Students stable after anaphylactic shock

The 35 students who experienced anaphylactic shock after being vaccinated in a secondary school in southern Hau Giang Province are now in stable condition, according to the provincial Preventive Health Centre.

On Monday, 35 students at Vinh Vien A Secondary School experienced difficulty breathing, headache, vomiting and fever after getting the measles-rubella vaccination. Ten were in serious condition and taken to the provincial general hospital.

Doctors said these students were possibly in anaphylactic shock. The rest of the vaccines were revoked for testing.

Head of the centre Nguyen Van Muoi said all the students would be discharged from the hospital and resume their studies soon.

Under the measles and rubella vaccination campaign launched by the provincial health sector, children between 1 and 14 years old are being vaccinated from October to the end of this month.

Hanoi increases treatment for mental health patients

Ha Noi treated nearly 20,000 patients with mental illnesses last year, an increase of 2,000 over 2013, said Ly Tran Tinh, director of Ha Noi Mental Hospital.

In previous years, some medical stations even did not have any doctors specialising in mental health. Now medical stations have independent wards for mental illness patients. Each ward has between one and three doctors, and between one and five nurses, according to Tinh.

Medical stations across the city also organised monthly health examinations and distributed medicine to patients. Some stations also had monthly meetings where they discussed patients' conditions.

Mental illnesses treated include schizophrenia, depression, epilepsy and those caused by heroin addiction.

"Schizophrenia is one of the most difficult diseases to deal with, but it can be treated if it is discovered early," Tinh said.

Last year more than 8,000 schizophrenia patients living in more than 580 wards and communes received treatment.

The city distributed more than 40,000 leaflets to spread knowledge of mental illnesses. It also organised training courses for social workers, schools and families on recognising early signs of mental illness.

It also distributed its first survey on children's mental health in eight primary and secondary junior schools. The students were asked about feelings, behaviours, making friends and social skills. The results showed that the most common mental health issue was attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Children who showed signs of ADHD were treated at Ha Noi Mental Hospital.

This year, the city's mental health sector would focus on three main goals, Tinh said. It would improve medical stations' capacities, improve the quality of treatment for patients who don't stay in the hospital to prevent them from discontinuing their treatment and give mental health workers more training, Tinh said.

Hotline helps to restore public trust in local healthcare sector

After last year's success, the health sector plans to continue its patient feedback hotline in 2015 and will beef up staff to ensure that claims are tackled 24/7.

The hotline received positive comments as well as complaints in 2014, according to Nguyen Xuan Truong, chief of the Health Ministry's Office. In the first three months of 2014, it received only three compliments but by November, it had received 21, proving its effectiveness, said Truong.

In 2014, the province that registered the highest number of calls to the hotline was Ha Noi with 1,978 calls, followed by HCM City with 786 calls and Thanh Hoa with 206 calls.

In Ha Noi, the Viet Nam National Hospital of Pediatrics topped all hospitals with 121 calls, followed by Bach Mai Hospital with 93 calls and the Viet Nam National Cancer Hospital with 87 calls.

In HCM City, Cho Ray Hospital received the most hotline calls and in the central region, Hue Central Hospital took the lead with 56 calls.

"Patients asked about everything from insurance policy and consulting services to the long wait time. About 80 per cent of the questions, which averaged 10 per day, sought advice about health conditions," said Le Tien Ngai, director of the Training Department of the Viet Nam National Hospital of Pediatrics, where six or seven members of the hospital's director board and department directors take calls. Ngai and his colleagues also use the hotline to inform people on new policies such as the increased hospital fee.

In 2014, the health sector received 98,760 calls through its hotlines. However, only 36 per cent conveyed the right content whilst 64 per cent referred the problems to the wrong place. At Ngai's hospital, only 20 per cent of calls are classified as "having appropriate content" for the hotline.

While there were fewer complaints about the procedure for medicinal examination and treatment, many complaints remained about the health staff's attitudes towards patients.

Moreover, many patients failed to call the hotline despite suffering miserable experiences because they did not expect anything to change.

