Ben Tre: man prosecuted for anti-State activity

Nguyen Ngoc Anh (Source: nld.com.vn)

The Investigation Police Agency of Ben Tre province’s police department has started criminal proceedings against a man for “making, storing, releasing, and circulating information and documents” against the State. 

Nguyen Ngoc Anh, 38 years old, was prosecuted in line with Article 117 of the Penal Code, said Colonel Pham Van Ngot, chief of staff of the provincial Police Department on September 4. 

Anh was born in Phung Xa commune, Thach That district, Hanoi but works as a shrimp engineer in Binh Dai town, Binh Dai district, in the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre. 

Initial investigations revealed that between March 31 and August 14, he created two Facebook accounts to share and post video clips promoting anti-State content. 

Through the video clips, Anh fabricated information distorting and defaming authorities, raising public doubt and worry. 

Furthermore, he incited people to participate in destructive demonstrations during June 2018 and the recent National Day holiday (September 2). 

Flights to Osaka cancelled due to Typhoon Jebi

The national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines announced on September 4 that it will cancel its flights between Japan’s Osaka and the airports of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh during September 4-5 due to Typhoon Jebi in the west of Japan, which forced Osaka airport to suspend operations the same day. 

Accordingly, the airline will cancel flights VN330, VN331, VN320, and VN321. 

Further information can be found on the websites www.vietnamairlines.com or www.facebook.com/VietnamAirlines, Vietnam Airlines’ ticket agents nationwide, or the hotline 19001100. 

Low-cost Jetstar Pacific also announced that it will cancel its Hanoi-Osaka flight BL620 on September 4 and Osaka-Da Nang flight BL165 on September 5.  

A representative from Jetstar Pacific said affected passengers will be transferred to other flights if seats are available. If any changes are made, the carrier will actively try to contact passengers. Passengers can also get updates or seek support via the hotline 19001550. 

Some infrastructure works have broken down at Kansai international airport and as such, airlines are waiting for updated information to plan flights for the coming days.

Hundreds of flights to and from Kansai international airport have been cancelled. Japan’s Nippon Airways announced that it will cancel 247 domestic flights and eight international flights while Japan Airlines will also cancel 176 domestic flights. 

Japanese authorities warned that Typhoon Jebi could be the strongest to hit the country in 25 years. 

Young Vietnamese, Indian soldiers engage in exchanges

At the seminar of young Vietnamese and Indian soldiers.

Young Vietnamese and Indian soldiers engaged in an exchange programme held in Hanoi on September 4. 

Colonel Dinh Quoc Hung, head of the Vietnamese Military Youth Committee, said this is the sixth year Vietnamese and Indian armies have implemented the agreement on the exchange of young soldiers. 

The activity aims to contribute to consolidating the friendship and strategic partnership between Vietnam and India, and increasing mutual understanding between young soldiers of the two countries, he said. 

Vietnamese youths have always been made aware of the Vietnam-India relationship, Hung said, expressing his hope that young soldiers of the two countries will continue to support each other in spheres of cooperation. 

He also called for India’s further support to young Vietnamese who are joining training programmes in India. 

Captain Ankit Agarwal, head of the young Indian soldier delegation, also noted his hope for continued close cooperation with young Vietnamese soldiers, thus contributing to the fine collaboration between the two countries and armies in the time ahead. 

While in Vietnam, the Indian soldiers paid tribute to President Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum in Hanoi, and visited several sites around the country.

‘Dead land’ replaced with greenery in Binh Thuan

Efforts to fight desertification in the south central province of Binh Thuan have paid off as impoverished soil – a result of water scarcity – is gradually being replaced by greenery.

Director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Mai Kieu said that due its geographic location, Binh Thuan has the driest climate in all of Vietnam, with an average annual rainfall of 1,000-1,600mm, only half the average rainfall in the southern region. As such, more than 80,000ha – or 11% – of local natural area is desert land.

Desertification is even more severe in coastal districts. Strong winds and sand storms during the October-April dry season have caused land degradation along 50km of its coast.

He said desertified areas are often considered ‘dead land’ as no trees are able to survive without human intervention.

However, with efforts to revitalise such areas, Binh Thuan has taken various solutions to expand farmland for local residents, Kieu noted.

