Coca-Cola colouring causes no harm: VFA

The Viet Nam Food Association (VFA) has announced that the levels of caramel colouring 4-methylimidazole (4-MEI) found in Coca-Cola products in Viet Nam meet national and international food safety standards.

It was responding to information appearing in media reports since last November that Coca-Cola products in Taiwan contained excessive levels of the colouring agent – estimated at 93 times that found in the US.

The VFA said it had immediately launched an investigation of Coca-Cola products made in Viet Nam, using information from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

According to the FDA, there is no immediate or short-term danger from 4-MEI at levels expected in food from the use of caramel coloring. However, the administration has also said it will continue to evaluate figures about the colouring agent's safety and its impact on human health.

Express boat salvaged in Binh Thuan

An express boat which sank on Monday was salvaged early yesterday morning and taken to the Phan Thiet Port.

Savanna, 33m long and 9.5m wide, weighing 120 tonnes, is owned by the Khai Thinh KG Company. It was used to ferry passengers between Binh Thuan Province's Phan Thiet City and Phu Quy Island.

On Monday, the boat sank after being hit by strong waves while it was about 1.5 nautical miles away from the Phan Thiet Fishing Port. The nine crew members on board were rescued.

Thanh Hoa woman arrested for explosive trafficking

Police in Thanh Hoa province’s Tinh Gia district have arrested a local woman attempting to traffic and trade a large volume of explosives.

Tran Thi Ha, 33 from Tinh Gia district’s Hai Thanh commune, was caught red handed carrying 60kg of explosives, 1,000 detonators, and a slow match on a taxi on February 4.  

At the police station, Ha admitted purchasing the devices from Thanh Hoa city for trading in her home commune of Hai Thanh.

Tinh Gia district police are expanding investigation into the case to bring the trafficking ring to light.

Before the lunar New Year (Tet) holiday, the police and local administration encouraged residents to hand in nearly 14kg of firecrackers, more than 20kg of bombs and mines, and 5kg of explosives.  

The capital city of Hanoi has set to increase the number of its trade villages to 1,500 from now to 2015 in a bid to create jobs for at least half of its rural workers.

This is part of the city’s programme to raise incomes for residents in rural areas, according to the steering committee of the programme.

The development of trade villages will be attached to environmental protection as well as technological renovation to increase the quality of the villages’ products, the committee stated.

The current 1,350 trade villages create much potential for tourism development in the city.

The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism is developing tours to six selected villages in effort to promote this type of tourism in the capital.

Destinations include Van Phuc silk, Bat Trang pottery, Phu Vinh rattan and bamboo, Son Dong fine art sculpture, Du Du sculpture, Quat Dong embroidery and Ngo Ha mother-of-pearl inlay villages.

The city is planning to develop this type of tourism in 14 other traditional trade villages.

The capital city recorded an average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 8.91 percent between 2011 and 2013, a 1.5-fold increase against the country’s rate.

In 2013, it contributed 10.1 percent of the country’s GDP, 7.5 percent of export turnover, 17.2 percent of the State budget and 21.64 percent of total social investment.

The city surpassed its budget collection target by 0.3 percent, gathering over VND160 trillion (US$7.62 billion), up 10 percent compared to the previous year.

Vietnamese Veterans in Germany bring charity home

The Dresden and Surrounds branch of the Vietnamese War Veterans Association in Germany presented gifts to the war veterans and children of Hanoi’s Thinh Quang ward, Dong Da precinct, on February 5.

On January 27, the association distributed gifts worth VND8.5 million to 17 Agent Orange victim war veterans in Chi Hoa village, Hung Ha district, Thai Binh province. It also gave VND500,000 to a war veteran in Nghe An’s Thanh Chuong district and EUR100 to children of AO victims in Hanoi’s Me Linh district.

The association consists of Vietnamese war veterans and German Vietnamese living and working in Dresden and its adjacent areas. German authorities recognise the organisation as a legal charity. .

Association member Tran Van Toan said association representatives often present gifts to disadvantaged people when returning home for the Lunar New Year (Tet).

Inclement weather hikes bird flu risk

Unfavorable weather conditions and a high demand for poultry products during spring festivals are putting Vietnam at high risk of bird flu viruses, warns the animal health department.

