Expert urges new policies to save, replace old apartment buildings

Vietnam's city authorities need to rethink their approach to aging apartment buildings and work out a rebuilding and renovation plan to ensure thousands of residents have safe homes and the buildings were attractive to investors, the head of the HCM City Real Estate Association said.

The association said the city has at least 530 buildings needed to be renovated or demolished.

Thousands of households live in fear of building collapse. They endure leaking roofs, and water seepage is causing walls and stairwells to fail.

Many of the apartments, some dating back to the early 1960s, are too small and families have to cook in the hallways, creating potential fire hazards, and wet clothes hang on outside lines dangerously close to electricity cables.

HCM City authorities plan to demolish 70 apartment buildings and rebuild 61. But progress is slow and has fallen behind the pressure of urban development and fail to meet the needs of existing residents.

Le Hoang Chau, head of the HCM City Real Estate Association, said, "We should socialise the cost and find ways to attract more investors to speed up replacing dangerous apartment buildings."

Chau said current policies and regulations copied old plans, which were no longer realistic and were unattractive to investors because they were inflexible.

Nearly 3,000 garbage tanks built in rural areas

As many as 3,000 garbage tanks for rural areas will be built in northern Thai Nguyen province in response to World Environment Day (June 5).

On June 4, the provincial Youth Union announced that the garbage tanks will be constructed at a total cost of 1.7 billion VND (78,000 USD) mobilised from organisations and individuals and with help from local residents and the Youth Union.

Once completed, the tanks will enable locals to classify waste, especially in separating used pesticide packages and containers that cause pollution, thus increasing public awareness of environmental protection.

On the same day, the Union presented 1,000 water containers with 180-litre capacities each to impoverished ethnic minority households in Vo Nhai, Dinh Hoa, Phu Luong and Dong Hy districts and awarded 10 scholarships and gifts to underprivileged students.

In addition, it will contribute financially to the building of a house for an impoverished family in Tuc Tranh commune, Phu Luong district.

JICA to assess Dong Nai river water quality

Officials of the People's Committee of the southern province of Dong Nai had a working session with a delegation from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on June 4 to discuss the implementation of a project to assess the quality of water environment in the Dong Nai river basin.

According to Chief Representative of JICA Mutsuya Mori, the assessment of water quality aims to help establish a scientific database for provinces and cities across the river basin, thus contributing actively to water resource protection and socio-economic development.

He also suggested the province establish a working team with the participation of representatives from provinces and cities across the Dong Nai river basin to address obstacles faced while implementing the project. For his part, Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Dinh Quoc Thai pledged that the province and relevant agencies will offer their utmost support.

A representative from the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment said 190,000 cubic metres of household waste water and nearly 140,000 cubic metres of industrial waste water are poured into the Dong Nai river every day.

Dong Nai has carried out the first phase of the project building waste water treatment system in Bien Hoa city with a daily capacity of 9,000 cubic metres.

The province is also working closely with neighbouring provinces to increase the role of State agency management in water and mineral resources as well as protecting the water environment in the Dong Nai River basin.

Efforts strengthened to address heat waves

Minister of Agricultural and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat urged northern and central localities to actively address prolonged heat waves on June 4.

The Minister, who is also head of the Central Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, requested localities, ministries and sectors monitor the development of the situation and devise response plans accordingly.

Concrete measures are to be implemented in regulating irrigation systems and dredging channels, ponds and lakes to ensure adequate water supply for agricultural production.

The Ministry is to work closely with localities in addressing droughts and adjusting crops based on the respective local situations while seeking water reservation methods for next summer.

Sufficient supplies of drinking water and electricity are also among priorities to ensure favourable conditions for the daily life and production of local people.

Northern and central regions, especially localities from Khanh Hoa to Ninh Thuan provinces, have suffered from continuous drought and shortage of water due to midday temperatures hovering around 42 degrees C.

The heat waves are expected to continue and result in more severe droughts and deep salt intrusion in coastal and delta areas, according to the National Centre for Hydrometeorological Forecasting (NCHMF).

National road upgrades to improve local well-being

Nearly 44.7 kilometres of National Road 217 in the north central province of Thanh Hoa will be upgraded as part of a recently approved project to improve local livelihoods.

The second northern Greater Mekong Sub-region transport network improvement project, approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, will also include the construction of a 310-metre railway flyover and 2.3 kilometres of its access roads on National Road 217.

The project, implemented through 2018, has a total investment of nearly 78.36 million USD with almost 71.29 million USD loaned by the Asian Development Bank through official development assistance. The rest will be covered by Vietnam’s State budget.

It is meant to enable faster travel speeds, reduce traffic congestion and accidents, cut transport expenses and improve road maintenance activities, ultimately facilitating community access to social services and job opportunities and alleviating poverty.

National Road 217, which has a total length of 195.4 kilometres, begins at Do Len Bridge in Ha Trung district and ends at the Na Meo International Border Gates in the Quan Son district of Thanh Hoa.

