Thai Nguyen takes lead in new-style rural area building

Thai Nguyen leads the northern mountainous provinces in constructing new-style rural areas with 40 out of 140 rural communes, or 27.9 percent, earning the status, according to Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Doan Van Tuan.

After five years of implementing the national programme, 32 communes in the province have satisfied 15-18 out of the 19 criteria set for a new-style rural area and no commune was reported with the achievement of less than five criteria.

The vice chairman said the province strives to have more than 70 percent of all communes recognised as new-style rural areas and increase the average number of criteria met by each commune to 17 by 2020.

It also expects the rate of local poor households to drop by 2 percent annually during the period and rural residents’ income to grow to 36 million VND (1612.8 USD) per person per year, he added.

To pursue the goals, the province plans to allocate over 8.7 trillion VND (389.7 million USD) for the programme between 2016 and 2020, including 2.2 trillion VND sourced from the State budget and more than 2.88 trillion VND raised by its funds.

It will create more incentives for the implementation of the programme, particularly applicable to poor and remote areas alongside those in support of large-scale production, advanced technology application and links between farmers and cooperatives in agriculture.

Local agribusinesses will be assisted in developing their brands and registering a trademark that enables their products to obtain higher value.

Additionally, the province will zone off large-scale farming areas for its key livestock, poultry and crops, for example, a 10,000-hectare area of hi-quality tea grown under VietGAP standards.

The funding will also be spent to construct and upgrade commune-based schools, medical stations, and culture and sport centres.

HCM City districts aim to bring water to more residents

Authorities in HCM City’s outlying districts plan to co-operate with local water supply companies to lay pipes to achieve their target of supplying clean water to all households by the end of this year.

Speaking at a two-day meeting which ended yesterday by the city People’s Council’s Economic and Policy Board, Lý Hiếu Thanh, deputy chairman of Hóc Môn District, said the Sài Gòn Water Corporation (Sawaco) would install 416km of pipes for the purpose.

The district would build more water pumping stations and water meters and install more water supply tanks for households in areas without pipes.

Around 51 per cent of the district’s 86,432 households have access to clean water, with Tân Hiệp and Tân Xuân communes having the lowest rates of such households.

This figure increases from only 8.4 per cent recorded in 2011.

Nguyễn Văn Trường, deputy chairman of Bình Chánh District, said the district authorities plan to install water meters for 34,336 households and 433 tanks to supply another 42,200 households and build water pumping stations.

But the process would be slow, he feared.

Only 50 per cent of the district’s 155,643 households get clean water, he added.

Many of those without clean water live in the communes of Đa Phước, Vĩnh Lộc A and B.

However, a paradox is occuring in the Hóc Môn District. Many households there do not use clean water although they have water meters installed.

A representative of Trung An Water Supply Company, a Sawaco subsidiary, said the rate is 26 per cent, with many households being in the communes of Bà Điểm, Đông Thạnh, and Thới Tam Thôn.

Nguyễn Văn Lâm of the Economic and Policy Board said communications should be strengthened to help households that do not use clean water understand the benefits of clean water to avoid waste.

Hanoi to be short of water this summer

Hanoi residents are likely to see water supply shortages this summer.

A report from Hanoi’s construction department said the city’s water demand will surge to more than one million cubic meters a day in the summer, exceeding the maximum capacity of water plants of 960,000 cubic meters.

People living on several streets in the districts of Ba Dinh, Tay Ho, Hoan Kiem and Dong Da will suffer “serious” shortages, it said.

The situation will be much worse if ruptures on the Song Da pipeline, which provides 27% of tap water in the city, happen again, it said. The system carries water to tens of thousands of families in the southwest.

The fiberglass pipe has broken 17 times since 2012, three years after it was installed. It was supposed to last at least 50 years.

Work on an alternative system is under way.

Quang Ninh targets no extremely disadvantaged communes by 2020

The northern province of Quang Ninh aims to bring its 22 extremely disadvantaged communes and 11 hamlets out of poverty by 2020, according to the provincial Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs.

The province will mobilise 1.653 trillion VND (nearly 72 million USD) to accomplish the goals under Government Programme 135, designed for the extremely disadvantaged communes from 2016 to 2020.

