Traffic accident kills three policemen

A traffic accident killed three policemen as they were driving on the National Highway 1A section which runs through Huu Lung district in the northern mountainous province of Lang Son around 2.30pm yesterday.

The policemen, Phuong Van Chung, Vi Van Loc and Trinh Van Hieu, from the district's police force, were on a working trip from Ha Noi to Lang Son when their Toyota car crashed into a passenger bus travelling in the opposite direction, according to the district's police.

The bus belonged to the Son Duc – Lang Son joint venture company. The incident remains under investigation.

Coach, truck collide, injuring nine

A coach crashed into a truck in central province of Nghe An on Saturday night, injuring nine.

At about 11:20pm, a 29-seat coach bound for Vinh City lost control and rammed into the back of a truck parked on the side of the road.

Those wounded on the coach were immediately rushed to the hospital. None suffered critical injuries.

The cause of the accident is under investigation.

Localities need to clean up food safety standards

Cities and provinces should push for clean, safe agricultural products as Ha Noi and HCM City have done in recent years, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam has said in a Government meeting.

Dam, also head of the Inter-ministerial Central Steering Committee for Food Safety, chaired the meeting last week with local authorities and other Government agencies to review food safety standard improvement efforts during the first half of the year.

The country recorded 90 known cases of food poisoning with 2,595 affected. Sixteen died, while more than 2,400 were hospitalised. The number of food poisoning cases and fatalities decreased, compared with the same period last year, which recorded 98 cases and 26 fatalities. Health authorities determined that the leading cause of death was the consumption of animals and plants that contained highly toxic substances such as toads, poisonous mushrooms and poisonous fish.

During the period, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, environmental police and other Government agencies inspected nearly 350,000 agricultural product suppliers nationwide. Of these, 68,025 violated the country's food safety regulations. The authorities collected VND23 billion (more than US$1 million) in fines and nearly 8,000 food samples were tested in 34 cities' and provinces' testing facilities.

The steering committee acknowledged positive steps taken to improve the country's food safety. It also spoke about numerous shortcomings, such as the lack of guidance on safety standards, the lack of co-operation between central and local agencies, and lax enforcement of food safety regulations.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said the public was concerned about food vendors' fraudulent, hazardous practices of food vendors such as abusing agricultural chemicals and expired products. They were also concerned about authorities' competence supervising and reinforcing safety regulations.

Dam told the meeting that stricter penalties needed to be imposed on vendors who were found repeatedly in violation of food safety regulations. He also urged ministries, localities and other Government agencies to perform a comprehensive review of their law-enforcement practices.

Representatives from Ha Noi and HCM City noted that in large cities, food safety inspections needed to be carried out around the clock and food safety standards needed to be reinforced regularly, especially for street food vendors.

The deputy PM urged ministries and other Government agencies to step up co-operation with Ha Noi and HCM City to tighten food safety regulations for agricultural products entering the cities, starting with major wholesale markets. He noted that the authorities must learn from practices currently employed by developed countries.

"We need a food safety awareness campaign in the media," he said. "We must understand that only through a combined effort by the authorities and the people can we produce positive results".

Residences lack management

Ha Noi's resettlement residential housing lacks managerial boards to repair dilapidated infrastructure, causing trouble for residents.

An elevator at building N2A in the Trung Hoa-Nhan Chinh residential quarter in Thanh Xuan District has been out of service for four months, but no one is responsible for conducting the repairs. The residents themselves would need to call a repairman and pay VND20 million (US$900) themselves.

The Trung Hoa-Nhan Chinh residential quarter's other buildings have malfunctioning elevators as well, said Le Quy Hong, head of the residential group in Nhan Chinh Ward. They also had sewage system blockages, broken taps and no fire prevention plans.

Ha Noi's 173 resettlement buildings are managed and operated by the Ha Noi Housing Management and Development Company, and the Ha Noi Housing Investment and Development. Only 15 of the buildings have managerial boards.

Nguyen Ngoc Tuan, deputy chairman of the Ha Noi People's Committee, said each building must have its own board under the amended Law on Housing, which went into effect in July.

