Hanoi’s BRT project runs effectively: WB

The World Bank’s (WB) experts have highlighted the effective operation of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project in Hanoi, said Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Nguyen Duc Chung at the meeting with voters on October 8.
 
Chairman Chung said that since its inception, the occupancy of BRT vehicles has increased to 52% from the previous 43%. Compared with BRT services provided funded by the WB in other countries in the region and in the world, the BRT project in Hanoi is one of the most effective ones, Chung cited WB statistics as saying.

He stressed that in order to increase the rate of passengers using BRT, it is necessary to connect effectively with other bus routes and the Cat Linh - Ha Dong railway, which is set to come into commercial operation early next year. 

Hanoi is also seeking solutions to improve the quality of BRT service, creating favorable conditions for its residents to use this kind of transport, Chung said.

BRT is one of the three components in the Hanoi Urban transport investment project, which was approved in 2007 and financed by the WB's official development assistance (ODA). 

Work on BRT route No.01, which runs from Yen Nghia bus station to Kim Ma street with a length of 14.77 kilometers, started in 2013, but due to delays and difficulties in construction, only until December 31, 2016 did this BRT route come into operation at a cost of US$53.6 million.

According to statistics of the Hanoi Public Transport Management and Operation Center, since its first launching, BRT has achieved high efficiency with the average number of 13,485 passengers per day and reached 17,465 passengers per day in peak hour. 

Director of the Hanoi Public Transport Management and Operation Center Nguyen Hoang Hai said that passenger of BRT mainly use this kind of transportation in peak hours, from 7.00 – 9.00 a.m and 4.30 – 6.30 p.m, contributing to 50% capacity of the whole day. It is expected that passengers will experience the best services in BRT. This is a great advantage and contributes to the image of BRT, Hai added. 

According to the WB's senior transport specialist Paul Vallely, BRT has been implemented efficiently in many countries in the world, which meets the transport demand of the public for low investment requirement. With the rapid growth of Hanoi's population, as well as the number of individual transport vehicles, the implementation of BRT is necessary. 

Through their own stories in daily life, 100 girl representatives attending the recent National Forum on Girls 2018 have raised a call to protect girls in public places and end child marriage.

The forum was held in Hanoi from October 5 to 7 by the National Assembly’s Committee for Culture, Education, Youth, Adolescents and Children, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, the Central Committee of Ho Chi Minh Youth Union, and Plan International Vietnam.

Ho Thi Thuy lives in the most remote commune in Chiem Hoa district, Quang Binh province. None in the village can remember from when their families have settled down there. Everyday, the youth go to work in the fields while the elder stay at home to take care children.

At the forum, Thuy revealed that girls in her village are assumed to get married at around 15 or 16. Some of them even coupled at 12 or 13. Villagers do not get married to one from other villages.

When girls grow up and find that they like someone, they get pregnant and discuss about marriage with their parents without registration of marriage or relevant legal procedures, Thuy said.

Not long ago, Thuy’s brother got married. Thuy’s sister-in-law is no one else but Mai, her cousin next door. The reason for the marriage is simple, which is seen as common in the village: first comes baby, then comes marriage.

Mai was 14 at that time. Getting married in the village also means that girls have to drop out from school. As Mai was too young, she was sent to district’s hospital for caesarean section for the baby's delivery. Fortunately, the arrival of the baby was successful.

However, according to the village‘s custom, women are not allowed to return home after giving birth, they have to stay with their babies in a small hut. No social and reproductive knowledge, no baby care skills, the custom had high potential for risk of survival of Mai and her baby. The long-standing and backward tradition still won at the end, as usual.

Although it has been several years since the baby was born, Thuy’s family has not yet cleared all the debt from taking her daughter-in-law to the hospital for Mai’s delivery. There are many other households in the village who still have their daughter-in-law give birth at home. Although it is very dangerous, it is partly because of difficult conditions, and long-standing tradition, according to Thuy.