Each commune will receive six billion VND (260,000 USD), four times higher than current support, to implement projects under Programme 135.

Government Programme 135, launched in 1999 under the Prime Minister's Decision 135/1998/QD-TTg on July 31, 1998, aims to improve living conditions for rural residents in the most disadvantaged communes across the country with a focus on ethnic communities.

In 2015, Quang Ninh posted a growth rate of 11 percent, the fastest pace in four years, and average per capita income of nearly 4,000 USD. The rate of impoverished families dropped to 1.33 percent.

The province welcomed more than 7.7 million tourists and earned 6.5 trillion VND (291 million USD) in tourism revenue last year, an annual rise of 19 percent.

Quang Ninh aims to become a tourism hub and a growth engine of Vietnam by 2020.

Dozens of communes across Hanoi designated to develop livestock farming over the last five years have proved to be a stepping stone to the growth of the capital city’s animal husbandry.

The designation is under a programme on expanding large-scale livestock farming since 2011.

Hanoi is now home to 19 communes specialising in raising beef cattle with nearly 27,000 head, accounting for 21 percent of the total beef cattle in the city. More than 2,000 of the cattle are kept at 105 large-scale farms.

Local farmers’ income has increased by over 60 billion VND (2.69 million USD) a year thanks to the sale of beef and breeding cattle.

About 12,500 head of dairy cattle, or 82 percent of the total, are being raised in 15 designated communes. They produce about 98 tonnes of milk each day, accounting for 88 percent of the milk output in Hanoi.

The number of dairy cows has risen by some 4,000 and their milk productivity was up 29 tonnes per day from 2011. Farmers have benefited from an additional 150 billion VND each year as a result of dairy cattle farming.

Large pig farms have also developed in a more environmentally friendly manner. About 890 such farms are raising 1.4 million pigs.

Meanwhile, the encouraged use of organic feed has been welcomed by the market. One kilogramme of organic pork costs 3,000 – 5,000 VND higher than that of ordinary pork. Hence, the income from each pig is augmented by 300,000 – 500,000 VND (13.4 – 22.4 USD).

Regarding poultry, more than 21 million animals are being farmed city-wide, including over 7 million chickens raised in 29 designated communes. Hanoi is accommodating 2,380 large-sized fowl farms, 1,410 of them specialise in raising chickens.

The expansion of poultry farming has also helped revive local specialised species known for their meat quality, such as the chicken species in Soc Son and Ba Vi districts or the duck species in Van Dinh township.

HCMC needs great efforts to escape from lagging condition: Party chief Thang

Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Secretary Dinh La Thang called upon agencies and citizens to make great efforts for the city to escape from the condition of straggling behind other nations in the region yesterday morning.

At a conference reviewing the patriotic emulation movements and commendation 2015 and implementing the city's key tasks this year, he stated that HCMC has gone through a long and proud way of development. However the bitter and unacceptable truth is that it has lagged behind other Southeast Asian nations.

The condition had been caused by many objective and subjective reasons. However it should not be a pretext to blame each other, he said.

Mr. Thang prompted citizens not to accept the bitter truth as a destiny but strive their best to first sustain the city position of the country’s motive force, continue leading the southern region’s development and be a driving force for the country’s strategic targets.

He believed that HCMC will be able to practice that with dynamic and steadfast citizens who have dared to accept challenges, been on the spirit and cultural beauty of solidarity, sharing, protection and assistance one another.

“In the global integration phase, opportunities are equally divided to every nation. The matter is how to grasp these opportunities making them positive assistances for the national growth,” Mr. Thang said.

The ability of catching opportunities largely depends on the determination of each nation and the most important thing is to mobilize all human resources and the national unity, he added.

HCMC is the country’s motive force in economics, culture, science and technology and it should appeal to all classes of citizens to speed up development.

Seven breakthrough programs that the city has defined for the next five years show its wish about the city’s future.

He called upon agencies and citizens to find the best solutions to make the dreams come true. It was time to intensify patriotic emulation movements more than ever. Every agency, house and citizen should do their best and enhance the emulation spirit via specific actions and goals making the city a place fit to live for everyone, he said.

Acquiring opinions by the secretary, chairman of the city People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong launched the patriotic emulation movement 2016.

