Hanoi to lift clean water prices by 20pc from October

Hanoi authorities have approved a plan to increase clean water prices by an average of 20 percent from October 1 to fund new projects to meet shortages.

Water prices will rise to VND5,973 a cubic metre for first 10 cubic metres, and VND15,929 a cubic metre for consumption of more than 30 cubic metres. The prices are before value added tax and environmental protection fees.

“Water prices will be increased by an average 20 percent,” a Hanoi Clean Water Company official said.

Hanoi Clean Water Company estimates that in 2015 underground water resources will decline between one and three percent, while summer demand this year has risen by between seven percent and 10 percent on the previous year. Water supply is 40,000-60,000 cubic metres below demand.

Nguyen Anh Viet, the director of Vietnam Clean Water Investment and Construction Corporation (Viwaco), which supplies more than 100,000 consumers, said the planned price rise is expected to generate more funding to invest in new infrastructure to serve more people.

“After the water price increase, Hanoi’s clean water prices are still lower than some other cities and provinces,” Viet said.

Nguyen Huu Thang, the director of Clean Water 2 Company, said, “Clean water is priced at the same rate for both residents in the inner city and in the outskirts despite their income gap. The planned price hike will seriously affect those who live in outer suburbs.”

Nguyen Thi Thuy, the head of Hanoi municipal People’s Council’s Office of Social and Cultural Affairs, said the rate of residents in rural areas getting access to clean water is  low, so rural areas should be provided with clean water subsidies.

“The clean water price hike plan should be carefully considered, as in 2014 only 36.58 percent of residents in rural areas had access to clean water and the rate is expected to increase by five percentage points by the end of this year,” Thuy said.

Hanoi municipal Party Secretary Pham Quang Nghi said the clean water price hike will not benefit state budget revenue, but will directly fund new water projects.

Police list names of those who owe fines

Nguyen Huu Cuong, chief of the office of Da Nang city's Traffic Safety Committee, said city officials have started posting online the names of traffic offenders who haven't paid their fines.

The details will appear on websites owned by the city's traffic department, the Da Nang Police and the Da Nang newspapers.

The concerned agencies detected the traffic offences via automated camera systems.

Quarry explosions damage houses, threaten residents

Tens of houses in the Central Highland province of Dak Nong have been damaged due to blasting at local quarries.

They claimed that Tran Phuc Private Enterprise had expanded its mine beyond the safety zone, putting local residents at risk.

Le Thi Lan, a resident in Dak R'Moan Commune's Tan Phuong Village, said that her family had been living in the village for 21 years, and mining activities had never been a problem in the past.

However over the past few years, the enterprise has expanded the mine to just 130 metres away from her house.

"The noise from the blasting is deafening and dust and rocks fly all over the place. It's really dangerous," she said.

A month ago, a rock fell on her house, smashing the roof and damaging some furniture.

Residents said that on average, blasting took place twice a day, but the enterprise had not offered any form of compensation.

In the document that the enterprise supplied to Vietnam News Agency, its licence had just been extended last August, and permitted blasting across a 7.5 hectare zone.

Le Dinh Thang, chairman of Dak R'Moan Commune's People's Committee, said that Tran Phuc Private Enterprise has been licensed to mine at Tan An Quarry for nearly ten years.

The mine's expansion across tens of hectares had affected the lives of residents and posed safety risks.

Thang said the committee had received a petition from residents. As regulated, the safe distance between a quarry and a residential area must be 200 metres or more.

The committee is working with authorised agencies to examine the impacts of mining on local households and plans to claim compensation from the enterprise.

It will also ask the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment and the Department of Industry and Trade to revise the firm's licence extension, and withdraw it completely if a threat was posed to people's lives.

Illegal motorbike consumption ring razed

The HCM City police arrested four people after busting a major gang of fences that bought stolen motorbikes and sold them using forged papers.

According to the District 3 police, Mai Tan Sy of District 3, Le Dinh Nguyen of District 7, Le Truong Bac of Hoc Mon and Huynh Ngoc Thanh of District 4 have been taken in for questioning about "property theft".