Ha Noi resident Tran Xuan Thang, 40, said that well-known State-owned hospitals such as Bach Mai, Thanh Nhan, 108 were "always overcrowded" and undergoing a consultation and testing took the whole day.

Thang said one of his old classmates went to Bach Mai Hospital for a general health check and had to wait in a long queue for hours before finally reaching the receptionist, who refused to place him with any consulting doctor unless he could say what part of the body he would like to have examined. Failing to meet the receptionist's request, the man resorted to running from department to department to have all the tests done. The total cost he incurred amounted to a sum much larger than he had expected.

This is the kind of complain that the hotline aims to resolve. Truong said that the ministry had been highly responsive to urgent requests and resolved complaints swiftly. The ministry took prompt action after receiving a call via the hotline accusing health workers at central An Giang Hospital of negligence for abandoning a pregnant woman who was in delivery to turn to another who gave bribes to them, thus causing the death of the baby, who should have been transferred quickly to another hospital. After being informed, the Department of Health in An Giang Province had the hospital set up a professional council to review the process of examination and treatment. As a result, a doctor was suspended from operating for three months, a midwife was reprimanded and an assistant doctor was fired.

The most common ways to discipline staff were reprimands and bonus cuts. In serious cases involving legal violations, hospitals took disciplinary action such as firing and demoting workers. Last year 6,807 health workers were warned, 137 were reprimanded, 116 had their bonuses cut, 18 were transferred to other places of work, six were demoted and four were fired.

Overloading lifted in hospitals

Overloading at hospitals in Viet Nam was reduced significantly in 2014, health officials said at an online conference yesterday.

The conference was held to review efforts to reduce overloading and implement the sector's plans for medical examinations and treatment this year.

Luong Ngoc Khue, head of the Ministry of Health's Medical Examination and Treatment Department, said hospital overloading had fallen by 58 per cent in national level hospitals and 47 per cent in provincial level hospitals.

In addition, patients no longer had to share beds in hospitals such as Bach Mai in Ha Noi, Cho Ray in HCM City and the Hue Central Hospital, he added.

In 2014, the health sector applied a new method to evaluate the quality of hospitals based on patient-centred principles. Administrative procedures were also reformed, cutting down the waiting time for patients by nearly one hour.

Vietnamese doctors applied new advanced techniques in 2014, including robotic surgery and stem cell transplants for cancer treatment. Technology transfer was carried out with many satellite hospitals, which helped reduce the rate of patients transferred to national level hospitals to 30 per cent.

Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien urged directors to reduce overloading at their hospitals and to stamp out bed-sharing. She said added five more international-standard hospitals would be built this year.

Education key to poverty eradication

Education plays a crucial role in enabling impoverished children and communities to partake in economic development as well as maintaining long-term development, a recent study of childhood poverty reveals.

"The study results indicate obvious progress in expanding educational opportunities and improving nutrition for poor children," said Young Lives Viet Nam country co-director Nguyen Thang, who is also director of the Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences's Centre for Analysis and Forecasting.

During the 15-year study, which focused on Lao Cai, Hung Yen, Phu Yen and Ben Tre provinces as well as the central city of Da Nang, Young Lives collected data on children from infancy through 12 years of age and eight to 19 years old. They concluded that while positive changes were taking place for children and young adults in the country, significant and comprehensive inequalities remained between socio-economic demographics.

In terms of education and learning, parents' education levels have a measurable impact on their children's learning process. Young adults with high-educated parents from the middle class are more likely to pursue higher education while as many as 13 per cent of children of mothers with limited education left school by age 12.

Notably, the rate of students taking extra classes rose substantially between 2006 and 2013.

Regarding nutrition and health, stunted growth among 12-year-old children decreased. Malnutrition also decreased for most groups, with the exception of ethnic minority groups and children whose caregivers had no formal schooling.

Nguyen Quang Thuan, vice director of the Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences, said the Young Lives findings would contribute to improving government policies to address childhood poverty.

"Inequalities remain. However, the latest results reveal a number of stages in which policymakers can intervene to support the development of poor children," said Thuan.

