The four-lane expressway has a speed limit of 100 kilometres per hour, and illegal picking/dropping of coach passengers or crossing of the road by residents could lead to serious accidents.

Giao thông (Transport) newspaper reported that during lunchtime, dozens of trucks were parked along the sidewalk of the expressway.

At the Tân Lập intersection where drivers usually stopped for meals, some restaurant owners had put ladders against road fence barriers as a shortcut to enter the restaurant.

Some five kilometres away from the road intersection, trucks carrying pigs often stopped to bathe the animals right on the expressway, with waste water discharged on the road.
Further, at Thịnh Đán intersection, also on the expressway, coaches illegally stopped to pick up or drop passengers. 

Motorbike taxi drivers also waited for clients, ignoring the traffic sign that said “Motorbike and walkers must not enter the expressway.” Some motorbike taxi drivers even rose the wrong way to shorten the distance to the Yên Bình Industrial Zone, Giao thông reported.

Vũ Ngọc Quân, road supervisor of Bắc-Nam Consultation, Investment and Construction Company which operates and maintains the Hà Nội-Thái Nguyên Expressway, said he often reminded drivers to avoid stopping along the sidewalk, but his advice was ignored.
Quân said the company and local authority would seize the ladders put up by the restaurants, but they would then be replaced.

Phạm Ngọc Long, deputy director of the company, said those who work at the industrial zone along the expressway broke the road barriers since it was easier to get on to the expressway to catch coaches.

In addition, some residents did their morning exercises on the expressway when it was cooler, Long said.

Long called on substantial cooperation from the local police and authorities to help the company better manage road safety.

Trương Văn Phụng, director of Thái Nguyên Province’s Transport Department, said the province had asked the Road and Railway Traffic Police Department to tighten inspection and impose penalties to curb violations.

Japan takes on more Vietnam trainees

Vietnam has overtaken China to have the most students and workers in Japan, with 90,000 by the end of last year, said Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Umeda Kunio.

Speaking at a seminar on Vietnamese and Japanese cooperation in internship programs last week, the ambassador said more than 40,000 Vietnamese came to study and work in Japan last year alone, more than four times higher than in 2013.

Vietnamese workers have contributed significantly to economic development in Japan, which is struggling with the population aging problem.

Japan imported an average of 95,000 workers a year in 2006-2009 to make up for its labor shortage.

A new internship law which Japan adopted in 2016 offers an extra five years for trainees to work in Japan.

However, the recruitment cost remains high, piling pressure on trainees, according to a study by the Vietnam Institute for Economic and Policy Research (VEPR).

According to regulations of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, businesses charge US$3,600 per worker but the total amount each employee needs to have to secure a job in Japan is US$5,300, of which US$4,700 is borrowed.

VEPR director Nguyen Duc Thanh said workers have had to pay more than regulated to come to Japan for work because of multiple intermediary expenses, such as those for local vocational schools and job placement centers.

The VEPR study shows that after their employment in Japan, an average employee earns US$44,500 and that after deducting all costs, they can save about US$23,000, equivalent to more than VND500 million.

Moreover, they can easily find a job at Japanese enterprises operating in Vietnam as they have a good command of the Japanese language and other skills acquired during their time in Japan.

ASEAN+ children festival opens in Hanoi

Children from ASEAN member countries and the bloc’s partner countries are joining together in a festival in Hanoi, hosted by the Vietnam Television (VTV) from May 29-June 4.

Arranged to welcome International Children’s Day (June 1), the event offers ASEAN kids a chance to gain insights into Vietnam’s culture and people, and other cultures in the region.

A highlight of the festival is an art gala night, which will be broadcast live on VTV1 on June 1 with performances from child art troupes from Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, the Republic of Korea, and China.

Launched by VTV, the festival aims to enhance friendship and cultural exchange among ASEAN children.

Visitors to Da Nang up nearly 50% in May

Visitors to the central city of Da Nang totaled 612,922 in May, up 46.8 per cent year-on-year, according to figures from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.

International visitors stood at 205,995 and domestic visitors 406,927, increases of 81.2 per cent and 33.9 per cent year-on-year. Total revenue is estimated at VND1.8 billion ($80,000), an increase of 48.8 per cent.

Thanks to activities such as the Da Nang International Fireworks Festival 2017, street music programs, and a series of accompanying events, visitor numbers have increased sharply.

Every Friday and Saturday, a street space where model cars and artists parade provides an animated atmosphere to the coastal city. Lines of people follow the parade, taking pictures with foreign artists.

Artifacts validate Vietnam's sea and islands

Ancient artifacts will be showcased in the central province of Quang Nam as historical and legal evidence of Vietnam’s sovereignty over Truong Sa (Spratly) and Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelagoes.