Sy and Nguyen were arrested on July 20 after they were caught completing the paperwork for selling a stolen vehicle.

Using information the duo provided, the police investigated 14 others for stealing and selling motorbikes.

They said Sy and Thanh, the kingpins, bought vehicles from motorbike robbery gangs at low prices and made fake licence plates and papers for them before handing them over to Bac and Nguyen to sell or mortgage for VND10-13 million each.

Searches of their houses turned up nine motorbikes and many documents believed to be forged by them.

The investigation continues.

Hue to construct $14mil obstetrical hospital

The Hue Central Hospital, the biggest hospital run by the Ministry of Health in the Central region of Viet Nam, is to get a separate 300-bed obstetrical facility.

The facility is expected to cost VND300 billion or US$14 million, with half the funds coming from State budget and the remaining from investment by private sector.

The facility in the form of a six-storey building with fully functional rooms for medical operation, will occupy 1,200sq. m area inside the hospital territory.

Construction will start in the first quarter of next year and is expected to be completed within two years. Demand for obstetrical services has been emerging strongly to cater to the needs of residents in the region, as there has been high pressure on the existing obstetric ward of the hospital.

Overload at the old building had resulted in low quality services and depressed patients for years.

State-run coal group works to tackle flood impacts

The State-run Vietnam National Coal – Mineral Industries Group (Vinacomin) is planning a series of measures to address the impacts of the worst rainstorm and flood in four decades in northern coastal Quang Ninh province.

The record downpour from July 26-31 in Quang Ninh – with rainfall as high as 800 millimetres in Ha Long and Cam Pha cities on July 26-27 – severely influenced the group’s production and business activities.

Vinacomin halted all coal production activities in Quang Ninh, which is known for its great coal reserves, to focus on deluge prevention and post-flood recovery.

In the next few days, the firm will focus resources on ensuring the safety of vulnerable dams, mines and tunnels and draining flood water out of the facilities to resume operations as soon as possible.

It will go on with repairing roads and railways designed for coal transport to ensure supply for consumption facilities, especially electricity plants. Meanwhile, the company will also work to reinforce retaining walls at coal storage sites, dredge drainage systems and gear up personnel in case of emergencies.

Vinacomin is also deploying forces to help Quang Ninh address flood consequences by evacuating residents, accommodating evacuees and donating money.

Incessant rains and deluge have claimed at least 17 lives and left eight others injured in Quang Ninh.

The National Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Control said on July 31 that the costs of flood damages exceeded 2.2 trillion VND (109 million USD). The coal sector in Quang Ninh suffered damages of up to 1.2 trillion VND (55.8 million USD).-

Student group recycles paper for notebooks

Striped Project has attracted hundreds of participants since it was initiated by a group of high school students in Ha Noi in June 2014.

The project aims to raise students' awareness about environmental protection and wastefulness prevention through a wide range of activities, including collecting and recycling used paper, which will be used to make notebooks.

Simple handmade notebooks will be given to children in mountainous areas, while more high-quality ones will be sold to raise funds.

The project held two collecting days in July, in which they received about 1,500kg of paper.

"Although we face financial difficulties, we are determined to make this project a success, as it will not only benefit children in disadvantaged areas, but also promote a sense of responsibility regarding environmental protection among Ha Noi students," said Phan Hong Nhung, head of the organising board.

Late this month, a handmade notebook fair will be held at Quang Trung Secondary School. The project will sell the notebooks and teach students how to make them.

EVN determined to ensure sufficient power supply

Ensuring sufficient power supply for socio-economic development and daily use is among key targets defined by the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) during the group’s second Party Congress for the 2015-2020 tenure in Hanoi on August 3.

The group targets an average power growth of up to 11 percent per year, equivalent to 234-240 billion kilowatt hours of commercial electricity in 2020.

Meanwhile, total production and import electricity is expected to reach 262-270 kilowatt hours in 2020, 35-40 percent of which will be produced by EVN-run power plants.

The EVN plans to put 19 turbines in 11 power projects into operation with total capacity of 5,819 megawatts while ensuring the progress of key and urgent projects, including the Lai Chau hydropower plant and projects under the Vinh Tan, Duyen Hai, O Mon centres and preparing to launch the first nuclear power plant in Ninh Thuan.

