Fishing boat rescued near Truong Sa

A fishing boat and its 13 crew members were rescued at sea near Viet Nam's Truong Sa (Spratly) Islands after sending an SOS on Wednesday.

The boat's crew belongs to Ly Son Island's An Hai Commune in the central province of Quang Ngai.

Nguyen Quoc Chinh, head of the An Hai Commune Fishing Union, confirmed yesterday that the union had received an SOS from fishing boat QNg 96156 TS, which was stranded off the island of Thuyen Chai in the Truong Sa Islands of Khanh Hoa Province.

Other fishing boats nearby failed to approach the boat due to big waves and the rough sea. However, ship HQ561 from Navy Zone 4 was able to tow the fishing boat to anchor on Thuyen Chai Island.

The sea around the Truong Sa Islands has been choppy over the last few days with 3-4m high waves.

Two arrested for trafficking women in Son La

Two persons were arrested for cheating andtrafficking Vietnamese women near the Viet Nam-China border onTuesday, said the Son La Border Guards Headquarters.

The two persons were identified as Sung A Denh, born in 1993, and Thao A Muoi, born in1991. Both are residents of the northern Son La province.

They were caught while trying to transport two local women whom they planned to sell in the Lao Cai border area.

They had already sold three women for VND30 million (US$1,400) each, by luring them with promises of well-paid jobs.

The authorities are investigating the case further.

Police bust lorry driver for trafficking IT parts

The Ha Noi Police on Wednesday discovered lorry full of trafficked computer parts at Thach Ban-Nguyen Van Linh, a three-way crossroad which connect the northern port city of Hai Phong and Ha Noi.

The spare parts, including more than 2,600 speakers, 200 microphones, 100 earphones and hundreds of charging wires.

The lorry driver admitted to the police that he was hired to transport the goods and failed to show any papers related to the goods.

Unregistered mobile phones seized from bus

The Ha Noi market watch department's division 13 yesterday seized 500 unregistered mobile phones from a bus travelling from Mong Cai district of Quang Ninh province to Ha Noi.

The 42-year-old driver, Giap Manh Hung, a resident of Ha Long city in Quang Ninh, and his co-driver, Cao Xuan Khoi, a resident of Ha Nam province's Ly Nhan district, could not show any documents that indicated the place of origin of the mobile phones.

Le Quang Trung, the bus owner, told the market watch department that he was hired last Tuesday to transport 500 mobile phones from Mong Cai district to My Dinh bus station in Ha Noi for VND3.5 million ($166).

Trung put the phones in the customised cargo hold to hide them from the police, and did not let the drivers know about the mobile phones.

He added that he had re-designed the cargo hold of the bus to carry more goods and earn more money, because he had to pay the Ka Long Transport Co-operative VND30 million (US$1,400) each month for using the bus.

The case is being investigated further.

US Ambassador donates blood ahead of Tet

The US Embassy in Hanoi in collaboration with the National Institute of Haematology and Blood Transfusion (NIHBT) on January 15 sponsored a blood drive in Hanoi.

Those participating in the event included the US ambassador, diplomatic staff and a large number of representatives from the US business community.

This is the first time the newly appointed US Ambassador has participated in charitable activities in Vietnam. He said the involvement in the blood drive was of great significance, especially given the nation has been experiencing a critical shortage of blood.

Ambassador Ossius said he and the diplomatic staff consider themselves part of the Vietnamese community and called on more people to donate blood to save lives nationwide during the upcoming TET holiday.

The US top diplomat began his tenure last December and at that time, he emphasized that one of his top priorities would be stepping up medical cooperation between Vietnam and the US during his term.

Vietnam-Laos association's activities under review

The Vietnam-Laos Friendship Association (VLFA) Central Committee reviewed its friendship activities in 2014 and outlined action plans for 2015 at the second conference in Hanoi on January 15.

In his statement, VLFA President Vu Trong  Kim, who is also Vice President and Secretary General of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee suggested VLFA chapters should intensify their activities to deepen mutual understanding and bilateral relations.