Taking place under the theme ‘Promoting girls’ rights for changes and development’, the National Forum on Girls also attracted the participation from leaders of a number of National Assembly (NA) committees, ministries, sectors and social organisations.

Focusing on two major topics of “Girls’ safety in rural areas” and “Child marriage and its consequences”, the participants shared their opinions on the situation and challenges facing millions of Vietnamese girls in public places, on their way to school and throughout stages of growing.

Whenever New Year celebrations or traditional festival come, girls in mountainous regions feel increasingly worried on their way to the fields, local markets or schools because they might be caught to become the wife of someone they don’t have feelings for or even a stranger, shared ethnic minority girls from ‘Hoa Ban’ team during their presentation at the forum.

According to local tradition, within three days after they are caught, the girl is considered as a married woman and she obviously becomes a member of the kidnapper’s family.

Oddly enough, many people accused that girls just waste their time attending school, declaring that a good girl should stay at home and work the farm with parents.

For that reason, many girls in ‘Hoa Ban’ team’s village become mothers of two or three children by the age of 18. Many of their husbands are jobless, alcoholic or even drug addicts. With no happiness in the family, many marriages end with divorces, according to the team’s members.

Girl representatives at the forum also gave suggestions and proposals on how to ensure right and interest for girls, including the building of entertainment spaces and works designed exclusively for girls.

Meanwhile, officials from agencies, ministries, sectors and organisations listened to and answered questions raised by the girls and reaffirmed their commitment for prompt actions to guarantee safety for children, especially girls, in public places and to address child marriage in the living areas of ethnic minority groups.

A trailer truck suddenly burst into flames at 10:30pm on October 8 while running on Ho Chi Minh expressway through Central Highland Gia Lai province.

According to Head of the Gia Lai provincial Fire Fighting Prevention and Control Office Duong Thanh Binh, the truck was carrying 32 tonnes of rubber latex.

Six fire engines and 30 firefighters rushed to the scene immediately after hearing the news.

The firefighting force met numerous difficulties to extinguish the fire as the rubber latex is combustible.

Until 2 a.m of October 9, the blaze was brought under control. The fire completely destroyed the truck and the whole 32 tonnes of rubber latex, causing huge losses.

The incident is being investigated.

Trial opens in illegal gold trading case

Accused members of International Gold Trading Joint Stock Company stand trial in Hà Nội. 

The Hà Nội People’s Court opened the first hearing in an illegal gold trading case against International Gold Trading Joint Stock Company (IG JSC) on Monday.

Of the 11 accused, ten were charged with illegal trading in accordance with Article 159, clause 2 of the 1999 Panel Code. They are Mai Xuân Tú, general director of IG JSC; Lương Trần Hưng, director of the Hải Dương branch; Lưu Công Khánh, Lưu Trung Kiên and Vũ Văn Thuấn, staff of the Thanh Hóa branch; Phạm Đức Tài, Trần Hồng Nhung, Nguyễn Ngọc Thế, Nguyễn Ngọc Giới, staff of IG JSC and Nguyễn Doãn Hùng, director of Nhân Đôi Consultancy one member limited company.

Phạm Đức Tài, Lưu Công Khánh and Vũ Đình Hùng were accused of using telecommunications networks and digital devices to illegally appropriate other people’ property in accordance with Article 226, Clause 4 of the 1999 Panel Code.

According to the indictment, from October 2013 to February 2015, Pham Duc Tai set up IG JSC at 165 Thai Ha in Hà Nội’s Dong Da District.  The company had branch offices in Hải Dương, Thanh Hóa and Thái Nguyên provinces.

Tài instructed Khánh to purchase software to trade gold online.

Tài and his staff also forged paperwork to create a business license for a fake company called NAPMIG that claimed to specialise in online gold trading. Then they advertised IG as an authorised NAPMIG agency to customers, inviting them to invest in its virtual gold trading floor.