Young Lives Viet Nam principal investigator Le Thuc Duc said the present challenge was ensuring that all children were beneficiaries. Additional policies concentrated on the living conditions of ethnic minority groups were likely to lead to positive changes, he added.

The Young Lives programme has carried out scientific studies on 12,000 children living across Viet Nam, Ethiopia, India and Peru through uninterrupted 15-year periods. It is led by a team from the Department of International Development at the University of Oxford in association with research and policy partners in the four study countries.

Budget cuts puts Thang Long Bridge at risk

More money is needed to ensure safety for Thang Long Bridge, the company in charge of the bridge's maintenance told the Ministry of Transport following a recent budget cut.

Ha Thai Railroad Co., Ltd. said it receive only VND20.8 billion (US$990,500) to maintain the 30-year-old bridge in 2015, a significant decrease from the VND24.7 billion (US$1.17 million) budget it had in previous years.

"We could barely temporarily guarantee the bridge's safety with the previous budget, let alone with the limited one this year. In the meantime, more and more breakages and cracks are being found at the bridge's expansion joints," said company director Nguyen Ba Thuc.

"It will be very difficult for the company to maintain the bridge with the lower budget."

In addition to scheduled fixes, several urgent repairs were made after sudden breakages took place at the bridge's expansion joints, added Thuc.

The bridge's expansions joints on the car lanes' surface require a major overhaul, the first since the bridge opened to traffic in 1985.

Thuc said that his company submitted a proposal for a major overhaul at the expansion joints in 2010.

An urgent message signed by Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang yesterday asked the Viet Nam Railway Corporation to replace the expansion joints on the bridge's car lanes following assessments showing that parts of the joints were broken beyond repair.

However, the specific parts needing to be replaced are no longer being produced, as they date back to the Soviet Union time. Therefore, the whole joint must be replaced.

Cracks on Thang Long Bridge's surface remain a problem even though VND97 billion ($4.6 million) was spent to fix the surface in 2009, later followed by three long repairs: one from March 2010 to September 2011, the second from January 2012 to May 2012 and the third from July to August 2012.

Thang Long Bridge was built with the former Soviet Union assistance to connect Noi Bai International Airport with downtown Ha Noi.

Transport Ministry to tighten control over transport fees

The Ministry would work with the Ministry of Finance to instruct their departments in provinces and cities to control transport fees which have been in confusion this year, said Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang at a conference yesterday.

The Transport Ministry must tighten management over transport fees and carry out investigations ensuring that they operate under the state-managed market mechanism, he said.

At the conference Mr. Thang also asked authorized agencies and transport firms to have plans to meet travel need of residents in the coming Tet holidays, ensure traffic safety, and prevent coach operators from rocketing up the fare and raise difficulties for passengers.

Health Ministry tries to reduce overloading in hospitals

18 big hospitals were no longer overloaded by January 2015, said Dr. Luong Ngoc Khue, head of the Health Ministry’s Medical Examination and Treatment Department.

These hospitals including hospitals for senior people, endocrine, for children, oral and maxiallo facial surgery and ear-nose-throat are not overloaded any longer, said Dr. Luong Ngoc Khue

In addition, it has not seen two or more patients in one bed in hospitals such as Bach Mai in Hanoi, Cho Ray in Ho Chi Minh City and the Central Hospital Hue, he added.

To reduce pressures on central hospitals and curb dramatic shortage of treatment beds that, the Ministry of Health ordered hospitals to report the situation of overloading every week to soon handle. Furthermore, the ministry announced to pay more supervision to hospitals whose directors must sign commitment not to tolerate more patients in one bed.

The ministry will strictly penalize leaders of hospitals which the Ministry has found examination section dirty and more patients in one bed.

HCM City launches “2015 traffic safety year” campaign

The HCM City Traffic Safety Board held a launching ceremony of the “2015 traffic safety year” campaign on January 20 with the participation of 1,400 people.

The campaign aims to strengthen responsibility and task effectiveness on safe traffic of governmental management agencies, highlight strict management of transport business, and control of vehicle loading capacity and puts top priority on protecting human life.