The movement would be attached to campaigns on rectifying the party and following the moral example of President Ho Chi Minh, implementation of the Politburo’s Directive 03 to fight against corruption, waste and practice saving.

The movement 2016 will gather all resources to speed up economic growth rate, making it higher than last year, improve the growth quality and the city’s economic competitiveness, solve difficulties for businesses especially small and medium ones.

Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong urged related agencies to spot, condemn and reward teams and individuals with excellent achievements while implementing their duties in remote and disadvantageous areas of the city.

Being chairman of the Emulation and Reward Council, Mr. Phong declared against manifestations of formalism and ‘the achievement disease’ in emulation and reward.

 Nearly 30,000 Vietnamese people suffer Hemophilia

Nearly 30,000 Vietnamese people have incurable disease, said Director of the Central Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion Nguyen Anh Tri said at a press brief held yesterday by the Ministry of Health and the Institute in Hanoi in celebration of the World Hemophilia Day.

Hemophilia is an incurable disease and hemophiliacs usually suffer and die early. Hemophilia is a rare bleeding disorder in which the blood doesn't clot normally. Hemophilia usually is inherited which means that the disorder is passed from parents to children through genes.

A person has hemophilia, he/she may bleed for a longer time than others after an injury. He also may bleed inside your body (internally), especially in your knees, ankles, and elbows. This bleeding can damage his organs and tissues and may be life-threatening.

Though modern medicine can early detect the disease , it is incurable; accordingly patients have to live with the disease in their whole life. The two main types of hemophilia are A and B, Professor Tri added,  if you have hemophilia A, you're missing or have low levels of clotting factor VIII (8). About 8 out of 10 people who have hemophilia with type A. If you have hemophilia B, you're missing or have low levels of clotting factor IX (9).

Hemophilia usually occurs in males (with rare exceptions). About 1:10,000 males are born with hemophilia each year.

At present, it is estimated that around 400,000 people suffer incurable disease in the world including 30,000 Vietnamese. Most of people having Hemophila gene do not show disease symptom and  just 6,000 really have symptoms of the disease.

Worrisome, nearly 2,400 people with Hemophila gene are taken care in seven medical clinics in the country in which can provide enough treatment to Hemophila patients.

Though Vietnamese medicine has made great progress in treating Hemophilia and other blood disorders, it is facing difficulties as just 40 percent of Hemophila patients in the country had been discovered and received proper treatment.

Moreover, people’s awareness of the disease is still limited; hence they come to medical clinics for treatment at late stage. Along with this, policies on health insurance for Hemophila people is still improper causing difficulties for patients who must pay an average amount of VND40 million for a course of treatment for the disease.

Worse, those who have the disease can die if their disease is not early detected and treated properly.  The life expectancy for a person with severe hemophilia was less than 20 years old. But if they are treated, they can get a healthy life and partake in social activities like others, said Professor Tri.

National radio broadcasting festival to be held in Nha Trang

The 12th National Radio Broadcasting Festival will be held from April 20-22 in Nha Trang city, the southern central coastal province of Khanh Hoa, a press briefing heard in Hanoi on April 14.

This year’s event draws the participation of 62 radio – television stations from around the country, including the Vietnam People’s Army Radio – Television Centre, the People’s Public Security Radio – Television – Cinema Centre, and 14 units under the Voice of Vietnam.

So far, the organising board has received 265 programmes from 78 radio broadcasters, including 75 reports, 50 interviews, 42 radio stories, 70 mixed programmes and 28 live broadcasts.

The works reflect the comprehensive reform of the country in all fields, including politics, economy, society, culture and national security protection; as well as communicate ethnic policy, foreign policy and the integration of the country in the new period.

Out of submissions, 199 were selected to enter the final round, including 55 reports, 30 interviews, 33 radio stories, 53 mixed programmes and 28 live programmes.

Seventeen gold, 33 silver and 62 bronze medals as well as 87 certificates of merit will be presented to the best works. In addition, outstanding broadcasts on soldiers of the Vietnam People’s Army, electricity and life, workers and trade unions and young competitors will be honoured.

On the occasion, a wide variety of seminars on broadcasting professionals and techniques will be held on April 21, attracting a large number of experts, reporters and broadcasters.

