Members of Visa Safe Vegetable Co-operative in Đại Từ Commune, Yên Lạc Districtin the northern province of Vĩnh Phúc process and pack vegetable.

Deputy Prime Minister Vương Đình Huệ yesterday asked ministries and agencies to identify shortcomings and develop new models and motivations to boost the growth of co-operatives in Việt Nam.

Huệ, who is also head of the Steering Committee for Innovation and Collective Economy Development, said that next year, Việt Nam would review the implementation of a resolution of the fifth plenum of the Party Committee which was issued 15 years ago aiming to further innovate and increase effectiveness of the collective economy.

He said that central government representatives would visit localities to review the performance of co-operatives.

In localities where co-operatives are still absent, more communication activities would be carried out to increase public understanding about the role of collective economy, Huệ said.

“As Việt Nam is speeding up its economic restructuring, it’s a challenge for the country to have 15,000 co-operatives in agriculture by 2020,” Huệ said.

At the 3rd National Farmers Forum held in Hà Nội last month, Huệ highlighted the leading role of co-operatives in connecting farmers with businesses, working towards promoting strong and effective agricultural production and consumption.

Setting up co-operatives was said to be a mandatory task with farmers as the main subject to enlarge the scale of agricultural production, promote the role of the household economy and strengthen co-operative links between farmers and scientists.

According to the Việt Nam Co-operatives Alliance, there are more than 21,000 co-operatives with the involvement of nearly 10 million families and nearly 30 million people around the country. The collective economy and co-operatives contribute 5.6 per cent to gross domestic production (GDP).

Statistics from the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry (MARD) show that by the end of June, 2018, the country had 39 co-operative unions and more than 12,500 co-operatives operating in the agricultural sector, an increase of 908 co-operatives from last year.

About 4,400 agricultural co-operatives are reportedly operating effectively but 1,500 of these still need to apply high technology. 

Tiền Giang supports women startups

Tiền Giang Province has begun a project to help women own and operate their own startup businesses.

The Mekong Delta province of Tiền Giang has launched a project called “Supporting women start-ups in the 2018-2025 period” with the aim of reducing poverty and ensuring social security.

Beneficiaries are women who have business ideas and want to own and operate their own businesses.

Lê Văn Nghĩa, deputy chairman of the province’s People’s Committee, said the project was designed to spark creativity among women and meet the State targets for enterprise development and gender equality in business fields.

The province aims to support 200 female startup projects by 2025, with five cooperatives managed by women.

The project is being carried out by the provincial Women’s Union, with total investment of VNĐ3.5 billion from the State budget.

Nguyễn Thị Kim Phượng, chairwoman of the union, said the union had annually organised a day to offer consultation and training to women on legal issues, branding, and other business topics.

The project’s two stages are from 2018 to 2020, and from 2020 to 2025.

Every year, the province will work with agencies to create plans and evaluate the progress of the project.

Vietnamese and French health experts gather to discuss lung cancer in Hà Nội

Permanent Deputy Minister of Health Nguyễn Viết Tiến speaks at the second Việt Nam–France conference on cancer, which opened today in Hà Nội. 

Vietnamese and French health experts exchanged professional experience on cancer control and prevention, with a focus on lung cancer, at the second Việt Nam–France conference on cancer, which opened Wednesday in Hà Nội.

Speaking at the event, Permanent Deputy Minister of Health Nguyễn Viết Tiến said the conference was a good chance for local and international experts to develop an overall picture about lung cancer control, prevention and treatment.

“Cancer has been a big burden for many nations in the world, especially poor and developing countries,” said Tiến. “In Việt Nam, cancer is increasing nationwide, requiring special attention of the whole society. In 2018, the country reported 164,671 new cancer cases and 114,871 cancer deaths.”

More than 300,000 people currently are living with cancer in Việt Nam. Most cancer patients were diagnosed in the later stages of the disease, making treatment more difficult and expensive, said Tiến.