Investigators said IG stole over US $2.97 million, equal to about 4,000 taels of gold.

They also found that IG JSC did not have a license to raise capital or trade in gold bars or deposits.

From April 2012 to August 2013, as director of Nhân Đôi Consultancy, Nguyễn Doãn Hùng worked with IG JSC 40 customers to trade gold. Hùng’s company got VNĐ 98 million ($4,200) in profit while IG earned VNĐ 230 million ($9,860) through the deals.

The trial is scheduled to end on October 15. 

Knowledge about cancer and treatment updated

New technologies in the treatment, screening and early detection of cancer were updated at the Vietnam Cancer Patient Forum 2018 held by the Salt Cancer Initiative (SCI) in Da Nang city on October 8.

Leading experts in the oncology sector of Vietnam and the United States also introduced cancer patients and their relatives to the similarities and differences between the two countries’ regimens in cancer treatment, nutrition for people with cancer, measures to prevent cancer, and diseases caused by cancer.

Sharing the importance of the early detection of cancer, doctor Pham Nguyen Quy from the Oncology Department under Japan’s Kyoto University Hospital said that from 50 to 70 percent of cases detecting cancer via screening are at an early stage with the recovery ability of 90-100 percent. Meanwhile, 65-70 percent of cancer detected during normal health check-ups are at the last stage with the recovery ability of 20-30 percent.

Comparing the regimens in cancer treatment of Vietnam and the US, doctor Tran Huynh, President and founder of the US non-profit healthcare organisation VietMD, stated that over the past time, Vietnamese doctors have actively got updates on the US’s cancer treatment knowledge, thus making the two countries’ regimens quite similar.

The result of treatment depends much on the physical condition of each patient as well as the health care system, Huynh said, asking patients to realise that treating cancer is a comprehensive care, not relying on the treatment regimen.

Established in 2016, SCI is the first ecosystem model for Vietnamese cancer patients.

Bac Lieu cares for Khmer ethnic people

Khmer people at a pagoda 

Delegations from the Party Committee and authorities of the Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu on October 8 visited and presented gifts to local Khmer religious dignitaries and people on the occasion of the traditional Sene Dolta Festival.

During the visits, the local leaders wished Khmer Buddhist monks and nuns, and people a happy and warm festival. They expressed their delight at the improving living conditions of local Khmer residents, with decreasing poverty rate and stable security, social order and safety.

The provincial authorities wished that in the coming time, Khmer religious dignitaries and people will continue promoting the tradition of patriotism and solidarity spirit among ethnic groups, contributing to maintaining security and order in the locality. 

Khmer people are hoped to actively take part in implementing social security and economic development policies and work hard to escape poverty and enrich their homeland.

Monk Ly Sa Mouth, President of the provincial Association of Solidarity of Patriotic Buddhist Monks, thanked the local authorities for their attention and care for the association and the Khmer community. 

In the coming time, the association as well as Buddhist monks and nuns will work closely with local authorities to care for Khmer ethnic people and continue encouraging them to obey the Party policies and State laws, while promoting solidarity among ethnic groups in the province, contributing to local development.

Bac Lieu is home to more than 15,000 Khmer households, accounting for 7.71 percent of its total population. They live in 32 out of 64 communes across the province, including 23 difficult communes.

The Sene Dolta Festival in the late eighth lunar month is one of the three biggest traditional festivals of Khmer people, along with Chol Chnam Thmay (New Year) and Ok Om Bok (a festival to thank the Moon for good harvests).

During this festival, Khmer people pay tribute to their ancestors and take part in community celebration activities with traditional songs and dances after a hard working year.

Catholics contribute to national construction, defence

At the press conference

A national congress of Vietnamese Catholics will take place from October 12-13 in Hanoi, with the participation of more than 400 Catholic priests and followers. 