Department director Pham Van Dong said on February 6 that the current wet weather creates favourable conditions for the bird flu virus to break out and spread.

Additionally, a series of spring festivals are being held across the country this month, increasing the demand for poultry products and encouraging the smuggling and illegal transport of poultry, particularly from China.

Meanwhile, the avian influenza A/H7N9 virus outbreaks are happening close to the border between the two countries, he said.

Although Vietnam has not recorded any case of bird flu caused by the A/H7N9 strain so far, there is still a high risk of it spreading to this country, he said, adding that the two countries share a long border, making it hard for authorities to control poultry smuggling.

Besides, the boom in poultry trading post-Tet (Lunar New Year) festival and during the ongoing spring festivals across the country are also opportunities for the virus to break out and spread, Dong said.

Live domestic fowls are still on sale in many localities of Hanoi such as Nguyen Cong Tru and Long Bien markets, in spite of a ban by the authorities. Poultry is even slaughtered right inside the markets or on the pavements.

A recent survey at 147 markets specialising in poultry trading in 44 localities revealed that bird flu viruses are found in 61% of the markets and 5.6% of ducks tested positive for the deadly H5N1 virus.

Vietnam has recorded 127 cases of the H5N1 virus infection since 2013, including 64 deaths.

Bird flu infections affecting nearly 10,000 poultry were found in four communes of northern Bac Ninh Province last month. This is the first province that has been hit by bird flu this year.

Drug ring busted

An investigative team of the Public Security Ministry has announced the busting of a large-scale drug trafficking ring.

The team seized 14,000 synthetic pills and arrested three alleged gang members: Nguyen Thi Huyen, 51; Nguyen Hong Tham, 37, of northern Son La Province's Moc Chau District; and Nguyen Quoc Chinh, 42, of northern Bac Ninh Province.

Earlier, Huyen was caught red-handed while transporting the pills on National Highway 6, the section near Luong Son Yard Gold in northern Hoa Binh Province.

Huyen confessed that Tham had paid her VND10 million (US$476) to deliver the drugs to Chinh. Tham had hired Huyen a week ago too, to deliver another batch of 6,000 synthetic pills to Chinh.

Ha Noi to build new hospital in Quoc Oai

The capital city administration has approved a detailed plan for constructing the Ha Noi Tropical Diseases Hospital as well as a Leprosy Treatment Department.

The city People's Committee announced on its website earlier this week that the facilities will be located in an area of 29.46ha in Quoc Oai District's Dong Yen commune.

Both the hospital and the department will be equipped with hi-tech facilities and skilled staff to ensure high quality services, it said.

Firecrackers seized in Tet crackdown

More than 280 cases of firecracker violations were discovered nation-wide during the eight-day Tet holiday, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

Police arrested 334 people for illegally producing, trading, transporting and using firecrackers. As many as 462.9 kilos of firecrackers were seized.

The Government promulgated a firecracker ban in 1994 after a series of serious accidents over several years.

The Ministry of Health said there were no explosives-related casualties during this year's Tet holidays.

Fishermen return after Tet with bumper catch

Fishing boats returning to shore after Tet (Lunar New Year) are loaded with fish, with fishermen around the country saying that the catch has been good.

Nguyen Ha of Tri Nguyen Island in Nha Trang said his boat left Hon Ro fishing port on February 1 and caught eight tonnes of anchovy within a day.

Dozens of boats returned to Hon Ro on Monday with their holds full of anchovy.

The port management called it a good sign, saying not much anchovy was caught during Tet last year.

Fishermen said calm waters and a surfeit of fish in regular fishing grounds were the reasons for their bumper catch.

On Wednesday dozens of boats from Ha Tinh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, and Quang Binh provinces returned to a fishing port in Ha Tinh's Loc Ha District to unload their boats which were full of fish.

Nguyen Van Long of Loc Ha District said: "We had a good catch and good fish prices in the first trip after Tet, so we feel more secure about fishing."

Long's boat with 13 men on board earned a profit of more than VND40 million after fishing for five hours near shore on Wednesday.

