Stronger cut of State workers needed to improve performance: Deputy PM

Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh has requested the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) to press ahead with reducing the size of its workforce and eradicating family member employment and appointment to promote staff’s performance.

He made the requirement at a meeting on December 26 reviewing the ministry’s activities this year and setting tasks for 2017.

He pointed out the sector’s shortcomings, including sluggish administrative reforms and workforce streamlining. While the administrative apparatus is still cumbersome, the sector has failed to precisely assess the performance of its cadres, civil servants and public employees.

Many of cadres, civil servants and public employees still lack sense of responsibility and haven’t fulfilled their tasks, he said.

Binh asked the MoHA to continue overhauling regulations on the recruitment and use of civil servants and public employees, adding that inspection must be increased to eliminate the appointment of ineligible persons even when that appointment is in line with procedures.

The sector must strongly reform the management of its staff and implement the Politburo’s resolution on reducing State workers to promote the quality of cadres, civil servants and public employees.

Anyone who performs poorly or do not fulfil their missions must be replaced, the Deputy PM stressed.

In his report, MoHA Deputy Minister Tran Anh Tuan said the sector has continued the close management and control of its workforce and reduced staff members in accordance with the Politburo’s Resolution No. 39.

Good performers in this work include the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, and the provinces of Quang Ngai, Lang Son, Cao Bang, Son La, Thanh Hoa, Quang Nam, Nghe An, Ca Mau and Ha Giang, and Hai Phong city.

Exchange fosters Vietnam – Cambodia border ties

The southern province of Tay Ninh and its Cambodian neighbouring province of Svay Rieng will host the first border friendship exchange between Vietnam and Cambodia on December 28-29.

Tay Ninh’s border guard command said at a press briefing on December 26 that the event aims to foster the solidarity and friendship between the two countries’ authorities, communities and border guard forces, thus strengthening cooperation in border protection, immigration control and prevention of cross-border crimes. 

The highlight of the event is an art exchange with the attendance of senior officials of both countries. It will be broadcast live by Tay Ninh television channel and relayed on the Vietnam National Defence Television, and TV channels of other Vietnamese and Cambodian border provinces. 

The two sides will hold talks to discuss cooperation on joint border protection and crime prevention, along with a joint patrol. 

A ceremony to inaugurate a border military-civilian health care station will also take place during the event.

PM directs specific mechanism for Long Thanh int’l airport

The Prime Minister has directed the designation of a specific mechanism for Long Thanh International Airport in the southern province of Dong Nai.

The Government leader asked the Ministry of Transport to coordinate with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the provincial People’s Committee to build a report on designing compensation and resettlement support as a separate sub-project.

The report should be done before the National Assembly approves a feasibility study on the airport project.

The Ministry of Transport and the provincial People’s Committee were tasked to jointly build a policy framework on compensation and resettlement support, and submit it to the Government.

The Prime Minister approved the location, scale and functional areas of Long Thanh international airport in 2005, and another planning scheme in 2011.

The airport will be built as a 4F-category one under the criteria of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

It is expected to serve 100 million passengers and five million tonnes of cargo each year.

The project will be divided into three phrases. The first one will see the construction of one runway and one terminal to serve 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tonnes of cargo each year by 2025.

Meanwhile, additional runways and terminals will be built in the second and third phrases, bringing the air port’s total capacity of 100 million passengers and five million tonnes of cargo per year.

The airport is located about 40 km from the downtown of Ho Chi Minh city and 30 km from Bien Hoa city.

Scholarship fund supports disadvantaged students

The Vu A Dinh Scholarship Fund has granted about 75,000 scholarships worth 75 billion VND (3.2 million USD) for thousands of ethnic groups and island students since its establishment in 1999.

Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Dinh La Thang hailed the contribution of the Vu A Dinh Scholarship Fund in a working session on December 26.

Former Vice President Truong My Hoa, who is Chairwoman of the Fund, said that it has launched several projects to support 100 disadvantaged female students of ethnic groups and bring students living in remote areas or on islands to HCM City to continue their studies.

In addition, the Fund has built seven schools and 23 bridges, two roads and 78 social houses nationwide, especially two schools in Truong Sa town and Sinh Ton island of the central province of KhanhHoa.