The National K (Cancer) Hospital director Trần Văn Thuấn said lung cancer was the most common cancer worldwide among both men and women. According to GLOBOCAN 2018, there are about 2.09 million new lung cancer cases and 1.76 million lung cancer deaths yearly in the world. In Việt Nam, there are 23,667 new lung cancer cases and more than 20,000 annual deaths.

“Strengthening doctors’ professional knowledge and people’s awareness on preventing, detecting and treating lung cancer is very important, requiring more attention from the health sector and the whole society,” Thuấn said.  

During the three-day event, participants will share experiences, provide updates on the latest research on lung cancer risks prevention, advanced diagnosis and treatment methods. They will discuss instructions for diagnosing and treating lung and colorectal cancers, patient classification, radiotherapy and chemotherapy methods and geriatric cancer. The conference also is an important foundation for the development of Việt Nam’s national lung cancer strategy.

Health has been one of the most important areas of collaboration between Việt Nam and France in recent years. More than 3,000 Vietnamese doctors were trained in France and more than 1,500 doctors were trained in Việt Nam with support from French experts.

Đồng Nai Province allocates more than $94,000 for free vaccines

A child is provided a two-in-one vaccine against measles and rubella in Hà Nội. 

The Department of Health in the southeastern province of Đồng Nai this month is providing two-in-one measles and rubella vaccines to more than 200,000 children aged 1 to 5 as part of a Ministry of Health campaign.

Children who received vaccinations less than one month before the start of the campaign do not need to be vaccinated.

More than VNĐ2.2 billion (US$94,156) for the vaccines comes from the province’s budget.

The vaccines are provided at health stations in wards and communes.

The department has set up many mobile teams of health staff in areas where there are many workers with kids. Other teams are located at kindergartens and nurseries.

Đồng Nai Province is home to many industrial parks with a large number of workers who do not have the time to take their children to health stations for vaccinations.

The campaign, which ends in December, aims to vaccinate 95 per cent of children aged 1 to 5 in the province.

According to the province’s Preventive Health Centre, more than 330 patients with measles had been reported as of October. Many of them had not been vaccinated.

Đồng Nai Province is one of three southern provinces carrying out the ministry’s campaign because it is considered a high- risk area for a measles outbreak.

Many workers also do not have immunisation against measles. 

UN funds give poor residents disaster-resistant houses

Heavy flooding occurs annually in Quảng Điền District. 

Nguyễn Hùng, a paralysed lottery ticket seller in the central province of Thừa Thiên-Huế, has finally got his dream house. Part of funding for construction came from a housing programme run by the UNDP.

Hùng, a 50-year-old resident of Sịa Township in the province’s Quảng Điền District, said his humble income is sufficient for feeding his three children. He is unable to use one leg and this prevents him from farming or construction jobs which have higher salaries.

Quảng Điền is one of the lowest lying areas in the province, with inundation sometimes lasting for a month. The condition means his family are some of the most vulnerable to floods. 

“In 1999, a historic flood occurred in the province and my old house was flooded almost to the roof. My family and others in this area had to evacuate,” said Hùng. “Since then, we have lived in the fear and I dreamed of a better house.”

His dream came true this year after he joined a UNDP housing programme, in which the UN development body gave him half of the construction cost and the other half was lent by the local Bank for Social Policies.

“Without international funding, I would have never been able to own this good house, built for VNĐ104 million (US$4,500). I have no savings and didn’t dare ask for a bank loan,” said Hùng.

Hùng’s newly-built house is built of concrete, with a living room and a kitchen underneath and a mezzanine floor above. Hùng said the mezzanine would shelter his family in case of flooding. At the same time, Hùng has kept the old house attached to the new structure to give his family more space.

According to Akiko Fujii, deputy director of UNDP Country Office in Việt Nam, the housing fund is part of a programme to assist poor families in areas threatened by climate change. Fujii said at a ceremony held in the province handing over 107 houses built with UNDP funds that those houses are “safe structures”, not only for flood resistance but can also protect residents from extreme weather conditions like typhoons.

“The houses have a mezzanine floor to protect residents from floods and their roofs are reinforced to endure strong winds,” she said, adding that the structure of those houses aims to save lives and improve the resilience of the communities as well.

