND1.9 trillion in building runway No. 2 for the airport, which is scheduled to be operational by the middle of next year. 

Soc Trang: Mangrove co-management model proven effective

The Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang has devised numerous measures to protect the forest belt along its 72km-long coastal line, with the co-management model proven to be one of the most successful. 

The model of mangrove co-management was first piloted in Au Tho B hamlet, Vinh Hai commune, Vinh Chau township in 2007, and then officially implemented in Vinh Chau township, Tran De and Cu Lao Dung districts with funding of the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) under an agreement signed in September 2009.

Under the project, 240 households in Au Tho B hamlet signed up to join local administration and forest rangers in protecting the diversity of ecosystem and the coastal areas from sea encroachment.

The participants, divided into six groups, were involved in building plans for planting and protecting forests, and for using natural resources in the forest. 

The success of the model can be seen today in the green mangrove forests spreading along 2km of coastline in Au Tho B hamlet. The local forest coverage has been expanded from the initial 115 hectares to 370 hectares.

Thach Soal, head of a mangrove co-management team in Au Tho B hamlet said locals considered the forests under their management as their own property, therefore, they take good care of them. Well-developed mangrove forests help locals feel more secure while protecting sea dikes, he said.

Thach Son, head of a mangrove co-management team in Vo Thanh Van hamlet, Cu Lao Dung district said, the team has established patrol teams to protect local forests. The team members regular meet up and discuss plans and objectives of mangrove protection.

Besides protecting mangrove forests and enhancing the awareness of preserving and developing mangrove forests, the mangrove co-management model has created solidarity in the community as well as stable livelihood for locals thanks to increase in resources.

Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Ngo Hung said the model is an effective measure to protect mangrove forests while improving the living condition of local residents thanks to sustainable exploration of natural resources.

It has also helped protect sea dikes, reduce coastal erosion, and expand forest coverage, Hung added.

Việt wins cycling cup’s second stage

Nguyễn Minh Việt won the second stage of the Mekong Delta Cycling Tournament, the Hạt Ngọc Trời Rice Cup, on Monday.

Việt of BTV Đại Nam Bình Dương was first to cross the finish line of the 132km route from Long Xuyên City in An Giang Province to Hà Tiên Town of Kiên Giang Province with a time of 3hr 11.50min.

Lê Văn Duẩn of VUS-HCM City came second, followed by his teammate Nguyễn Anh Khoa.

After two stages, Lê Ngọc Sơn of Hạt Ngọc Trời An Giang keeps the yellow jersey with the best time of 9:35.08. He also steals the green jersey for best sprinter with 46 points.

In the team rankings, Calytos Đồng Tháp take top position, clocking 28:48.40.

Hạt Ngọc Trời An Giang and An Giang Plant Protection are second and third, respectively.

The third stage today is 155kms from Hà Tiên to Vị Thanh City of Hậu Giang Province.

Expat Vietnamese learn how to teach Vietnamese

Seventy eight overseas Vietnamese teachers from 12 countries and territories are participating in a training course on teaching the Vietnamese language. 

The course being offered in Hà Nội from August 13 to 27 is designed to improve participants’ teaching skills through lectures by linguistic experts. 

Fact-finding trips to historical and cultural destinations will also be conducted during the two-week course to promote knowledge of Vietnamese culture and history among expatriates. 

Promoting the mother tongue among Vietnamese expatriates plays an important role in helping overseas Vietnamese communities preserve their cultural identity and traditional customs, Deputy Foreign Minister Vũ Hồng Nam said at the course opening ceremony on August 14. 

This is the fifth training course organised jointly by the State Committee on Overseas Vietnamese Affairs (COVA) and the Ministry of Education and Training, drawing the largest number of participants so far.

HCM City seeks ways to cope with pollution from wastewater

Ho Chi Minh City is under immense pressure to deal with wastewater produced by people living in the metropolis as well as in neighboring Binh Duong Province.

The sheer volume of household and industrial wastewater is challenging the capacity of the southern city’s major treatment plants, posing a high risk of pollution.

The wastewater is transported from its sources to treatment facilities via artificial canals, including the Ba Bo Canal crossing Thu Duc District, before being released into the Saigon River.

Stretching over 1,700 meters, Ba Bo Canal receives more than 25,000 cubic meters of wastewater every day.

Over the past decade, the canal has faced the threat of serious pollution, with the potential to adversely affect the lives of nearby residents.

The waterway gives off an unpleasant odor during the dry season, and the wastewater often mixes with rain to cause flooding in the area.

In 2007, the municipal People’s Committee approved multiple projects to upgrade the channel, including dredging and expanding, with expenditure topping VND300 billion (US$13.1 million).

