Farmer finds success with agricultural programme

Vũ Thị Hậu feeds her fish with bread. — Photo danviet.vn

Using out-of-date bread and sandwiches from supermarkets in HCM City, farmer Vũ Thị Hậu has found a clean source of food for her fish, and earns profits of more than VNĐ500 million (US$21,700) per year.

She said that the bread and sandwiches she finds are only passed their sell-by date by a few days, so they were still fine to use as fish food.

“I never choose mouldy ones because the fish can develop diseases,” said Hậu.

Hậu, 53, was born in the northern province of Bắc Ninh. She moved to the south to set up her business nearly 20 years ago.

At that time Hậu, her husband, as well as her children, stopped in Đồng Nai Province. She used her savings to buy a small piece of land and build a house.

Hậu and her husband worked so that their children could go to school. She believed that an education was the only way to escape poverty.

After several years in Đồng Nai Province, the couple decided to move to HCM City to improve the quality of life for their children.

With VNĐ80 million ($3,400) from selling her house in Đồng Nai Province, she rented a house and some land in District 9 to do agricultural work.

“The money left after renting the house and land was enough for me to buy a pig. Although I knew a lot of difficulties were waiting for us, my husband and I are always optimistic because we think that if we are hard-working, luck will follow,” said Hậu.

Thanks to their hard work, her pig quickly gave birth to more. By 2010, Hậu had more than one hundred pigs. She bought nearly 1.2ha of land.

In 2011, Hậu borrowed capital with preferential interest as part of a programme launched by the HCM City People’s Committee, and increased her herd of pigs to 700.

Several years later, the municipal authorities decided to move breeding farms out of residential areas, so Hậu reduced the herd and turned to fish.

Now she has 300 pigs, while she produces 40 tonnes of fish per year.

The fish are sold at VNĐ14,000 ($0.6) per kilo. On the average, the fish pond brings Hậu more than VNĐ500 million (US$21,700) per year.

“Raising pigs is easier than raising fish, but with the city’s development, I want to find another way to protect the environment,” said Hậu.

Her two children graduated from university and have stable jobs. Her youngest son set up a private real estate firm.

Vũ Thanh Tuấn, deputy director of the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank), said that Hậu was a good example of effectively using capital from the HCM City People’s Committee’s programme to support agricultural development.

“With Hậu’s example, we can see that if a farmer is hard-working, the city’s capital will develop well while the farmers can enrich themselves sustainably,” said Tuấn. 

Public query tree street plan

Trees planted on the roadbed in Uong Bi City in Quang Ninh Province

People in Quang Ninh are complaining about possible dangers caused by a street widening project that has many trees being planted on the road.

The local were puzzled when they first saw hundreds of trees being planted on the roadbed, some trees are several metres away from the pavement along Quang Trung Street, Uong Bi City. According to a local, the city authorities didn't publicise the design when the construction on Quang Trung Street was started.

"Several days ago, we saw square holes were left open whilst they were completing the concrete surface. We questioned the workers while trees were planted into the holes but no one said anything," a local man said.

The pavement on Quang Trung Street used to be wide so there's no shortage of space for trees. However, as the authorities cut the pavements to widen the streets, the locals only have enough space to place their motorbikes. The electric boxes are also placed right next to the houses.

Nguyen Thi Nga, a local in Uong Bi said, "The job was done haphazardly. The cable lines were buried in a hurry and they don't explain why trees are planted on the road."

Nguyen Thanh Tung, office chief of the provincial Traffic Safety Committee, said they had received the information about the case and was working with the Department of Transport for investigation. He admitted the planted trees on the street would threaten traffic safety.

"The investor said they would install reflective objects around the trees and vehicles can park next to them," he said.

The daily lives of the locals have been largely affected since the project was started three months ago. According to the investor, the Management Board of Construction Projects in Uong Bi, the project costs over VND79bn (USD3.4m) from the state budget. The construction units are Quang An Company and Thanh Thao Quang Ninh Company. The project is scheduled to be completed by Tet Holiday.

Nghe An raises alarm over pollution and labour safety

The authorities in Nghe An Province have raised concerns about environmental pollution and work accidents in the area.

Hoang Viet Duong, vice chairman of Nghe An People's Council, said that many firms had been flouting the regulations about environmental protection as most industrial zones, industrial clusters and traditional villages lack wastewater treatment.