Developing irrigation is the first step to realise this plan. More than 270 irrigation facilities, including some with the capacity of over 40 million cubic metres have been built, like Song Quao, Ca Giay, and Long Song reservoirs. They are able to provide water for 70,000ha of land.

These irrigation facilities have proved effective, speedily reviving dry areas in Tuy Phong, Bac Binh, and Ham Thuan Bac districts. Locals have also been digging ponds to develop aquaculture, generating a major source of freshwater aquatic products.

Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Ngoc Hai said the successful expansion of irrigation systems has not only helped Binh Thuan supply water for farmlands, but also minimised water shortages, boosted crop restructuring, and increased farming areas.

Local authorities have also been working to form coastal protection forests stretching over 8,000ha from Tuy Phong to Ham Tan districts. These forests mainly include phi lao (casuarina equisetifolia), neem trees (Azadirachta indica), and wattles (acacia) – all of which have been growing well in coastal areas with shifting and semi-shifting sand.

Hai said these forests have initially proved useful for reducing winds, improving the local environment, and ensuring the stable growth of other crops.

Many anti-desertification projects have also been carried out successfully on a trial basis, including those targeting rainwater on sand collection, anti-shifting sand afforestation, irrigation system development, sustainable agricultural production programmes, and the transfer of better cultivation measures.

The initial successes of these projects have helped improve Binh Thuan’s capability in controlling natural degradation and turning thousands of hectares of ‘dead land’ into fertile area for production and tourism, according to local authorities. 

Cao Bang set to open second Ban Gioc Waterfall Festival

The second Ban Gioc Waterfall Festival is scheduled for October 6-7 at Ban Gioc Waterfall Tourism Complex in Trung Khanh district, the northern border province of Cao Bang.

Diverse activities will be organized during the event including a food court selling local specialties and tourism products, an international terrain cycling tournament, traditional art performances, and a spiritual festival at Truc Lam Ban Gioc pagoda.

The festival aims to create a jubilant atmosphere among ethnic minority people in Trung Khanh district and promote emulation movements in production activities to contribute to the province’s socio-economic development.

The event is also destined to expand cultural exchange and sports activities to promote the image of Trung Khanh, and local cultural characteristics and tourism products to domestic and international friends.

Foreign tourists to Hanoi up 16% over National Day holiday

Hanoi welcomed nearly 250,000 tourists during the recent three-day National Day holiday, up 9% compared with the same period last year.

According to the capital’s Department of Tourism, the number of foreign visitors to the city from September 1-3 surpassed 36,700, of whom approximately 26,500 stayed overnight, year-on-year rises of 16% and 17%, respectively.

The tourism sector earned VND645 billion (US$27.7 million), up 5% year on year.

Notable tourist attractions in the city include the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the Thang Long Imperial Citadel and the Vietnam National Village for Ethnic Culture and Tourism.

This year, Hanoi expects to serve more than 25.4 million holidaymakers, including 5.5 million foreigners, and gross some VND75.78 trillion (US$3.33 billion) in revenue.

Last year, the city welcomed nearly 5 million foreign vacationers, up 23% against the previous year.

Hanoi to promote culture, tourism through Frankfurt Book Fair

Frankfurt Book Fair 2017

Hanoi will display books on the history and culture of the capital city and Vietnam and deliver art performances at Frankfurt Book Fair set to take place on October 10-14.

The move aims to promote special and unique cultural and tourism products of Hanoi and Vietnam to the Vietnamese community and international friends in Germany.

Hanoi’s pavilion will cover around 80sq.m, showing typical books in Vietnamese, English, French and German languages. The capital city will also introduce Hanoi and Vietnam tourism through art documentaries, tourist maps and publications and craft village and cuisine books.

Frankfurt Book Fair will help participants grasp opportunities and new trends of the world publishing market, access advanced support technologies for publication, and exchange books and experience in the development of reading culture, copyright transaction, and the organization of international book events in Hanoi, said Nguyen Gia Phuong, director of Hanoi Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion Centre.

According to the organizing board, last year’s fair with over 7,300 pavilions drew more than 286,000 visitors from over 100 countries.

HCM City seeks to strengthen grassroots healthcare

Patients at the traditional medicine department at the Thảo Điền Ward Health Station in HCM City’s District 2. 

When she rushed to a nearby health station last month for immediate medical help, Trần Mai Kiều, 32, a housewife from HCM City’s District 11, was turned away since the only doctor there was absent.