The biennial festival offers an opportunity for radio journalists to meet, share professional experiences and enhance co-operation as well as further study modern communication technologies of Vietnam and the world.

Traffic accidents, deaths, injuries fall in Q1

Some 5,000 traffic accidents occurred across Việt Nam in the first quarter of 2016, killing nearly 2,200 people and injuring more than 4,500, the National Traffic Safety Committee has reported.

Compared to the same period last year, the number of traffic accidents, deaths and injuries fell by 14.8 per cent, 6.5 per cent and 17.7 per cent, respectively, the committee said on Tuesday.

According to the report, the transport police also fined more than 909,000 vehicles for violating laws on the roads, collecting VNĐ608 billion (US$27 million). Fines were issued in 505 cases for violating railway safety, contributing more than VNĐ124 million ($5,500) to the state budget, and 39,400 vehicles were fined a total of VNĐ22 billion ($998,000) for breaking laws on the waterways.

Besides this, 7,700 out of 51,000 flights were delayed in the first quarter and 295 flights were cancelled.

The Ministry of Transport completed and put into operation 23 projects, including the Hà Nội-Bắc Giang Expressway, the Hòa Trung Bridge in the southern province of Cà Mau and the Năm Căn-Đất Mũi Road section on Hồ Chí Minh Road.

Police seize large number of smuggled Chinese goods

The police in Hà Nội’s Đống Đa District, in co-ordination with the police of the environmental crime prevention department of the Public Security Ministry, yesterday seized goods smuggled from China.

The goods were concealed in a coach that was on its way to Hà Nội, where they were to be distributed.

At 10am, the police stopped a car in Uông Bí City of the northern Qảng Ninh province.

They found tortoises weighing 200kg that were still alive and several household goods, such as bicycles, electric kettles and a large amount of pesticide. The entire shipment was imported from China, the police said.

The driver claimed he was hired to transport the goods to Hà Nội. He was unable to show any proof of the origin of the goods to the police.

He said the tortoises were collected from Chinese traders near the Móng Cái Border Gate.

The entire consignment has been seized by the police for investigation.

Localities warned of potential bird flu risks

The Animal Health Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has warned localities to actively stay vigilant as there is a risk of a bird flu outbreak among domestic animals.

The unpredictable weather pattern creates a conducive environment for various kinds of viruses to develop, including bird flu such as A(H5N1), A(H5N6) and A(H7N9), according to the Department.

Currently, one bird flu outbreak has been detected in a flock of ducks in Quynh Hoa commune, Quynh Luu district, in the central province of Nghe An.

Nine foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks have also been recorded in five districts in the provinces of Thanh Hoa, Lai Chau and Quang Binh. They are still in the 21-day quarantine period, the Department said.

The agency urged localities facing a high-risk to strengthen their supervision to detect any outbreak of disease early and also to vaccinate their herds to protect them against the virus that causes foot and mouth disease.

Besides these measures, they also need to enhance monitoring of the transportation of cattle and the management of slaughtering work to minimise the risk of diseases spreading and becoming epidemic.

The Ministry has just launched the year’s first “health and hygene month” campaign from April 15 - May 15 across the nation.

High-tech waste treatment plant becomes operational in Thai Nguyen

Perilous waste from industrial parks located in northern mountainous provinces will be reduced considerably after Viet Xuan Moi Joint Stock Company puts the first phase of a waste treatment plant using European technology into use in Pho Yen town, Thai Nguyen province, from April.

Invested at a total cost of 120 billion VND (5.4 million USD), the 22-hectare plant becomes the first high-tech waste treatment plant in the region. Along with protecting the environment, it plays a crucial role in building Pho Yen town into a new industrial zone in the region.

The plant includes a hazardous waste incinerator, an oil recycling facility, an electrical and electronic waste treatment system and a battery treating system. It also has a warehouse system to classify and store the waste, as well as a cold storage facility for medical waste.

Upon stable operation, the plant will create jobs for 400 local labourers.

The Viet Xuan Moi Joint Stock Company is planning to build the second phase of the plant to treat domestic waste and increase recycling capacity.

Four foresters suspended

The authorities in the central highland province of Đắk Nông on Wednesday suspended four forest wardens for not investigating the concealment of more than 250cu.m of wood in Đắk G’Long District.