He also praised the association for launching a host of exchange activities in 2014 to strengthen the time-honoured friendship, solidarity, and comprehensive cooperation.

In 2015, the VLFA will diversify its operation methods, step up communications to educate the people of both nations, especially young generations, about Vietnam-Laos special relations, Kim added.

In addition, VLFA’s chapters will work with their Lao partners to bolster all-around cooperation, principally in education, training, economics, culture, science and technology, tourism, and sports.

Last year’s two-way trade turnover hit US$1.58 billion, up 34.5% on-year.

RoK funds US$3 million e-learning project

The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) will provide US$3 million in non-refundable aid for  the period 2015-2016 to develop an e-learning system at Hanoi Open University and share the Republic of Korea (RoK)’s experience in the field with Vietnam.

Addressing the launching ceremony for the e-learning platform improvement project in Hanoi on January 15, Chang Jae Yun, KOICA Chief Representative affirmed the project aims to help Hanoi Open University transform its distance learning model to an e-learning system and provide 33,000 students with a better education.

Director of the Information and Technology Agency under the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) Dr. Quach Tuan Ngoc confirmed that Hanoi Open University will become the vanguard of e-learning in Vietnam.

In the context when Vietnam has implemented comprehensive educational reform, the project will help people use information technology (IT) at anytime and anywhere, and build a learning society for everyone.

Chang Jae Yun, KOICA Chief Representative said the project is expected to offer plentiful opportunities for 33,000 people to get access to e-learning model. Experiences in the field will help lure investment from Korean businesses into Vietnam’s training sector in the future.

Five providers of guest workers to Taiwan suspended

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs has issued a decision to suspend five labour export companies who have committed violations in sending Vietnamese workers to Taiwan.

The decision is effective for the period January 10 to February 10, 2015 and applies to Coma, Traenco, Tracimexco, Halasuco and Cefinar who have been found guilty of overcharging for workers.

The Ministry has also asked the five companies to timely report back on measures they have implemented to prevent future reoccurrences of these or similar violations.

Earlier, the department issued a decision to suspend the Vietnam Leather and Footwear Joint Stock Corporation (Leaprodexim) from sending labourers to the Taiwanese market for a period of 45 days since late 2014.

Schools ordered to check students' medical history

Following the death of a  sixth grader in Ho Chi Minh City fainted and died a while after being hit with rulers by her teacher earlier this week, the department of Education and Training in HCMC's District Tan Phu January 13 ordered schools to pay attention to students' medical history.

In a meeting with school principals, the department representative stressed that schools must give a hoot to students' medical history to avoid such similar mentioned-above regrettable incident.

The department also sent a document to pre- schools and junior high schools in the district asking to ensure students' safety while they are in schools.

The regrettable happened in Phan Boi Chau Middle School in Tan Phu District on January 6. H. and another student from Class 6/7  were punished in a technology class since they did not learn their previous lesson.

The teacher asked H. to lie on a table and used a bunch of student rulers to strike her buttocks. After four blows, the teacher asked H. to move back to her seat, but she lay on the table and did not move.

Thinking that H. was pretending, the teacher asked a student to lift H. up and discovered that she had fainted.

H. was brought to the school’s health office, then transferred to Tan Phu District’s Center for Preventive Medicine and eventually the Tan Phu District Hospital but the hospital confirmed that H. died

After the incident, the district education strictly forbids all punishment forms including insult students and students' physical harm. Any teachers violating the sector's regulation will receive fine. Teachers should understand student family's medical file and students' psychology to have proper discipline.

In addition, schools must guarantee students' safety while they are attending in extra-activities.

Vehicles to be charged toll fee of VND 60,000- 240,000 on Highway 51

After opening to traffic of remaining 31 kilometers of Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh - Dau Giay Highway on February 8, Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC) said traffic fee on the section will be collected starting January 15.