She had cut her hand with a broken glass and bleeding severely. She then had to go to the District 11 Hospital.

For years health stations in the country have mostly failed to provide both immediate medical help and regular treatment.

HCM City is home to 319 health stations which only treat 3 per cent of the total number of patients in the city, according to the Department of Health.

Lack of doctors, poor facilities and limited quantities of drugs mean they are not favoured by people seeking medical treatment.

Tăng Chí Thượng, deputy director of the department, said it is not uncommon to see health stations with a single doctor who is in charge of a number of tasks such as the national immunisation programme, disease prevention and control programmes and the management of tuberculosis and HIV in their locality.

“People do not trust the health stations, resulting in low patient volume.”

Dr Đỗ Thị Bưởi, head of the Ward 5 Health Station in HCM City’s District 8, said only five to 10 people turn up every day and only for immunisation, changing wound dressings and getting insulin shots for diabetes and not for check-up and treatment.

Under a health insurance policy that came into effect in 2016, unlike before insured patients can get diagnosed and treated at any district-level health facility without requiring referral papers from medical facilities in their neighbourhood.

As a result, now patients go straight to district-level hospitals instead of visiting grassroots healthcare establishments.

Many district-level hospitals such as the District 2 Hospital, Tân Phú District Hospital and Thủ Đức District Hospital suffer from a patient overload as a result, Thượng said.

Healthcare authorities are currently testing three new models to improve the quality of the grassroots healthcare service, he said.

Earlier this month the District 2 Hospital set up a satellite general clinic at the Thảo Điền Ward Health Station where 17 specialists treat a range of ENT, dental, paediatric, and dermatological ailments and also provide traditional medicine.

Trần Văn Khanh, director of the District 2 Hospital, said the hospital has spent VNĐ10 billion (US$434,700) on buying modern medical equipment and deploying specialists at the clinic.

“Local people can access medical services without travelling far to hospitals.”

The clinic is expected to get more than 300 insured outpatients daily, he said.

In 2016 the Thủ Đức District Hospital pioneered satellite general clinics at grassroots health establishments.

Its satellite general clinic at the Bình Chiểu Ward Health Station gets around 200 outpatients a day.

Nguyễn Minh Quân, director of the hospital, said the hospital is overstretched, with around 5,000 outpatients coming every day for treatment.

The hospital used its own funds to set up satellite general clinics by upgrading existing health stations and deploying doctors and staff there, he said.

In the last two years four satellite general clinics have been set up at health stations in districts 2, Thủ Đức and Tân Phú.

Preliminary results show they have benefited insured patients and helped reduce the patient overload at many hospitals, according to Thưo75ng.

The number of satellite general clinics is expected to increase in the city in the next few years, he said.

The city has also adopted the public-private partnership model at health stations to strengthen primary health care at the grassroots level.

In mid-2017 the Việt Anh Health Joint Stock Company together with the department opened the DHA Clinic at District 3’s Ward 11 health station.

More than 40 per cent of residents in Ward 11 have visited the clinic, mostly for regular preventive health checks and tests.

The company plans to invest in similar clinics at other health stations in District 3.

One health station in each of the city’s 24 districts have been chosen to join a national programme that aims to strengthen primary health care in keeping with family medicine principles, Thượng said.

“The family medicine principles are to provide comprehensive and continuing care to individuals and families.”

Under the programme, participating health stations will be assisted with improving the competence of teams at the grassroots level and provided essential equipment.

Minister of Health Nguyễn Thị Kim Tiến said the health sector failed to realise the potential of health stations, which cover every part of the country.

With appropriate investment and drastic measures for the development of the grassroots healthcare network, more and more patients would visit health stations, helping reduce the overload at higher level hospitals, she said.

In future non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, and chronic respiratory diseases would be prevented and treated at health stations, she said. 

The main investment forms of the social insurance fund are the purchase of G-bonds, the loans for State budget and deposits at commercial banks.

About 90 percent of social insurance funds are currently invested in government bonds (G-bonds), Dao Viet Anh, Deputy General Director of the Vietnam Social Security (VSS), said at a seminar last week.

The annual average investment interest rate of the entire social insurance fund in 2017 was 7.25 percent.

Anh said that when investing, the VSS always considered factors such as market, liquidity and especially the safety of the fund.