In the beginning of July the committee asked the municipal Department of Construction and Ministry of Construction to issue a detailed decree and guidance about founding managerial boards. If the investors and residents could not agree on a plan to set them up, the boards would be founded by local People's Committees.

The decree would also regulate building equipment maintenance fees, Tuan said.

The northern mountainous province of Dien Bien has greatly benefited from an agriculture and rural development project begun by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in 2010.

The project, which ends this month, offered training in techniques used to cultivate rice, maize and soybeans. It also provided training of local agricultural staff, and instruction in irrigation management to local farmers.

Improving agricultural extension services was also a focus of the project.

Three districts, Dien Bien, Tuan Giao and Muong Cha, were selected as pilot areas for the project.

Based on the results of activities of Vietnamese agricultural staff and Japanese experts, agricultural guidelines have been produced.

Guidelines and manuals for agricultural extension covered the topics of rice, maize and soybean farming, while the guidelines and manuals for irrigation management dealt with practical procedures in organising farmers in a water management group.

The project also organised workshops for farmers to discuss local challenges and solutions.

Water management had improved as a result of the project, organisers said.

In addition, the project developed extension tools that suit the local conditions of each pilot district, such as calendars related to crops (rice, maize and soybean) and pest-check boards, with active participation of agricultural officers.

The project is expected to promote agricultural and rural development in other northwestern provinces where the climate and geological conditions are similar to Dien Bien Province.

Despite huge potential in agriculture and forestry, the northwest region faces numerous challenges, including access to and use of technology.

20 fishing vessels to be built in Quang Binh

As many as 20 fishing boats will be built in the final months of 2015 in central Quang Binh Province.

The building of the fishing vessels is to be carried out under decree no 67 issued by the Government in 2014 to allow fishermen throughout the country to receive loans with preferential interest rates for ship building.

Further, the provincial People's Committee said that eight fishing vessels, worth about VND23.4 billion ($1 million), were built in the first six month of this year.

Bomb detection project kicks off in Ha Tinh

A project to detect and defuse unexploded bombs left behind after the war in an area spanning over 2,500ha was launched today in central Ha Tinh Province's Dong Loc Junction.

The two-year project, valued at VND83 billion (US$3.8 million), was financed through official development assistance from the Japanese government.

It is estimated that some 16,500ha of the province contain undetected unexploded bombs.

Quang Nam finds illegal timber hidden in river

Quang Nam Province's economic police and the Hiep Duc District forest management force yesterday salvaged a large quantity of timber that had been submerged by loggers in the Tranh River.

Earlier, on receiving reports from local residents, police and rangers discovered that timber of unclear origin had been hidden in the river in the central province.

They went along the river to check and discovered three areas where a large quantity of timber had been collected on either side of the river.

A day later, they could salvage just 7cu.m of timber because of the depth of the river, a police official said.

Some illegal loggers used motorboats to drag the timber to the middle of the river where they dropped the load and fled, Dang Van Tien, deputy head of district's forest management office, said.

The sunken timber was expected to be dozens of cubic metres in volume, about a quarter of which had been retrieved, Tien said.

He said the timber was from Phuoc Son District.

Taking advantage of the water from the hydroelectric power plant, loggers had illegally transported wood to the river for sale.

The incident is under further investigation.

Last September, rangers in Nong Son District had discovered a large number of precious timber hidden in streams.

Company fined for illegal game release

A game company was fined VND200 million (US$9,100) for releasing an online game without approval from the Ministry of Information and Communications, the ministry's inspectorate said yesterday.

The Nghe An-based Tri Tue Viet Sofware Development Co. Ltd. was found illegally selling and advertising G1, an online game, without getting its content approved by authorities beforehand.

The company also set up an illegal social network with inappropriate content, somovui.com.

Repatriation of soldiers’ remains in Dong Nai province

The war ended 4 decades ago but the parents, wives, children, and brothers of more than 500,000 martyrs still anguish because their relatives’ remains haven’t returned home.

The search for martyrs’ remains began in May, 2012. As time went by, identifying location where soldiers were buried became more and more difficult.