The event also focuses on establishing and maintaining social order in transport, ensuring the safety for people, vehicles in traffic as well as making traffic environment safe and civilized.

Tobacco smuggling has to be tackled harshly

Preliminary statistics show that police had uncovered 34,636 cases of cigarette smuggling with more than 20.38 million packs of various kinds of cigarettes since 2012 to the end of September 2014. However, cigarette smuggling continues rising and provoking authorities.

An assessment by the Vietnam Tobacco Association and reports by provincial police offices show that the amount of smuggled cigarettes into Vietnam in 2014 was estimated above 20 million packs. Hot spots for cigarette smuggling include Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Ha Noi, Quang Tri, Da Nang, Can Tho, Tay Ninh, Long An, An Giang, Dong Thap, and Ho Chi Minh City.

Traffickers usually gather cigarettes at warehouses along borders in neighboring countries then smuggle cigarettes into Vietnam by high-speed vehicles on both water and land. They also split cigarettes into small packets to easily transport and evade hot pursuits of police.

As traffickers always use high-speed vehicles to transport smuggled goods, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tuan, deputy head of Anti-smuggling and Investigation Department under the Vietnam Customs, proposed that the government should immediately equip advanced means of transport for police at smuggling hot spots.

Cigarettes traffickers also take advantage of loopholes in current law. Although police had uncovered 34,636 cases of cigarette smuggling from 2012 to the end of September 2014, police were only able to take criminal proceedings against 369 cases with 488 arrestees because traffickers are only prosecuted as criminal cases for smuggling more than 1,500 packs of cigarettes by law.  Meanwhile, traffickers split their goods when transporting, therefore, the amount of smuggled goods was not enough to constitute them as criminals.

Ho Chi Minh City police are highly appreciated for achievements in the fight against cigarette smuggling. However, according to Major General Phan Anh Minh, deputy director of Ho Chi Minh City Police Department, police have just punished hirelings instead of kingpins of cigarette smuggling gangs.

Experts said that although the temporary import and re-export activity of foreign-made cigarettes creates conditions to develop commercial services, the money collected from this activity is not able to make up for the cost for road maintenance and anti-smuggling. Meanwhile, this activity is intricate and contains high risk of smuggling.

The main reason for the increase of cigarette smuggling is that residents living along the border, because of their daily bread, join hands with smugglers to transport cigarettes into the country. Mr. Minh said that most people living along the border are farmers. After industrial parks were built here, they no longer have land for farming so they had to join cigarette smuggling gangs to get money. Therefore, settlement of livelihood for border residents plays an important role in the fight against cigarette smuggling.

Mr. Tuan also proposed that the government and local authorities should have policies to create more jobs in border areas

Two thirds of Vietnamese have health insurance

At an annual meeting of Vietnam Insurance Company on January 19 in Hanoi, participants discussed how to promote issuance of health insurance cards to residents as per the new insurance law which the National Assembly has approved took effects on January 1, 2015.

Head of the Collection Ward of Vietnam Insurance Company Pham Van Men said that  as of 2014 the country had 64,866,201 health and social insurance card holders.

Total collection from health and social insurance across the country reaches VND198,186 billion (US$9.3 million), exceeding the target by 1.18 percent. However, some enterprises and organizations still owed total sum of VND7,279 billion (US$ 340,657) on health and social insurance.

In 2014, 50 local insurance companies claims to proceed against 5,832 companies for the debt of VND2,445 billion (US$ 114.9 million) but just recovered VND621 billion (US$29.1 million).

Most concerned matter is the form of old cards and new cards while the insurance companies have not changed it yet. However, Chu Minh To, head of the issuance bureau said that as of January 19, 2015, of 65 million insurance card holders across the country, nearly 30 million people have received new cards and 34.994 million cards have expiry date to 2015 which people can continue using.

Nguyen Minh Thao, deputy director of Vietnam Insurance Company, confirmed that there are faults in issuing cards including wrong names, date of birth, location. Of 57,000 insurance cards issued in the highlands province of Dak Lak, nearly 40,000 cards have wrong details which schools provide wrong details and employees of the insurance companies input wrong data of 17,000 other cases.