These officers include Đỗ Ngọc Trai, head of District Forest Management Department (DFMD), Trần Đình Quang, DFMD’s vice head, responsible for the forest management station in Quảng Sơn Commune, Nguyễn Tuấn Anh, vice-head of the commune forest management station, and Lê Xuân Trường, a forester in the commune.

The suspension starts today and lasts till April 29.

Last Tuesday, the police discovered the wood hidden in the store owned by Quốc Triệu enterprise, which has been operating in Đắk G’Long District’s Quảng Sơn Commune since 2006.

This is the biggest case of its kind in the province.

Early this year, the provincial forest management department seized 31cu.m of wood without clear origins from this enterprise and asked the authorities in the district to control the wood processing firms in the area, but they did not follow the directives, and that led to the current incident.

Vice-head of provincial forest management department, Lê Công Trường said the officers in the district and commune had displayed laxity in management, and it was necessary to impose strict punishment on them.

Drought causes heavy losses in Ca Mau

With the severe drought showing no signs of easing, economic losses to the southernmost province of Ca Mau have been estimated at tens of billions of Vietnam dong.

A preliminary report shows that the drought hit 10,000 hectares of rice in the locality with 50 percent damage or above, of which nearly 3,000 hectares were totally lost.

The drought also damaged 5,000 hectares of crops and fruit trees, and 7,000 hectares of fish farming areas, causing losses of 13 billion VND (585,000 USD).

Up to 6,000 local households are facing water shortages, which have also forced rice cultivation, shrimp raising, animal husbandry and other farming activities to halt.

According to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, about 45 percent of shrimp breeding areas in Ca Mau are now not being used due to the drought.

The temperature in the province has reached 38 degree Celsius, resulting in low water levels in local rivers and canals.

Local authorities declared the natural disaster an emergency and have implemented synchronous solutions to tackle the situation.

The key tasks are to prevent fires in U Minh Ha cajeput forest, make the best use of available water supply systems and urge local people not to use fresh water to irrigate their crops and fruit trees.

Local leaders will also call for the Government’s support to deal with the disaster and build climate change adaptation facilities.

Private tutor app by Vietnamese developer goes viral in US

An education-based app developed by a Vietnamese firm has climbed to the top ten most downloaded apps on Apple’s App Store in the US as of early 2016.

GotIt! is an app that connects learners with a study expert who offers them step-by-step help through their homework.

“Users can raise detailed questions in English on GotIt! via their smartphones,” Dr. Tran Viet Hung, the brain behind the application, explained.

“Once the question has been loaded onto the network, the system will automatically connect the user with an available study expert in the field related to the question in just under ten seconds using our algorithm. The most suitable expert will ‘claim’ the user and spend around ten minutes talking with them to guide them through the problem.”

Dr. Hung’s idea for the tutoring app can be traced back to 2011, when he was still a doctoral fellow in computer science at the University of Iowa in the US.

The GotIt! app is seen on a smartphone screen in this photo posted on the app's Facebook page on July 18, 2015.

He used to work as a private tutor at the time to provide for his studies, and he soon realized that the demand for private tutors was very high, citing an estimate by Forbes magazine which indicated that the global private tutor market would exceed US$102 billion by 2018.

In order to realize his idea, Hung began participating in as many contests as he could to collect prize money, and was eventually able to save around US$60,000 to launch his first startup, Tutor Universe.

Tutor Universe is an online platform that connects tutors and students and provides tools for online tutoring and payments. Users are charged 20% of the value of each transaction.

“Tutor Universe quickly proved a success as it balanced the need and demand between tutors and learners in a faster and more convenient way than traditional tutoring,” Dr. Hung said.

“However, the product’s market was quite saturated at the time. InstaEdu, a similar service that was established at the same time as Tutor Universe, was acquired at a relatively low price, which led us to evaluate that if we held on to Tutor Universe, it would only be a mediocre company without much potential to grow into a giant,” he explained.

With that in mind, Dr. Hung and his team began working on a change in strategy in October 2013, shifting their focus to the mobile app market that eventually resulted in GotIt!

With the establishment of many websites that provide a similar service of answering users’ questions such as Quora, Question, Question2answer, and others, Dr. Hung focused his app on minimizing the time it takes for a question to be answered to compete in the market.