Meanwhile, the group will continue investing in projects approved in the programme to supply electricity to rural, mountainous and island areas from 2013-2020, aiming to ensure that all rural households access electricity.

To fulfil the target, the EVN will invest in the development of power resources and networks, accelerate restructuring efforts and enhance technology application to raise productivity and reduce losses.

From 2011-2015, the group ensured adequate power supply for the country’s socio-economic demand as well as people’s needs. By the end of 2014, total installation capacity of the whole system was 33,964 megawatts with over 20 percent in reserve.

Power infrastructure was significantly upgraded and electricity was supplied in almost all rural, mountainous and island areas.

Currently, the EVN has finished submarine power cable projects to Phu Quoc, Co To and Ly Son islands and an air-span power cable to Kien Hai, ensuring power in eight out of 12 island districts nationwide.

By the end of last year, as many as 99.59 percent of total communes and 98.22 percent of rural households had access to electricity.-

Independence Order conferred on General Taxation Department

National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung conferred the Independence Order, first class, on the General Department of Taxation during a ceremony marking its 70 th founding anniversary in Hanoi on August 3.

It was the second time the department had been awarded with the accolade.

Reviewing its 2010-2014 performance, the department collected and added in excess of 3.6 trillion VND (171.4 million USD) to the State budget, including 3.3 trillion VND (157.1 million USD) worth of taxes and fees, doubling the 2005-2009 figure.

It has also fine-tuned regulations, simplified procedures by embracing technological innovations and improved management by launching an electronic tax filing service.

Speaking to the ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh asked the department staff to continue their excellent work and achieve additional successes over the long-term.

He also presented a Prime Minister emulation flag to nine of its units on the occasion.

All Lai Chau communes link with national power grid

All communes in the northern mountainous province of Lai Chau are connected to the national power grid after electricity was brought to the province’s last two localities of Nam Cha and Ta Ba, according to the Northern Power Corporation under the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN).

The rural electrification project in Lai Chau, built at a total cost of over 415 billion VND (19.3 million USD), included the construction of 35-kilovolt line and 0.4-kilovolt lines and 115 three-phase electricity stations with a combined capacity of 5,273 KVA as well as power meter installations for nearly 7,750 households.

To date, the province has 610 power transformer stations, 1,589 kilometres of medium-voltage line, 1,290 kilometres of high-voltage line and more than 77,000 electricity consumers.

Power supply for rural localities will pave the way for ethnic minority people to improve their livelihoods and develop the economy while narrowing down development gap between rural and urban areas.

The move also helps foster new style rural areas, contributing to maintaining defence-security of the province.

Departments of Industry and Trade in localities prone to flood and storms must take stock to ensure a stable supply of essential goods and services for affected areas in the rainy and stormy season, a conference heard on August 3.

Addressing an online conference organised by the Ministry of Industry and Trade to review agriculture production and trade in July, Minister Vu Huy Hoang urged relevant agencies to stockpile sufficient food, kerosene and other essential goods to provide for isolated areas during the rainy and stormy season in a bid to prevent speculation and rising prices.

Director of the Ministry’s Department of the Domestic Market Vo Van Quyen cited locality reports, saying that coastal localities across the country have devised plans for emergency, including involving suppliers to ensure adequate goods and services, conducting price stabilisation programmes and providing goods funded by the State budget for affected residents.

The approaches have been well implemented in recently storm-affected areas such as Quang Ninh, Bac Kan, Hoa Binh, Tuyen Quang, Phu Toh, Dien Bien, Son La and Ha Giang.

Soc Trang eyes poverty reduction from raising dairy cows

The Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang, where the Khmer ethnic minority accounts for over 30 percent of the population, is focusing on intensifying livestock raising, particularly dairy cows, to help locals, especially ethnic minorities, rise out of poverty.

Soc Trang is currently home to nearly 29,000 cows, 7,500 of which are being raised for milk.

