Six Vietnamese killed in gas explosion in Laos

Six Vietnamese workers were killed and two others were injured when a gas tank exploded in Bolikhamsai Province of Laos on July 28.

The incident happened at Nam Nghiep 1, a 290-megawatt hydropower project by a consortium of Japanese, Thai and Lao investors. 

Truong Van Long, a worker at the site, said the gas tank exploded when the eight workers were on duty.

The victims were contractors of Vietnam's Song Da 5 Joint Stock Company, Song Da 9 Joint Stock Company and Lilama 10 Joint Stock Company, a border guard in Vietnam’s central province of Ha Tinh told VnExpress.

The border unit has sent officers to Laos to help with search and rescue and bring the dead ones home.

The cause of the accident has not been revealed.

Dozens of irrigation systems operating ineffectively in north-central Vietnam

Multiple irrigation systems in the mountainous areas of north-central Thanh Hoa Province that cost multimillion dollars to build are either left disused or operating ineffectively.

The finding was made following a thorough inspection of 70 such small- and medium-sized constructions in 43 mountainous communes of Thanh Hoa by the provincial People’s Council.

Between 2010 and 2016, 95 small and medium irrigation works were built in the mountainous areas, including one reservoir, 23 weirs, 31 pumping stations and 40 canals.

These buildings cost a total of VND365 billion (US$16.08 million) in development capital.

A further VND651 billion ($28.68 million) was spent on repairs and upgrades of 303 other irrigation systems.

However, over 40% of these buildings – whose construction was overseen by the local administrations – had been faulty by design, leading to difficulty and ineffectiveness in actual operation, the inspection found.

Design flaws include dams being higher than the level of canals, while the canals are at a higher elevation than field surfaces, obstructing the flow of water.

One VND3 billion (US$132,200) canal system in Thanh Hoa’s Quan Son District was buried by a landslide before it could be put into use, according to inspection results.

Another project that cost over VND10 billion (US$440,500) to develop in the province’s Muong Lat District was divided into three separate projects with different design plans, leading to inconsistency in construction.

Irrigation systems are crucial to agricultural activities in the mountainous provinces of north-central Vietnam, where water needs to be elevated to upland areas for cropping.

Fire in HCM City District 7 destroys 3 shops

A mid-day fire Thursday, July 27, destroyed at least three businesses in District 7 of Ho Chi Minh City, reported the Zing Online Newspaper.

Flames broke out in a refrigeration repair shop at 335 Le Van Luong Street and worked their way across the entire roof that covers two other businesses.

Fire investigators said it is too early to determine the cause of the blaze. No serious injuries were reported.

The fire, started just before noon, already was burning in the roof over the refrigeration shop when firefighters arrived. Storeowners and passers-by tried to use fire extinguishers to quash the flames without success.

The facade of the three businesses seemed to be the only parts of the structure that still was intact after the blaze was brought under control.

North-eastern Vietnam ethnic minority fest starts Aug. 2

The Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism has unveiled that a north-eastern region ethnic minority cultural festival will run August 3-7 at the Quang Ninh Province culture centre in the district of Tien Yen.

During the festival, the Ministry said, there are a wide array of activities on the agenda including a trade fair, boat races on the Tien Yen river, numerous other sports competitions, folk games, a photo exhibition and the debut of a new walking plaza.

Out of control Long My Industrial Park truck kills 2

A motorbike driver and his passenger died Thursday, July 27, when they were hit about 2:30pm by an out of control truck driver for the Long My Industrial Park in the southern province of Binh Dinh.

According to the Zing Online Newspaper, Nguyen Vinh Luan, 32, and his passenger Nguyen Dang Hai, 38 were pronounced dead at the scene.

Witnesses said the Long My Industrial Park driven by Phan Thanh Dang, 22, recklessly sped up and inexplicably turned right into the path of the motorbike travelling in the same direction.

The truck, said the witnesses, drug the motorbike and its two victims a full 10 metres before coming to a stop after the impact.