“Most websites require users to wait for a long time before receiving answers to their questions, while GotIt! connects users with study experts in almost an instant, and the users will receive detailed explanations from the experts,” Dr. Hung said.

Explaining how GotIt! was able to attract so many talents who used to work for tech giants such as Google and Oracle, he said,

“If you look closely, you will see that talent prefers long-term values to short-term ones. They always want to dedicate and challenge themselves with new things and make a big impact, rather than just caring about income and regular benefits. That is what I placed most emphasis on in my discussions, which were mostly successful but in some cases took as long as three months.”

GotIt! currently boasts a network of 40,000 study experts across the globe who provide answers to questions mostly in the fields of math, chemistry, and physics.

In the future, Dr. Hung said, GotIt! will expand its expertise to social sciences, communications, and others to offer service to a wider user base.

In order to become a study expert, one has to pass a knowledge test compiled by GotIt! and take a training course to grasp the procedure and method of interacting with users.

The experts are required to follow three mandatory steps in handling any question, which are providing hints, engaging in in-depth discussion, and finally providing the answer.

“The quality of experts and the lessons is crucial, since a bad encounter may prevent the user from using GotIt! for good. Besides, what we aim for is to provide assistance for learners to acquire knowledge, rather than merely making profit out of the product,” Dr. Hung said.

GotIt! currently offers new users 12 free sessions in the first two weeks of registration, after which the users will be charged a nominal fee for each session.

“For the time being, we are operating on money from investment funds such as Guy Kawasaki, Hong Ge, Kinzon Capital, and Intel Capital, rather than from users,” Dr. Hung disclosed.

According to Marc Yi, director at Intel Capital, GotIt! has a growth rate of 40% a month, with much potential for further development.

“I was immediately impressed by GotIt! since it was such an amazing app that was able to attract so many talents. I believe GotIt! will continue to thrive and provide effective assistance to millions of learners across the globe,” Marc Yi said.

Despite the app’s initial success, Dr. Hung is still concerned about not being able to facilitate the participation of Vietnamese experts.

“Vietnamese students are excellent in their professions but lack English proficiency, and the problem-solving methods for math problems in the US are different from those in Vietnam as well, so we haven’t got much chance to work with Vietnamese experts. I’m asking some doctors and masters who’ve worked abroad to come to Vietnam and provide training courses for those who would like to get on board GotIt!,” Dr. Hung said.

Elephant herd rejects baby rescued in central Vietnam

Conservationists in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak are continuing to try and reintroduce a baby elephant they rescued from a well back to its herd despite several failed attempts.

Pham Van Lang, deputy director of the Dak Lak Elephant Conservation Center, told Zing News that the two-month old calf remains at the center as they were seeking more advice from experts and higher authorities.

On March 28 the male baby was rescued after it felt into a five-meter deep well, possibly while looking for water.

Local officials believe it belongs to a herd of more than 10 elephants that were heading for a nearby lake for water.

“The center’s staff feed him 1.5 liters of milk every two hours. At night he only sleeps if they caressed him,” Lang said.

Once the staff followed the herd and left the calf in its vicinity, but animals did not take him in.

Recently a group including some foreign conservationists attempted to reintroduce him to the herd but his mother still rejected him.

“Maybe his mother rejected him because he carries odors because of contact with humans,” Lang said.

The baby belongs to one of the last few remaining herds in Dak Lak, which is home to the largest wild elephant population in Vietnam with about 60 individuals.

The number of wild elephants in Vietnam has fallen from 2,000 in the 1980s to less than 100 now, mostly due to poaching and habitat loss.

Man caught in airport with endangered birds in trouser legs

Customs officers at Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport have arrested a passenger for attempting to smuggle out endangered birds to Taiwan.

The man, whose name was not disclosed, was found with 18 live birds inside his trouser legs and checked baggage packed in special pouches.

The Institute of Tropical Biology confirmed that 11 of the birds belonged to protected species like the white-rumped shamas (Copsychus malabaricus), oriental shamas (Copsychus saularis) and melodious laughingthrush (Garrulax canorus), all singing birds.

Customs and police are investigating.