UNDP explained the choice of Thừa Thiên-Huế as a key area for the project due to the high frequency of floods and typhoons. The UN body also targeted the poor, disadvantaged and elderly people to benefit from the project.

The province has a total of 135 families in lowland areas of Quảng Điền, Phong Điền and Hương Trà districts registered with the project, of which 107 households received houses this year and the remainder will get their homes in early 2019.

For each house, the UNDP will provide $1,700 and the remainder comes from contingency costs given by the Government.

The project found difficulties, according to residents in Hải Dương Commune in Hương Trà District, in the mindset of rural families. Those people felt it hard to comply with the material and structural requirements.

Residents in rural areas are often reluctant to follow modern procedures in construction.

However, that seemed to not be the case with some elderly residents taking advantage of the project. The project gave beneficiaries two options - one allows families to use just funds given by UNDP. The other assists residents in accessing preferential bank loans in case they want to spend more on their houses.

The first option is most relevant to the elderly, who are incapable of making bank loan repayments. Trương Vinh, an 81-year-old resident of Quảng Thành Commune in Quảng Điền District, said he is happy with the funded house. Vinh lives with his wife in the commune.

“My wife and I have no worries now. The house is beautiful and we no longer worry about storms, floods, and also debt,” he said. 

Illegal sand mining discovered along Đồng Nai River

Excessive sand mining has caused landslides along Đồng Nai River. 

Authorised agencies of southern Bình Phước Province have discovered 15 cases of illegal sand mining so far this year along the upstream section of Đồng Nai River that flows through the province, provincial police announced on Tuesday.

Authorised forces temporarily seized 11 sand exploitation boats and over 431cu.m of sand. Violators were fined over VNĐ500 million (US$21,400).

Local authorities have expressed concern about illegal sand exploitation along the river, which has caused landslides in some areas.

Severe landslides along the Đồng Nai River forced the two provinces the river flows through, Đồng Nai and Lâm Đồng, to suspend all sand mining activities – including licensed projects – for three months leading up to the end of last year.

Overexploitation of sand in the Đồng Nai River has deformed the riverbed, which has changed the water flow and eroded river banks, causing hundreds of thousands of square metres of soil to fall into the river.

According to a report issued last year by the Lâm Đồng People’s Committee, landslides on the Đồng Nai riverbanks affected at least 11.75 hectares in Cát Tiên District alone, with more than 107,500sq.m of soil disappearing in Quảng Ngãi Commune. Phước Cát 1 and Phước Cát 2 communes have lost 1,200sq.m and 8,800sq.m, respectively.

In May, Deputy Prime Minister Trương Hòa Bình ordered local authorities to tighten control over sand and gravel exploitation in order to manage agricultural land and protect forests. 

Tra Vinh to build embankments to protect local coast

The Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh will build embankments to protect an important coastal section in Hiep Thanh commune. 

The Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh will build embankments to protect an important coastal section in Hiep Thanh commune, of Duyen Hai town, as it is facing increasingly serious erosion along its coastline.

Invested in with over 126 billion VND (5.4 million USD), the project will be comprised of two embankment stretches with a total length of 1.2km. The first 400m section will be constructed in Cho hamlet from now until 2019, while the other, in 2020.

Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Dong Van Lam said Tra Vinh is home to an over 65km-long coast as well as many rivers, including the Tien and Hau Rivers – the two tributaries of the Mekong River.

The ever-growing impact of climate change and illegal sand mining on rivers have worsened coastal and river bank erosion, especially in the rainy season, he noted.

More than 100 coastal and river bank erosion sites have been recorded across the province, including those in Truong Long Hoa and Hiep Thanh communes (Duyen Hai town); Long Hoa, Hoa Minh, and Hung My communes (Chau Thanh district); and An Phu Tan and Ninh Thoi communes (Cau Ke district).

Lam said that over the past years, the province has invested over 1 trillion VND (43.2 million USD) sourced from the central budget to build coastal dykes and embankments to prevent erosion. However, the problem has yet to be thoroughly addressed due to limited funding and asynchronous construction.