Antiques, maps, Chinese-transcribed documents, and 15 royal archives of the Nguyen dynasty will go on display. The exhibition will also feature 150 cultural artifacts of Vietnam’s sea and islands and festival costumes worn by coastal residents. 

Visitors will be able to learn about fishermen’s lives through film screenings, fishing tools, and their daily utensils.   

This exhibition, entitled “Cultural Heritage of Vietnam’s sea and island”, will be the highlight of the 6th Quang Nam Heritage Festival, to be held in June. It will also feature a kite festival, an exhibit of silk and brocade, sailing and windsurfing championships, and a food festival.
     
Conference reviews housing assistance for revolutionary contributors

The Ministry of Construction held a national conference in Hanoi on May 26 to review the implementation of the Prime Minister’s Decision No.22/2013/QD-TTg on housing support for those who made contributions to the national liberation revolution.

According to statistics as of September 2016, the country had 363,437 households eligible for the support under Decision 22, with 169,203 families needing new houses and 194,234 needing help to repair their houses. 

However, Hanoi later reduced its data by 2,350 households while 13 other localities added 18,833 ones.

As a result, the total number of households that need assistance under the Decision has now come to 379,920, of whom 177,313 need new houses. 

Deputy PM Trinh Dinh Dung said the sharp increase in the number of households needing support will significantly affect the building of support plans.

Additionally, most localities only rely on the central budget for the work, he said, urging local authorities to actively seek funding from other sources.

The Deputy PM also requested localities to ensure transparency and fairness when listing beneficiaries of the policy. 

Minister of Construction Pham Hong Ha suggested finalizing the number of beneficiary households at the end of May. 

The arranged capital should be disbursed flexibly to complete this programme within two years or in 2017, he said.

Firms pledge 17 billion VND to Nha Trang-Khanh Hoa Sea Festival
Enterprises have pledged to donate 17.3 billion VND (over 761,000 USD) for the organisation of the upcoming 8th Nha Trang-Khanh Hoa Sea Festival in the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa, accounting for over 60 percent of the total expenses.

According to the provincial People’s Committee, the festival was estimated to cost about 28.5 billion VND (over 1.25 million USD), covering over 50 activities ranging from culture, art, sports to trade seminars, with more than half of them will be funded by donors. 

Highlights of the event will be a salangane nest festival, an international cuisine contest, a show of old Vespa-brand motorbikes, and a drawing contest for children. 

An international seminar on sustainable development of Vietnam’s salangane nest industry, hosted by Khanh Hoa Salangane Company, will also take place during the festival.

The event will welcome five international art troupes from Spain, France, the Republic of Korea, Australia and Russia, along those from the Central Highland province of Dak Lak, central Thua Thien-Hue province, and the Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu.

The festival, slated for June 10-13, is expected to greet about 150,000 domestic and foreign tourists.

EU-funded project enhances Vietnam's students’ access to labour market
A workshop was recently held in Bologna, the capital city of the Emilia Romagna region in northern Italy, to increase opportunities for Vietnamese students to get access to the labour market.

The event formed part of activities of the Voyage project funded by the "European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students" (ERASMUS) programme from 2015 - 2018.

The project aims to connect Vietnamese students with foreign and domestic enterprises, thus helping them to find jobs in Vietnam and Europe while improving tertiary training programmes.

The event was attended by representatives from Vietnam’s establishments benefiting from the project, namely Hanoi University (HANU), the National University of Art Education, the Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology, as well as management boards of industrial parks and processing zones in Hanoi, the Vietnamese Embassy in Italy, and local enterprises.

Participants discussed measures to help Vietnamese graduates better meet the requirements of domestic and foreign recruiters.

Pham Ngoc Thach from HANU pointed to the shortages of skills among Vietnamese graduates, saying that they have knowledge, yet fail to satisfy the expectations of employers.

Narcis Bosch from the Chamber of Commerce in Catalonia, Spain, underlined the need for educational institutions to ensure their training programmes are more relevant to the labour market.

Meanwhile, Silvia Galeazzi, a project manager highlighted huge room for educational cooperation and student exchanges between Vietnam and Italy.

In 2016, the Italian Foreign Ministry offered numerous scholarships for Vietnamese students to study in the country, she said.

Photo and painting exhibitions open in Đà Nẵng

A photo exhibition, entitled Youths with Sea and Islands, opened at Da Nang’s Teachers’ Training College yesterday, with 60 photos on display.

The exhibition featured photos of people, soldiers and youths living in Trường Sa (Spratly) Islands off the coast of Khánh Hòa Province.

Also yesterday, the Central Youth Union along with the Naval Engineering Division No 83 presented gifts to families of martyrs who died to protect the Trường Sa Islands in 1988.