Earlier, Vietnam Expressway Corporation proposed toll fees on vehicles plying Highway 51, including:

Vehicles with 12 seats and bus, trucks with loads  of 2 tons  will be applied fee of  VND 60,000 per vehicle.

Vehicles with 12 - 30 seats and trucks with loads  of 2 - 4 tons will fee of VND 90,000 per vehicle.

Vehicles with 31 seats and trucks with loads from 4 up to 10 tons will be charged VND 160,000 per vehicle.

Trucks with loads of 10-  18 tons capacity and on 20 feet container trucks will be charged VND 150,000.

Trucks with loads of more than 18 tons and 40 feet container trucks, the charge will be VND 240,000.

Foreign affairs agencies, media strengthen information sharing

About 50 reporters and editors from local and central press agencies in Ho Chi Minh City gathered to discuss the state of external information service at a meeting in the city on January 13.

Addressing the event, Doan Tuan Linh, Vice Director of the Ho Chi Minh Department of Foreign Affairs, stressed the need to strengthen coordination and information sharing between foreign affairs agencies and media, particularly reporters covering external activities, to further improve the efficiency and quality of foreign news service in the city.

Housing over 50 consulates and about 100 international organisations, HCM City works to promote foreign news service and considers it an important tool to boost international cooperation in various fields between the city and international partners.

Do Van Hop, head of the Vietnam News Agency’s News Department for Foreign Service, emphasised the importance of external news affairs in introducing Party and State policies to the world, promoting the country’s image, and providing corrections and repudiating inaccurate information from reactionary organisations.

He highlighted shortcomings in the country’s foreign news, including the low number of in-depth news and commentaries.

He called on editors and reporters in external information affairs to enhance their knowledge, contributing to implementing the country’s external works amidst present diversified and multidimensional information sources.

Vietnam News Agency (VNA) has actively covered external activities of the Party and State leaders in a timely and accurate manner.

Last year, VNA provided hundreds of text, photo, and video news stories relating to activities in the city, introducing the southern economic hub’s achievements and potential advantages in attracting investment.

Fire breaks out at Que Vo industrial park

A fire spread over about 1,000 square metre of a workshop owned by Mitac Vietnam Co. Ltd. in Que Vo Industrial Park 1 in the northern province of Bac Ninh on January 14.

The fire started at 7:55 am on the second floor of the workshop when the short circuit happened and spread out to other areas in the industrial park.

It took nearly three hours for local police and fire fighters to keep the blaze under control and tighten the security at the scene.

Pham Huu Quang, deputy head of the Bac Ninh provincial Police Department’s fire prevention and control division, said no human losses were reported although the fierce fire spread to a large area.

Functional agencies are conducting investigation to find out the cause of the accident.

Mitac Vietnam is a member of Taiwan’s Mitac Precision Technology Corporation (MPT), specializing in producing plastic and metal mechanical parts for well-known international brands such as Samsung and Canon.

Orbis helps train Vietnam’s eye doctors

US ophthalmological experts are running a training course for 30 eye doctors from Hanoi, Danang and Ho Chi Minh City at the Vietnam National Institute of Ophthalmology (VNIO) from January 12 to 16.

This is part of the “Improve the Capacity of eye care in children at the VNIO in the period 2014-2017" project funded by Orbis International with the aim of raising capacity and qualification of Vietnamese eye doctors.

VNIO Vice Director, Dr. Nguyen Xuan Hiep said the training course will help Vietnamese eye doctors conduct difficult eye surgeries with new techniques and technologies.

The Orbis-funded project is implemented from 2014 to 2017 at a cost of US$1 million to update knowledge and management skills in making plans and policies on blindness prevention and eye care services in Vietnam. It will offer training courses on eye care according to the International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO) standards and supply equipment and facilities to prevent blindness in Vietnam.

In early 2014, Orbis financed the building of a children’s eye centre at the VNIO.

Orbis is implementing a US$1.2 million project to develop children’s eye care services in Binh Dinh province from December 2014 to December 2018.