According to its dairy cattle project, the locality is striving to increase the number of dairy cows to around 17,800 by 2020, or 5-6 heads per household, which will create jobs for more than 6,000 labourers.

The project’s total investment is estimated at 300 billion VND (13.75 million USD), with 40 billion VND (1.8 million USD) sourced from the state budget.

Soc Trang has carried out measures to zone appropriate grass fields in order to ensure enough food for the cattle and tighten connectivity with enterprises to find markets for the milk.

The province plans to shift part of rice fields and other cultivated crop areas with low productivity into grass planting areas.

On July 29, the local Department of Agriculture and Rural Development handed over heifers to 14 poor and near-poor households in Gia Hoa 2 commune of My Xuyen district.

Vietnam to compete in WorldSkills Competition

Vietnam will send 14 contestants to the 43rd WorldSkills Competition, which will take place in Sao Paulo, Brazil from August 5-17, according to the Directorate of Vocational Training.

Vietnamese candidates will compete in 13 skills that are welding, IT software solutions, carpentry, plumbing, electro-mechanics, web designing, automobile technology, CNC (computer numerically controlled) machine operating, moulding, plastics moulding techniques, mechanical engineering design CAD, and brick-laying.

The competition is held every two years and competitors from all over the world will vie for medals in 50 skills.

Vietnam has sent contestants to the event five times but has yet to secure any medal. In the previous competition in Germany, the Vietnamese team earned seven Medallions of Excellence.-

Hanoi struggles to attract new methadone treatment patients

Hanoi is struggling to increase the number of applications for its methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) clinics which have proved themselves to be a cost-saving and effective detoxification method, said Director of the municipal Department of Health Nguyen Khac Hien.

The MMT clinics were opened to help the city’s 8,500 drug addicts improve their mental and physical health and reintegrate into the community. Once permitted to one of the city’s seven clinics, patients are provided with free health check-ups and testing as well as free methadone doses that suit their needs.

According to La Thi Lan, Deputy Director of the Hanoi HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Centre, only 8 percent of local drug addicts had access to MMT due to the stressful application procedure that requires them to be registered with their local commune police. The city has remedied this by removing police involvement and enabling users to directly apply for the MMT.

Other barriers include the fear of drug rehabilitation and the lack of awareness of the new method.

To raise the number of patients using MTT, the Vietnam Administration of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control has expanded the network of methadone dispensers at the commune level, provided MMT at prisons, accelerated medical staff training and ensured sufficient dose supply.

Vietnamese workforce optimistic about ASEAN common market

Up to 92% of Vietnamese professionals see the establishment of the regional ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) as a good opportunity to develop their career, according to a recent survey conducted by recruitment firm VietnamWorks.

As many as 52 percent of the respondents believe they will have more opportunities to work with and learn from foreign experts from other Southeast Asian countries, and 46 percent of them say international work culture will transform Vietnam's work culture for the better.

As many as 70 percent of those who are fond of AEC integration think Vietnamese professionals have enough skills to compete with foreign talent, according to the survey on 2,500 professionals from companies of all sizes across Vietnam.

Among those who are not in favor of AEC integration, 84 percent say the biggest setback will be that there will be more English-speaking competitors in Vietnamese labor market.

They have also been concerned that employers may have leverage to decrease salary and benefits standard because there are more and more job-seekers.

These perspectives reflect the fact that a small group of Vietnamese professionals are less confident about their English skills as well as their negotiation skills in terms of salary and benefits.

The AEC will be launched at the end of this year, to facilitate a free flow of skilled workers, services, investment and goods among ASEAN members.

Nguyen Thi Van Anh, managing director of recruitment firm Navigos Search, said that among the eight industries that will see a free labor movement, Vietnam’s labor market can only accommodate the demand of general accounting and manufacturing engineer positions.

For senior engineer positions, especially in the IT industry, it still falls short of demand, she said.

Hospitals given modern tools for waste disposal

Six district hospitals and 17 commune health centres in the northern provinces of Cao Bang and Bac Kan have been provided with autoclave equipment for steam cleaning medical waste.

Nguyen Thanh Long, Deputy Minister of Health, said that many district hospitals and commune health centres across the country buried and burned medical waste, causing environmental pollution and affecting local residents' lives.