Also yesterday, Đà Nẵng city’s Fine Arts Museum in collaboration with Đắk Lắk Provincial Culture Centre launched a painting exhibition, Meet the Central Highlands, displaying 60 paintings from 31 artists in the central highlands and Đà Nẵng.

It focuses on the land, people and lifestyle of ethnic groups living in the Central Highlands.

The exhibition, at 78 Lê Duẩn street, will last through June 5th.

Dysentery outbreak claims one life in Lai Châu

One person has died and 60 people have reportedly been hospitalised in the dysentery outbreak in the northern mountainous province of Lai Châu.

Although the outbreak has been under control, the risk of a reoccurrence is high, the provincial Preventive Health Centre said.

Report from the health clinic in Phong Thổ District’s Ma Ly Chải Commune showed that the first cases of dysentery were reported in late February with typical symptoms such as fever, stomach pain, and diarrhoea.

In late April, 27 cases were found, causing an outbreak in the commune.

The health centre in Phong Thổ District also reported 11 patients suffering from dysentery. The illness claimed the life of Chang Lở Mẩy, 72.

All the patients tested positive for Shigella flexeneri – the bacteria that causes dysentery.

The reason for the outbreak was unhygienic habits of patients, especially the ethnic minority. The hot weather along with high humidity also contributed to the development of the bacteria.

A preventive health team has been mobilised for supervision in Ma Ly Chải Commune. Those who are suspected to get the disease must be strictly observed. Chloramine B for sterilisation has been sent to the commune to prevent the spread of the disease.

Dr Trần Thị Liên, director of the Preventive Health Centre, said that they have asked the district’s authority to support residents’ water tanks and soaps and Chloramine B.

The centre has antibiotic medicines to treat those at high risks.

There are four villages in Ma Ly Chải Commune with 99 per cent of Hà Nhì ethnic minorities. Only 7 per cent of them have hygienic toilets.

Saigon’s electrical ‘spider webs’ to become thing of the past

Ho Chi Minh City puts as much as 400 kilometers of electrical wiring underground every year, with the goal of clearing the downtown area of its infamous wire ‘spider webs’ by 2020.

By 2020, the entire electrical and telecom wire network of District 1 and District 3 will be underground, while in other districts the aim is to complete between 50 and 80 percent.

Chaotically intertwined electrical wires and telecom cables, locally referred to as ‘spider webs’, have been a characteristic of Ho Chi Minh City for years, providing a sight that awes and terrifies visitors in equal measure.

Since 2015, an ambitious project has been implemented by the city’s administration to get rid of these ‘spider webs’, with the citywide subterranean installment of electrical and telecom wires.

The plan, carried out by state-owned power supply firm Ho Chi Minh City Power Corporation (EVNHCMC) in cooperation with major telecom companies including Viettel, VNPT, SCTV and others, looks to install about 1,800 kilometers of the city’s wires and 2,000 kilometers of cable underground by 2020.

Less than three years out from the project’s deadline, many streets and alleys in Ho Chi Minh City have already been freed from the eyesore.

Hoang Oanh, a store owner on Vo Thi Sau Street in District 3, said that the bundle of telecom cables that used to exist in front of her store would sag under their own weight, obstructing the view and leaving locals living in fear of their collapse at any time.

Now that the cables had been cleared, Oanh said that the atmosphere in her neighborhood felt much less claustrophobic.

Hoang Thuong, a resident on Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street in District 3, said he had long been an admirer of the streets in District 7 and District 2, where there were no ‘spider webs’ compared to downtown areas.

“Many areas of the city center remain haunted by these spider webs, making the public space feel cramped and stuffy,” Thuong said. “I hope they will put the electrical wires underground in other streets too.”

According to Nguyen Van Hieu, an official at Saigon Power Company (SPC), a member of EVNHCMC, the electrical wire and telecom cable lines on Vo Thi Sau, Nguyen Dinh Chieu and Dien Bien Phu in District 3 are expected to be fully transferred underground by June.

SPC’s deputy director Tran Van Toan said the company had already put power grids underground in over 40 streets in District 1 and District 3 since the beginning of the project.

The company expects to complete the subterranean installment of wires on over 20 downtown streets this year, including Le Thi Hong Gam, Nguyen Thai Binh, Nguyen Cong Tru, Le Cong Kieu, Pho Duc Chinh, Ky Con and Yersin.

Pham Quoc Bao, deputy director of EVNHCMC, said the corporation was looking to transfer 650 kilometers of medium-voltage power grid underground along with 1,150 kilometers of low-voltage power grid between 2016 and 2020.

This translates to 100 to 150 kilometers of medium-voltage grid and 200-250 kilometers of low-voltage grid being brought below surface every year.

The total cost is estimated to be approximately VND4.300 trillion (US$191.3 million).