Witnesses report this is not the first-time trucks from the Long My Industrial Park have driven erratically on the roadways near the industrial park threatening the lives of other motorists and pedestrians.

Numerous reports have been filed with local police, said the witnesses, regarding Long My Industrial Park trucks speeding, driving the wrong way on streets and recklessly driving their trucks without any regard for the public’s safety.

Police investigators said the inquiry into the accident and charges against the driver are pending.

Halt proposed to projects linked to forest land use change in Phu Yen

The Vietnam Administration of Forestry (VNForest) has proposed a halt to two projects developing commercial activities in natural forest and forestry land in the central province of Phu Yen.

In its inspection conclusion issued on July 14, VNForest suggested its umbrella Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development ask the Phu Yen provincial People’s Committee to stop the beef cattle farming project in the sub-areas 310 and 311 in Song Hinh commune of Song Hinh district and list the two sub-areas in the local protection forests planning.

Phase I of the beef cattle farming project of the Thao Nguyen Phu Yen Breed Joint Stock Company was set to cover nearly 393 hectares. The land area, as the VNForest inspectorate said, is completely located in the sub-areas 310 and 311, which are next to and stretch over 20km along the main dam of the Song Hinh hydropower reservoir.

These areas are natural forests, land contiguous to the protection forest in the Hinh River basin, and the alternative forest of the Ba Ha River hydropower project. Therefore, they are very important to the protection of the Hinh River hydropower reservoir. 

However, the Phu Yen provincial People’s Committee did not assess the project’s effects as regulated in the Prime Minister’s Directive 1685/CT-TTg, dated September 27, 2011. Its action was also not in line with Directive 13-CT/TW, dated January 12, 2017, of the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat on enhancing the Party leadership over forest management, protection and development.

VNForest also requested the New City Vietnam Co. Ltd, the investor of a high-end tourism site in An Phu commune of Tuy Hoa city, to suspend all activities negatively impacting coastal forest.

The administration asked Phu Yen’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to direct its forest protection sub-department and subordinate units to promptly verify the company’s exploitation of about 2.7 hectares of protection forest without permission of an authorised State agency.

VNForest also asked the agriculture ministry to order the Phu Yen People’s Committee to clarify the responsibility and strictly handled collectives and individuals causing violations.

War martyrs’ memorials inaugurated in Kon Tum

A ceremony was held to inaugurate a Truong Son Martyrs Memorial Site in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum on July 27.

The memorial work is worth 15 billion VND (660,000 USD) funded by the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank). Located in Bo Y commune, Ngoc Hoi district, bordering Laos and Cambodia, it includes a memorial structure and a five-tonne bronze bell.

Earlier the same day, a similar facility was inaugurated in Kon Plong district.

On the occasion, Vietcombank held a hand-over ceremony for nearly 500 houses built for poor households and families with victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin, and 500 breeding cows for poor households and people with disabilities, orphan children in the province.

The bank also supported the upgrades and expansion of the Kon Tum functional rehabilitation hospital. The charity activities cost over 63 billion VND (2.77 million USD).

Belgian dance group in Hanoi fusion

Belgian dance group Vredon graced the Hanoi Opera House on July 26 for an afternoon of cultural fusion.

Since 1980, they have travelled the world to perform routines that combine different dance traditions together.

“We went to Israel, South Africa, even the United States. In Asia, we visited Thailand, China. Now here we are in Vietnam,” Vredon’s Vice President Dirk Laureys said.

Vredon choreographs their dances, and the group even has its own music. The highlight of their performances, however, was the flags.

The group used different kinds of flags for each dance. According to Vredon President Kris de Moor, each flag weighs 5 kilograms. Still, the dancers managed to perform acrobatic moves as they spun and threw the flags up into the sky.

The flags, of course, represent their cultural fusion.

They did not only use their Belgian flag, but they also presented flags to represent different regions of the world, Vietnam included.

“It feels amazing to perform. It is actually why we’re here, to show our dance and bring people together. I am really excited. It was amazing,” said performer Kaat Laureys after the show.