The facilities to be built in Hiep Thanh commune will make up one of the three embankment projects to be carried out soon in Tra Vinh. The two others will be constructed along a river in Long Tri Islet and the coast in Dong Hai commune. 

Hanoi’s silk village to host handicraft festival

The Van Phuc Culture – Tourism – Trading Handicraft Village event will take place from November 8-17.(Photo: kinhtedothi.vn)

Various activities celebrating traditional silk weaving will be held in Van Phuc ward, Ha Dong district, between November 8 and 17 during the Van Phuc Culture – Tourism – Trading Handicraft Village event.

The event will include a worship ceremony, festive activities and a crafts market. Art shows and folk games will entertain tourists while trading will take place at silk stores every day until 11pm.

Food stalls will serve local cuisine while bonsai plants and flowers will be available at the site.

Van Phuc silk village (or Ha Dong silk village), located 10 km west of Hanoi downtown, has a hundred-year history of handicrafts.

Its products were first introduced to the world at the Marseille Fair in 1931 and in Paris in 1932, where they were called delicate handicraft products of Indochina

Between 1958 and 1988, the village’s products were exported to eastern European countries before being exported to other countries all over the world starting in 1990. 

Report on land clearance for Long Thanh int’l airport project approved

Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung has approved a feasibility report on a project of land clearance, compensation and resettlement support related to the construction of Long Thanh International Airport in the southern province of Dong Nai. 

The project aims to recover land, give compensation and resettlement support to locals living in the area, making it easy for the investor to complete the project on schedule. 

It will focus on vocational training and generating jobs for locals, and adjusting the administrative boundaries of communes in the project area.

Attention will also be paid to settling complaints and denunciations of organizations, households and individuals during the project’s implementation. 

The project is invested by the People’s Committee of Dong Nai province with a total cost of over 22.85 trillion VND (over 978.7 million USD) sourced from the State budget. 

Of the amount, 4.1 trillion VND will be invested in infrastructure development of resettlement areas; 479 billion VND for building infrastructure facilities outside the airport; over 17.8 trillion for support of resettlement; 306 billion VND for vocational training and job generation; and 27 billion VND for building a feasible report of the project. 

The project is implemented from 2017-2021.

Pyrolysis technology improves coffee quality

UNIDO experts survey coffee production used pyrolysis technology in Viet Hien Company Limited. 

The pyrolysis technology applied in coffee production in the Central Highland province of Dak Lak has shown efficiency in reducing greenhouse gas emission and improving product quality, a survey of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) said on November 7.

Pyrolysis is thermochemical decomposition of organic material at elevated temperatures in the absence of oxygen. Pyrolysis of coffee husks creates heat which can be used to dry coffee beans and leaves a solid residue, which is rich in carbon content and can be used to improve soil fertility while minimising CO2 emissions.

Three years ago, Viet Hien Company Limited in the province was the recipient of the pyrolysis technology transfer under the “Minimisation of Industrial Waste for Low Carbon Production” project funded by the Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs through the UNIDO. Besides disseminating the pyrolysis equipment in Dak Lak province, the firm successfully transferred the technology to Brazil.

Swiss Ambassador to Vietnam Maser Mallor lauded the efficiency of pyrolysis technology used in coffee production in Vietnam, saying that it helps lower greenhouse gas emission while saving electricity and water.

She affirmed that Vietnam is among prioritised countries in the Swiss Government’s economic cooperation programme, and her country will continue supporting Vietnam to improve its capacity in environmental protection and response to climate change.

According to the UNIDO, during 2013-2017, the project backed clean production at 16 rice and 10 coffee processing plants, saving 1.08 million kWh per year, equivalent to more than 80,000 USD, and cutting 621 tonnes of CO2 each year.

Exhibition on war remnants opens in Da Nang

Visitors at the exhibition 

An exhibition featuring over 200 objects and photos related to the past war in Vietnam and the country’s efforts towards overcoming the consequences of bombs and mines and residues of toxic chemicals leftover from the wartime kicked off in the central Da Nang city on November 7. 