Then came reports that approximately 100 soldiers were buried in two mass graves, one bigger than the other. The search area was expanded to dozens of hectares. Despite being hampered by vague information about the location, rudimentary excavation equipment and severe weather, the searchers didn’t get discouraged. After a year in the blazing heat of the dry season and the dampness of the rainy season, Dong Nai province’s search and repatriation team found the mass grave of 20 martyrs.

Pham Thi Kim Hue, deputy head of the science and education section of the provincial radio and television station, who accompanied the search team recalled "Work sometimes was interrupted, especially in the rainy season. But the local government’s determination and encouragement helped us to finally find the first mass grave after nearly 2 years. It has been unearthed now.”

The search for the remains of soldiers who died in Vuon Dieu (Cashew Garden) was expanded to an area of more than 20 hectares. The battle of Cashew Garden was one of the first battles of the general offensive and uprising that take place in the spring of 1968 in the hollow of Bau Nau hamlet in Phuoc Tho, which is now Long Tho commune, Nhon Trach district. After 14 months of searching, the team discovered a second mass grave.

Colonel Duong Hoa Hiep, political commissar of the provincial military headquarters, said “it was a heartening outcome for the people, the army, Party Committees, and administrations at all levels of Dong Nai province. It could not have been achieved without the support of the provincial authorities, military headquarters, businesses, and local households who have made their land available to the search team.”

Finding and repatriating the remains of the soldiers who died in the battle of Vuon Dieu was a tough journey, which sometimes drove everyone to the brink of despair. But the search went on, driven by feelings of profound respect and gratitude for those who sacrificed their lives for the nation.

With the goal to completely eradicate HIV transmitted from mothers to children in 2015, the Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang is launching a range of measures.

According to Tran Kim Long, Director of the Hau Giang Centre for HIV/AIDS Prevention, the local health sector has set up medical units providing voluntary HIV tests, consultations and treatment for pregnant women in all obstetrics establishments across the province.

These facilities assist HIV-infected mothers with prevention treatment as well as advice on child-rearing and the use of antiretroviral drugs (ARV) .

As a result, more than 10,000 women have benefited each year and Hau Giang recorded 70% of its female residents receiving prenatal health examinations.

Intensive communication campaigns have also been carried out to raise public awareness and support.

Since 2012, there have not been any cases of newborns contracting the disease from their mothers in the province.

However, the local HIV/AIDS prevention programme is facing financial problems as the budget has been cut by 80% since 2013.

US helps Vietnam meet growing demand for talent

As transnational companies discover and choose Vietnam as their choice to invest and conduct business operations, an educated workforce is even more essential to the nation’s economic viability.

Through educational programs and much appreciated support of the US, Vietnam’s colleges, universities and students are poised to meet the government’s goal – and then some.

A record number of 17,000 Vietnamese students are enrolled at American colleges and universities in 2015— making them the 8th largest foreign group of students and the leading group of ASEAN studying in the US.

In fact, ever since diplomatic relations were normalized two decades ago, US support for general education in Vietnam has been part of its effort to rebalance and strengthen bilateral ties.

Sand Dang and former US Ambassador to Vietnam David Shear

The Fulbright Economic Training Program in Ho Chi Minh City created in 1995 between the Vietnam Ministry of Training and Education and the US State Department is the embodiment of the two nation’s effective cooperation.

Through a wide variety of specific training courses, it has provided in country training for thousands of the nation’s students and government officials, advancing people-to-people ties between the two nations.

In addition, Fulbright programs have helped more than 600 Vietnamese students and governmental officials pursue studies in the US and many of them have successfully gone on to hold high-level positions in the public and private sectors.

The Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF) created by the US Congress in 2000 is another shining example of the fine cooperation between the two countries. The VEF receives an annual budget of US$5 million from the US Congress until 2018.

VEF has so far assisted more than 500 Vietnamese students pursue studies in the US in the science, technology, engineering mathematics and medical fields and more than 30 American citizens to teach in these same fields of study in Vietnam.

There has been positive engagement of the private sector in Private Public Partnerships to promote education cooperation. The most notable example of this is the Higher Engineering Education Alliance Program (HEEAP).

