Deputy PM orders breakthroughs in social housing development

Housing blocks for workers of the Samsung mobile phone factory in Thai Nguyen province 

Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung has ordered the construction sector to make significant breakthroughs in the development of the affordable housing segment as its supply is increasingly scarce, while the demand for such housing is on the rise.

He made the statement while attending a conference held by the Ministry of Construction on January 4 to implement the ministry’s tasks for 2019.

Dung asked the ministry to focus all resources on completing current institutions, creating favourable investment climate, and improving the quality of urban areas and building materials.

The ministry should join hands with competent authorities to outline rational plans to process cinder for building material production, he said, adding that it has a huge impact on national energy security and the environment.

Touching on the management and development of urban areas, industrial parks, and economic zones, Dung said that the ministry must pay due attention to reducing population density in the inner city, as well as reviewing housing development plans and mid- and long-term plans to grant investment licences.

According to Deputy Minister of Construction Le Quang Hung, the production value of the sector grew 9.2 percent in 2018. More than 41 percent of the 215 business conditions were trimmed, and 47.3 percent were simplified.

In 2018, the ministry completed three bills, namely the architecture law, the urban development management law, the law on amendments and supplements to several articles of the construction law, the housing law, the real estate business law, and the urban planning law.

Hung added that in 2018 the ministry effectively implemented measures to improve state management in investment and administrative procedures to facilitate conditions for both people and enterprises. 

Nearly 70 blood donation points nationwide for Tet

Miss Vietnam Tran Tieu Vy joins the voluntary blood donation campaign. 

There are now nearly 70 places for blood donation throughout the country in anticipation of the coming lunar New Year, the longest festival in Vietnam, organizers of the drive announced at a ceremony in Hanoi on January 6.

Speaking at the ceremony, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Uong Chu Luu expressed his admire to the donors and his hope that blood donation will reach further in the community, thus helping ease the shortage of the life-ensuring liquid, especially at major hospitals.

The current drive was launched on December 26 in Hanoi, expected to collect about 50,000 blood units during the 2019 Chu Nhat Do (Red Sunday).

The annual event is organised by Tien Phong (Vanguard) newspaper, the National Steering Committee on Traffic Safety and the National Institute of Haematology and Blood Transfusions (NIHBT).

It was first held in 2008 for one Sunday in Hanoi, hence the name.

The campaign is an effort to ease the blood supply shortage in hospitals throughout the country during the holidays.

The one-month long event will take place in 39 provinces and cities across the country, including the main festival in Hanoi on January 6. Many localities have registered to collect thousands of blood units such as Hanoi (6,000), HCM City (3,000) and Dak Lak (3,800).

In the first year of the drive, there was only one place to collect blood with 96 units donated, but the figures recorded last year were 60 and over 47,000, respectively. Donors are of various age groups, regions and jobs, most of them youth.

Over 30,000 youths join voluntary spring campaign in Ho Chi Minh City

Voluntary spring campaign is launched in Ho Chi Minh City on January 6. (Photo: tuoitre.vn)

A ceremony was held in Ho Chi Minh City on January 6 to launch this year’s voluntary spring campaign for the benefit of the needy households in the city on the occasion of the coming lunar New Year, the longest and most important traditional festival in Vietnam.

The annual campaign, the 11th of its kind, will last from January 6 – February 2 with the participations of over 30,000 youths in the city.

According to organizers, the focus of this year’s drive will be needy families, poor workers and beneficiaries of social policies. Participants will prepare food and make decorations typical of the festival for those recipients, along with cleaning work to ensure a good living environment.

Besides, volunteers will organize activities for children at social welfare centres and encourage youngsters to have a civilized way of life, especially during the festival which will start early next month.

Ash and cinder should be source of materials

A worker at a thermal power plant in the south-central province of Binh Thuan sprays water on a cinder dumping ground to reduce dust 

Coal-fired thermal power plants in Vietnam release about 16.4 million tonnes of ash and cinder each year and are forecasted to discharge about 20.5 million tonnes by 2020, a report of the National Assembly (NA)’s Committee on Science, Technology and Environment has revealed.

As many as 422 millions tonnes of ash and cinder will remain by 2030 not to mention a large amount of gypsum, a soft sulfate mineral.

Without proper plans in place to recycle, the resources will be wasted and pose risks of land, water and air pollution, NA Vice Chairman Phung Quoc Hien told the committee’s recent meeting on the matter.