Assistance policies pay off in reducing poverty

Poverty rates in mountainous and ethnic regions were reduced by 2-4 percent last year, with most rapid decreases seen in the northern provinces of Ha Giang, Yen Bai, and Son La, and the southern Soc Trang, it was reported at a conference in Hanoi on January 14.

Reports delivered at the Government Committee for Ethnic Affairs meeting noted that the poverty rate among households in the northwestern region dropped by 3.5 percent, while the northeastern region saw a decrease of 3 percent and the Central Highlands was able to reduce the poverty rate by 2.7 percent.

The conference also heard that in 2014, mountainous provinces recorded an average economic growth of 8-10 percent thanks to a recovery in industrial and agricultural production with increases in productivity, output, and quality. The living conditions of ethnic minorities improved while political and security situations remained stable.

The positive outcomes were attributable to numerous policies dedicated to mountainous ethnic areas, including programmes to build flood-resistant homes in vulnerable areas in the Mekong Delta and central regions and a project to construct 186 suspension bridges in 28 mountainous provinces.

In 2014, over VND3.9 trillion (US$183.3 million) was allocated to 2,331 disadvantaged communes for infrastructure upgrades and production development, with an additional VND327 billion provided for resettlement projects targeting nomadic ethnic minority groups.

In particular, 29 provinces have provided housing and farming land to landless ethnic households in extremely poor areas.

Addressing the conference, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc hailed ethnic affairs results in the last year, saying that they significantly contributed to Millennium Development Goal achievements on poverty reduction and the country’s socio-economic targets.

At the same time, he appealed for greater efforts towards further developing mountainous ethnic areas.

In addition to the Party and Government’s policies, he suggested localities enact their own measures to accelerate growth in these areas by paying more attention to ethnic affairs, allocating resources to far-flung areas, and organising activities to attract more investment.

Young environmentalists discuss energy efficiency at GYS

The first Global Youth Summit (GYS) Winter to be held in Vietnam was inaugurated in Hanoi on January 15.

It is being attended by 200 young people from different Asian nations to discuss and initiate ideas to protect the living environment.

The event is being jointly organised by the Hemispheres Foundation and the Vietmam Environment Administration.

The delegates, aged between 11 and 21, have from Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, and Singapore, as well as Oman and Vietnam to take part in the four-day event that will focus on energy efficiency and waste management. There will be field trips in Hanoi and to the neighbouring provinces of Bac Ninh and Hai Duong.

"These young environmentalists will be a great source of inspiration for other youth in the region to learn more about the environment impact and assume a more active role in their actions for Earth," said Hemisphere Foundation President Ann Phua.

A GYS Summer will be hosted in HCM City this August.

Danish Embassy to host big Hanoi jobs fair

One of Hanoi’s largest job fairs will be organised by Danish Ambassador John Nielsen on January 19 at the Hanoi Foreign Trade University (FTU) for students and young people looking for their first step on the career ladder.

Representatives from Danish and Vietnamese companies along with several higher education institutions will participate, providing those who attend the opportunity to find out about jobs in a variety of sectors locally, nationally and internationally.

A team of professional careers consultants will be on hand to offer advice and there are short informative talks on interview techniques, making effective job applications, succeeding at assessment centres and the skills employers look for.

Ambassador Nielsen said the event will help create a direct link between Vietnamese youth and Danish companies who are seeking high-quality employees.

This, the second jobs fair sponsored by the Danish Ambassador, is to be held in honour of a visit by the Danish Minister for Trade and Development Cooperation.

Top heart disease experts meet to share experience

Around 200 leading experts specialising in congenital and structural heart diseases are gathering in Ho Chi Minh City for an international conference on right-sided heart intervention from A to Z from January 14-16.

They are to share new discoveries as well as experience in treating congenital heart defects.

Cardiac interventional procedures performed in the Medicine University and Children’s Hospital 1 of Ho Chi Minh City and Thailand’s Queen Sirikit Institute of Children Health will be shown at the conference.