Few family members buy health insurance: report

Head of the culture and social affairs board of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council Thi Thi Tuyet Nhung said at a meeting that there are only a few members of families in the city who buy health insurance because of bureaucracy.

At a meeting between the city People’s Council’s cultural and social affairs board and the city Insurance Company, the district 7 insurance company on April 13, the city Insurance Company reported that by March 31, 2016, some 1,138,377 city residents purchased health insurance in the form of families, 11.24 percent higher than same period last year. District 7 is the most city’s populated district yet just 24,572 people in the district bought medical insurance accounting for 10 percent compared to the district’s total population.

Ms. Tuyet Nhung said due to complicated formality, a few people bought medical insurance; moreover, the regulation that family members must buy medical insurance as if they meet a financial stress at that time is very hard to implement.

Deputy Head of the city Insurance Company Luu Thi Thanh Huyen disagreed with Ms. Tuyet Nhung, she said that formality of medical insurance in family groups has been adjusted to facilitate the process of buying insurance.

Additionally, there is policy for exemption for the second, third members in a family when buying health insurance in family group. However, Ms. Huyen affirmed that there have been hiccups along the way because insurance agent staffs in localities do not fully understand the regulation hence the regulation becomes complicated. Worse, they made mistakes in collecting money from residents.

Police crackdown on overloaded trucks

Some 9,800 trucks exceeding load limits and more than 740 trucks with oversized containers have been fined until March of this year, the Việt Nam Road Administration has said.

Vũ Đỗ Anh Dũng, deputy head of the administration, said that police at the scale stations and traffic inspectors of the transport departments have inspected more than 155,040 trucks running on the highways nationwide from the beginning of this year.

Nearly 9,800 trucks were found to be overloaded and other 740 were found to increase their container weights to carry more cargo than they were meant to.

However, the number of trucks that had committed violations had reduced compared to the same period of last year. As many as 12,140 out of 138,110 trucks were found to be overloaded.

The police have collected VNĐ73 billion (US$3.2 million) in penalties and revoked the driving licences of 3,290 drivers.

Dũng said through the hotline of the administration, some localities were reportedly not inspecting and cracking down strictly on trucks.

Overloaded trucks carrying sugarcane were reported in northern Sơn La Province, while others were reported to be carrying building material in northern Cao Bằng Province and Hà Nội at night, and some were reported on the highways in southern Quy Nhơn and Bình Định provinces.

He also said that shoddy management was reported at some ports such as Hải Phòng and Sài Gòn. Three semi-trailers, which departed from Hải Phòng Port and managed to avoid the scale station there, were found by the traffic inspectors in northern Nam Định Province to be carrying excessive amounts of cargo.

Dũng said the administration would continue working with the traffic police to inspect and fine trucks violating laws.

With regard to overloaded trucks, the Transport Department of northern Hải Dương Province has decided to restrict the operation of semi-trailer trucks on the main road No 391.

Lê Đình Long, director of the department, said that the number of semi-trailer trucks and container trucks have increased remarkably, and it was three times higher than the designated capacity of the road, especially in the mornings and afternoons.

This has increased the potential risk of accidents and also damaged the roads.

These kinds of vehicles would not be allowed on the road between 6am and 8am and between 4pm and 8pm, he said. Local police would be on duty and fine the trucks found violating the rule. –

Disabled people’s group to hold music show, auction

A live music show and auction of handmade items made by handicapped people from Thương Thương Centre will be held on Sunday in Hà Nội’s Cầu Giấy District.

The liveshow aims to encourage disabled people to express their talents and their spirit to overcome difficulties in lives.

The event also aims to celebrate Việt Nam’s Day for the Disabled, April 18.

All of the money collected from the auction will be injected to the Living with Passion Fund to build a kindergarten in the northwestern province of Lai Châu’s Lang Hamlet, said Thương Thương, head of the centre.

“I hope society, our guests and donors such as Unilever Việt Nam will continue to support and help handicapped people have better lives,” she said.

The show, which will be performed by singers from Thương Thương and other handicapped centres in Hà Nội and will feature professional singers including Minh Thu, Duy Khoa, Quang Thắng and the BMC music band

The show will take place on the third floor of 25T2 Building, Hoàng Đạo Thúy Street, Cầu Giấy District.