The “For beloved Hoang Sa-Truong Sa” Club established by the Fund has promoted activities on the homeland’s national sea and islands.

Secretary Thang stressed that the Fund’s activities encouraged the people to pay more attention to the country’s sea and island sovereignty.

He suggested the Fund to focus on building schools, providing scholarships to and caring for students in border and island areas while calling for more support from society.

Photo exhibition on Truong Sa to open in Hanoi

As many as 100 photos will be showcased at an exhibition themed “There is a Truong Sa inside Hanoi” at the Trang Tien Exhibition Centre in Hanoi from December 31, 2016 to January 3, 2017.

The event is part of activities of the programme named “green Truong Sa”, calling the youths, scientists, researchers, artists, and social organisations nationwide to join efforts to support soldiers and residents on Truong Sa island district and the DK 1 Platform.

The exhibition aims to introduce the Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) islands and Vietnam’s sovereignty over the two archipelagos to Hanoians, people nationwide, and international tourists. It also helps connect those who have visited Truong Sa with the community, and promote patriotism and the love for the country’s sea and islands.

The photos feature the beauty of the people, soldiers, daily life activities and the landscapes of Truong Sa, as well as the love of Hanoi people for Truong Sa soldiers, and vice verse.

Other exhibits include Truong Sa’s bang vuong (square-fruit Malabar Almond) trees, flags, post cards and poem books, among others.

The event is organised by the youth for sea and island club of the National Voluntary Centre under the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union. An art performance will take place during the event.

Fund raised during the event will be used to build a water filter station on An Bang island.

Hanoi: pre-natal care lowers maternal mortality rate

The Reproductive Health Care Centre of Hanoi reported that 99.9 percent of pregnant women have received pre-natal care, thus reducing the city’s maternity mortality rate to below the national level. 

According to the centre’s Director Nguyen Xuan Anh, 98 percent of new mothers and their newborn babies also receive post-delivery care.

The director reported that all hospitals and clinics across the city offer reproductive health care services, such as pregnancy examination, gynaecology check-ups and treatment and birth control methods.

All commune-level health care stations provide health and nutrition consultation along with treatment of common diseases among children. Many also offer child birth delivery, gynaecology check-ups and test samples taking for early detection of reproductive infections and cancer.

District-level health care centres, the Hanoi Oncology Hospital, and the municipal chapter of the Vietnam Women’s Union jointly implemented a programme on cervical cancer screening among local women. 

The centre also provides reproductive health care services for adolescents and men while conducting communication work across local schools to enhance the awareness of productive health care among students.

Another key task of the centre is to monitor the development of children under five with the goal of reducing malnutrition, stunted growth and obesity. As a result, 98.1 percent children under two have their weight measured every quarter; 98.2 percent of malnourished children under five receive monthly checks, and 98 percent of children under five are given the check every year.

The rate of stunted growth among children under five in Hanoi is now 14.2 percent, and the rate of underweight children is 9 percent.

Nguyen Xuan Anh said the city is facing numerous challenges in reproductive health care for men, industrial zone workers and adolescents; as well as in tackling both malnutrition and growing obesity among children.

In order to address the situation, the centre will coordinate closer with relevant agencies and localities to expand further reproductive health care and improve population quality.

The city aims to bring down the rate of child malnutrition in terms of weight-for-age and height-for-age to 14 percent and 8.8 percent, respectively, and the rate of child obesity to below 10 percent.

National platform promotes gender equality in economic empowerment

National Platform “Women’s Economic Empowerment in Agribusiness to promote gender equality”aims to identify gender gaps, solution development, and policy recommendation to facilitate start-up female entrepreneurs in agribusiness.

 A national Platform “Women’s Economic Empowerment in Agribusiness to promote gender equality” was co-hosted by Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU) and Netherlands Development Organization (SNV) on December 26.

In his speech, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue praised women’s role in economic development. He said amongst almost 500,000 businesses, more than 100,000 women’s enterprises which make an important contributions to economic stability of the country. 25% of women-led small and medium enterprises (SMEs) generated more than 1.63 million jobs and contributed VND32.4 trillion to the national revenue in 2013 (this approximately accounted for 3.9% of the country’s national revenue in 2013).