The upgrades to and expansion of the road are part of the Greater Mekong Sub-region transport network improvement project which will connect Vietnam with northern Laos and Thailand, according to the Ministry of Transport’s website.-

Tien Giang fosters environmental management cooperation with South Africa

Vietnam and Africa share huge potential for multilateral cooperation, including in environmental protection, said an official from the South African Department of Environmental Affairs.

Director General of the Department Mark Gordo hailed efforts made by the two Governments and respective localities of the two nations to foster their cooperative ties during the June 4 reception in South Africa for the Vietnamese delegation led by Secretary of the Tien Giang Party’s Committee Tran The Ngoc,

For his part, Ngoc expressed his hope to share experience with the country in managing industrial and domestic waste.

The same day, the delegation had a working session with the Embassy of Vietnam in South Africa.

South Africa has made significant achievements in solid and toxic waste treatment in mining and industrialisation, contributing to job creation and green development.

South Africa, one of the leading economies in Africa, has successfully utilised science-technology in its key economic sectors such as minerals, bio-technology and nuclear power.

Bilateral trade reached over 962 million USD last year with Vietnamese exports accounting for 815 million USD.

Conference seeks to protect rural environment

A conference was held on June 4 in northern Vinh Phuc province to discuss measures to promote the role of the Vietnam Farmers’ Association (VFA) in protecting the environment in building new-style rural areas.

The event, part of activities in response to World Environment Day (June 5), focused on the current condition of the environment in rural areas and the responsibility of the VFA and community in environmental protection, seeking solutions to improve the association’s efficiency in its efforts.

Conference participants pointed to a number of difficulties facing the completion of environmental preservation criterion in new-style rural area building, including shifting awareness and behaviour of farmers and adhering to laws on environmental protection in rural localities.

They agreed that protecting the environment is crucial during socio-economic development, contributing to ensuring sustainable growth.

By the end of last year, 785 communes and 3 districts nationwide were recognised as new-style rural areas. However, environmental protection requirements have not been ensured.

Only one third of the rural localities nationwide have adequate irrigation and waste treatment systems or sufficient public trees, they noted.

A number of outstanding models in protecting the environment were also shared at the event, together with new measures to recycle waste and reduce pollution.

Youth award promotes understanding of French culture

Nguyen Thi Thao from the Hanoi Foreign Trade University has won first prize in the Alexandre Yersin youth award launched by the French charity organisation Le Liseron.

An award ceremony was held in Hanoi on June 4 by the Vietnam-France Friendship and Cooperation Organisation and the Le Liseron organisation.

Thao said she felt honoured to participate in the French essay contest, which helps Vietnamese students demonstrate their knowledge about French culture and people.

The contest was first organised in 2013 for under-23-year-old Vietnamese students to promote their understanding of the European country.

Established in 1999, Le Liseron has carried out a number of programmes and projects to support disadvantaged people in Vietnam.

Born in Switzerland, Yersin (1863 - 1943) studied medicine at prestigious institutes in Switzerland, Germany and France.

He came to Vietnam in 1891 and lived in Khanh Hoa’s Nha Trang city for more than half of a century. He was most remembered as the co-discoverer of the bacillus responsible for the bubonic plague in 1894.

He also discovered Liang Biang Plateau, the site for Da Lat city, in 1893 and founded the Nha Trang Pasteur Institute in 1895 and the Indochina Medicine School, which later became the Hanoi Medical University and the Hanoi University of Pharmacy.

In 2013, Yersin was posthumously conferred with the title of Vietnamese Honorary Citizen.-

Mekong Delta provinces deal with severe landslide

At present, households living along Tien River in the Mekong Delta region are being threatened by serious landslide.

Landslides have swept away hectares of vegetables and fruit crops, houses and landslide prevention & control works.

Currently, The Dong Thap province's Chau Thanh District’s An Hiep Commune is to meet a high risk of landslide disaster. Earlier, a severe landslide occurred in An Hiep Commune of Dong Thap province on May 11- 13, destroying completely over 2, 000 s.q meters of agricultural land and at least five houses. During two years, there has been seven landslides in soldering- irons and dykes in An Hiep commune, causing a loss of more than VND 2 billion.

Statistic showed that a strip of land 30 kilometers in length in 40 communes, wards and towns along Tien River section and An Hiep Commune of Chau Thanh District are being warned in a high risk of landslide zone.

Similar situation in Can Tho City, a landslide occurred in the area of Yen Thuong, Le Binh Ward, Cai Rang District on May 26, sinking at least three houses and 50 meters of road in Can Tho River. Local authority and functional forces mobilized nearly 100 rescuers to move 10 households from high risk zones to safer places.

Earlier, a dyke with its length of 40 meters in Hung Thanh ward, Cai Rang district was also sunk into Can Tho River on March 23.

Since early this year up to now, over 300 meters of a dyke and 1, 440 square meters of agricultural land have been destroyed by landslides.

Regarding bad situation, Chairman of People’s Committee of Dong Thap province Nguyen Van Duong signed a decision to announce an emergency landslide along Tien River.

