HCM City aims for higher efficiency of ODA-funded projects

The HCMC government has announced that the selection of independent consultants for impact assessments of projects using official development assistance (ODA) and concessional loans in the 1993-2017 period exposed many shortcomings. The city government has thus called for specific guidance from the Ministry of Planning and Investment for better execution of ODA-funded projects.

The drawbacks reportedly stemmed from both objective and subjective causes involving signing procedures and consulting costs. 

VietnamPlus recently reported that HCMC is currently rolling out 13 projects, utilizing nearly VND87 trillion in ODA capital. Some VND6 trillion in ODA capital is expected to be allocated this year. 

Metro lines No. 1 (Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien line) and No. 2 (Ben Thanh-Tham Luong line) are ODA-funded projects in need of support from ministries and central agencies. 

The execution of ODA-funded projects has revealed inadequacies in terms of legal issues, as the local legal framework for ODA capital use and management is not synced with regulations of donors, resulting in much time being spent on resolving discrepancies, according to the city government.  

Regarding the bidding for general contracts, Vietnam requires that the contract price not include price slide and backup costs, but this does not match international rules.

With major projects, the longer it takes to complete a project, the greater the disputes become. 

Some project management units are not capable of fulfilling their duties; they assign tasks to consultants but do not carefully check execution. Besides this, site clearance and compensation efforts are making slow progress, as are ODA capital disbursements. These issues have affected the progress of completion and capital pledges of donors. 

Some ODA-funded projects that have been completed and put into operation include the environmental sanitation projects in the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe and Tau Hu-Ben Nghe-Doi-Te (phase one) basins, the East-West highway and the Saigon bridge expansion.

A workshop took place in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on August 23 to discuss ways to ensure cyber security is maintained for governmental organisations.

The event was co-held by the Authority of Information Security (AIS) and the municipal Department of Information and Communications to provide governmental agencies with guidelines on how to assess levels of information security, monitor threats, and find solutions to improve malware prevention and protect e-Government databases.

According to Director of the Can Tho Department of Information and Communications Do Hoang Trung, the number of cases of malware penetrating computer systems and causing data destruction in Vietnam rose by 8 percent year-on-year during the first eight months of 2018. 

Most cities and provinces nationwide are building e-Government systems based on advances in information technology, said AIS Director Nguyen Thanh Hai. It brings many benefits but, at the same time, its side effects can be very serious if cyber security is not ensured, he noted.

The consequences would be devastating if personal information or accounts of bank users are stolen, or if the documents of a provincial People’s Committee are changed, Hai warned. Therefore, the development of e-Government systems should be parallel with activities to ensure system security, which must involve not only the management of IT specialists, but also improving the IT knowledge of governmental staff.

Nguyen Huu Nguyen from the Vietnam Computer Emergency Response Team suggested that governmental organisations ensure cyber security is maintained by enhancing management in five key areas – namely general policies for administrators and users, human resources, the design and development of an information system before it is put into use, operation management, and risk assessment and management.

The VNCERT reported that last year, Vietnam was hit by 13,382 cyber attacks, including 6,400 malware; 4,377 deface; and 2,605 phishing attacks. As many as 5,179 cyber attacks have been recorded since the beginning of 2018, consisting of 1,122 phishing; 3,200 deface; and 857 malware attacks.

Animal care highlighted at Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park

Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park has launched a service to visitors to learn about wild animals.

The service began on August 23 at Nui Doi Semi-wild Animal Area of the national park’s Centre for Rescue, Conservation and Creatures Development. 

The Nui Doi Semi-wild Animal Area, which is some five kilometres from the centre of Phong Nha-Ke Bang tourist site, covers 20 hectares in Phong Nha Village, Son Trach Commune, Bo Trach District.

The area was set up in 2007 in order to help animals regain their natural instincts before being released into the wild. It is also aimed to be the place for scientific research and environmental education about wild animal preservation, particularly endangered rare species.

Through the environmental experience and interpretation service, visitors will be provided basic information about animal care. They will be also be instructed how to provide a good environment for animals prior to them being freed into the wild. 

Visitors will also have a chance to know about 20 rare Ha Tinh langurs which are among the most endangered species in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park.