Vietnam’s charity TV show replaces disgraced comedian Minh Beo as host

A charity TV show aimed at helping needy farmers in Vietnam has found a new host, after the former one Minh Beo was arrested on child sex charges in the U.S last month.

Luc Lac Vang (Golden Rattle) seeks out needy households in rural areas throughout Vietnam to give farmers cows and an initial capital investment to start raising cattle.

The show, aired every Sunday on national TV channel VTV, was greatly impacted after the former host Minh Beo was apprehended on charges of sexually abusing a minor in the U.S. on March 25.

The April 17 episode of Luc Lac Vang will be on air without Minh Beo, but the next show on Sunday the 24th will be led by a new host, Chi Trung, the show’s producer announced on Tuesday.

Trung, a seasoned play actor and comedian based in Hanoi, will take charge of the ceremony in which the sponsored cattle are handed over to the selected farmers.

Lasta, the show’s producer, said late last month that they had “suffered huge damage” after the arrest of Minh Beo.

The producer has been forced to edit footage omitting scenes that include Minh Beo while seeking a new host.

Born in 1961, Chi Trung is also deputy director of the Tuoi Tre (Youth) Theater in Hanoi. He was recognized as Meritorious Artist, an honorary title for local distinguished artists, in 1997.

Besides hosting Luc Lac Vang, Minh Beo also runs a theater under his name in District 11, Ho Chi Minh City. Despite the controversy, the artists at Sao Minh Beo are trying to keep the lights on at the venue in support of the jailed owner.

Minh Beo is currently being held at an Orange County jail, and is scheduled to appear at a court hearing on April 15.

There may be more than one hearing and the official first-instance trial can sometimes take place from six months to a year later.

With three felony counts, the Vietnamese entertainer faces up to eight years and five months behind bars if convicted.

His family has traveled from Vietnam to visit him in jail, according to some local media sources, and reportedly managed to hire a lawyer at very high expenses.

In the latest development, a press conference regarding the case of Minh Beo is expected to take place in Westminster, California, on Wednesday morning (U.S. time).

The event is to be chaired by California State Senator Janet Nguyen and Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas, according to a media note on the senator’s website.

Senator Janet Nguyen, however, would not elaborate on the announcement yet to be made.

Deadly blast in Vietnamese capital triggered by military explosives: police

The explosion in Hanoi that killed five and wounded several others last month was caused by military explosives, authorities confirmed on Tuesday.

The blast went off in Van Phu Victoria Urban Area in Ha Dong District on the outskirts of the capital at around 3:00 pm on March 19, claiming five lives and leading to several others being hospitalized.

Maj. Gen. Hoang Quoc Dinh, chief of the Hanoi Fire Prevention and Fighting Police Department, announced at a press briefing in the capital city that investigators have identified military explosives as the cause of the explosion.

The press briefing was chaired by the Propaganda Department of the Hanoi Party Committee to summarize the results of firefighting and fire prevention activities in the northern metropolis in the first quarter of 2016.

Dinh cited information from the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Public Security, saying to identify the precise category of the explosive was not an easy task.

“We can only say for sure that the explosives were military, but it is still open to question whether it was a bomb or a torpedo. I can imagine it has been missing for many years and has lost its original shape. There are no symbols or serial numbers left,” Dinh said.

According to Maj. Gen. Dinh, after the explosion, the municipal People’s Committee passed orders for the Capital Command, Public Security, and Fire Prevention and Fighting Police Department to promptly inspect, collect, and retrieve any explosive material left in residential areas.

Fundraising exhibition held to help children patients in Hanoi

An exhibition of artworks created by children is on at the Exhibition Center of Fine Arts and Photography in Hanoi to raise funds for children patients at K Hospital in the capital city.

Lasting until Thursday, the “Uom mam tai nang” (nurturing talent) exhibition features the latest paintings by more than 100 painters aged from 5 to 15 who are students of the AZDesign fine art training center and Art Talent painting training center in Hanoi.

The display offers a space for children to play and learn from others and especially, raises awareness of helping unlucky people.

Sponsorship and  revenue from selling paintings will go to K Hospital, according to Art Talent.

The Exhibition Center of Fine Arts and Photography is located at 29 Hang Bai Street.

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