According to the report, the use and consumption of ash, cinder and plaster in Vietnam are slow. The waste can be recycled to making cement, concrete and other construction materials.

Elsewhere in the world, some countries use the waste to build roads and make construction materials, which helps reduce expenses and make structures more solid.

However, in Vietnam, ash and cinder released by a number of plants has not been classified separately to become construction materials.

Truong Duy Nghia, Chairman of the Vietnam Thermal Science and Technology Association, said authorised agencies need to soon complete standards of using ash and cinder.

“Ash and cinder released by plants that use domestic coal have high level of carbon. In the future, we need to ensure the quality of ash and cinder released by coal-fired thermal power plants so that the resources can be used as construction materials,” he said.

Members of the committee agreed at the meeting that coal power plants need to look for partners to recycle. Authorised agencies must launch policies of ash, cinder and gypsum consumption to encourage businesses to treat and recycle the waste.

“Ash and cinder are not only waste but should be regarded as a source of raw materials. We need solutions to effectively use them and make them become a commodity and resource,” Hien said.

Hien required the completion of standards of using ash, cinder and gypsum while reviewing technology of coal power plants, fertiliser and chemical plants to make use of the waste.

Number for poor households on the rise in ethnic minority areas: official

Low-income people in Yen Lam commune of Ham Yen district, Tuyen Quang province, receive cows as support to escape from poverty

The number of low-income households is growing in ethnic minority areas, with the poverty reduction tempo in these communities also lower than the national, according to Minister-Chairman of the Government’s Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs Do Van Chien.

He released the information at a meeting in Hanoi on January 4 for the Central Steering Committee on national target programmes for the 2016-2020 period.

Mentioning the national target programme on sustainable poverty reduction, Chien noted that ethnic minority people account for 14.6 percent of Vietnam’s population but the poor households in their communities make up 52.7 percent of the all poor families nationwide.

The rate of poverty relapse is also higher in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, he said, adding that in the same localities, the development gap between these regions and others has widened considerably.

He asked the Government to increase financial and credit resources to provide more loans for low-income earners through the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP), instead of giving them free aid which will not encourage them to strive to escape from poverty by themselves.

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Van Hieu reported that in 2018, through the VBSP, 20 credit programmes were carried out with a total outstanding loans of nearly 187.8 trillion VND (8.14 billion USD), up 16 trillion VND from the previous year. Nearly 6.7 million impoverished households and disadvantaged people received loans.

The household poverty rate nationwide has been brought down to about 5.35 percent, he added.

At the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue said the Government has targeted breakthroughs in all spheres for 2019, so the national target programme on sustainable poverty reduction, as well as the one on new-style rural area building, can keep up with this speed of progress. 

Mechanisms and policies need to be made more carefully to limit poverty relapse and encourage disadvantaged people to make more knowledgeable financial decisions.

He requested ministries and sectors to make poverty elimination criteria more detailed, while authorities also have to work harder to eradicate loan sharking in rural areas.

Gia Lai inspects forest management violation

Illustrative photo. Three forestry companies will be investigated. 

The Central Highlands province of Gia Lai has decided to carry out comprehensive inspections over the use and management of forest land and forest protection funds in the province.

Three forestry companies will be inspected during this campaign, including Lơ Ku Forestry Ltd Co, Kông H’de Forestry Ltd Co and Ka Nak Forestry Ltd Co.

The inspection results on the use and management of forest land and forest protection funds by these companies during the 2013-18 period are expected to be announced after 45 days.

The move aims at preventing and handling wrongdoings found at forestry companies in the province.

In 2018, inspections at six management boards of protective forests in the province discovered the loss of more than 5,000ha of forest as well as signs of land forest encroachment and misuse of the forest protection and management fund.

The inspection also found a number of officials and leaders of the management boards to have violated forest protection regulations. Head of the management board of Bắc Biển Hồ Protective Forest Nguyễn Đức was found to have illegally taken more than 84,000sq.m of forest land to use as farmland to grow coffee, pepper and build a house.

Local police started criminal proceedings against the violators.

Last December, a local agricultural and forestry company in Krông Pa District of Gia Lai was reported to have damaged about 30,000sq.m of forest land. District police have started criminal proceedings against the perpetrators of the deforestation. 

Local students donate blood and books for patients

Students from Đông Á college in Đà Nẵng donate blood during a voluntary campaign in 2019. 

The central city of Đà Nẵng’s youth union, in co-operation with Đông Á College, has launched a voluntary blood donation campaign and book collection for child cancer patients.