Cost-effective solutions and assistive technologies for low-income ageing populations are up for discussion at an ASEAN-UK workshop held at Le Quy Don Technical University in Hanoi from August 22 to 24.

The workshop is being organized by the University of Greenwich in the UK, Le Quy Don Technical University, and the Asian Technology Institute in Thailand, with support from a Researcher Links grant from the Newton Fund.

Population ageing is one of the most important issues and topics on the global agenda because of its impact on quality of life and the sustainable economic development of countries and regions.

Factors include declining fertility rates and/or rising life expectancy. Most countries have rising life expectancy and an ageing population and such trends emerged first in more economically-developed countries but are now seen in less economically-developed countries.

The UN predicts that the rate of population ageing in the 21st century will exceed that of the previous century, and the senior and geriatric population will reach 2.1 billion by 2050. By 2040, the greying of the population in ASEAN could shrink the number of working-age adults by between 10 and 15 per cent. The number of senior citizens in Vietnam aged 65 and older is expected to increase by 20 per cent within the next 18 years.

Presentations and discussions at the workshop will address the core issues and challenges of ageing populations that developing countries face. The focus is on cost-effective solutions and assistive technologies that can directly benefit low-income ageing populations in the ASEAN region.

Core topics and themes to be addressed include challenges and problems caused by ageing populations in developing countries; cost-effective solutions and assistive technologies for healthy low-income ageing populations; three, five and ten-year roadmaps for assistive technologies and cost-effective solutions for developing countries to tackle problems from ageing populations; and health economics and public health in low-income ageing populations.

The workshop will help strengthen UK-Vietnam cooperation via the UK-Vietnam Network in Higher Education, Innovation & Entrepreneurship (HEIE), which will be expanded to the wider ASEAN region and emphasizes shared research, innovation challenges, impacts on social welfare and economic development, and the quality of life in low-income ageing populations.

An internet celebrity in Việt Nam has been criticised as “uncomely” for simply sitting on the edge of fruit stall in a supermarket.

The female celebrity, who rose to fame in 2009 after winning a beauty pageant and has been working in the showbiz industry as an actress, model and TV producer, posted a photo on Instagram with a caption “[Her name] go to buy cherry” featuring her sitting on plastic bags that fresh fruit would be put in.

While many people applauded her beauty, others said she was “wrong” and “impolite”.

“Who wants to use the bags that she sat on,” one commenter wrote.

The Vietnamese celebrity’s photo reminded people of a picture of Kristen Stewart, an American actress, model and director, posing in a supermarket for Elle magazine in 2014. Stewart was said to look chic and edgy in that picture.

The supermarket photo of the Vietnamese actress also reminded people about another photo of two girls climbing on Buddhist statues in Linh Ứng Pagoda in the northern province of Bắc Giang early last year. One of the girls stood on the statue’s lap while the other sat on the statue’s arm when posing for a photo. This image was also widely panned.

The Vietnamese actress surely did not expect her supermarket photo would receive such criticism. Perhaps she shouldn’t have shot first and asked questions later. 

A five-seater car was damaged heavily after crashing into a cow crossing the road on the National Highway No1A in Kỳ Trinh Ward, Kỳ Anh Town, central province of Hà Tĩnh.

The driver of the car was not injured but the cow, weighing about 80 kilos reportedly died at spot.

But who was to blame? The jaywalking cow or the driver? And who will pay for the damage to the car?

An official of Kỳ Trinh Ward People’s Committee told online newspaper vnexpress.net that no one arrived to claim ownership over the cow.

“After the crash, local authorities used loudspeaker to tell people about what happened and call on the owner of the cow to come forward,” he said, adding that it is not the first time a similar incident happened in the same spot.

Nobody came forward to admit they owned the cow - which is not surprising considering they would be fined about VNĐ100,000 (US$4.3) for letting cattle roam free on road and more notably, they would have to compensate car driver with much bigger sum, the official explained.

“As local authorities didn’t know who owns the cow, we sold it for a local family for VNĐ4 million which is later added to local State budget,” he said. 

The Dien Bien Airport is expected to have a capacity of about 300,000 passengers and 500 tonnes of cargo per year by 2020. — Photo cafef.vn

Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung has assigned the People’s Committee of the northern province of Dien Bien to oversee the investment and construction of Dien Bien Airport.