Vietnam Insurance Company has asked its subdivision in Dak Lak Province of check all information in the issued insurance cards to re-issue. Insurance participants’ interest will be guaranteed while waiting for the new ones. The insurance company will verify the responsibility of each individual who involved in the cases.

Workshop seeks to help Vietnam strengthen governance for development

Experts gathered at a high-level workshop in Hanoi on January 20 to share their experience and practices in order to combat corruption in the implementation of ODA projects.

The workshop, co-organised by the World Bank and Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), aims to help the Vietnamese Government take measures to strengthen governance for accelerated development.

According to the World Bank Country Director for Vietnam, Victoria Kwakwa, loans from international donors have made a significant contribution to Vietnam’s growth but the country is facing a number of challenges, most notably corruption in ODA projects.

She said in order to streamline foreign assistance and eliminate corruption, Vietnam needs to strengthen governance and create equal opportunities for all economic sectors to participate in development projects.

MPI Deputy Minister Nguyen Chi Dung said in recent years Vietnam has adopted and amended a number of laws such as those on public procurement, bidding and anti-corruption in order to increase transparency, as well as create a competitive environment for all enterprises.

In a paper prepared for the workshop, Deputy Head of the Government Inspectorate Tran Duc Luong suggested encouraging the supervision of the public, particularly the press, as an effective measure to tackle fraud and corruption in ODA projects.

Conchita Carpio Morales, the former associate justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, shared the experience of the operation of the Office of Ombudsman as a leading anti-graft agency in the Philippines.

She said the Office gives the highest priority to complaints filed against senior government officials and those occupying supervisory roles involving grave offences or large sums of money or properties.

Ministry keeps tight controls on truck loads

The Ministry of Transport and the National Traffic Safety Committee have decided to continue strict controls on truck loads this year with an aim to restore traffic order and reduce road accidents.

This year, the transport sector wants to reduce traffic accidents nationwide and the number of people killed and injured on the road by 5-10%, and serious accidents related to passenger cars, according to the National Traffic Safety Committee.

To this end, the ministry will review regulations and introduce new rules to better manage transport business and control loads of vehicles, the committee said at a review conference in Hanoi on January 19.

Another goal is to prevent traffic jams lasting more than 30 minutes in Hanoi and HCMC by boosting infrastructure development and encouraging the use of public buses. The committee is also working on a project to provide bicycles in public places in cities to reduce traffic congestion.

According to the committee’s report, from December 16, 2013 to December 15, 2014, the number of traffic accidents decreased by more than 4,000 cases year-on-year, but the number of people killed and injured was still high, at nearly 9,996 and more than 24,400 respectively.

Since last year, the ministry has cooperated with the Ministry of Public Security and local authorities to tighten controls on truck load violators. The authorities have set up 63 mobile weigh stations nationwide to detect overloaded trucks and deal with 1,169 vehicles violating traffic safety regulations.

Nguyen Van Thanh, chairman of the Vietnam Transport Association, told the conference that many inspections have not brought as good results as expected since inspectors threatened to withdraw the licenses of transport enterprises rather than showing their wrongdoing.   

Thanh said many overloaded trucks have not been fined since the ministry launched its load check campaign in the country nine months ago. Many trucks meet weight requirements at the port but after they leave, they will upload more goods to dodge inspections at the port.

Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang said the ministry would make effort to restore order and take strong punitive measures against those inspectors pestering transport enterprises.

Vietnam attends Young SE Asia Leaders Initiative

Ngo Chi Long, a student at the Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy, recently addressed the members of the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative in Myanmar.

In his speech he talked about the growing gap between rich and poor and also on the differences in rural and urban health care systems.  The speech was well received and spoken about highly by the US embassy.

He also had the opportunity to meet US President Barack Obama.

Launched in 2013, the initiative is U.S. President Barack Obama’s signature programme aimed at strengthening leadership development and networking in ASEAN.