In Vietnam, the Government has promulgated numerous incentive policies to support female workers and enterprises of high proportion of female employees. However, the enforcement of these policies has faced a number of challenges and lacked necessary guidance. Women-led SMEs encounter various obstacles in production and business. The engagement of women in corporate governance remains limited and does not correspond with their potentials.

 national platform promotes gender equality in economic empowerment hinh 1 Female-led enterprises account for 26.8% of the SMEs and are characterized by small and micro scales and primarily in service industry (61.4%). The proportion of female entrepreneurs declines when enterprises scale is enlarging (13.6%).

At the platform, participants shared, exchanged knowledge, experience and dialogue between policy makers, economists and female entrepreneurs on challenges/obstacles, and needs of women in start-up business and development, discussed mechanisms and strategic orientations to support female entrepreneurs in agribusiness.

Mr Hue encouraged the integration of support to start-up business, enterprise development and agribusiness in VWU’s activities because this is “not only vital the economic development of Vietnam but also decisive to ensure real gender equality”.

Nguyen Thi Thu Ha, Chairwomen of VWU said,“VWU will be supporting women in starting up business, start-up business is one of important task of VWU. 

The Plan “Female entrepreneur support for the period 2017 – 2027” which was submitted to the Government for approval will contribute to achieving the national target of increasing female entrepreneurs to 35% amongst 1 million enterprises by 2020.

Quang Nam launches website to promote tourism

The Quang Nam Department of Information and Communications has launched its first website specifically to promote tourism and the annual heritage festival, especially to Vietnamese residents.

The next annual heritage festival will transpire June 9-14 next year as approved by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

It will consist of a wide variety of special cultural and arts programs, sports and tourism activities, an exhibition on Vietnam sea and islands, a Bai Choi folk games festival, boat racing, international windsurfing racing, an international choir competition, and Ngoc Linh ginseng festival.

More information can be obtained at the new website at http://disanquangnam.vn/

 Photo exhibition highlights Da Nang’s development

An exhibition, featuring 100 photographs of Da Nang city’s 20-year development, opened at the city’s Museum on December 26, as part of activities to mark 20 years since the city’s recognition as a centrally-governed city on January 1, 1997.

Entitled ‘Da Nang – a 20-year Development Course’, the exhibition focuses on the process of urbanisation, administrative reform and environmental protection.

The exhibition will run until to January 10.

The event will help visitors to learn about the developments of the city ever since it separated from Quang Nam province and came under the direct control of the central government, along with Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong and Can Tho.

Over the past years, the city has made significant changes to its transport infrastructure, urban planning and to local people’s lives after 20 years of impressive development.

Recognised as a Grade-1 city in 2003, Da Nang has always been known as one of Vietnam’s leading localities with dynamic development in all areas. The city is striving to develop itself into a green and smart city as well as a place worthy of investment and living in.

Scholarship fund supports disadvantaged students

The Vu A Dinh Scholarship Fund has granted approximately 75,000 scholarships worth VND 75 billion (US$ 3.2 million) for thousands of ethnic groups and island students since it was first establishment in 1999.

Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Dinh La Thang hailed the contribution of the Vu A Dinh Scholarship Fund in a working session on December 26.

Former Vice President Truong My Hoa, who is Chairwoman of the Fund, said that it has launched several projects to support 100 disadvantaged female students of ethnic groups and bring students living in remote areas or on islands to Ho Chi Minh City to continue their studies.

In addition, the Fund has built seven schools and 23 bridges, two roads and 78 social houses nationwide, especially two schools in Truong Sa town and Sinh Ton island of the central province of Khanh Hoa.

The “For beloved Hoang Sa-Truong Sa” Club established by the Fund has promoted activities on the homeland’s national sea and islands.

Secretary Thang stressed that the Fund’s activities encouraged the people to pay more attention to the country’s sea and island sovereignty.

He suggested the Fund focus on building schools, providing scholarships to and caring for students located in border and island areas while calling for more support from society.