The district hospitals and medical centres will pass on their knowledge about the equipment to another 108 commune health centres.

This is part of a project Supporting Health Care Policy for the Poor in Cao Bang and Bac Kan sponsored by the Luxembourg Agency for Development Co-operation (Lux-Development) in co-ordination with the Viet Nam Health Environment Management Agency.

The steam cleaning equipment has been set up in hospitals in Ngan Son, Ba Be and Na Ri districts in Bac Kan Province and Nguyen Binh, Ha Quang and Trung Khanh districts in Cao Bang Province.

Until May, the six hospitals used incinerators to burn their waste. This technology has been banned in developed countries banned because of harmful emissions.

Before training staff in the two provinces, selected staff were taught how to treat waste by experts at Ninh Binh General Hospital, Urban Environment and Industrial Joint-stock Company No 10 in Ha Noi, Da Nang General Hospital and Kien Giang General Hospital.

Raja Chowdhry, a senior consultant at Lux Development, said health depatments should join hands with concerned agencies to set up policies for medical waste management.

The project helped medical workers in the two provinces access environmental friendly technology to treat medical waste and protect environment, he said.

Quang Binh resident hands over macaque

The Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in central Quang Binh Province received a stump-tailed macaque late last week, which had been given to the park authorities by a local resident.

The mammal, with the scientific name Macaca arctoides, is listed as a vulnerable species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

According to the park authority, a resident in the province's Tuyen Hoa District, Pham Thi Chau, handed over the primate last Friday following requests by the park's staff.

Earlier this year, Chau had bought the macaque while on a working trip to Khammouan Province in Lao, and she has raised the animal as a pet at home.

Watch out for scam bus services from Hanoi to Sa Pa

If you are invited to book a seat on a bus traveling from Hanoi to the famous tourist town of Sa Pa, do not hesitate to say no, as there is no such service.

Local transportation firms are running attractive ads for bus routes bringing tourists from the Vietnamese capital to the town, located in the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai.

But Tran Dang Hai, head of the inspectorate of the Hanoi Department of Transport, asserted that the capital has yet to launch any bus service to Lao Cai.

“It’s not easy to open a new route, as you have to consider a number of issues such as the travel path and time and parking places,” he toldTuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

Most of the buses in Hanoi are operating on short routes and within the city, according to the official.

“We will verify and strictly sanction those companies that disguise themselves as bus operators to cheat passengers,” he promised.

Transport firms have taken advantage of a new expressway linking Hanoi and Lao Cai, which was opened to traffic in September 2014, to offer the scam Sa Pa bus services, which are in fact crying wine and selling vinegar.

IoneTour, a Hanoi-based tour organizer, said in an announcement on its website on July 10 that the company was offering bus services to Sa Pa at VND250,000 (US$11.48) a passenger.

The bus departs from Hanoi at 9:00 am and 4:00 pm from Sa Pa and takes five and a half hours, according to the announcement.

The trip is insured and includes free Wi-Fi access, a bottle of water, plus “an English-speaking tour guide,” the post says.

The departure point in Hanoi is at 72 Tran Nhat Duat Street, and the VND250,000 per passenger fee is “the biggest price cut ever released,” a female employee asserted when contacted by Tuoi Tre.

A Tuoi Tre correspondent booked a trip to Sa Pa with IoneTour on July 20, and found that the journey was not like the one advertised on the website.

The bus, operated by Good Morning Co., dropped passengers off in Bao Thang District, some 70km from Sa Pa, even though they had paid VND250,000 for the full service.

The manager of the bus operator said passengers “had received information about the trip from a different company, which sold seats without notifying Good Morning Co.”

Many long-haul coaches and for-hire cars are also disguised as Hanoi-Sa Pa buses and offer cheap tickets to dupe passengers.

On a website focusing on promoting tourism in Sa Pa, there is a list of nine bus operators claiming to offer services to the tourist town at VND250,000 per passenger, and one at VND350,000 ($16) a ticket.

But none of these are licensed to operate buses.