Its members are composed of bright young leaders, 18-35, from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Burma, Philippines, Laos, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Mekong Delta: policy loans help 230,000 households rid of poverty

The Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) have provided preferential loans for 1.4 million poor and near-poor households and policy beneficiaries in the Mekong Delta region between 2011-2014.

The loans enabled 230,000 of the targeted households to escape from poverty and 29,000 students to continue their study, and helped create 88,000 job opportunities and build 554,000 clean water supply facilities and toilets.

The assistance contributed to regional joint efforts to reduce poverty rate to only 5.7 percent in 2014, heard a conference to review results of a three-year project to improve service quality of policy credit in the region.

After three years, the VBSP had a total credit balance of 22.4 trillion VND (1.12 billion USD), up 5.5 trillion VND since the project began. The region’s average credit growth remained at 10.76 percent annually, above the national rate of 7.76 percent.

Deputy Head of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission Le Vinh Tan suggested several measures to reduce overdue debts for the VBSP and Mekong Delta provinces, including clearer identification of benefiting households and more transparent loan procedures.

In 2015, the bank targets a credit growth of 9 percent with the rate of overdue debts at 0.7 percent, below the regional average.

People-to-people activities to be fostered in 2015

Vietnam will continue enhancing people-to-people diplomatic activities associated with the celebration of the country’s big anniversaries in 2015, heard a meeting of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations (VUFO)’s executive board in Hanoi on January 20.

VUFO is a socio-political organisation specialising in people-to-people diplomacy and working under the Communist Party of Vietnam’s leadership and the State’s management.

For 2015, it plans to organise an array of activities honouring the international community’s support on the occasion of the 70th National Day (September 2) and the 40th anniversary of the Southern Vietnam Liberation and National Reunification Day (April 30).

A series of programmes will also be held throughout the year to mark 20 years since Vietnam and the US normalised their relations.

VUFO will increase people-to-people exchanges with ASEAN and European nations as well as with the US, Canada, and Latin American and African countries while actively calling for assistance to the settlement of war aftermath.

A report at the meeting read that foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) supported Vietnam with more than 300 million USD in 2014. They tend to provide development assistance instead of those solely for humanitarian purposes.

Don Tuan Phong, VUFO General Secretary and Vice Chairman, said the organisation will strive to connect foreign donors and NGOs with domestic ministries, sectors and localities and actively design and propose projects in need of support.

Over 170 trillion VND needed to build Mekong Delta irrigational system

The Mekong Delta region needs over 170 trillion VND (8.1 billion USD) to complete its water resource system in line with the proposed plan by 2050.

The plan aims to create a irrigational system for agriculture production in response to climate change and rising sea level, as well as to contribute to socio-economic development, ecological protection, and sustainable development in the region.

The capital, to be sourced from central and local budgets, government bonds, and official development assistance (ODA) loans, will be allocated for the construction of dykes, drains, and reservoirs.

To achieve these targets, investments have been made to build irrigational works and upgrade dykes and coastal roads. The plan also highlighted the need to develop rural transport infrastructure to facilitate the construction of “new-style rural areas” in areas prone to flooding. Additionally, specific solutions have been tailored to match the specific needs of each province in the region.

Localities and relevant agencies have been urged to plant coastal mangroves, protect national parks, and take flood precautions to assist residents in frequently affected areas.

To date, the water resource system in the Mekong Delta has made great contributions to improving alum rates in drinking water in Tu Giac Long Xuyen region, Dong Thap Muoi region, and the Ca Mau peninsula as well as managing erosion and sediment in national parks.

However, coastal areas still lack water supply production and investment for the building and management of the irrigational system required to capitalise on socio-economic development potential for the southern economic region.

Crop restructuring helps reduce poverty in Bac Can

In recent years, farmers in the northern province of Bac Can have paid much attention to developing fruit orchards, with priority given to growing oranges and mandarins, contributing to local poverty reduction, reported The Voice of Vietnam (VOV).

Orchards of oranges and mandarins cover an area of 1,500 hectares in the three districts of Bach Thong, Cho Don, and Ba Be. As harvest time begins during the last months of the year, the roads leading to Bach Thong district, about 10 km from Bac Can town, are always crowded with traders coming to buy oranges and mandarins.