Kien Giang welcomes 10-millionth foreign visitor of 2016

The southern province of Kien Giang welcomed the 10 millionth foreign visitor to Vietnam for the year of 2016 at Phu Quoc International Airport at 1pm on December 25.

Minister of Vietnam Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Ngoc Thien presented flowers and a campaign medal to the visitor.

Michael Tonge, the lucky British tourist, expressed his surprise and pleasure at the warm welcome the province’s leaders and people had organised for him.

The event is expected to become a hallmark in the tourism sector's development in the process of intensive international integration as well as in the path towards becoming a key economic sector of the nation.

According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, the nation is estimated to receive 10 million foreign passengers and 62 million domestic visitors in 2016. The number of international visitors to Vietnam has seen double-digit growth month on month. The nation expects to gain VND400 trillion (US$18 billion) from tourism.

In 2017, the nation hopes to welcome 11.5 million foreign visitors and 66 million domestic tourists, earning VND460 trillion for the sector.

The 2016 National Tourism Year in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang, under the theme “Discovering the Southern Land” has opened a new development prospect for Kien Giang Province and the Mekong Delta.

In 2016, an estimate of 5.4 million visitors arrived in Kien Giang, a year-on-year increase of 24% and 9.5% higher than the set plan. The number of foreign tourists has witnessed an increase of 31.4% compared to the same period last year and exceeded the set plan by 14%.

First-ever sunflower festival opens in Nghe An

The 2016 sunflower festival, the first of its kind, officially opened in the central province of Nghe An on December 25.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Deputy Chairman of the Nghe An provincial People's Committee Le Minh Thong said the event is destined to help spur on the local tourism industry’s development by attracting more visitors to raise income for locals.

The festival also featured a festive day designated for ethnic minority groups living in the mountainous areas of Nghe An, he noted.

The festival is scheduled to run until January 5.

The sunflowers were first sowed in Nghia Dan district in 2010 by TH True Milk, a Vietnamese dairy producer, to feed its cows. Years later, the field has gained fame among youngsters for its unique beauty.

For the festival this year, Nghe An has doubled cultivation areas to nearly 60ha, giving visitors more space to enjoy the sunflowers in full bloom as well as organised a beauty contest, opened souvenir shops and will hold a range of folk games.

The field becomes a hot rendezvous site in late November, when the flowers are in full bloom and are at their largest size. According to the field managers, blooming season arrived later this year, as sowing was delayed by 20 days.

Binh Thuan builds storm shelter in Phu Quy Island

Binh Thuan People's Committee started constructing a storm shelter for fishing vessels in Phu Quy Island.

Total investment capital is VND 544billion.

The shelter which is completed will supply space for about over 1,000 fishing boats with capacity of 600 CV in the south central province of Binh Thuan and neigboring provinces, Truong Sa Islands and flatform DK 1.

On the same day, Binh Thuan People's Committee announced the Island District of Phu Quy has been recognized as a new-style rural area.

This is the first island district in Binh Thuan Province, second one across the country recognized as new rural district, behind Co To in the northern province of Quang Ninh.

35 cultural events to take place in Quang Nam in 2017

The People’s Committee of Quang Nam province yesterday held a press conference in Hoi An city to announce the 2017's information and preparation for the range of large- scale cultural events of the province. 

Quang Nam expects to attract more visitors and investment projects through the 2017's significant and important events.

The 20th anniversary of the re-establishment of Quang Nam province (1997- 2017) and the 42nd anniversary of Independence Day of Quang Nam province will coincide at March 24th Square on March 24; the sixth Quang Nam Heritage Festival will be opened at Tam Ky city on June 9.

Besides that, the APEC High-Level Week in Vietnam and a conference on investment promotion and the central region’s sea tourism and urban developments attracting 450 participants will take place on March 25.

The 40 anniversary of groundbreaking day of Phu Ninh irrigation construction and other cultural festivals will be opened in 2017.

Deputy Chairman of the People’s Committee of Quang Nam province Le Van Thanh said that the central province got outstanding economic achievements this year. The province received over 4.4 million domestic and foreign arrivals. In 2017, the tourism industry is expected to welcome five million travelers.