The HEEAP, which began in 2010, has brought together the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Intel Vietnam, Arizona State University (ASU) and eight top Vietnamese engineering and technical vocational universities to modernize Vietnam’s public higher education in engineering.

Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s visit to Washington DC in 2008 was a turning point and during the visit the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam and the US Department of State signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on higher education.

This MoU directly led to the setting up of joint working groups in such areas as Establishing an American University in Vietnam; Accreditation and Testing; English Language Acquisition; Post-Graduation Training and Fostering Stronger Linkage between Business and Academia.

Most recently a US non-profit organization launched Fulbright University Vietnam (FUV) on July 10, 2015 at a ceremony in New York City attended by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong during his historic trip to the US.

Plans are to raise US$50 million over the next three years and to mobilize US$100 million by 2020 to finance the university to be constructed in HCM City (at the Saigon High-Tech Park).

FUV is an ambitious extension of Harvard University’s decades-old Fulbright Economics Teaching Program in Vietnam and will offer western-style graduate and undergraduate degrees.

Initially FUV will offer a broad range of academic programs in public policy, business administration, finance, law and engineering and later expand to offer extensive liberal arts programs to its curriculum at the undergraduate level.

The university, expected to break ground later this year, will be the first private and nonprofit university in Vietnam and represents a key component of education cooperation between Vietnam and the US.

These are just a few examples of higher education cooperation among a host of others that could have been mentioned such as American students who come to study in Vietnam.

Investing in a trained workforce is vital to bringing more business and industry to Vietnam and – building the domestic economy –  and thanks to help from the US, Vietnam is facing up to the challenge.

Vietnam police hunt for Pakistani suspect in street robbery

Police in Ho Chi Minh City are hunting a Pakistani man suspected of leading a gang that allegedly stole VND13.8 million (US$635) from a local vendor in a street robbery last month.

A search warrant has been issued for Murtaza, 27, the alleged leader behind the robbery occurring on July 9, officers said on July 31.

P.T.N.P., 27, was putting pillows and blankets for sale on Bui Huu Nghia Bridge in Binh Thanh District that day when a car approached her, police said in the case file.

Two foreign women then got off the vehicle and came to look at the items P. was selling.

A few minutes later, a foreign man left the car to join the women in choosing the goods, and eventually pointed at a pillowcase, signaling he wanted to buy it.

P. received a VND500,000 (US$23) banknote from the foreign man, and took out a wad of money as change.

The man attempted to snatch the money, but P. could pull it back. The three foreigners then rushed back to the car and fled.

P. thought she had managed to keep her money safe. But checking, she was shocked to learn that VND17 million (US$782) had gone, apparently because the foreign man had managed to steal it without her knowledge.

P. then used her motorcycle to chase the foreigners, while shouting for help.

The vendor managed to catch foreigners in front of Ba Chieu Market, when some of the foreigners threw a stack of money through a car window to the ground.

The vehicle then ran away when P. was picking up the banknotes, with the help of some passers-by.

P. only recovered VND3.2 million (US$147.2), with the foreigner allegedly taking away VND13.8 million.

When P. was recovering her money, a couple of passers-by, who witnessed the incident, chased after the car, while notifying a patrol police team, according to Phap Luat TP. Ho Chi Minh (Ho Chi Minh City Law) newspaper.

The officers immediately ran after the car.

When they reached Pho Quang Street in Tan Binh District, the four foreigners left the vehicle and ran away on foot.

The police team seized the car and handed it over to the District 1 police, who later confirmed that the vehicle is owned by Tan Binh-based Viet Linh Co., which had leased it to a foreign man named Murtaza, according to the newspaper.

When looking at a photo of the car’s lessee, P. confirmed that it was the one who stole her money.

The case was later transferred to the city police for handling.

Murtaza and three other Pakistanis arrived in Ho Chi Minh City on June 1, 2015 and stayed in a hotel in District 7, police said, citing initial investigation results.

All the four left the hotel on June 12 without paying room charges, the hotel reported to the police.