While the original measures were successful in preventing flooding, extra expenditure was then required to pay for biological treatment technology.

Authorities in Binh Duong Province have also invested in a system to collect and treat liquid waste that they then dump into the Ba Bo Canal.

The two localities have spent approximately VND1.3 trillion (US$57.1 million) renovating the waterway.

During a meeting with the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Council in early July, Nguyen Toan Thang, director of the municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment, confirmed that the pollution problem had not been solved.

Speaking at the gathering, several experts said that the biological treatment is only effective on household wastewater, and that industrial wastewater needs to be closely monitored.

The coordination between Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong has not been efficient, they added.

The city’s administration submitted a request to the prime minister last month, proposing the construction of the Suoi Nhum treatment plant, which would be tasked with treating liquid waste from Binh Duong before it is discharged into any Ho Chi Minh City canal.

The facility is expected to be built on an area of four hectares in Linh Trung Ward, Thu Duc District, with a capacity of 65,000 cubic meters per day.

The total capital investment is estimated at VND523 billion (US$23 million).

The project will be carried out under a BOT (build-operate-transfer) and BT (build-transfer) contracts.

Once the proposal is approved, the project will not take long to finish as the location is already available, Nguyen Ngoc Cong, director of the Steering Center of the Urban Flood Control Program, said, adding that the construction would take approximately one and a half years.

Ho Chi Minh City authorities will also ask their counterparts in Binh Duong to tighten management of industrial waste released from local factories.

Reprint of Professor Nguyen Lan’s Vietnamese dictionaries

The Authority of Publication, Printing, and Distribution of the Ministry of Information and Communications will license the reprint of Vietnamese dictionaries of late Professor Nguyen Lan.

Honored with a State Award and the Ho Chi Minh Award, the dictionaries play an important role in Vietnam’s culture and history.

People’s Teacher Nguyen Lan is not only a teacher, but also a linguist with aspiration to protect the Vietnamese language. He is the author or co-author of dozens of dictionaries including a 2,000-page dictionary of Vietnamese words and phrases published in 2000.  

Director of the Authority of Publication, Printing, and Distribution Chu Van Hoa said, “The re-print of Professor Nguyen Lan’s dictionaries is necessary. It is a State award and Ho Chi Minh award winning project, a cultural, and scientific treasure of the nation. It is also a masterpiece that lives in the national history. 

Re-printing the dictionaries preserves a work of national spiritual value and national science history to serve future research.”

Mr Hoa stressed the importance of re-printing the dictionaries, “Some old words have disappeared and some new words have been added. 

The meanings of some words have changed and are now understood in a more in-depth way thanks to more information and greater intellectuality. We need to approach the dictionary in a more scientific way.”

According to Mr. Hoa, if necessary, a National Council on Compiling a Standard Dictionary based on Nguyen Lan’s dictionaries will be set up.

Christopher Nolan spotted walking the streets of Saigon

Christopher Nolan and his family are rumoured to be on holiday in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, report multiple news outlets.

In one photo posted Monday, August 14, on Facebook, the director of the World War II epic Dunkirk could be seen taking a photo with a fan on what appeared to be Nguyen Hue Street in District 1.

In another, he appeared to be walking past a line of parked motorbikes on a sidewalk with his family.

There are unconfirmed reports that a distributor of the film Dunkirk told reporters that Christopher is currently on holiday with his wife and kids, and is not working on any project.

His latest film, the war epic Dunkirk, has received critical acclaim and grossed over US$339 million in receipts from ticket sales worldwide as of August 11, according to Box Office Mojo. 

Tan Son Nhat international airport seeks foreign consultancy

The PM has agreed with a plan to hire foreign experts to research, review, and craft an expansion plan for Ho Chi Minh City-based Tan Son Nhat international airport.

Specifically, the PM gave the green light to the selection of foreign bidders in line with Article 26 of the Law on Bidding; review and assess the land use and plan on the expansion of Tan Son Nhat international airport.

The Ministry of Transport was assigned to select foreign consultant bidders which are qualified for prestige, competence, and experience.

The Ministry of Transport was asked to work closely with the Ministry of National Defence, relevant agencies, and the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee to hire foreign consultants in line with the legal regulations.