As of today, over 60 percent of the goal has been met, Bao stated.

The project has not been going without criticism however, with locals voicing their concerns about the safety and esthetic of electrical enclosures that have sprung up on streets where electrical wires have been put underground.

The enclosures carry warning labels that read “Do not approach; deadly electric current," prompting locals to question whether placing such ‘dangerous’ objects near their homes is a good idea, not to mention the fact that they also block the pavement.

According to Pham Quoc Bao, these electrical enclosures serve to connect the underground power grid to households on the surface and are therefore an essential part of the network.

As the electrical enclosures are designed to improve safety, in the future the warning labels may be replaced with posters encouraging households to use electricity sparingly, Bao said.

According to Tran Van Toan, aside from major streets, the subterranean installment of the power grid in Ho Chi Minh City will also be extended to the city’s back alleys.

Eight alleys will benefit from the change in 2017, he said, while another 29 alleys in downtown areas are expected be free from visible electrical wires in 2018.

HCM City 1 win to top national champs

Defending champions HCM City 1 proved their power with a 2-0 win over Phong Phú Hà Nam in the fifth round match of the National Women’s Football Championship.

The match was played on Wednesday in HCM City.

Lê Hoài Lương opened the score in the 29th minute and Huỳnh Như scored the final goal with a straight shot in the 79th.

The win pushed HCM City to the top position for the first time this season with the maximum 12 points. Phong Phú Hà Nam dropped one step to No 3 with 10 points.

They will be the leader at least for a day. If Hà Nội 1 beat bottom-placed Sơn La today at the Thống Nhất Stadium, they will return to the top spot.

In the second match of the day, Việt Nam Coal and Minerals were tied 1-1 with TNG Thái Nguyên.

Hương Giang of Thái Nguyên netted the opener just 12 minutes into the game and Trần Thị Thu of Việt Nam Coal and Minerals equalised 26 minutes after the interval.

The draw result did not change their position as Việt Nam Coal and Minerals are at fourth while Thái Nguyên are sixth.

In other action today, HCM City 2 will play Hà Nội 2.

Bulgarian Education, Culture Day marked in Hanoi, HCM City

The Vietnam–Bulgaria Friendship Association (VBFA) hosted a ceremony to mark Bulgarian Education, Culture and Slavonic Literature Day in Hanoi on May 24.

The event was attended by Bulgarian Ambassador to Vietnam Evgheni Stoychev, his wife and VBFA President Nguyen Van Tuan, among others.

Addressing the event, Tuan congratulated the Bulgarian people on the occasion that honours the Kyril and Mephodi brothers who invented the first Slavonic letters.

Bulgaria has trained more than 2,200 Vietnamese graduates and post-graduates, and 6,200 Vietnamese apprentices. The country has also helped improve occupational skills for more than 20,000 Vietnamese workers.

For his part, the Bulgarian Ambassador said the annual event contributes to friendship and cooperation between the people of the two nations.

The same day, the Ho Chi Minh City Union of Friendship Organisations held a function, gathering Slavonic language users in the city.

It aims to promote cultural exchanges, mutual understanding and solidarity between people in Ho Chi Minh City and the Slavonic language–speaking community.

President of the VBFA’s HCM City Chapter Hoang Thai Lan underlined the contributions Vietnamese people who studied Slovanic culture have made to the nation’s cultural development. 

The celebration of the Bulgarian Education and Culture, and Slavonic Literature Day in Ho Chi Minh City contributes to developing friendship between Vietnam and Bulgaria, Lan said.

Festival honours hundreds of southern specialities

The 2017 Southern Culinary Festival officially opened on May 24 in Ho Chi Minh City, honouring over 250 foods and 100 sweet soups and cakes from the southern provinces and cities.

The festival brought together nearly 40 units and enterprises showcasing food and beverages at 70 booths.

The specialities were divided into three unique culinary styles: the central – Central Highland cuisine, Saigon’s cuisine and Southern eastern and western cuisine.

Visitors to this year’s event could also taste and learn how to cook various kinds of traditional Vietnamese food as well as join in numerous talks held by culinary experts.

The highlight of the festival will be the space introducing street food in Saigon from the past and present. In addition to popular food reminiscent of the childhood of local people, numerous dishes associated with the busy and integrated life, including specialities of foreign countries, are being promoted.

A market of clean agricultural products, performances of Cham traditional arts, and folk games such as sack races, blind-man's-bluff, and tug of war, will also be held during the five-day event.

During the festival there will be a cooking contest for participating units, a fruit sculpture competition and a contest on designing the mostbeautiful and impressive booths.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Tran Vinh Tien emphasised that the annual event aims to promote the flavour of Vietnamese food, particularly the flavours found in the southern region, to both domestic and foreign visitors.

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