The largest-ever social housing project in the Mekong Delta, which had its official groundbreaking ceremony in Vinh Long province on August 1, is scheduled to be available in June 2016.

During the first stage, the first 620 apartments will be up for sale for needy households in Vinh Long province and neighbouring localities.

The HQC Binh Minh project, divided into three stages, will sprawl over 39,100 square metres and accommodate four seven-storey blocks with 1,863 apartments. It is invested by the Hoang Quan Mekong trading and real estate service company at a total cost of 610 billion VND (29 million USD).

The Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam – Vinh Long branch is offering 20-year loans equivalent to 80 percent of the apartment costs with interest less than 6 percent per year sourced from the government’s 30 trillion VND (1.42 billion USD) housing loan package.

Le Quang Trung, Deputy Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, said the blocks are also surrounded by kindergartens, schools, a clinic, a shopping mall and community space built by the investor.-

President offers incense in tribute to late leader

President Truong Tan Sang offered incense in tribute to late lawyer Nguyen Huu Tho (1910-1996), who was Acting State President of Vietnam from 1980-1981, at the latter’s memorial site in southern Long An province on August 1.

In the guest book, President Truong Tan Sang wrote that: “Lawyer Nguyen Huu Tho -Acting State President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam - will live forever in the nation’s history. As a well-known intellectual, lawyer Nguyen Huu Tho made light of fame and wealth and sacrificed his whole life for the cause of national liberation and reunification as well as for the process of national construction and renewal. The Fatherland always remembers the lawyer’s great contributions.”

The memorial site was inaugurated on July 29 in Ben Luc town, Ben Luc district, where lawyer Nguyen Huu Tho was born. It was opened in the hope to help educate the country’s revolutionary history for younger generations.

The President and leaders of Long An province took this occasion to plant a tree at the memorial site.

Hau Giang to curb mother-to-child HIV transmission

With the goal to completely eradicate HIV transmitted from mothers to children in 2015, the Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang is launching a range of measures.

According to Tran Kim Long, Director of the Hau Giang Centre for HIV/AIDS Prevention, the local health sector has set up medical units providing voluntary HIV tests, consultations and treatment for pregnant women in all obstetrics establishments across the province.

These facilities assist HIV-infected mothers with prevention treatment as well as advice on child-rearing and the use of antiretroviral drugs (ARV) .

As a result, more than 10,000 women have benefited each year and Hau Giang recorded 70 percent of its female residents receiving prenatal health examinations.

Intensive communication campaigns have also been carried out to raise public awareness and support.

Since 2012, there have not been any cases of newborns contracting the disease from their mothers in the province.

However, the local HIV/AIDS prevention programme is facing financial problems as the budget has been cut by 80 percent since 2013.

Vietnam, Laos step up museum cooperation

Vietnam and Laos will expand collaboration in museum development from 2016-2017 as stipulated in the agreement signed between the Ho Chi Minh Museum and Kaysone Phomvihane Museum in Vientiane on August 1.

Accordingly, two sides will work together to organise scientific workshops on Lao revolutionary relic sites in Vietnam and President Ho Chi Minh relic sites in Laos, collect documents and items related to Prince Suphanuvong and exchange research materials about President Ho Chi Minh, President Kaysone Phomvihane and President Suphanovong.

The collaboration also covers exhibition projects at the commemorative house of Lao students in northern Bac Giang province as well as proposal on the preservation of relic site related to Kaysone Phomvihane in Vietnam.

The two sides will focus on scientific research and gathering documents for specific stages of historical events, providing younger generations with a deeper understanding of their leaders’ contributions to the country, Deputy Head of the Party Central Committee Office Souvandy Sisavath, who is also responsible for the Kaysone Phomvihane Museum, told a Vietnam News Agency reporter.

Under the collaboration framework from 2014-2015, the two museums completed repairs of the Kaysone Phomvihane Museum and construction of a commemorative site for President Ho Chi Minh in Sanavakhet province while conducting studies on revolutionary relic sites in both countries.-

Workshop on UN peacekeeping mission closes in Hanoi

The first international workshop on sending forces to United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions closed in Hanoi on July 31 after five days.