Another Sa Pa tourism website, meanwhile, offers services on the Hanoi – Lao Cai – Sa Pa route at only VND150,000 ($6.89) per passenger.

When contacted by phone, a representative of the service refused to answer questions regarding the pick-up locations and license plates of the buses.

“You don’t have to ask so much about these things,” the man said.

“Just come to My Dinh Bus Station and call me, someone will come and pick you up.”

But drivers of the licensed long-haul coaches between Hanoi and Lao Cai said these are brokers of scam services.

“A ticket to Sa Pa that costs only VND150,000 is a hoax,” they said.

The 245km Hanoi – Lao Cai expressway, the longest of its kind in Vietnam, runs from Hanoi’s Noi Bai District through the provinces of Vinh Phuc, Phu Tho and Yen Bai before reaching Lao Cai.

The expressway helps shorten the time to travel from Hanoi to Lao Cai from seven hours to 3.5 hours.

Tourists can also take trains from the capital city to Lao Cao, which takes much longer, around nine hours per journey.

Popular charity act in Saigon dealt a blow in Hanoi

While iced tea tanks put along the streets to help people quench their thirst for free can easily be spotted across Ho Chi Minh City, the imitation of the good deed in Hanoi has been treated differently.

A gratis iced tea tank put under a tree on the sidewalk of Giai Phong Street in the capital city was seized last week by local authorities, who said it violated “regulations on keeping the sidewalk in order.”

The tank, capable of storing around 20 liters of water, was intended to help passers-by, mostly needy people, slake their thirst amid the scorching heat that enveloped Hanoi in May, according to local residents.

Nearby dwellers used money from their own pocket to buy the tank, a couple of glasses, and tea to serve people free of charge between 8:00 am and 7:00 pm every day before it was taken away by police officers on July 27.

It is not difficult to find such a gratis iced tea water tank or bottle in Ho Chi Minh City, where the Samaritan act is believed to stem.

The free iced tea – along with many free services such as complimentary medicine cabinets for first aid, bike repair for nothing, and meals on the house – is seen as a cultural value typical of the southern city.

A heated debate was thus sparked off when the good deed does not seem to be accepted by officials in Hanoi.

Nguyen Huu Tuong, head of the police bureau of the ward where the iced tea tank was put, said authorities had “repeatedly told locals not to let the tank occupy the sidewalk” before they decided to seize it.

“They just did not follow our order,” he told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Friday last week.

Asked if locals are allowed to place another iced tea tank on the sidewalk, Tuong replied he “has no idea.”

There are many establishments selling iced tea and other beverages along Giai Phong Street, which too occupy the sidewalk for their operations.

Many readers, writing not only from Ho Chi Minh City but also other provinces and cities throughout Vietnam, have told Tuoi Tre that they are upset by the seizure of the water tank in Hanoi.

“The free iced tea tank was meant to help everybody, and it stemmed from kindness,” Huyen Tran, a resident of the southern city of Can Tho, said.

“So when police seized the tank, it was like taking away people’s kindness.”

Tran said it is unreasonable to say the water tank occupied too much space on the sidewalk.

“Good deeds must be encouraged so that they can be multiplied,” she said.

“Otherwise, no one would want to do good things anymore.”

The debate was fueled by an op-ed published on the online version of a Ho Chi Minh City-based daily, which supports the seizure of the iced tea tank and suggests those who offer free water on the sidewalk “be strictly penalized.”

The writer, introduced as a Hanoi-based person who works in the media industry, argues that such public iced tea tanks can cause “traffic disorder.”

“What if four or five people park their motorbikes in the street and jostle to drink free water at rush hour?” he writes, adding this will lead to “inevitable heartbreaking traffic accidents.”

The writer also says the free-of-charge iced tea supply is “a potential source of respiratory-related diseases or diarrhea” because “1,000 mouths drink from the same water tank.”

From a legal viewpoint, lawyers Huynh Phuoc Hiep and Bui Quang Nghiem, both from the Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association, said police have the legitimate right to confiscate the tank but they should not have done so, as it did not really occupy the sidewalk.

“Officers should have shown the residents the appropriate place to put the tank,” Hiep said.

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