The social insurance fund invested in G-bonds helped secure the fund while raising capital for development investment, contributing to the restructuring of public debt and overspending, Anh said.

The participation of the social insurance fund in the government bond market also significantly increased the term of government bonds. If in the past, the longest term for G-bonds was just ten years, now there are 30-year G-bonds.

This, Anh said, has led to an increase in the average maturity of G-bonds, which helped reduce pressure on the repayment of government debt.

"We did a good job in investment efficiency of the social insurance fund and contribute to socio-economic development," he said.

The main investment forms of the social insurance fund are the purchase of G-bonds, the loans for State budget and deposits at commercial banks.

According to a report by the VSS, the accumulated fund investment till the end of 2017 reached nearly 610 trillion VND (26.4 billion USD), 2.6 times higher than that in 2012 of nearly 234 trillion VND. Profit earned from investment in the period 2013-2017 reached nearly 150 trillion VND, of which the profit in 2017 was 37.5 trillion VND, doubling that in 2012, which was nearly 19 trillion VND.

The report said the VSS’ investment practice was in accordance with Government regulations. The investment structure was shifted towards safety orientation, gradually increasing the proportion of investment in government bonds. The size of the fund’s investment and the profit from investment both increased annually.

However, according to this report, the investment activities of the social insurance fund had not diversified, mainly through the purchase of G-bonds with long-term periods and through short-term deposits at commercial banks. The fund had not yet focused on other forms of investment with higher profitability.

Moreover, the overspending of the health insurance fund had increased. Bad debts and evasion in health insurance and social insurance still occurred in many localities. The number of enterprises owing social insurance and health insurance remained high and the amount of debt was still large and no appropriate handling measures had been put in place.

Education sector ready for new school year

Vietnam will have more than 1.3 million students during the 2018 -2019 school year, which begins on September 5. The education sector aims to increase access to science and advanced technology, and improve the quality of both teachers and students to provide high-quality human resources for Vietnam’s integration process.

In the upcoming academic year, the Ministry of Education and Training will restructure organizational and management systems in pre-schools and general educational establishments, and build more kindergartens in industrial parks and export processing zones.

IT application in teaching will be boosted while higher education will be further improved in line with regional and global standards. The 2018-2019 school year is forecast to face numerous difficulties as many localities have recently experienced devastating flooding, which resulted in degrading school infrastructure, classrooms, and teaching and learning equipment.

Pham Hung Anh, Deputy Director of the Department for Material Facilities and School Equipment, said, “We have asked localities to thoroughly review the existing infrastructure and school equipment, and prepare plans on repairs, upgrades, and equipment procurement. To date, all 63 provinces and cities nationwide have submitted their plans to relevant authorities, to prepare material conditions for the coming new school year.”

The Ministry of Education and Training will issue new curricula for general education and ensure enough textbooks.

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Van Tung, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Education Publishing House, said the company has well prepared for the new school year, adding that “Sufficient textbooks have to date been published and distributed to all localities.”

To ensure an efficient academic year, the preschool education sector will further develop schools and classes in industrial and export processing zones, strengthen state management on nursery education, minimize child related violence, and address the shortage of teachers.

The general education sector will continue to prepare for the realization of the new textbook program, improve the quality of exams and assessment, especially the national high school graduation exams; strengthen lifestyles, and life skills for students; and renovate management mechanism in high schools.

Universities will continue to enhance their fiscal independence, while improving education quality in line with the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Foreign tourists to Hanoi up 16 percent over National Day holiday

Tourists visit Thang Long Imperial Citadel 

Hanoi welcomed nearly 250,000 tourists during the recent three-day National Day holiday, up 9 percent compared with the same period last year.

According to the capital’s Department of Tourism, the number of foreign visitors to the city from September 1-3 surpassed 36,700, of whom approximately 26,500 stayed overnight, year-on-year rises of 16 percent and 17 percent, respectively.

The tourism sector earned 645 billion VND (27.7 million USD), up 5 percent year on year.

Notable tourist attractions in the city include the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the Thang Long Imperial Citadel and the Vietnam National Village for Ethnic Culture and Tourism.

This year, Hanoi expects to serve more than 25.4 million holidaymakers, including 5.5 million foreigners, and gross some 75.78 trillion VND (3.33 billion USD) in revenue.

Last year, the city welcomed nearly 5 million foreign vacationers, up 23 percent against the previous year.