Ma Van Cuong, who lives in Na Thoi hamlet, Quang Thuan commune, Bach Thong district, told VOV that "We are very excited as the harvest time begins. My family and other households in Na Thoi can earn up to 1,000 USD a year by growing oranges and mandarins in addition to farming. Local living conditions have improved remarkably."

Mandarins grown on Quang Thuan commune’s 400 ha account for 40 percent of the province’s total mandarin orchards.

Cao Xuan Lang, Chairman of the Quang Thuan Communal Farmers’ Association, said his commune has harvested approximately 3,000 tonnes of mandarins worth of 1.6 million USD.

Local farmers are more interested in expanding their orange and mandarin orchards to reduce poverty, Lang said, adding that on average, 95 percent of the households in Quang Thuan own 2ha of mandarins. Some households earn as much as 30,000 USD from their orchards every year.

Besides, they paid much attention to improving the productivity of their orange and mandarin orchards.

Bac Can authorities also encouraged and supported local farmers in applying advanced technology to raise their orchards’ productivity.

Dang Van Son, Deputy Director of the Bac Can provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the province has taken proper steps to protect the trademark and boost productivity.

Dong Nai to present Tet gifts to poor, AO victims

The Committee of the Fatherland Front of southern Dong Nai province has prepared more than 1,600 gift packages, each worth 400,000 VND (19 USD), to be given to local poor and ethnic minority households on the occasion of the Tet (Lunar New Year) festival.

The gifts will be presented to the beneficiaries from January 28 in an effort to help them enjoy a warm Tet holiday, according to the committee’s Chairman Vy Van Vu.

In the same action, the provincial chapter of the Vietnam Association of the Victims of Agent Orange/dioxin and philanthropists are also going to present nearly 1,000 gifts, each worth 500,000 VND, to AO victims in the locality.-

Quang Ninh VBS chapter honoured with State distinction

Quang Ninh chapter of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (VBS) honourably received the Labour Order, third class, at a ceremony held in Ha Long city in the northeast province of Quang Ninh on January 19.

On this occasion, the 10th anniversary of the Quang Ninh VBS chapter (January 21, 2005-2015) was also celebrated.

Over the past ten years, the Quang Ninh VBS chapter has made significant contributions to provincial construction, participating in building and protecting the country under the leadership of the national VBS and support from Quang Ninh leaders, according to Most Venerable Thich Thanh Quyet, Vice Chairman of the VBS Central Committee’s Executive Board and Head of the Executive Board of the Quang Ninh VBS chapter.

The ceremony was organised in line with the Party’s policy of safeguarding citizens’ rights to freedom of religion and belief and was designed to highlight the chapter’s great progress across various fields.-

Global conference on aquatic animal health kicks off in HCM City

The third Global Conference on Aquatic Animal Health opened on January 20 in Ho Chi Minh City with an emphasis on the role of State management of aquaculture health.

Bernard Vallat, General Director of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), said while aquaculture products account for nearly half of seafood supply worldwide, diseases have caused significant damage to aquaculture, bringing adverse impacts on the economy of some countries and regions.

Therefore, it is necessary to boost the State management of aquaculture health services and the effectively implementation of policies in the field as well as OIE standards to prevent and curb diseases in aquaculture, he said.

The conference will also discuss the role and responsibility of key factors in the production chain, including farmers, processors, private veterinarians and aquatic animal health experts as well as the importance of the cooperative relationship among these factors, he added.

Addressing the conference, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Vu Van Tam said that as a member nation of the OIE, Vietnam commits to working closely with the international community for the effective implementation of aquatic animal health work, thus contributing to the effective control of diseases as well as antibiotic content in aquatic products.

The deputy minister said the aquaculture industry has to date made significant contributions to the country’s economic development but also pointed out that the sector is facing unsustainable development.

Vietnam, he said, is taking many measures to prevent and control diseases as well as the use of chemicals and antibiotics in aquaculture.

The export of aquatic products earned the country 7.9 billion USD in 2014, an annual increase of 18 percent.

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