In Vietnam, at least 8,000 out of 1 million babies born a year suffer from congenital heart diseases, with half of them having right-sided heart defects, mostly Tetralogy of Fallot.

Asian people, including Vietnamese, tend to have right-sided heart diseases, according to Associate Professor Vu Minh Phuc, Chairman of the HCM City Paediatric Cardiology and Congenital Heart Disease Society.

Progress has been made in curing those diseases, Phuc said, noting that operations can now be performed on newborn babies.

Vietnam currently has 19 centres capable of performing heart operations and ten of which are located in HCM City.

Children’s Hospitals No. 1 and No. 2 conduct operations for more than 400 patients with right –sided heart defects a year.

The conference is a follow-up of the three previous successful conferences in Vietnam, including “Eardrum Perforation from A to Z”, “V entricular Septal Defect from A to Z” and “Coronary Intervention from A to Z”.

Ho Chi Minh City promotes childcare effort

A seminar on developing and improving systems for child care and protection services was held in Ho Chi Minh City on January 13.

Jointly organised by the municipal Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in Vietnam, the event is part of a project which aims to lower the rate of children with special circumstances and raise the rate of those receiving assistance in the city between 2015 and 2016.

To realise these goals, local authorities plan to construct additional centres for supporting and protecting children, pilot a day-boarding model to care for children living with HIV/AIDS, and develop a community-based protection system over the next two years.

Le Thu Ha from the Ministry of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs said child care and protection service system has been piloted in 63 percent of provinces and cities, helping reduce the rate of child victims of violence and abuse, among others, by 0.2 percent annually.

The model also contributed to increasing the rate of children receiving care and assistance to 72 percent.

However, she noted that efforts have yet to meet set requirements because system and staff capacity in the field remains limited, while interdisciplinary coordination in the field has not been effective.

Le Hong Loan from UNICEF Vietnam said the 2015-2016 programme will focus on supporting the formation of socially-sponsored centres and a staff network working in the field, while establishing interdisciplinary working groups to provide assistance, care and protection services to children in need.

Implemented in HCM City since 2010, the project was designed to improve the capacity of local authorities to thoroughly and effectively resolve issues related children, especially those in poor and vulnerable families, and within migration communities.

Medical workers in Thanh Hoa fake qualifications

As medical graduates in Vietnam struggle to find work, an investigation of healthcare units in Thanh Hoa Province has found a number of medical workers have been using fake certificates to gain employment, some for decades.

Le Huu Uyen, from the provincial Department of Health, said an investigation launched early last year found at least 20 medical workers from local hospitals and medical stations did not have the qualifications they claimed.

One worker using fake certificates was found at Thanh Hoa Provincial Hospital, one at the Provincial Hospital of Endocrinology and two at Thanh Hoa City General Hospital.

Several medical workers in the province had been using fake certificates for decades.

“The provincial Department of Health has requested all violators be dismissed and their dossiers sent to provincial police for further investigation,” Uyen said.

In some cases, violators are being allowed to continue working, such as in the case of Le Thi Thuy, who used a fake phamarcy certificate to work at the Provincial Hospital of Endocrinology as a medicine deliverer. She had worked at the hospital for eight years.

After her cheating was uncovered, Thuy was dismissed last May 20, but a few months later the hospital’s director decided to re-employ her as a nurse's aid with one-year contract beginning from last October 1, stirring up public controversy.

“We’ll ask the hospital’s leaders explain the decision,” Uyen said.

ChildFund presents 2,300 jackets to children in mountainous region

Nearly 2,300 warm jackets worth VND 200 million (US$9,300)were presented to children in Kim Truy and Hop Dong communes, Kim Boi district in the mountainous province of Hoa Binh on January 12 under the sponsorship of ChildFund Vietnam.

The winter gifts are one of the annual activities of ChildFund Vietnam. Each year, the children are presented with books, warm clothes, shoes and school supplies.