Audience member Guy Van Der Vurst put it best: “This performance brought me home. I saw my country’s flag and felt proud.”

Remains of 106 soldiers repatriated from Cambodia

The remains of 106 soldiers killed in Cambodia during the past war with the US have been returned to Vietnam and interred at a national cemetery in the southern Vietnam Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap.

The repatriation ceremony held today, July 27, was attended by thousands of distinguished guests from throughout Vietnam and Cambodia along with family members, friends and relatives of the fallen heroes, among others.

Notable guests at the event included representatives from Military Zone 9, the National Steering Committee 1237, the Dong Thap Province People’s Committee and Team 91 K of Dong Thap Province.

Speaking at the ceremony, Doan Tan Buu, vice chair of provincial people’s committee, said the remains were discovered in the Cambodian provinces of Prey Veng and Pursat where they were killed by bomb blasts during US military air campaigns.

He thanked Team 91 K members and the 1237 Steering Committee for their exhaustive multi-year effort to search for, identify and return the remains of the soldiers so they could properly be laid to their final resting place in their homeland.

Vietnamese navy tries to make amends for illegal mining near Ha Long Bay

A Vietnamese navy unit that was caught illegally mining near the world renowned Ha Long Bay in June has been trying to make amends by planting trees in an effort to “bring nature back to its status quo” in Quang Ninh Province.

“The unit will plant 1,000 trees and remove all the equipment from the mines," Vu Van Hop, a provincial official, told local media on July 26.

It is up to the Ministry of National Defense to decide on a suitable punishment for the unit, he added.

The purpose of the mining project and why it was being carried out by the navy remain unknown.

The project covered three limestone outcrops just one kilometer from Ha Long Town, and was shut down following complaints from local people.

Photos and videos of the mines were posted on local media, with many people questioning why authorities were unaware of the project, and others saying that they were defacing the world heritage site.

Red Journey annual blood drive a tremendous success

Red Journey wants to thank everyone who visited one of the blood collection centres this year to take part in our annual summer blood drive, said Nguyen Anh Tri, director of the National Institute of Haematology and Blood Transfusion.

The event was an enormous success with 31,000 people visiting us to donate blood. That is more people than last year's summer drive.

Since each blood donation can help save up to three lives, the drive will potentially have a positive impact on more than 93,000 individuals. Red Journey is extremely grateful to the students and donors across the country for making this event such a success.

Conference highlights higher 

Challenges, opportunities and solutions facing higher education institutions were the focus of a two-day international conference that began yesterday at the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation Regional Training Centre (SEAMEO RETRAC) in HCM City.

Professor Noreen Golfman, vice president of Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada, said that major challenges include changing demographics, rigid curricula and transfer credit protocols, and widely available technology-making content.

“We are in our unsettled age including walls and the hardening of borders, travel bans, growing discrepancy between rich and poor, and climate change,” Goflman said, adding that good collegial governance would help to maintain order.

Watchdogs for standards, ethics and faculty career advancement are all needed, she said.

Professor Doug Hamilton, head of the Master’s programme in Educational Leadership and Management at Royal Roads University’s School of Education and Technology in Canada, said that institutional educational frameworks that communicate academic qualities help give a university or college its unique identity.

Most institutional frameworks combine research from the current literature on learning, teaching, and pedagogical innovation with an inductively-generated description of educational principles and characteristics that guide learning and teaching within the specific institution, Hamilton said.

The development of these frameworks is becoming more prevalent worldwide as universities and colleges strive to define and preserve a unique institutional identity amid a broader post-secondary landscape, he added.

Joclarisse E. Albia of National Chung Cheng University in Taiwan said that ASEAN integration serves as both an opportunity for institutions to legitimise and rationalise their regionalisation and, by association, internationalisation initiatives.

Dr Trần Đức Nga, director of International Relations Office at Hải Phòng Private University, said that risk management was now increasingly used in organisations in order to reduce losses and increase opportunities in a world of uncertainty.