The information was released by the Committee for Solidarity of Vietnamese Catholics (CSVC) at a press conference in Hanoi on October 8. 

The congress will assess outcomes of patriotic movements among Catholics and activities of the committee, and set targets to bring forward the movement. 

According to the CSVC, over the years, thanks to patriotic movements, many business models of Catholics have shown high economic efficiency. 

The models have mainly focused on shifting the structure of farms and large-scale handicraft production, along with the establishment of businesses, the committee said. 

Charitable and humanitarian activities have also been scaled up, with classes for street children and people with disabilities, care for leprosy and AIDS patients, fundraising for poor people in need of eye and heart operations and support for disaster-hit citizens. 

The CSVC has set up a network covering 42 cities and provinces nationwide.

Disaster prevention needs to be included socio-economic development plans

Flooding in Thua Thien-Hue province - Illustrative image 

Vietnam is witnessing natural disasters hitting all of its regions throughout the year, with strong intensity, wide coverage and increasing extremity and abnormality.

Economic damage caused by natural disasters to Vietnam has increased in recent years, to an estimated 1-1.5 percent of annual gross domestic product (GDP). Over the past 20 years, natural calamities have left 400 people dead or missing each year and greatly affected the country’s development.

In the first nine months of this year, 175 people died or went missing due to natural disasters, which caused economic damage estimated at more than 12.3 trillion VND (530 million USD).

In recent years, climate change has intensified, increasing human and property losses.  According to experts from the Programme on Climate Change and Development of the Vietnam-Japan University under the National University Hanoi, Vietnam fails to follow developments of natural disasters and extreme weather because on-the-spot human resources and response means are limited in many localities.

In addition, disasters now strike localities that have never been hit before, with poor response experience, they added.

Another reason for extreme weather is a lack of thorough measures to prevent human intervention in nature. Nguyen Thi Yen, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction Advisor at CARE International in Vietnam, said in the process of development and urbanisation, many infrastructure systems have trespassed on water drainage corridors of rivers, reducing flood prevention capacity.  

Besides, due to limited budget, spending for disaster mitigation is yet to match the increasing frequency and intensity of unusual weather patterns, she added.

Environmental experts agreed that to enhance climate change adaptation and disaster prevention capacity, it is necessary to focus on planning work and integrate it into the long-term socio-economic development plans of each locality.

They emphasised the need to account uncertain factors of climate in infrastructure building investment to ensure resilience to disasters and map out scenarios for response to natural disasters and extreme weather.

Regarding intermediate solutions, Prof. Dr. Truong Quang Hoc from the Institute for Natural Resources and Environmental Studies under the National University Hanoi, said the forecasting and warning of hydrometeorology, water resources, drought and seawater intrusion was important.

It is necessary to shift to smart agriculture that is adaptive to climate change, he said, adding that sustainable and climate change-resilient livelihoods for each sector and region need to be designed and built soon, he said.

In the long run, Hoc stressed the need for an overall and long-term view as well as inter-sector and inter-region approaches in respect to rules of nature and in harmony with nature.

Localities should focus on developing human resources while building the model of communes safe to natural disasters, he said, adding that it is necessary to draw and implement district-level action plans on climate change adaptation in tandem with the new-style rural building programme.

Ninh Thuận farmers strike it rich with aloe vera

A farmer harvests aloe vera in Ninh Thuận Province. 

Aloe vera farming has helped farmers in the south-central province of Ninh Thuận adapt to climate change and earn steady incomes since thanks to high demand for the plant to make food, cosmetics and herbal remedies.

With its hardy, drought-resistant nature, the plant is grown in the province’s sandy soil areas, mostly in Phan Rang – Tháp Chàm City.

Trần Văn Lương, who has been growing the plant for seven years in Phan Rang – Tháp Chàm City’s Văn Hải Ward, said he has one hectare of aloe vera and harvests an average of 50 tonnes of leaves a month.  