The union said nearly 300 units of blood (250ml each) had been collected from students at the college on Thursday, while nearly 1,000 books were also donated.

As planned, the campaign aims to use the books to establish a library at a hospital for patients.

Đông Á college offers a free reading space for the community. It also opened a digital library for students.

According to the city’s Red Cross association, local donors donated over 40,000 litres of blood for treatment and emergency cases in hospitals since the campaign was launched in Đà Nẵng in 2003, and voluntary blood donation supplies 99.5 per cent of the demand required for treatment and emergency aid at the city’s hospitals.

According to the city’s blood donation steering board, voluntary donors account for 3 per cent of the city’s 900,000 population – higher than the average ratio of provinces and cities nationwide (1.05 per cent).

The city has a list of 650 individuals who are able to donate blood at short notice in emergency cases.

The annual Red Journey often receives more than 1,200 units of blood from local donors for blood transfusions at 20 hospitals in the city and neighbouring Quảng Nam Province. 

Quảng Trị plans to reduce temporary classrooms

Students in Quảng Trị make use of a meeting hall as a classroom. 

The central province of Quảng Trị is to invest VNĐ195 billion (US$8.4 million) in the construction of 390 classrooms in an attempt to reduce the number of temporary classrooms in schools across the locality.

The investment comes mainly from the national and local budgets, and some from social contributions.

According to the local Department of Education and Training, the work is needed as the temporary classrooms, with many borrowed from other local agencies, has negatively impacted the local standard of education.

The temporary classrooms have also raised safety concerns.

The work on the new classrooms will commence early this year and all are expected to be completed by 2025.

The province is in need of 1,104 classrooms, of which kindergartens need 452 rooms and the remainder will be used for primary, secondary and high schools.

The local education sector also needs a further 1,070 labs and 1,289 toilets in schools.

Over the last 10 years, the province has succeeded in building 1,114 classrooms, mainly in remote and mountainous areas, partly contributing to the reduction in the dropout rate in those areas.

According to the provincial People’s Council, they will have tighter monitoring to make sure the education sector proceeds with the construction work.

Quảng Trị was hit hardest by American bombs during the war. The locality is listed as one of the less-developed provinces in the country more than 40 years after the war ended. 

National symposium talks ethnic policy

At the event (Source: nhandan.com.vn)

The Government’s Committee for Ethnic Affairs and the Irish Embassy in Hanoi held a national symposium on January 3 on ethnic policy and orientations towards building it for the 2021-2030 period. 

Speaking at the event, Minister and Chairman of the committee Do Van Chien said Vietnam is home to 54 ethnic groups – including 53 ethnic minorities that make up 14.6 million people, accounting for over 14 percent of the total population. These minority groups live mostly in mountainous and border areas, including 5,266 communes, 548 districts, and 51 cities and provinces. 

Since 2016, the Government and Prime Minister have issued 14 documents regarding priorities to socio-economic development in ethnic and mountainous areas, including 15 ethnic policies. Up to 54 policies on socio-economic development in mountainous and ethnic areas have remained valid. However, unemployment, poverty, natural disasters, and diseases still pose grave challenges to such areas. 

Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh affirmed that the Party and State has always paid attention to development in mountainous and ethnic areas, considering it a key task in building great national unity and sustainable development. 

He said that over the years, ethnic policies have improved in accordance with common development orientations, especially in education, healthcare, sustainable poverty reduction, social progress, and equality. 

Binh admitted that cooperation among ministries and agencies in policy building and implementation remains limited, while many localities meet difficulties in pooling and allocating resources. 

According to him, the average income of ethnic minority groups is equivalent to 40-50 percent of the regional average. The rate of poor households in ethnic minority areas accounts for 52.7 percent of the total nationwide. The quality of education, healthcare, and cultural facilities is still poor, while access to social services is hard. About 21 percent of those aged above 15 are unable to read and write the Vietnamese language fluently. Though health insurance coverage is high, the rate of health check-ups and treatment is low. 

Former Chairman of the committee Ksor Phuoc and former Director of the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development Dang Kim Son suggested that ethnic policies focus on localities’ advantages. 

Chairman Chien, for his part, called attention to the need to increase investment in poorer communes. 

Deputy PM Binh asked the committee, ministries, agencies, localities, scientists, and experts to give a full review of ethnic policies for the 2016-2018 period that look into ethnic minorities’ income; livelihood; and their access to culture, education, and healthcare. 