In the sector of higher education, risk management has become a requirement of many quality standards such as the ISO 9001:2015, and the Australian Higher Education Standards Framework, she added.

In Việt Nam, risk management was recently embedded in the Standard of Quality for Higher Education Institutions.

However, the selection of methods used to identify risks is challenging for higher education institutions not only in Việt Nam but also in other countries, she said.

She suggested that the technique of Employing Delphi should be used for identification.

The conference is organised by SEAMEO RETRAC in co-operation with the British Columbia Council for International Education.

It also offers chances for professionally discussing curriculum innovations and experiential learning opportunities for students, applications of ICT in teaching and management, quality assurance in education, and teacher education.

More new collaborations will be initiated after the conference. 

The Việt Nam Expressway Corporation (VEC) will put the first 65km road section of the 140km Đà Nẵng-Quảng Ngãi Expressway into operation on August 2.

This is the first expressway in the central and central highlands region.

A VEC official told Việt Nam News that the first stage of the project – the  65km section from Túy Loan in Đà Nẵng City to the capital of Quảng Nam Province, Tam Kỳ City, has been completed.

The four-lane section with two emergency lanes will allow vehicles to travel at 120km per hour, reducing travel time between Đà Nẵng  and Quảng Ngãi Province.

VEC’s General Director Mai Tuấn Anh said the road was an important part of the National North-South Highway, and its second stage was scheduled for completion later this year.

He said VEC would also collect tolls from all vehicle travelling on the Túy Loan-Tam Kỳ section.

The Đà Nẵng-Quảng Ngãi Expressway project commenced construction in 2012 with a total investment of VNĐ29 trillion (US$1.4 billion), of which $635 million was sourced from the World Bank and $673 million from the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA).

The 26m-wide four-lane link, running through Đà Nẵng-Quảng Nam and Quảng Ngãi provinces, will connect industrial parks in the region and help boost transportation in the East-West Economic Corridor that links Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Việt Nam.

HCMC to spend $1.9 million on drainage

The HCM City Department of Transport has approved a project to build a drainage system along the Gia Định Canal and its networks in District 12.

The project, worth VNĐ43 billion (US$1.9 million), will be carried out by the city’s Urban Transport Management Authority No 3 during the 2017–18 period.

As designed, the system will be 607m in length and will run from TMT13 Road to the Gia Định Regiment.

Pipe sluices and sanitary sewer systems will be built, and surrounding roads and pavements will be widened by six metres and three metres, respectively.

The Gia Định Canal, known as the black water canal, is seriously polluted and has a lot of litter and waste floating on the surface.

15-year-old Khôi sits atop national chess tourney

Young master Nguyễn Anh Khôi jumped to the top of the men’s pool at the ongoing National Chess Team Championship in HCM City.

The 15-year-old HCM City teen grabbed six points after six matches.

He sits alone in the first place, followed by teammate Phạm Chương and Tô Nhật Minh from Hà Nội, who have five points each.

In the next round, Khôi, who is former world U10 and U12 champion, will next meet Chương.

In the women’s pool, Hoàng Thị Bảo Trâm of HCM City leads with 5.5 points.

Her teammate Bạch Ngọc Thùy Dương is second with five, and Nguyễn Thị Mai Hưng from Bắc Giang is at third with the same points but a worse parameter.

In the mixed doubles, HCM City also secured top place. Bình Dương and Kiên Giang are second and third, respectively.

Ministry asks hospital for report on infant’s death

The Ministry of Health has asked Kiên Giang Province’s Health Department to verify media reports about an infant’s death at Phú Quốc General Hospital and submit a report before August 1.

The ministry has instructed the hospital to hold a meeting to review the treatment and care given to the mother and the newborn and respond to the family’s and public’s concerns, following a report in the Tuổi Trẻ (Youth) newspaper.