Colonel Hoang Kim Phung, Director of the Vietnamese Peacekeeping Centre (VPC), said the workshop is a step towards realising defence cooperation commitments in UN peacekeeping between the Vietnamese Defence Ministry and the US Department of Defence, and the outcomes of talks between the Vietnamese Defence Minister and US Secretary of Defence during the Vietnam visit in May.

During the workshop, participants discussed the steps to deploy a unit to a UN mission, training curricula, logistics, incentives and field surveys in depth.

Vietnamese medical staff, engineers and technicians are capable of fulfilling their UN peacekeeping mission tasks, heard the event.

They called for improved training on international law and English speaking skills up to UN standards as well as coordination skills in a multi-national environment.

The VPC expressed hope for continued assistance from the UN and the US Department of State’s Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI).

Speaking at the event, Head of the GPOI programme delegation Richard Maloney said the GPOI wants to continue working closely with Vietnam in the near future.

The workshop was co-hosted by the VPC and GPOI.

First ATM set up in Ly Son Island

The Agriculture and Rural Development Bank of Viet Nam (Agribank) recently made the first Automated Teller Machine (ATM) available on Ly Son Island of Quang Ngai central province.

The ATM is set up at the centre of the island and will be operated 24/7 in order to serve the rising demand of locals and tourists.

Ly Son has a population of around 21,000 people. The majority of residents earn a living from fishing and farming garlic and spring onions.

Ly Son is striving to become a maritime economic centre by 2025 with a focus on tourism and aquaculture.

The island district hopes to welcome 40,300 visitors in 2015 and earn over 41 billion VND (1.92 million USD). Tourism revenue in the locality is predicted to rise to nearly 99 billion VND (4.65 million USD) in 2020 and 178 billion VND (8.36 million USD) in 2025.

Parcel carrier service introduced

The Vietnam Railways Company and the Vietnam Post Company officially introduced an exclusive parcel carrier service on its North-South railway route at the Hanoi Railway Station in Hanoi on July 31.

Accordingly, two 10-tonne parcel carriages will be joined to the TN1/2 train, departing from Hanoi and the southern city of Ho Chi Minh every day.

The service will receive and deliver postal products and interregional exchanged newspapers from and to 21 provinces and cities along the railway route as well as the three Central Highlands provinces of Gia Lai, Kon Tum, and Dak Lak.

Chairman of the member council of the Vietnam Post Do Ngoc Binh said the new carrier service plays an important role in the company’s innovation strategy.

Local lives stalled by red mud seeping into river from ore factory

Residents living along the Ngoi Lao River in northern provinces of Yen Bai and Phu Tho said red mud from a local ore factory has polluted the area's well water, farmland and fish ponds.

They said they notified authorised agencies and received compensation from the factories, but they still had not been able to start farming again. Their fields and ponds are covered with the red mud.

Dinh Thi Huong, a resident in My Lung Commune in Phu Tho Province, said she had to pump water from the well and wait until the mud settled before her family could use it.

Huong said she had to use her neighbours' filtered water for her 3-year-old child. Filters provide little help because they soon become blocked with mud.

Nguyen Van Lien, head of the commune's Village 3B, said mud covered the Ngoi Lao River so thoroughly that no one dared go near it. A herd of buffaloes owned by resident Tran Thi Hai once got stuck in the river and had to be rescued.

In Yen Bai Province's Chan Thinh Commune, the nearby ore factory complicates matters. The factory's waste reservoir seeped into the irrigation system, which provides water for five villages' farms. It also polluted the Ngoi Lao River there.

In 2013, polluted water covered two hectares of rice fields with a 20 to 60cm layer of red mud. Tens of households protested, and the factory agreed to pay 2 tael of rice for every square metre of contaminated land and VND2,000 (1 US cent) each metre of mud that needed to be removed.

"It did not help much," said Tran Van Dan, a resident of Ao Lay Village.

Ha Manh Cuong, deputy director of Yen Bai Province's Department of Natural Resources and Environment, told Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper that the factory's waste treatment facilities became overloaded in 2013, which caused the pollution.