Around 35 cultural events will be held in Quang Nam next year, the province authorities expect to attract more visitors and investment projects through the 2017's significant and important events.

Congested Saigon airport asks domestic airlines to park fleet elsewhere

Vietnam’s biggest international airport Tan Son Nhat is no longer able to handle all the pressure from the recent travel boom.

In what appears to be a stop-gap measure, the Ho Chi Minh City airport has asked Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet Air and Jestar Pacific to move their aircraft for domestic services to Can Tho airport in the Mekong Delta and park them there overnight.

Other options include airports in Cam Ranh and Danang in the central region.

The apron at Tan Son Nhat can only accommodate 57 aircraft at a time, which means the airport is now overstretched by the increasing number of domestic and international flights.

According to the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam, to meet to the growing demand of the local market, airlines are expanding their fleets, adding flights and opening more routes, which together have put mounting pressure on Tan Son Nhat's tarmac space and ground services.

This can get worse in the next four years as domestic carriers all plan to expand further, said Lai Xuan Thanh, director of the administration.

According to media reports, forcing airlines to park elsewhere can increase operational costs and eventually lead to higher airfares.

Vietnam’s airline market is growing at the third fastest pace in Asia-Pacific and the country is grappling with an acute dearth of airport capacity.

Aviation authorities estimated that the number of passengers on domestic flights would soar 35% to 28 million this year, accounting for more than half of the total air travel in the country.

National flag carrier Vietnam Airlines, low cost carriers Jetstar Pacific and VietJet Air and the newly founded Vietstar are planning to expand their fleets to a total of 263 aircraft in the next four years. Vietstar has not even been licensed to fly yet. 

Red tape slows health insurance signup

The Government has targeted over 90 per cent of nationwide population covered with health insurance by 2020. Despite preferential policies to encourage citizens to buy health insurance, the number of health insurance card holders, especially household health insurance, remains low due to red tape.

Without health insurance, Hoàng Thị Yến, renting a house in HCM City’s District 2, had to pay over VNĐ60 million (US$2,700) for leg surgery, Tin Tức (News) reported.

“To buy household health insurance, I have to bring the family register book of my landlord and all health insurance cards of the family members to the ward authority. Then I have to register for temporary residence. However, my landlord’s family has yet to buy health insurance cards so I cannot buy it,” she said.

Prolonged waiting time is another challenge for health insurance card holders.

Trần Thị Bốn from Thủ Đức District in HCM City, said “I have to wait for the whole day for each health check-up.”

Getting bored of waiting, she decided to buy a health check-up service without health insurance.

To increase public access to health insurance and to meet the above target, Hà Văn Thúy, the deputy head of the Health Insurance Department under the Health Ministry, said that the ministry has issued a set of hospital quality criteria which place patients at the centre of hospital services.

Health insurance covers almost 80 percent of Việt Nam’s population now.

According to Nguyễn Tấn Bỉnh, director of the HCM City Health Department, the city’s healthcare sector has worked with the city’s health insurance to cut down unnecessary procedures so as to improve healthcare examination and treatment but still ensure quality.

The waiting time of patients to see a doctor has been cut from 120-480 minutes to 30-120 minutes.

According to Tin Tức newspaper, hospitals in HCM City have bought state-of-the-art technology to better serve patients. Eighteen hospitals in the city have newly installed health check-up booking via a hotline. “We are looking forward to smart health insurance cards (electronic) to replace current paper cards,” Bỉnh said.

Chợ Rẫy Hospital, Gia Định Nhân Dân Hospital and the hospital of Thủ Đức District in HCM City have installed automatic queue ticket dispenser machines and have staff to instruct patients at health check-up rooms.

According to Doctor Nguyễn Minh Quân, director of Thủ Đức District hospital, to reduce waiting time, prescriptions are typed out on computers. Also, the doctors’ consultation time for patients is longer.

In addition, the Việt Nam health insurance sector made amendments to the health insurance regulations to provide card holders with additional benefits, Thúy said.

Accordingly, low-income card holders will enjoy 95 to 100 per cent of health insurance. Near-poor people will have coverage of 80 to 95 per cent.