According to the development plan of air transport, Dien Bien Airport will be researched and implemented from now to 2020.

The early investment and expansion of the airport is necessary to remove the bottleneck of transportation, improve air transport capacity and help the province attract investment, bring into play potential and advantages, especially in tourism; contribute to the socio-economic development and national defence and security of the country.

The Ministry of Transport will co-ordinate with the provincial People’s Committee, the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance to instruct investors, propose investment and construction projects to expand Dien Bien Airport and report to the Prime Minister before September 15.

According to Decision No 2501 of the Ministry of Transport, Dien Bien Airport is expected to have a capacity of about 300,000 passengers and 500 tonnes of cargo per year by 2020.

By 2030, the airport will increase capacity to two million passengers and 10,000 tonnes of cargo per year.

The airport is expected to help develop the flight routes of Dien Bien – Noi Bai and Dien Bien - Cat Bi by 2020 and exploit two additional routes of Dien Bien - Da Nang and Dien Bien - Tan Son Nhat by 2030.

In the future, Dien Bien Airport may become an international airport and carry guests from Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand. 

The Decree 28 contains new regulations on compensation, support and resettlement to individuals and organisations whose land is taken back by the State for public work projects. 

The HCM City’s People’s Committee has issued Decree 28 which contains new regulations on compensation, support and resettlement for individuals and organissations whose land has been taken back by the State for public work projects.

Effective August 19, the decree states that persons who have their land recovered will be compensated with new land which has the same purpose of use.

If no land for compensation is available, the persons will instead receive compensation equal to the land-use right value at the time of issuance of the recovery decision.

In cases of compensation for new land or houses, if there is any difference in value, such differences will be paid in cash.

The compensation process must be fair, public and on time, the decree states.

Persons who have land recovered will receive support for relocation, life stabilisation, and job change training, among other supports.

If the State recovers land from users who have not fulfilled their land-related financial obligations as required by current laws, the amount of their financial obligation will be deducted from the total compensation.

If residents fail to meet all conditions for compensation, the People’s Committees of the districts will consider and provide support.

The People’s Committees at different administrative levels will assign new land to individuals with agricultural land that is expected to be recovered by the State. These individuals have to be directly engaged in agricultural production as their main source of livelihood.

As for resettlement, when land users who have land recovered by the State must be relocated, they will be resettled in one of various methods. These include compensation for residential housing, compensation for new residential land, or cash compensation to buy a new residence.

In addition, the city will also consider support and compensation for persons who have a temporary construction permit to renovate old houses or build new houses.

In particular, the authorities will consider compensating 80 per cent of the value of the house or building that has been built on “construction land”.

For “non-construction land”, the city will compensate 60 per cent of the value.

Last year, the city’s People’s Committee issued temporary construction permits to owners to renovate old houses or build new houses in areas where construction projects had been suspended, or in areas on the city’s 1:2000 programming map.  

Under the regulation, individuals or organisations are allowed to renovate or build a new structure with no more than three floors.

In mixed agricultural land and residential areas, owners can either renovate or build a new building if the structure was built before July 2006.  If it was built after that time, only renovation can be done.

In areas with road traffic projects or along railway safety corridors, owners can renovate or build a new house of no more than three floors.

The city has about 570 suspended projects with a total area of ​​over 20,000ha, according to the city’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment. 

The vice principal of Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm Secondary School in the Central Highlands province of Đắk Nông has been charged with appropriating more than VNĐ170 million (US$7,300) from the school and State budget over the past four years.

The provincial People’s Procuracy on Monday approved the decision to prosecute and issue a four-month detention order against the vice principal Võ Thị Thúy Oanh in accordance with Article 353 of the Việt Nam Penal Code.

According to the Gia Nghĩa Town Inspectorate, in 2014 and 2015, Oanh took advantage of her position and authority of a principal to forge three contracts to draw money from the school’s State budget worth VNĐ175.7 million. Inspection results confirmed that Oanh was the mastermind behind this “wrongdoing”.

The inspectors also found that the school misused of salary and allowance payment to teachers and the parents’ fund with VNĐ50 million and VNĐ95 million, respectively.