Provincial authorities worked with the factories, forcing them to pay compensation to affected househonds. The department also fined the company VND300 million ($13,800) after an inspection.

The water did not contain toxic substances and did not harm the people or their rice fields and fish ponds, Cuong said.

Tay Ninh penalises polluting enterprises

The Natural Resources and Environment Department of Tay Ninh Province penalised 116 enterprises that have been discharging waste into the Vam Co Dong River since 2013.

Those enterprises were fined more than VND12.5 trillion (US$581 million) total.

Nguyen Dinh Xuan, the department's director, said that in order to keep the province's water sources clean, the department asked enterprises to build waste treatment facilities that meet national standards.

Students to learn green skills for sustainable development

Eight hundred disadvantaged Vietnamese students taking hospitality courses at the Reach vocational training centre will be taught green skills when they return to school in August.

The project, titled Green Skills for Urban Youth, has been organised by non-governmental organisation Plan International Viet Nam and the Reach centre to increase job opportunities at green enterprises nation-wide and to contribute to building a sustainable green economy in Viet Nam.

Green skills, according to experts, are simple tasks that everyone should perform daily to conserve energy and protect the environment.

They help students use chemical substances, water and electricity effectively and economically.

They include turning off anything running on electricity when it is not in use, arranging items in the refrigerator in a way that makes best use of energy and restricting the air-conditioner to a maximum temperature of 26 degrees Celsius.

This pilot project will run for two years with a total budget of VND3.5 billion (US$143,000). In the first phase, it aims to train students to use green skills during courses in managing hotel rooms, providing bar services and preparing cocktails. In its second phase, the project is expected to expand to other job sectors after the two-year pilot program is over.

Two enterprises will take part in the project, allowing students to apply their new green skills while gaining a stable source of revenue.

The courses are also expected to be held online in the long term, so that more students can be trained.

Le Quynh Lan, Plan International's project manager of Reach, said the project was created to support the country's target of sustainable development.

The country faces severe environmental challenges in its economic development. Often ravaged by natural disasters in the summer, Viet Nam is suffering the effects of climate change, which has damaged the economy and people's lives.

Although Viet Nam has the smallest indicator of carbon exhaust in the world (1.2 tonnes per person in 2008), the country has the highest rate of carbon exhaust in Southeast Asia (9.6 per cent).

"The national plan for green growth indicates that green growth is important for sustainable growth. However, the lack of green skills among employees has slowed down the country's development of a green economy," Lan said.

"Labour markets have become more demanding in seeking employees with green skills, so I believe this training is very important," she added.

Recent statistics show that one-third of the enterprises in Viet Nam wanted their employees to be taught about green energy.

Reach is a local Vietnamese non-governmental organisation specialising in vocational training and employment opportunities for Viet Nam's most disadvantaged youth, aged 16-25 years, who live in the cities and neighbouring provinces of Ha Noi, Hue and Da Nang.

Established in 2008, Reach currently runs vocational training courses in six centres across Viet Nam. Since 2004, it has trained more than 10,000 disadvantaged young people.

Vietnam embassy opposes arrest of citizen in Malaysia

The Vietnam Embassy in Malaysia has protested against the arrest last week of a Vietnamese woman in Kuala Lumpur, complaining that it had not been appropriately informed of the groundless detention.

The Vietnamese citizen, only referred to as T. and who is a Ho Chi Minh City public servant, was detained at the Malaysian airport on July 23 prior to her return flight to the Vietnamese city, on suspicion of using fake immigration stamp.

The arrest of T. is against the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963, the Vietnamese Ambassador Pham Cao Phong said in a diplomatic note sent to the Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Vienna Convention 1963 is an international treaty that defines a framework for consular relations between independent countries.

Vietnam also opposed to the act of handcuffing T. as if she was a criminal, even though there is not enough ground to find her guilty, Minister Counselor To Thi Huong said, citing the diplomatic note.

The Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it acknowledged the complaints from the Vietnamese embassy and will work with the Malaysian immigration authorities on the issue.