Quy Hop District is one of the most threatened areas due to the high numbers of mining firms. For example, a sludge reservoir leak at Suoi Thiec Company on Lan Toong Mountain last year badly affected local residents. Recently, locals in Tho Hop commune expressed anger over a stone cutting factory.

Another highlighted problem is the lack of awareness over labour safety in Nghe An. The majority of the workers are not given work-wear or protective gear even though they have to work in hazardous environments. It's easy to see workers using a flimsy rope tied around their waists while dangling from a cliff at mines in Quy Hop.

From 2016 to June 2018, 66 work accidents occurred in Nghe An, killing and injuring 81 people.

The provincial Department of Natural Resources and the Environment has set up many inspection teams to deal with the problem. They inspected 140 firms and collected over VND2.5bn (USD107m) in fines from 31 violating firms. 14 out of 19 polluting firms are state-owned.

Deputy head of the legal department of Nghe An People's Council, Thai Thi An Chung, said the responsibility of the district authorities must be made clear as management over toxic substances is lax and the review and inspection work over the environmental impact assessment reports was limited.

Since last year, the firefighting department and local authorities have worked together to inspect 6,949 locations and collected VND934m over fire safety problems.

After the local Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs also carry out inspections over worker safety, many firms have upgraded their equipment, however, this has been insufficient and workplace awareness about safety was still lacking.

Vietnam Railway launches two new tickets selling websites

Passengers are advised to buy tickets at official websites operated by the Vietnam Railway Corporation

Saigon Railway Transport Joint Stock Company have officially launched two new websites to sell discounted tickets. 

Passengers who want to look for cheaper tickets from promotions can now log in at giare.vetau.vn, and giare.vetau.com.vn which have operated since January 1. These two new sites provide more details on the train timetables, seats and ticket prices which makes it easier for passengers to choose the most convenient trip.

Passengers can still buy tickets online from two sites of www.dsvn.vn, and www.vetau.com.vn.

The Vietnam Railway Corporation has recently warned about several websites that are selling online tickets at high prices.

The prices on those websites are often 20-40% higher than the listed prices of the Vietnam Railway Corporation. Some websites target foreign visitors with English interfaces. Those websites use a similar domain to the Vietnam Railway Corporation name to trick customers. 

More trains will be added to meet higher demand for the Lunar New Year. Online sales account for 44% out of the sector’s sold tickets. By December 21, nearly 230,000 tickets were sold for Tet.

HCM City vocational schools told to focus on soft skills

Experts call on HCM City’s vocational training schools to focus on soft skills.

Vocational training schools in HCM City should also teach soft skills to their students, experts said.

Many schools offered quality training, thus helping raise public awareness of the importance of vocational training, and many families put their children in them, Trần Minh Quân told a seminar on how to improve vocational training quality on Saturday.

However, there were shortcomings such as low training quality at some institutions and failure to meet the specific needs of various sectors and industries.

They were not very competent in teaching foreign languages and importantly did not focus on soft skills. 

The main goal of vocational education should be to improve the quality of human resources, particularly with the advent of the fourth industrial revolution in the country, he said.

Therefore, it should strengthen the linkage between training institutions and enterprises to meet market needs, create standards for vocational education and put in place a supervision and assessment mechanism, he added.

Nguyễn Thanh Lâm of the city Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs said the city had 484 vocational training establishments, comprising 50 colleges and 66 schools which provided two-year courses, 65 training institutions and 303 others.

More than 2.55 million students graduated from them since 2011.

Improving the quality of human resources is vital for the city, and finding proper solutions for training to meet demand is an urgent need.

There is huge demand for quality human resources in its services and industrial sectors and for labour export.

Other participants said, however, the training available did not meet the needs of enterprises, the market or global integration.

Many vocational schools offered the same courses and their facilities did not keep pace with modern needs, they said.

Lâm added that the vocational training establishments should therefore focus on soft skills and foreign languages. 

Tonnes of toxic waste seized in Binh Duong

Bags of hazardous waste piles up on one of the trucks. - Photo tuoitre.vn

Bình Dương Province Environmental Police, in collaboration with Thủ Dầu Một City Traffic Police, arrested the drivers of two trucks found to be illegally trafficking 21 tonnes of hazardous waste on Sunday, Tuổi trẻ (Youth) newspaper reports.  