The town’s People’s Committee asked the school to return all the above expenses.

The provincial authorities also decided to impose administrative penalties on Oanh and the chief accountant, Trương Thị Thủy Quyên, for nearly VNĐ60 million.

On March 9, Chairman of Gia Nghĩa Commune’s People’s Committee Trần Đình Ninh decided to demote Oanh from principal to vice principal of the school for her “serious violation of regulations on anti-corruption”. 

Solar panels installed on Trường Sa Island. — Photo courtesy of EVN

Renewable energy plays a vital role in helping Việt Nam accomplish the long-term goal of having the whole country electrified, experts said at a conference on Tuesday.

Participants at the conference, jointly held by the Việt Nam Sustainable Energy Association and the Climate Change Working Group, discussed what renewable energy can do to support the countryside electrification programme.

Việt Nam’s countryside electrification programme for the period 2013-20 plans to ensure 100 per cent of households in remote areas have access to light and power by 2020. 

According to the Electricity of Việt Nam (EVN), power lines were built to 99.98 per cent of countryside communes and 98.83 per cent of total households in 2017, which comes very close to the target.

The work towards the final 100 per cent, however, was very challenging as most of the remaining households were located in the most remote areas including the mountains in the north or the isolated border villages in the Mekong Delta, Đinh Duy Phong from the Division of Countryside Electrification under the Administration of Electricity and Renewable Energy said.

Cần Thơ University’s Dragon-Mekong Institute deputy head Ass Prof Lê Anh Tuấn said that the household solar panel model proved to be a very suitable solution for the Cửu Long Delta.

For the first time ever, Việt Nam had two border hamlets of Vồ Bà and Tà Lọt in the province of An Giang completely powered by solar energy.

Solar energy was not the only solution, he added. The region could seek more power from other renewable energy sources like wind, biomass and tides.

“If calculating the long-term cost-effectiveness, renewable power is not more expensive than that fueled by coal,” Tuấn said.

“The cost to develop coal power in the Mekong Delta in fact is very high, and increases by approximately 2 per cent per year.” 

An outline of the HCM City’s Beltway No 2. 

Construction of HCM City’s Beltway No 2 is unlikely to be finished next year as planned since many sections are making slow progress.

The 64km road begins at the Gò Dưa Flyover Intersection (on National Highway No 1A in Thủ Đức District), passes through the Bình Phước Flyover – An Sương Intersection, An Lạc Cross-roads,  Nguyễn Văn Linh – Trịnh Quang Nghị Crossroads, the Phú Mỹ and Rạch Chiếc bridges, and Linh Đông crossroads before returning to the Gò Dưa Intersection.

According to the city Department of Transport, construction of sections measuring a total of 14km, comprising four sub-projects, remain incomplete.

These sections are being built by Văn Phú Bắc Ái JSC under a built – transfer (BT) contract at a cost of VNĐ2,527 billion (US$111.3 million).

The city’s decision to suspend all BT contracts is another reason for the delay in the construction.

According to the transport department, relevant agencies have approved a sub-project involving the construction of the 5.3km section from An Lạc Crossroads to Nguyễn Văn Linh Street.

Meanwhile, feasibility studies for the sections from the Phú Hữu Bridge (in District 9) to the Hà Nội Highway and from the Hà Nội Highway to Phạm Văn Đồng Street (in Thủ Đức District) have yet to be approved.

They were approved as BT projects while the Department of Planning and Investment has envisaged them as public-private-partnership, or PPP, projects.                 

Nguyễn Văn Tâm, deputy director of the transport department, said setting up financial sources for construction of these sections is one of the major challenges facing the developer of the project.

In case of BT projects, there must be lands of equivalent value to hand over to investors, but the city does not have them.

Using official development assistance loans for the project would exert more pressure on the State’s coffers, Tâm said.

Problems related to compensation for lands remain are among the biggest challenges to the progress of the work.

Tâm said the department has petitioned the People’s Committee for funds for paying compensation for lands in the stretches from Phú Hữu Bridge to Hà Nội Highway and Hà Nội Highway to Phạm Văn Đồng Highway, and they have been sanctioned.

So construction of the Phú Hữu Bridge-Gò Dưa Intersection stretch will be speeded up, Tâm said.