The exhibition called ‘Hoi Sinh Nhung Vung Dat Chet’ (Resurrection in Dead Lands) highlighted Vietnam’s efforts in cleaning up the environment in areas contaminated with residual toxic chemicals and in removing post-war unexploded ordnances. 

The US army sprayed some 80 million litres of toxic chemicals from 1961 to 1971, 61 percent of which was Agent Orange containing 366 kilograms of dioxin, over nearly one quarter of the total area of South Vietnam.

Preliminary statistics showed that 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange/dioxin, and about 3 million people became victims. Tens of thousands of people have died while millions of others have suffered from cancer and other incurable diseases as a result. Many of their offspring have also suffered from birth defects. 

The exhibition will run through December 22.

Earlier, a similar exhibition was held in Ho Chi Minh City in April.

Mekong Delta should foster collaboration between farm stakeholders: experts

Farmers grow clean vegetables in Cần Thơ City’s Phong Điền District. 

The Mekong Delta should bring farmers and agricultural companies closer together and adopt advanced farming techniques to increase the value of its farm products, experts have said.

The delta has conducive conditions for growing rice and fruits and aquaculture yet their exports are below expectations because of the small scale of production and failure to apply advanced farming techniques, they said.

The region accounts for more than 50 per cent of the country’s rice, 70 per cent of fruits and 58 per cent of fisheries output.

Speaking at a seminar in Cần Thơ on Monday, Lê Thanh Tùng, deputy head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s plant cultivation department, said Việt Nam has a great advantage in fruit exports since it has a diverse variety.

There are experts and agricultural officials to help farmers use advanced techniques to grow fruits in the off-season, according to Tùng.

The country’s potential for export of fruits such as mangosteen is high but farmers do not plant it in large quantities.

However, the biggest concerns are that the delta’s farmers do not “like” to join hands for farming or use the advanced farming techniques taught by agricultural officials and lack access to markets, he said.

The fact that farmers do not apply some of the advanced farming techniques they are taught has meant the quality of their products not meet export demands.

Other participants said to add value to its key agricultural products, the delta provinces should establish more concentrated farming areas and boost the application of advanced farming techniques to control the quantity and quality.

Farmers should join co-operatives to tie up with companies since they sign purchase contracts only with co-operatives and not individual farmers, they said.

Nguyễn Minh Toại, director of the Cần Thơ Department of Industry and Trade, said the city should encourage farmers to set up co-operatives to develop large-scale speciality fruit growing areas and attract companies and processors who process fruits for exports.

Nguyễn Tấn Nhơn, deputy director of the Cần Thơ Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the city had created tie-ups between various stakeholders for growing key agricultural products such as high-quality rice and for establishing large-scale rice fields.

It has set up clean vegetable growing areas and speciality fruit growing areas that are combined with eco-tourism.

The city has developed aquaculture areas that apply quality standards such as Vietnamese good agricultural practice, Aquaculture Stewardship Council and Best Management Practices.

The city has decided to move towards hi-tech agriculture, smart agriculture and urban agriculture and combine them with eco-tourism.

HAGL’s Triều to go on loan to Bình Dương

Hoàng Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) midfielder Trần Hữu Đông Triều will play for Becamex Bình Dương under a two-year loan contract.
According to HAGL’s leaders, they aim to help defending champions of the National Cup Bình Dương form a good roster to compete at the upcoming AFC Cup 2019.

Triều, 23, is one of prominent talents of HAGL football institute alongside midfielders Nguyễn Tuấn Anh and Lương Xuân Trường and striker Nguyễn Công Phượng.

Triều was formerly a member of the national U23 team. In 2012, he was one of four young HAGL players invited to train with Arsenal for a month.

“Triều is a good player,” said Bình Dương’s chairman Hồ Hồng Thạch. “He is expected to bring a new blood to the midfield.”

Besides Triều, Bình Dương extended their contracts with key players such as Lê Tấn Tài, Đinh Hoàng Max and Trần Đức Cường to prepare for the new season.

Bình Dương also inked a contract with Brazilian footballer Wander Luiz Queiroz Dias from Cần Thơ Football Club. Dias has scored 13 goals in 22 matches in the national top flight league this year.