He sells the leaves at an average of VNĐ1,000 a kilogramme and earns a monthly profit of VNĐ30 million (US$1,280), he said.

This year farmers in the province said they have had a good harvest and prices.

Ninh Thuận, which has the least rainfall in the country, is one of the country’s largest aloe vera producers since its warm weather and sandy soil is suitable for the plant.

The investment required is around VNĐ10 million ($430) per hectare including seedlings, according to farmers.

Nguyễn Thị Lành, who has grown aloe vera on a 3,000sq.m area in Phan Rang – Tháp Chàm’s Mỹ Bình Ward, said she now has a better income than when growing onion, garlic and red chilli previously.

 “Aloe vera is easy to tend as it gets few diseases and needs no herbicides,” she said.

She only needs to water the plants, weed and remove spoilt leaves, she said. 

Demand for aloe vera is increasing for making beverages, cosmetics and herbal remedies.

Huỳnh Hải Tiến, a trader in Phan Rang – Tháp Chàm City, said he buys around 20 tonnes of leaves a day to sell to processors in Ninh Thuận and HCM City.

The prices are higher during the dry season, he said.

The province’s aloe vera is sold to buyers in many cities and provinces like HCM City, Đà Lạt and Long An and Đồng Nai.

Phan Quang Thựu, deputy director of the local Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said aloe vera is one of the province’s key crops.

It provides the main income for many farmers, helping them escape poverty and even become affluent, he said.

If they grow the plant using proper farming techniques, they can earn an annual profit of VNĐ300 – 600 million ($12,860 -25,720) per hectare, he said.

The province has 333ha under the crop, with an annual leave yield of 100,000 tonnes, according to the department.

The department is working with relevant agencies to improve farming techniques and research particular areas for expanding aloe vera farming.

The province has strengthened co-operation between companies and farmers through co-operatives and co-operative teams to develop chains for sustainable planting and consumption of the plant. 

It plans to expand the cultivation area of aloe vera to around 500ha by 2020, according to the department. 

Hanoi owns advantages to join smart urban development trend

Participants visited some of the applications in smart urban management. 

Hanoi still needs to quickly build a comprehensive architecture for a smart city, so that the city has a synchronous system of data collection, analysis and management.

Smart urban development is Hanoi’s indispensable trend and the city has many advantages to move forward in this field. 

Firstly, Hanoi is the economic, political and cultural center of the country. Therefore, the Vietnamese government has paid great and timely attention to the capital city.

Secondly, Hanoi has economic potential, human resources, technical conditions for smart urban development.

Thirdly, Hanoi has strategically visionary leaders who are determined to develop a smart capital city. This is also appreciated by experts.

In fact, Hanoi has begun to put some elements of smart city into practice. For example, the iParking mobile search facility, the Timbuyt app for searching and taking buses, map for locating flooding points and so on.

However, according to Chief Architect of Viettel’s Smart City Group Le Quoc Huu, Hanoi still needs to quickly build a comprehensive architecture for a smart city, so that the city has a synchronous system of data collection, analysis and management.

Many experts said that Hanoi needs to know what technology is appropriate, how the information infrastructure will be connected to the city’s social infrastructure. Then, it can shape the essential technical foundation for smart urban development.

Besides, Hanoi needs to collect data to establish the premise for urban management, provide utmost utilities for its residents. Along with that, the city needs to have open mechanisms to ensure exchanging information and data between itself and other localities, experts added.

According to architect Phan Trong Dung from the Hanoi Institute of Construction and Planning, smart urban building is growing in the world and aligns with the urban development roadmap in Vietnam in the current period.

To promote smart urban development, the Vietnamese government needs to have strategic projects. It is necessary to develop a set of common national standards for smart city so that the cities in Vietnam can follow to implement, Dung said.

In addition, it is important to focus on staff training in the design, management and development of a multi-sectorial coordination framework, prepare financial resources for a long period of time, Dung emphasized.