On July 16, a 36-year-old pregnant woman, referred to as D.T.L, got admitted to Phú Quốc General Hospital for delivery. The medical staff instructed her to do an ultrasound scan and asked her and her husband, T, to wait while they finished breakfast. An hour later, when they returned, they found that the patient’s amniotic sac had ruptured. They found that the umbilical cord had wound around the foetus’ neck and doctors diagnosed respiratory problems and decided to operate immediately.

After the operation, her husband proposed moving his wife to the provincial hospital as she was weak, but the newspaper report claims the hospital refused to do so. It was only when the infant’s condition became critical that the hospital decided to transfer them. However, the newborn died by the time they reached the port to take a boat to the mainland.

T told the newspaper said that his wife had done four ultrasound scans at Dr Tấn’s clinic in Dương Đông Town and that the doctor had said the foetus was healthy and developing normally.

Dr Trương Văn Hữu, general director of Phú Quốc Hospital, said the hospital had followed all processes, and that the infant’s death was an irreversible obstetrical catastrophe.

Fifty minutes after the patient was admitted to the hospital, she was operated upon, Hữu said. Doctors found that the umbilical cord had wound around the infant’s neck when the patient was in labour and decided to do an emergency surgery.

They refused to move them to another hospital as doctors had to do the recuperation process after the operation, Hữu explained, adding that by the time the operation was over, there was no boat for the patients to go to the mainland as it was too late.

Hữu also said that his hospital is not aware of the results of any ultrasound scans done by Dr Tấn. He does not work for Phú Quốc hospital.

Experts warn of insecticide-resistant mosquitoes in Vietnam

As Vietnam continues to report rising numbers of dengue fever infections, experts warn that virus-carrying mosquitoes in the country may have developed a resistance to insecticides.

Despite being months away from traditional dengue fever seasons, Hanoi is already reporting between 1,000 and 2,000 new infections on a weekly basis.

In total, the number of patients diagnosed with the mosquito-borne disease in the Vietnamese capital this year is ten times higher than the same period of 2016.

The trend is countrywide. So far, 26 out of 63 provinces and cities in Vietnam have reported a higher number of dengue patients year-on-year.

A number of families in Hanoi have reported seeing the re-population of mosquitoes in their neighborhood just a few days after insecticides were sprayed as a public effort to combat the dengue fever.

This observation has given rise to concerns that the local mosquito population might have developed a resistance to certain chemicals.

Tran Nhu Duong, director of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, said the two main chemicals used in public campaigns to kill off mosquitoes in Hanoi are still largely effective against the insect.

However, in parts of Thanh Tri and Hai Ba Trung Districts, there have been signs of resistance development in the mosquitoes, Duong noted.

Duong suggested using different chemicals in these areas for better results.

According to Duong, spraying insecticides should only be carried out at the peak of the outbreak to avoid the insects developing resistance to the chemicals.

Duong also advised families against applying insecticides at their own home unless the same is done at neighboring houses.

A more effective measure to prevent mosquitoes from populating is to clear stagnant water, a common breeding ground for mosquitoes, around homes, he added.

Seventeen dengue fever-related deaths have occurred across Vietnam so far this year, according to Nguyen Duc Khoa, an outbreak control official at the Department of Preventive Medicine under Vietnam’s Ministry of Health.

The total number of detected infections nationwide has reached almost 60,000, over 50,000 of which included hospitalization while the rest opted for home treatment, Khoa said.

Despite reporting a tenfold increase in dengue fever patients this year compared to 2016, Hanoi was not ranked among provinces and cities with the highest number of infections per 100,000 citizens.

Topping this list are Da Nang, Binh Duong, Ho Chi Minh City, Ba Ria – Vung Tau, Binh Phuoc, Soc Trang, Phu Yen, Quang Nam and Dong Nai, Khoa said.

Vietnam saw an unusually early outbreak of dengue fever this year, with hiking infections reported as early as early July although the yearly epidemic typically begins in September.

Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus, with symptoms that include fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash.

Vietnam is among the countries most affected by the illness due to its favorable environment for the growth of yellow fever mosquitoes, or Aedes aegypti, a vector for spreading the dengue virus.