Dong Thap authority asked Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and local authorities to determine high risk landslide zones to prepare the plan to move households to safer places.  

Ho Chi Minh City to collect road fees from bikers next month

Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City will begin to collect road maintenance fees as of July under a recent decision made by the municipal People’s Committee, thus becoming the last local government in Vietnam to apply such fees to bikers.

Under the decision, owners of motorbikes with engines of up to 100 cubic centimeters (cc) will have to pay VND50,000 (US$2.3) per annum, and those who own bikes with 100-175 cc engines will be liable for a higher rate, VND100,000 ($4.6) per year.

As for bikes with engines of over 175 cc, the fee rate will be VND150,000 ($6.9) per year. No fee will be imposed on electric bicycles.

The people’s committees of wards, communes and towns are tasked with instructing motorbike owners to fill out fee declaration forms for motorbike use, according to the fee collection plan of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport, said Ngo Hai Duong, deputy head of the Road Development Division under the department.

Based on such declarations, competent agencies will collect the fees and grant fee receipts to the payers, the department said in the plan.

According to the decision, motorcycle owners will have to pay the fee by July 31 for the whole of 2015 for bikes registered before January 1 this year.

For bikes registered from January 1 to June 30 every year, their owners are required to pay the fee within July every year; and for vehicles registered from July 1 to December 31 every year, their owners must pay the charge by January 31 of the following year at the latest.

Failure to pay the fee will lead to a fine that is two or three times the payable fee amount, but the highest fine is set at VND50 million ($2,300).

The fee collection is stipulated in Government Decree 18/2012 dated March 13, 2012 on the establishment, management and use of the Road Maintenance Fund.

Based on the decree, the Ministry of Finance issued a circular to stipulate two fee ranges, including the VND50,000-100,000 ($2.3-4.6) range per year for electric bicycles and motorbikes with 50 - 100 cc engines and the VND100,000-150,000 range per year for those with engine sizes of over 100 cc.

Based on these ranges, People’s Councils in provinces and cities will determine their own rates that fit their social and economic characteristics.

Under the decree, users of motorized vehicles were supposed to pay a road maintenance fee, which was intended to feed the fund, from June 1, 2012, but the government later delayed the fee collection until January 1, 2013, given that people were facing difficulties in their daily lives due to the troubled economy.

However, while all other localities have set out their own fee rates and collected them since 2013, Ho Chi Minh City has continued to postpone its fee collection to spare residents any further burdens until now.

Over VND56 trillion to be allocated for poverty reduction

Over VND56 trillion (US$2.6 billion) is expected to be allocated from the State budget for the national target programme on sustainable poverty reduction in the 2016-2020 period, according to the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA).

The information was released by the MOLISA at a meeting of the National Steering Committee on Sustainable Poverty Reduction held in Hanoi on June 3 under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh, who is also the Committee’s head.

The ministry said that the country’s poor household rate is expected to be under 5% by the end of the year. However, the rate in remote regions, border areas, islands and among ethnic minority groups is still high with dangers of falling back into poverty.

As a result, the target of the poverty reduction programme will be on speeding up the poverty reduction rate and facilitating disadvantaged people and households to access fundamental social services, contributing to reducing the average number of poor households nationwide by 1-1.5% per year and that in disadvantaged districts and communes by 4% per year.

Commenting on the programme, Deputy PM Ninh asked ministries and agencies to specify projects serving poverty reduction work.

He urged the Ministry of Finance (MOF) to allocate a maximum budget for the programme with priority on poverty reduction in regions with high poverty rates while investment demand for poverty reduction in localities should be defined.

The government official also reminded the MOF and the Ministry of Planning and Investment to increase lending capital and expand targeted borrowers among disadvantaged households to prevent those who have escaped from poverty from falling back into poverty.

In addition, PM Ninh reminded the ministries of new poverty standards to count the number of poor households and devise plans for infrastructure investment, particularly investment in production, in disadvantaged regions.

UK funds technology innovation

British Ambassador to Vietnam Giles Lever and Vietnamese Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Quan on June 3 signed a government-level memorandum of understanding (MOU) on assisting Vietnam in technological and scientific research and innovation under the Newton Program Vietnam.

As part of the program, the UK will provide up to 10 million pounds to support Vietnam-UK research collaboration and innovation partnership until 2019. Researchers, fellows, management officials in science and businesses with creativity will be the beneficiaries of the program.

The Newton Program Vietnam will focus on scholarships for researchers, research projects on challenges related to development and cooperation plans to commercialize research. Priorities will be given to innovation projects in the healthcare, life science, environment, energy security and digital technology sectors.   

The British Council, Research Council UK, Innovate UK, institutions, the International Cooperation Department, the National Science and Technology Fund and the International Education Department under the Ministry of Education and Training will coordinate to implement the Newton Program Vietnam.

The Ministry of Science and Technology and the British embassy in Hanoi will be coordinators of the program.

The Newton Program is an initiative of the British government to support social-economic development in 15 partner countries, including Vietnam.

The British government pledges to provide 375 million pounds to the Newton Program in 2014-2019.