The drivers were Trần Xuân Luân and Trần Tùng Vi. At the time they were caught, the two drivers could not show any origin certificate for the shipment.

The waste was mostly metal dust and base generated from steel production.

According to the drivers’ testimony, they were hired by Lê Văn Tin, owner of a scrap metal warehouse in Bến Cát Town, to ship waste from a company in Thủ Dầu Một’s Hoà Phú District to his warehouse.

Lê Văn Tin and the company are under investigation. 

Lâm Đồng master scheme ratified

A view of Đà Lạt, the capital city of Lâm Đồng Province in the Central Highlands. Đà Lạt will be developed into a Grade 1 city by 2025 as part of the province’s development scheme. — Photo baochinhphu.vn

Lâm Đồng Province will be developed to become an economic impetus of the Central Highlands with synchronous and modern infrastructure system by 2035, according to a region master scheme recently ratified by Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc.

The province, located on the area of 9,783.34 square meters, includes Đà Lạt City and Bảo Lộc City and 10 districts. 

By 2025, the province will consist of 19 urban areas, including one Grade 1 city (Đà Lạt City), one Grade 2 city (Bảo Lộc City), six Grade 4 cities and 11 Grade 5 cities.  

The province will become a research centre and high-tech agricultural production region, hoping to lead the way in farming in the country and become the largest fruit and vegetable production cluster in Southeast Asia.

The area will also include flower villages, traditional villages, green urban villages and agricultural tourism models. 

Concert dedicated to legacy of composer An Thuyên

Divo Tùng Dương (left) and Vietnamese overseas singer Thu Phương pose in front a backdrop featuring the late composer and songwriter An Thuyên. The artists will perform in a concert dedicated to the late composer in Hà Nội tonight. — Photo courtesy of Thanh Productions

A line-up of famous Vietnamese singers will gather to perform at a concert dedicated to late composer and songwriter An Thuyên and his musical legacy in Hà Nội tonight.

Named after a famous song by Thuyên, Đi Tìm Bóng Núi (Searching for Mountain’s Shadow), the concert will feature Tùng Dương, Trọng Tấn and Hồ Quỳnh Hương.

The concert will also present other award-winning singers such as Đinh Hiền Anh, Phạm Phương Thảo, Bùi Lê Mận, Nguyễn Thu Hằng and Phạm Thùy Dung, who will be on the stage to tell a story about the late songwriter through his music. All these singers were Thuyên’s students at the Military College of Culture & Arts in Hà Nội.

Especially, People’s Artist Thanh Hoa will return to the stage after a long absence.

According to the concert’s music director, songwriter and music producer Dương Cầm, he decided to invite the 69-year-old singer because “she is a crucial piece of the puzzle completing the portrait of An Thuyên.”

“As they are contemporaries, it can be said that singer Thanh Hoa is the one who witnessed Thuyên since his very first days of becoming a songwriter and saw how his career developed,” Cầm said.

The music director also revealed that all the songs performed in the concert have been remixed, aiming to bring a fresh take on the repertoire.

Several songs that brought Thuyên fame including Ca Dao Em Và Tôi (Folk Song of You and Me), Về Miền Trung (Return the Centre), Phật Bà Nghìn Mắt Nghìn Tay (The Thousand-armed and Thousand-eyed Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva), Đi Tìm Bóng Núi (Searching for Mountain’s Shadow), and Giấc Mơ Người Trai Mông (The Dream of Mông Ethnic Young Man), will be presented during the concert.

Coming back from the US, Vietnamese overseas singer Thu Phương, who is among artists performing in the concert, said she was a bit anxious on accepting the invitation to participate.

“My heart was fluttering when I received the invitation. Although I’ve never sang any song by Thuyên before but I regard this opportunity as a new challenge that makes me very eager,” Phương said.

A part of the proceeds of the concert will be donated to disadvantaged children in the northwest region of Việt Nam.

Produced by Thanh Productions, the concert will start at 8pm tonight at Hà Nội’s Friendship Palace on Trần Hưng Đạo Street.

Born in 1949 in Nghệ An Province, composer An Thuyên is well-known for his songs inspired by Vietnamese folk tunes. He joined the army in 1975 and two years later he became a musician in Military Zone 5’s troupe.

In 1981, he studied at the Hà Nội Conservatory of Music, now Việt Nam National Academy of Music, majoring in Music Composition.