Deputy head of the Department of Development under the Irish Embassy Reachbha FitzGerald proposed that national capital should be allocated as soon as possible to ensure effective implementation, full participation from all walks of life, and accountability of parties concerned. 

Communities’ active involvement should be encouraged in proposing, choosing, designing, building, operating, and maintaining infrastructure works, she said.

New Year gifts ready to be sent to Truong Sa archipelago

New Year gifts to be sent to soldiers and people in the Truong Sa archipelago 

Thousands of gifts and hundreds of tonnes of essential goods have been prepared for soldiers and people in the Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago on the occasion of the upcoming Lunar New Year (Tet) festival. 

According to a report of Brigade 146 under the Naval Zone 4, besides gift prepared by the Defence Ministry and the Naval Zone 4, the Fund for Truong Sa – Hoang Sa donated 700 million VND, and the club Youth for Homeland Sea and Islands raised 150 million VND. 

The central province of Khanh Hoa and many organisations and individuals contributed gifts, essential goods, rice and confectionary, to ensure that the soldiers and people on the islands can enjoy the year’s biggest traditional festival in style.

Deputy Political Commissar of Brigade 146 Senior Lieutenant Colonel Luong Xuan Giap said the gifts reflect the warm feelings of people nationwide to Truong Sa and is a source of great encouragement for the soldiers and people, helping them fulfil the mission of protecting the fatherland’s sea and islands.

Four ships of the brigade will transport the gifts to Truong Sa in several days to come.

Fishermen in Ca Mau help authorities regenerate marine resources

Fishermen catch young clam for breeding in Ca Mau province’s Ngoc Hien district 

Authorities in the southernmost province of Ca Mau are working hard to protect aquatic species in an effort to regenerate them following a long bout of overfishing, and fishermen are strictly following restrictions imposed on them for this.

Many are only catching fish and aquatic species that have reached the stipulated size, Do Chi Si, head of the Fishery Sub-department, said.

The sub-department releases a large number of juveniles of aquatic species into the sea every year.

The province has a coast of more than 254km, accounting for a third of the Mekong Delta’s coastline. It also has 240sq.km of mangrove forests and alluvial grounds which are also habitats for aquatic species.

Therefore, fishing is one of the province’s strengths, but aquatic resources have been dwindling because of over exploitation.

Now the province is also raising awareness among fishermen of the need to protect marine resources.  

Si said advocacy activities were regularly organised to educate fishermen in sustainability.

Huynh Van Trai, owner of a fishing boat in Ngoc Hien district’s Tan An commune, said local authorities were focused on regenerating aquatic resources and regularly organise courses to educate fishermen on the issue.

After taking part in the training courses, he and other fishermen only catch fish of a minimum regulated size and use fishing nets that conform to regulations.

Nguyen Thanh Tuan of the Ngoc Hien District Fisheries Extension Station, said Tan An commune in coordination with the district’s marine authorities regularly inspected local fishing activities and found that fishermen fully complied with the new regulations for protecting aquatic resources.

The province is installing black boxes on fishing vessels longer than 15 metres to record their route, speed and other data and provide support for search and rescue in case of accidents or natural disasters.

Around 1,500 of the province’s more than 4,000 fishing vessels need to install the black box. 

Si said 100 have already done it, adding the province is one of the first in the country to make this stipulation.

Ca Mau targets a catch of around 160,000 tonnes of fish and other creatures, including 10,000 tonnes of shrimp, annually by 2020. Last year its fishermen caught more than 200,000 tonnes.

Bamboo Airways Tournament 2019 to tee off

The tournament offers big prize of hundreds of billions of đồng and many more. — Photo vov.vn

The Bamboo Airways Golf Tournament is scheduled to tee off at the FLC Sầm Sơm Golf Links in Hạ Long City, Quảng Ninh Province on February 15 to 17.

As one of the annual tournaments held by FLC Group, this year’s tournament offers big prizes including hundreds of billions of đồng, luxury cars, air tickets for Bamboo Airways, vouchers to play golf at many courses of FLC Biscom, and many other prizes from sponsors.

Last year, two golfers Nguyễn Anh Tuấn and Cao Xuân Hùng each won a Mercedes at two tournaments by FLC Group – the 17th Anniversary Golf Tournament 2018 and the Bamboo Airways Takeoff Golf Tournament 2018, held in the last months of the year.