Since January 1 this year, new regulations state that patients who register for health insurance cards at a ward-level medical clinic can enjoy health insurance benefits at any district clinic or hospital in the country.

Under household health insurance, the first card holder of the household will have to pay 100 per cent of the insurance cost. The second one has to pay 70 per cent. The third, fourth and fifth card holders have to pay 60, 50 and 40 per cent, respectively. 

Household health insurance will cover 80 per cent of hospital fees for health examination or hospital beds. In case of serious diseases and high treatment cost, the health insurance will cover 50 to 75 per cent of expenses.

High fines for Hanoi express bus lane violations

Vehicles can be fined ranging from USD38 to USD57 if caught going into the bus lane on the Bus Rapid Transit corridor which is planned to operate from January 1.

The 14-kilometre route linking Kim Ma Station in Dong Da District and Yen Nghia Station in Ha Dong District is expected to take only 30 minutes.

Hanoi has designed a separate bus lane with 21 stops located on the median strips of the streets within the route.

Under Government Decree 46 on traffic violation fines, vehicles can be fined between VND800,000 and VND1.2 million (USD38-USD57) if going into the lane for the high-speed bus route.

The lane has traffic signs and street lines while cameras are installed at bus stops along the route to detect violations.

Many doubt that the buses will reduce traffic congestion and instead believe that it will only worsen traffic jams on many of the busy streets it runs on.

Speaking with DTiNews, Doan Minh Tam, Former Director of the Institute of Transport Science and Technology, Vietnam has already spent a decade discussing the implementation of the high-speed bus service. “The biggest difficulty for Hanoi’s plan is having suitable separate lanes as they are too narrow,” Tam added.

“Hanoi will pilot the plan. If the trial is successful, we will open more routes. We’ll learn from the experience if it is a failure and consider that when implementing other routes later,” he noted.

A rapid bus route is only one small measure to ease traffic jams, but it can’t help the city to deal with major congestion, Tam said. The important thing was that local authorities have to do a far better job at urban planning, and set aside more land for transport infrastructure.

It would be difficult for Hanoi and HCM City to improve traffic if the city authorities simultaneously allow more and more high-rise buildings to be built in inner-city areas, Tam said.

Uncle Hồ to take centre stage

Veteran and young artists of the 5B Small Theatre will perform for free a historic play about late President Hồ Chí Minh for students and migrant labourers in HCM City.  

The play will be staged at local universities and export processing zones and industrial parks as part of activities to celebrate the New Year.

Dấu Xưa (The Leader) portrays the revolutionary career of the President, a communist and patriot who devoted his life to the country’s independence.

It highlights the works of the President in the 1950s and 60s. 

Directed by Meritorious Artist Trần Minh Ngọc, Dấu Xưa has veteran actor Thanh Điền playing the President, and several young actorsl like Quốc Trung, Kim Tùng and Việt Hưng.

"President Hồ Chí Minh is in the hearts of Vietnamese people. Though I’m experienced, I have worked several hours each day to perfect my performance. I don’t want to make a mistake on stage,” said Thanh Điền, who has been a theater artiste for more than 40 years. 

“Through my performance, I have gained deeper insights into patriotism and have greater respect for national heroes and soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the country."  

Dấu Xưa was first staged in 2011 in Hà Nội and left a very strong impression on audiences. It has been restaged several times by leading art troupes and theatres.    

Director Ngọc and his troupe will begin their tour next month.

“We want to entertain and educate young people through our art,” he said.

Celebrations of the 20th anniversary of Bắc Kạn Province start

Various events highlighting the culture and history of the northern province of Bắc Kạn will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the province’s establishment. 

“The celebration will promote patriotism and deeper understanding of local history and culture. The events aim to encourage local people to boost production and construction for future development,” said Phạm Duy Hưng, Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee.

An photo exhibition featuring the establishment and development of the province will kick off today and run until Friday.

A football tournament for young people, a volleyball tournament for middle-aged and old people as well as some cultural activities have been organised to celebrate the anniversary.

The celebration will also include an art performance featuring local culture on Thursday.

On the same day, an exhibition entitled Việt Nam’s Spratlys and Paracel - Historical Evidence will be held.