One pupil saved during Ha Long flooding

Heavy rain this morning, August 14, caused the serious flooding for Quang Ninh Province’s Ha Long City, sweeping away one local pupil.
Pham Bich Diep, a grade-6 pupil at Hung Thang Secondary School was swept into a drain near her school while trying to ride her bicycle from the school to her home this morning.
Luckily, some local people saved her, but the bicycle got stuck in the drain. 
The drain has since been fenced. 
Torrential rains have occurred to some localities in Quang Ninh Province since the evening of August 12. Three communes namely Dap Thanh, Luong Mong and Minh Cam in Ba Che District have been isolated due to the flooding.
On August 13, Hoanh Bo District also faced a flash flood which caused landslides on more than 2,000 cubic metres of road, damaging nearly one hectare of paddy rice.
At a meeting in Quang Ninh Province, Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Long criticised the local Natural Disaster Prevention and Search and Rescue Standing Board for slow responses to the flooding. 
The board did not know clearly about what happened to the localities after the heavy rains as of this morning.

Tours available for National Day

Travel agents have launched many tours to meet the increasing travel demand on this National Day (September 2nd).

Popular destinations, such as Phu Quoc , Nha Trang, Da Lat, Con Dao and Mekong Delta have attracted a large number of tourists. Tours to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia have been also fully booked.
Four day tour visiting Thailand costs VND 6 million per person. The price of tour to Malaysia to support Vietnamese team at the 29th Southeast Asian Games will be VND10-11 million per person.
Bus ticket prices at the Eastern Bus Station and Western Bus Station will see a 40 percent jump on Sepetmber 1-2.

The right to fight the wrong way

Dramatic protests by drivers against the operator of a tollgate on National Highway 1 in Tien Giang Province have dragged on for days and intensified on August 13 as scores of drivers used bags of small-denomination banknotes to pay toll fees. They are doing so to vent their anger at what they claim as the wrong toll collection, saying they should not be forced to pay for the service they do not use. And they have very good reason to do so.

BOT Tien Giang Company, owner of the tollgate, built a National Highway 1 section that bypasses Cai Lay town, and did a facelift to a section of the national highway itself. Early this month, the company started toll collection, with the lowest fee being VND35,000 for a small car, with an aim to recoup its investment in Cai Lay bypass construction and National Highway 1 section upgrade. That has immediately triggered protests from trucking enterprises and drivers.

Drivers reason that the investor has built the bypass, so it only has the right to collect tolls on those vehicles using this road section. It is, they say, illogical to charge vehicles running on National Highway 1, let alone the toll fee is too high, almost the same as the fee for using the 40-km HCMC-Trung Luong Expressway.

The protests have resulted in traffic chaos around the tollgate, with vehicles queuing up several kilometers either side of the gate on some days, while thousands of other vehicles take on smaller routes in the countryside to avoid paying toll fees.

BOT Tien Giang Company says that in developing this project, it has gained approval from all relevant authorized agencies, including the Ministry of Transport and the provincial government of Tien Giang. The site chosen for setting up the tollgate, the toll fees, and the period for toll collection have all been endorsed. Therefore, protests by drivers, according to the company, are unacceptable.

Meanwhile, drivers reject that reasoning, saying the erection of tollgates has become rampant in all major transport routes around the country. Toll fees, say drivers and transporters, have become a huge burden for them, and even worse, such fees are also overlapping, since all vehicle owners have paid a big sum to the Road Maintenance Fund.

In fact, the Ministry of Transport launched the Road Maintenance Fund years ago, forcing all drivers to pay the maintenance fee whenever vehicles are periodically checked at Vietnam Registry’s agents. As per regulations, all the costs of maintenance for roads and bridges, except those developed by private companies, shall be covered by the Road Maintenance Fund. Therefore, it is unacceptable when the Ministry of Transport allowed BOT Tien Giang Company to repair National Highway 1 under the ministry’s administration, which gives the company a good excuse to collect the high toll fees.

Apparently, this is a tough task for the Transport Ministry to address, since it is illogical from the very beginning when the ministry allowed BOT Tien Giang Company to upgrade the highway. A suitable solution should be for the ministry to reimburse BOT Tien Giang Company the cost of upgrading the highway section, using funds from the Road Maintenance Fund. This is not only a legal, legitimate and logical measure, but also a right one to do to remedy the ministry’s wrongful permission given to BOT Tien Giang Company in the first place.

AirAsia launches low-fare flights for SEA Games

AirAsia has offered promotional air tickets priced from VND790,000 to welcome the 29th SEA Games and the 9th ASEAN Para Games scheduled for August 19-30 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Vietnam football fans from HCM City, Hanoi, Danang, Nha Trang and Kuala Lumpur now can book tickets at the official website of AirAsia https://www.airasia.com/vn/vi/home.page?cid=1. 

The promotion is applied for departures from now till the end of August 2, 2018. Ticket prices include airport taxes, charges and fees.

The promotional program might not be available for all flights during summer holidays or weekends.