Friendship football tournament celebrates victory over Pol Pot regime

The squad of the embassy and representatives agencies of Vietnam in Cambodia 

The federation of youth for peace in Cambodia organised a friendship football tournament in Phnom Penh on January 6 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the victory over the Pol Pot genocidal regime (Jan. 7).

Four teams participated in the tournament, including squads of the federation, the Cambodian People's Party (CPP), All Stars Cambodia, and the embassy and representatives agencies of Vietnam in Cambodia.   

The team All Stars Cambodia beat their rivals to take the championship trophy. 

Speaking at the award ceremony, Pann Khem Punthan, deputy head of the Cambodian Prime Minister’s Office and chairman of the youth federation, and Chum Kosal, adviser to the Cambodian PM, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Interior and honorary chairman of the youth federation, highlighted the significance of the tournament as it aimed at connecting and enhancing mutual understanding between Vietnamese and Cambodian youths.

They said the event also honoured those who sacrificed their lives for the historic victory against the Pol Pot genocidal regime on January 7, 1979.

The officials thanked the Vietnamese Party, State, army and people for their sacrifice, support and assistance for the revival of Cambodia today.

Outstanding donors for child care activities in 2018 honoured

Outstanding donors for child care activities in 2018 honoured 

Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh, who is also Chairwoman of the National Fund for Vietnamese Children (NFVC) Sponsorship Council, held a meeting in Hanoi on January 6 with outstanding donors who had great contributions to activities for children in 2018.

Praising the positive contributions of individuals, units, enterprises and members of the NFVC to the care for children, Thinh highlighted the pervasive effects of child care and education programmes last year.

According to the Vice President, the NFVC has become more prestigious and attracted the participation of many donors.

The Vice President voiced her hope that organisations, individuals and enterprises at home and abroad will maintain their contributions both materially and spiritually to support more and more poor children and those living in underprivileged circumstances.

In 2018, the fund raised 101 billion VND (4.36 million USD) to help nearly 105,000 disadvantaged children by providing them with free surgical operations, scholarships, learning aids and bicycles or organising festivals for them.

However, there are still 1.5 million children from disadvantaged backgrounds across the country and nearly 2.5 million could drop out of school.

Therefore, the fund set a target of mobilising 90 billion VND from both domestic and foreign resources for the care for, protection and education of children, thus helping promote four child rights: the right to life, the right to protection, the right to development and the right to participation.

On the same day, the NFVC collaborated with the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) to organise the 12th “Mua xuan cho em” (Spring for children) programme.

Addressing the event, Vice President Thinh affirmed that over the past years, the Party and State have paid special attention to children, especially those living in disadvantaged circumstances.

On this occasion, the NFVC received over 150 billion VND (6.47 million USD) from domestic and foreign organisations, individuals and enterprises in support of underprivileged children.

The MoLISA presented certificates of merits to 13 units and individuals for their outstanding achievements in the protection of and care for children in 2018.

Vietnamese’s first Buddhist cultural centre in Czech Republic opens

The ceremony to inaugurate Most Pagoda of Vietnamese people in Most city on January 5

A pagoda of Vietnamese people in Most city of Ustecky region, the Czech Republic, was inaugurated on January 5, becoming the community’s first spiritual cultural centre officially recognised by local authorities.

Head of the pagoda Venerable Thich Thong Dat said the inauguration of the pagoda is an honour of expatriate Buddhists in the Czech Republic. It is not only a place of worship but also helps uphold the traditional culture and the use of the Vietnamese language in the community, he said.

On behalf of Ustecky region’s administration, chairman of the region’s council for ethnic minorities Pavel Vodsedalek presented a certificate recognising the Buddhist cultural centre of Most Pagoda.

He said among local ethnic minority groups, the Vietnamese community have carried out many activities to preserve and introduce their diverse culture.

The newly-inaugurated pagoda will help enhance the community’s solidarity, pass down cultural values to younger generations, and popularise the Vietnamese culture to Czech people, he added.

In his speech, Vietnamese Ambassador to the Czech Republic Ho Minh Tuan thanked Ustecky authorities for supporting the Vietnamese community to uphold the traditional culture and integrate into the local society.

It was an honour for Vietnamese people in the Czech Republic as Most pagoda was recognised by local authorities, he said, expressing his hope that it will help strengthen solidarity in the community and preserve the traditional culture of Vietnam.

In 2013, the Czech Republic recognised the Vietnamese community as one of its ethnic minority groups.