In previous years, the beneficiaries of the project were children under the sponsorship of its child programme. However, since 2014, the project has reached children in communes in ChildFund Vietnam’s community projects, including the northern provinces of Bac Kan, Cao Bang and Hoa Binh, where the majority of people are from ethnic minority groups.

ChildFund began working in Vietnam in 1995 as a representative office of ChildFund Australia – an independent and secular international development organisation that works to reduce or eliminate poverty for children in the developing world.

ChildFund Australia is a member of the ChildFund Alliance – a global network of 12 organisations which assists more than 16 million children in over 50 countries.

Labour exports reach record high of nearly 107,000 in 2014

Vietnam set a new record for guest workers abroad in 2014 with 106,840 workers, up 18.7% compared to the year's target, according to the Overseas Labour Management Department under the Ministry of Labours, Invalids and Social Affairs.

Vietnam's labour exports also faced difficulties in 2014 due to political unrest in Libya and limited labour contracts from the Republic of Korea (RoK). However, the number of workers sent to Taiwan (China) in 2014 jumped to 62,124, much higher than the previous years and two times higher than 2010, contributing to raising the total number of Vietnamese workers aboard to a record high.

Taiwan was the largest recipient of Vietnamese workers in 2014, accounting for nearly 60% of total guest workers abroad. It was followed by Japan, the Rok and Malaysia.

Japan received 19,766 Vietnamese workers while the RoK received 7,242 and Malaysia received 5,139. Vietnam also sent 2,516 workers to Macau (China), 6,452 workers to the Middle East, 1,684 workers to Africa and 1,255 workers to Russia and Eastern Europe.

In 2015, Vietnam will promote its labour exports to Africa and the Middle East by signing agreements with Angola and Saudi Arabia to create the best conditions for Vietnamese guest workers.

Construction of Hanoi’s Belt Road 3 intersection soon begins

The construction work of the Trung Hoa – Belt Road 3 intersection, including two tunnels, will begin on January 18, according to the Thang Long Project Management Board.

Vu Xuan Hoa, head of the Board, said the Board under the Ministry of Transport on January 15 signed a contract package deal No 4 with the contractor-builder group Hanshin-Cienco 4 to build the intersection where Thang Long Avenue, Belt Road 3 and Tran Duy Hung road meet.

The intersection, which currently does not allow continuous traffic through it, is also the last work of the phase II of the Belt Road 3 project from Mai Dich to Linh Dam Lake that uses the Japanese Government’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) loans.

The cost is estimated at 1,087 billion VND or around 51 million USD and comes from the remainder of the capital from the phase II of the Belt Road 3 project.

The building works include two 691.8m-long tunnels of three lanes each for two-way traffic between Tran Duy Hung and Thang Long Avenue.

On its completion, the new intersection will help ease the traffic flow between the downtown Hanoi and the West part of the city.

It also connects provinces in the northeastern region like Hai Phong and Lang Son to the Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park and Hoa Binh province.

Winners of Young Science Talent Awards announced

Winners of the 2014 Young Science Talent Awards for university students and lecturers were announced at a ceremony held in Hanoi on January 15.

As many as 121 projects were presented to students, including 11 first, 32 second and 78 third prizes.

Seventy-four projects carried out by 102 lecturers were also honoured at the ceremony, including five first, 11 second, 33 third and 33 consolation prizes.

The winning projects in the two categories were selected from over 400 entries by students and lecturers from 81 universities across the country.

The projects cover various fields, including natural sciences, engineering and technology, medicine and pharmacy, social sciences and humanities. Many of them are highly applicable and expected to significantly contribute to socio-economic development.

Prominent entries include an initiative to make drugs to treat burn wounds, by Le Thu Huong, a student from Medicine and Pharmacy University in Hue; a project on cybercrime by a group of students from the People’s Police Academy; and a project on improving artificial kidney devices by Doctor Do Duy Hai, a lecturer from Hanoi University of Science and Technology.

Launched 25 years ago by the Ministry of Education and Training, the awards have become one of the most prestigious honours for students in the country. The accolade has been extended to lecturers since 2012.

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