After graduating, Thuyên worked for the Military Department of Culture & Arts, before moving to work at the Military College of Culture & Arts in 1992. He was a dedicated teacher, wrote several operas, and composed music for movies, dramas, traditional opera and reformed theatre.

In 2007, Thuyên was given the State Award for Literature and Art. He died at 65 of a heart attack in July 2015 in Hà Nội when he was Major General. 

Tình, Bình return to play for Sông Lam Nghệ An

Midfielder Nguyễn Quang Tình has re-signed for Sông Lam Nghệ An. — Photo vtv.vn

Sông Lam Nghệ An FC has brought back midfield duo Hoàng Văn Bình and Nguyễn Quang Tình for their second stints with the club ahead of the new season.

Tình was the club’s captain for several years before moving to Cần Thơ in 2016. During his time with Sông Lam Nghệ An, he won a V.League title in 2011.

Cần Thơ performed poorly in the V.League last year and were relegated to the First Division. As Tình’s deal with the club ended at the end of last season, he decided to return to his former club.

Bình left Sông Lam Nghệ An for Becamex Bình Dương in 2013 after winning the V.League trophy, the National Cup and the National Super Cup in 2011.

He won two V.League titles and one National Cup with Bình Dương before moving to FLC Thanh Hóa in 2016.

The two players, whose contract details were not disclosed, are expected to fill the void left by national team player Quế Ngọc Hải, who was sold to Viettel last week.

Further steps needed to control food safety: Deputy PM

Last year saw remarkable progress in food safety monitoring, particularly in the dissemination of safety information, the promotion of clean food production and distribution and the verification of product origins.

Last year saw remarkable progress in food safety monitoring, particularly in the dissemination of safety information, the promotion of clean food production and distribution and the verification of product origins.

Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam praised the progress in a meeting of the Central Inter-ministerial Committee on Food Safety held in Hà Nội yesterday to review food inspection work.

“Last year, inspection of food safety was implemented from the central to local levels, with the participation of relevant agencies,” said the Deputy PM, who also serves as the committee’s head. “The handling of violations has become stricter with increased fines as compared to previous years.”

“However, there were shortcomings in control of the use of plant protection chemicals and antibiotics, livestock and poultry slaughtering and food trading,” said Đam

According to the committee’s report, in 2018, Hà Nội authorities made 102,945 inspections on food safety and hygiene, discovering 6,859 entities violating regulations and collecting VNĐ25 billion (US$1.07 million) in fines. They destroyed unsafe products of 125 workshops.

The Ministry of Health gave administrative sanctions worth VNĐ89 billion (US$3.8 million) nationwide, 1.4 times more than in 2017.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s inspectors uncovered violations in more than 4,900 entities trading agricultural production materials and issued fines of VNĐ38.4 billion (US$1.6 million), the report said.

Moreover, 15 parties were prosecuted for food safety violation in 11 cases.

The capacity of the inspection teams was raised so as to detect, prevent and handle various forms of violations. Safety information was publicised widely on mass media to give the population adequate information.

Inspectors worked to disseminate information to increase awareness of safety issues and co-ordinated with the media to provide information about businesses that failed to meet food safety standards.

More work was done to prevent food poisoning, and the number of deaths associated with food poisoning decreased from previous years.

However, the committee showed shortcomings in inspection and control activities nationwide.

Progress has been slow in handling the abuse of plant protection chemicals, veterinary drugs and antibiotics in agriculture and aquaculture. The use of food additives and unsafe slaughtering practices also must be addressed. Cross-border food smuggling persists, and the sale and advertisement of supplements online has not yet been controlled.

Speaking in the meeting, Health Minister Trần Thị Kim Tiến pointed out three factors hindering food safety control. These were deliberate violations by businesses, poor facilities and low awareness of the population on eating street food.

The minister said in the coming time, authorities should continue to strengthen inspection and monitoring measures and strictly handle violations of food safety while honouring good production facilities.

It was also necessary to foster capacity for food control departments at local levels, Tiến said.

Concluding the meeting, the deputy PM asked the ministries and relevant agencies to promote inspections and sanctions for violations, and to carry out food safety monitoring programs nationwide focusing on chemicals, plant protection substances and safe slaughtering, especially in big cities and agricultural areas.