Ambassador Phong said the incident may affect the image of Malaysia in the eyes of Vietnamese tourists.

T., who works for the Party Committee Office of District 12, was on an overseas trip to Singapore and Malaysia with 60 colleagues from July 18 to 23, organized by popular travel firm Saigontourist, according to Le Van Cuong, the head of the Party Committee Office.

On July 23 night, when the tourists were completing procedures to leave Kuala Lumpur for Ho Chi Minh City, immigration officers held T. in detention.

“They said she had a fake stamp on her passport when traveling from Singapore to Malaysia,” Cuong told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Friday.

The District 12 Party Committee Office was only informed her arrest on July 24 morning, when the other tourists already returned to the Vietnamese city.

The office immediately sent an email to notify the Vietnamese embassy in Malaysia about the incident, asking for protection of the citizen. Saigontourist was also called on to bring T. back as soon as possible.

“The tour organizer later told us that it was not until July 27 that the embassy acknowledged the incident and began working with local authorities,” Cuong said.

The embassy sent its staff to meet T. at the airport on July 27 afternoon, and the woman was finally able to return to Ho Chi Minh City the ensuing night.

“She could only cry when meeting family members and colleagues upon arrival at Tan Son Nhat airport,” Cuong recalled.

T. was only allowed to phone her family, and lost contact with the Party Committee Office, according to the official.

“She received food supplies during the detention but could not eat much as she is unfamiliar with the food,” Cuong said.

“The custody room does not meet basic living standards.”

The office has given T. some extra days off to calm down.

Late embassy's response

The detention took place on July 23, but the Vietnam Embassy only knew of it four days later.

When asked about the late response, Huong, the Minister Counselor, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) that the embassy was contacted by Saigontourist on July 24, and had told the tour organizer to provide more information via email.

“But we received no email from Saigontourist by the end of July 24,” Huong said.

The travel firm actually sent an email on July 25, which was Saturday.

“It was weekend, and Saigontourist did not tell us that they had sent the email, so we did not check the inbox,” Huong said.

On July 27, the embassy finally received the report from Saigontourist, and immediately sent officials to the Malaysian immigration agency as well as Kuala Lumpur airport to verify the information.

But the immigration agency refused to let the Vietnamese embassy staffers meet with T. on July 27, and only arranged a meeting a day later.

“The immigration office later confirmed that verification found the stamp on T. passport is authentic, thus freed her but has since released no apology or explanation,” Huong said.

Young people do voluntary deeds

A group of young people with various nationalities have arrived in Vietnam to do voluntary deeds in the Mekong delta provinces.

The voluntary program of international and Vietnamese young people started from July 12 to August 15. Its activities focused on children, senior people, disabled residents and low-income families in provinces Long An, Dong Thap, An Giang, Kien Giang, Hau Giang, Vinh Long, Tra Vinh, and Ben Tre in the Mekong delta region.

Vietnamese young people from Ho Chi Minh City Communist Youth Union joined this program to perform social activities to help locals in the Mekong delta. Despite of facing some difficulties in transportation, daily activities, eating habits, volunteers are all interested in voluntary deeds in the Southeast Asian nation.

A French volunteer, Saint Amans JB, said that he has come to many Asian countries and European nations but nowhere is as wonderful as in Vietnam since young people love doing voluntary deeds and locals are friendly and hospitable. 21 year old Loshitha Bandara from Sri Lanka said this is the first time he travels to Vietnam, he has ever not done voluntary deeds such as paving roads with stones, teaching English to children or planting trees but this time, in Vietnam he feels very exicited.

In Tam Nong District of  Dong Thap Province, volunteers have built two charity houses for poor households  in Tan Cong Sinh Commune and Tram Chim Town as well as planted trees and paving stones for 10 kilometer road while in Tan Thanh Commune in Moc Hoa District of Long An Province, they taught English to children,  presented gifts to low-income families as well as popularized information of medicine and social skills.

Vietnamese young volunteers are also interested in the program as they can understand more lifestyle and culture of other nations as well as practice English with international friends, said Do Kim Yen , sophomore of University of Social Sciences and Humanities.

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