On display are numerous documents, maps, artefacts and publications by researchers and scholars from Việt Nam and abroad that demonstrate that the island chains have historically belonged to Việt Nam.

Especially, there are documents in Vietnamese, Chinese and French languages dating from the 17th to the 20th century, along with 95 maps published by Việt Nam, several Western countries and China since the 16th century. Notably, these maps show that the southernmost border of China is Hainan Island.

The exhibition also includes many photos and documents reflecting the process in which Việt Nam exercised and defended its sovereignty over the Spratlys and Paracel archipelagos since 1930, until China used force to occupy the Paracel on January 19, 1974. 

The Information and Communications Ministry has conducted 35 exhibitions with the same theme nationwide since 2013. This time, the ministry will organise the exhibition with Virtual Reality 3D (VR3D) technology. Each visitor will have a virtual guide with headphones.

The exhibition will run until January 2.

Da Nang cancels fireworks shows for supporting poor people

People’s Committee in the central city of Da Nang yesterday announced it decided to remove firework show from the list of festive activities to commemorate its 20th anniversary of becoming central city and the upcoming New Year Eve. 

The decision aims to implement the Secretariat of the Communist Party of Vietnam’s directive No.11-CT/TW issued on December 20 for the upcoming Tet holidays or the Lunar New Year. As per the directive, the Secretariat  required all provinces and cities not to hold fireworks displays during Tet holidays; instead, local authorities were  asked to spend time and funds for taking care of low-income families and beneficiaries of social welfare policies.

Da Nang People’s Committee also decided to allocate expenditure to support flood-ravaged central provinces including Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh and Phu Yen; each will receive VN1 billion and Binh Dinh will get VND2 billion. The amount will be used for restoring production,  helping locals in these provinces settle down.

Lam Dong & Danang sign to supply safe agricultural products

Da Nang City People’s Committee signed with the central highlands province of Lam Dong in supplying safe agricultural products (safe agro-products) in the period of 2017-2020, yesterday.

As per plan, from now till 2020, Da Nang and Lam Dong will build and develop safe agro- product chain, aiming to promote agricultural production in the central highlands province and protect Da Nang City’s consumers.

Besides, it will strengthen the socioeconomic development cooperation between two locals; creating favorable condition for enterprises, cooperatives to develop models for safe food production.

Mr. Dang Viet Dung, Deputy chairman of Da Nang city People’s Committee said Danang covers as little as agricultural areas and it is not to supply enough for the market while unsafe vegetable source is flocking to the city, therefore the city hopes this cooperation will ensure safe agro- products meeting the locality’s consumption demands.

Mr. Pham S, deputy chairman of Lam Dong People’s Committee said Lam Dong is home to many agricultural areas specializing in flower, vegetable and fruit growing and the province has been planning to produce safe agricultural chain with high technology, ensuring consumers’ health in Lam Dong and Danang.

Hue marks 228th anniversary of King Nguyen Hue’s enthronement

A thurification marking the 228th anniversary of Nguyen Hue’s throne ascension ceremony  and Ngoc Hoi-Dong Da Victory was held at the historical site of Ban Mountain in Hue City on December 23.

Local leaders and people offered incense, expressing their gratitude to Hero Nguyen Hue’s great contributions to the national unification. A special show reviving the coronation of Emperor Nguyen Hue was performed by artists of the Hue Drama and Opera Theater.

In the early spring of 1789, Nguyen Hue – who was later proclaimed Emperor Quang Trung led his Tay Son troop to launch a surprise attack and defeated more than 29,000 invading soldiers in a battle on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year. The victory of Ngoc Hoi-Dong Da is known as one of the nation’s most remarkable and remembered historical moments. Nguyen Hue became Emperor Quang Trung in 1788 and passed away in 1792. Queen Ngoc Han followed him seven years later when she was just 29 years old.

The historical site of Ban Mountain covering on an area of 9.5 hectares includes a giant stone statue of Emperor Quang Trung, an exhibition house on the Tay Son rising-up movement and temples commemorating King Nguyen Hue and Queen Le Ngoc Han together with mandarins.

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