In particular, Hà Nội and HCM City should further control food production and trading so as to have the same quality as export products, said the deputy PM.

HCM City administration sets performance bar high for 2019

The HCM City People’s Committee unveiled several ambitious targets for this year at a review meeting yesterday.

It listed administrative reform, e-governance, improvement in public administration, creation of a healthy business environment, encouragement for innovation, start-up, and mitigating climate change, flooding, traffic congestion, and pollution.

“The city aims to achieve 8.3 – 8.5 per cent growth and have 46,200 new enterprises in 2019,” Lê Thanh Liêm, deputy chairman of the People’s Committee, told the meeting.

He said 130,000 jobs would be created and poverty would be reduced by 0.7 %.

“Of the city’s workforce, 83 per cent would have been trained and the jobless rate will be under 3.8 per cent.”

Around 8 million square metres of housing space would be added in 2019, and each resident would have an average of 20sq.m of space, he said.

“The city will have 19 doctors and 42 beds for every 10,000 population and 100 per cent of the population will have healthcare insurance,”

All households would get clean water and groundwater use would be only 25 per cent of the 2018 level, he said.

“Hundred per cent of household solid waste and industrial wastewater will be treated as will 98 per cent of hospital wastewater.

“The city will try to enter the top 20 in the Public Administration Performance Index, top 10 in the Public Administration Reform Index and top five in the Provincial Competitiveness Index.”

People’s Committee chairman Nguyễn Thành Phong yesterday named Bùi Xuân Cường, director of the Department of Transport, as head of the Management Authority for Urban Railway (MAUR) until 2020 in the place of Lê Nguyễn Minh Quang, who resigned for personal reasons.

Cường, 43, was head of MAUR for a year until August 2015 when he became chief of the transport department.

Phong said that the ongoing urban railway project is vital to upgrade transport infrastructure.

“The city has ordered completion of the metro line No 1 from Bến Thành to Suối Tiên by 2020. Currently 61 per cent of the work has been completed.”

Meanwhile, the State Audit of Việt Nam (SAV) has pointed out several lapses in the project.

It said in 2011 the People’s Committee had approved an increase in the cost of the project from VNĐ17.2 trillion (US$740.4 million) to more than VNĐ47.3 trillion ($2.01 billion).

But it did so without explaining where the additional money would come from or assessing investment efficiency, it said.

Besides, the decision was unauthorised because national projects costing more than VNĐ35 trillion ($1.5 billion) need to be approved by the Prime Minister, it said.

Thái Nguyên records progress in asset recovery from corruption

Nguyễn Hoà Bình (c), Secretary of the Party Central Committee and Chief Justice of the Việt Nam Supreme People’s Court, speaks at a wo rking session between provincial authorities and the Central Steering Committee on Anti-corruption in Thái Nguyên yesterday.

Northern Thái Nguyên Province has made progress recovering asset following corruption cases.

This comes two years after the provincial Party implemented a master plan to crackdown on discovering and handling corruption during the 2016-20 period.

The information was revealed at a working session between provincial authorities and the Central Steering Committee on Anti-corruption in Thái Nguyên yesterday when a draft report on examination results of the withdrawal of assets from corruption cases in the province was presented.

The rate of assets recovered after violations reached 69 per cent through investigation activities and 27.2 per cent through adjudication activities.  

Investigative agencies of the provincial Police handled 196 cases of corruption and economic violations, involving 313 defendants during the period.

Authorised agencies carried out legal proceedings against 59 defendants involved in 30 corruption cases, recovering VNĐ9.5 billion (US$409,000).  They also revoked nearly VNĐ3 billion from economic violations.

However, the report highlights shortcomings by provincial authorities, including the low rate of asset recovery.

The draft report also proposed the provincial authorities continue guiding the implementation of Party and State regulations on anti-corruption, increase supervision over the discovery and handling of corruption cases as well as actively find, identify and recover assets from corruption cases.

Nguyễn Hoà Bình, Secretary of the Party Central Committee and Chief Justice of the Việt Nam Supreme People’s Court, spoke highly of the results made by the provincial authorities.

However, he noted although not many cases of corruption happened in Thái Nguyên at present, the province still needed to focus on supervision, inspection and discovery of violations and effectively implement anti-corruption tasks.

It was also crucial to abide by related regulations in carrying out adjudication activities in order to prevent wrongful convictions and missing out violators, he said.