Especially, AirAsia will present SEA Games tickets for Vietnamese passengers flying to Kuala Lumpur during the event (on August 19-30).

Mastering clean energy technology for environmental protection

Developing clean energy like solar and wind energy is widely seen as a way to ensure sustainable development while protecting the environment.

At a recent conference called “Overseas Vietnamese contribute to the development of Ho Chi Minh City”, participants said Vietnam has identified clean, renewable energy as an important part of environmental protection.  

Global environmental threats, environmental pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions are forcing humans to pay more attention to the development of renewable energies.

Doctor Tran Van Binh, a Vietnamese living in Germany, has studied clean energy for more than 30 years. He says that Ho Chi Minh City, with about 2,000 hours of sun a year,  has favorable natural conditions for developing solar power.

He says the Vietnamese government should encourage people to collect solar energy on their rooftops or in their fields.

He said, “Ho Chi Minh City should make use of the rooftops of office buildings and schools, suitable places to install solar panels which absorb solar radiation and turn it into electricity. The municipal administration should take the lead in this endeavor.”

Promoting the use of LED and other smart lighting systems in homes, offices, and public places would save energy and reduce environmental pollution.

Professor Dang Luong Mo takes Japanese lighting models as an example: “We need to reduce energy consumption as much as possible. LED lighting is being widely used around the world.”

David Ngo, a Vietnamese living in the US and an expert in science and technology, says as fossil fuels like coal and oil become depleted, solar and wind energy must replace them.

Ngo suggests Vietnam make the most of its intellectuals and domestic technology to produce made-in-Vietnam renewable energy equipment. According to Mr Ngo, Vietnam should make people more aware of the importance of renewable energies.

“Vietnamese people can master advanced technologies. What we need is state policies such as appropriate electricity tariffs. 

To encourage people to use clean energy like solar and wind energy, we should set prices that are attractive to investors,” Ngo said.

Clean energy use is becoming very important, even urgent, for HCM City, an economic hub with more than 10 million people.

HCMC to pilot navigation fee collection, use in Soai Rap passage

Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue has assigned the Ministry of Transport to work with relevant agencies to determine Soai Rap passage area where HCMC will pilot navigation fee collection and use from 2018-2020.
According to Mr. Hue, HCMC is responsible for dredging and maintaining the passage and using the navigation fee revenue in the area determined by the ministry.
Before June 30, 2020, the ministry should work with the Ministry of Finance and the city People’s Committee to review and estimate the pilot fee collection and use, propose implementation measures in following years and report to the Prime Minister.

Nutritious food products delivered to mothers, children in flood areas

A delegation from the National Nutrition Institute under the Ministry of Health (MoH) on August 9 visited and supported mothers and children in flood-hit localities in the northern mountainous provinces of Son La and Yen Bai with nutritious food products. 
The products include multivitamin supplements for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers and protein and essential vitamin supplements for children from six months to five years old.

The MoH’s bodies are working to support localities in preventing possible epidemic outbreaks after the flood like dengue fever and conjunctivitis. They will promote popularisation on food safety and environment hygiene.

By August 8, the ministry had provided medicine and medical equipment for Son La, DIen Bien and Yen Bai provinces.

Downpour, flood and landslides that ravaged northern localities earlier this month damaged numerous houses, roads and farm produce while claiming many local lives.

Ben Tre strives for sustainable poverty alleviation

The Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre has implemented a plan with numerous programmes to help locals develop livelihoods and achieve sustainable poverty elimination from 2016 – 2020.

So far, 8,928 poor and near poor households have joined the plan. After one year, those who have escaped from the poor status are still being supervised to ensure they achieve sustainable poverty elimination.

Nguyen Thi Kim Thoa, Vice President of the provincial chapter of the Vietnam Women’s Union said, 754 out of 1,243 households of poor women have benefited from the plan, worth over 18.5 billion VND (814,000 USD). 60 of them have escaped from poverty.

The Association has encouraged the wealthy ones to lend a helping hand to the poor, and provided saplings, labour force, and vocational training to help its poor members gain stable income.

According to the provincial Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, the province has 37,541 and 17,395 poor and near poor households, respectively.

The provincial branch of the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies has provided preferential loans up to 190 billion VND (8.36 million USD) for these poor and near poor households. In addition, the involved households also enjoyed social services, including health care, education, housing, and water supply.

Nguyen Huu Phuoc, Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee said the plan aims to help find suitable livelihoods for every local poor household.

He urged levels, sectors to promote publicity campaign to enhance the awareness and self-respect of the poor to strive to get rid of poverty in the coming time.

They should help locals have more understanding, funding, and suitable livelihood options, he said.

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