Between February 1 and 3 more than 60 tuna fishing boats returned to a fishing port in the central province of Phu Yen's Tuy Hoa city.

Most of them had bumper catches and earned profits of more than VND100 million.

This is the time when tuna appear in large schools, local fishermen said.

Nguyen Van Hung said his boat caught 45 yellow-fin tuna weighing a total of more than two tonnes.

With tuna prices at VND145,000 per kilogramme, Hung earned more than VND100 million after all expenses.

Each fisherman on his boat got VND5-10 million, he said.

Tuna fishing boats were at sea for nearly a month and celebrated Tet there.

Phan Thuan, chairman of the city's Ward 6 Fishing Trade Union, said boats that return before Tet normally leave again on the sixth day of the new year.

In other central provinces too, fishermen began their first trip on Wednesday.

In Nghe An Province's Quynh Luu District, hundreds of fishing boats in Tien Thuy commune set sail on that day.

Ho Hoang Nghiep, chairman of the Tien Thuy People's Committee, said on the sixth day local fishermen held a prayer ceremony for their first trip.

Tien Thuy has more than 350 fishing boats and 2,000 fishermen.

"I hope fishermen have a bumper catch on their first trip after Tet to get luck for the whole year," Nghiep added.

Business back to normal as holiday winds down

Civil servants and State employees resumed work on Thursday, the first working day of the Year of Horse. They had nine days off while businesses, farmers and fishermen started the new working year a day or so earlier.

In Ha Noi, National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung visited and extended New Year wishes to staff and officers at the National Assembly, People's Supreme Court, People's Supreme Procuracy, Justice Ministry and Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam.

Hung praised the efforts of NA Office staff, saying that their greatest task was promoting the implementation of the newly amended Constitution.

At the Supreme People's Court, he spoke highly of the court's endeavour to handle important cases, contributing to ensuring political security, social safety and order, and creating favourable conditions for the country's socio-economic development.

While visiting the court, he suggested it enhance the quality of its judgements and improve the competence of its personnel.

Hung said that 2014 was the first year for the implementation of the new Constitution, and that the Supreme People's Procuracy should focus on building and adjusting relevant legal documents to suit the amended Constitution.

Also yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc paid New Year visits to Viet Nam Railway Corporation and Vietcombank.

He asked the railway sector to apply advanced technologies to improve its infrastructure and service delivery.

"Improving service quality is one of its key tasks this year," chairman of the corporation Tran Ngoc Thanh said, noting that more trains would be added along routes, including Sai Gon-Nha Trang, Sai Gon- Da Nang and Ha Noi-Lao Cai.

He also said there would be more opportunities for the private sector to become involved in railway service.

In central Thua Thien-Hue Province, many companies resumed work early this week. Vice director general of the Hue Garment Joint Stock Company said that almost all of its 3,500 workers returned to work as planned.

Last year, the company created jobs for about 1,200 workers as another sewing production line started operation. It also began construction of housing for about 1,000 workers.

According to southern Dong Nai Province's Trade Union, nearly 80 per cent of migrant workers in the locality have returned to work after the Tet holidays.

Vice president of the provincial Trade Union Doan Van Day said that the percentage was about 10 per cent lower than that of last year because some companies planned to resume production next week.

In the southern industrial hub of Binh Duong Province, the provincial People's Committee reported that nearly 130,000 migrant workers stayed at work throughout the Tet holidays, helping ensure companies' achieved production levels.

To help others return to work early, employers offered more than 20,000 migrant workers Tet bonuses, salaries in advance and free coach tickets.

In coastal central Quang Ngai Province, fishermen returned to sea on Wednesday, the sixth day of the first lunar month considered a good day for business.

In An Vinh Commune, Ly Son Island District, fishermen held a traditional ceremony praying for good weather and a prosperous year.

According to the Finance Ministry, post-Tet food prices remain stable while transport cost are still 20-60 per cent higher across the country.

Kien Giang to modernise water pumping stations

The southern province of Kien Giang will invest about 2.6 trillion VND (122.2 million USD) to build 1,521 small and medium-sized electrical-enginewater pumping stations in the coming time.

Under a plan announced by the provincial People’s Committee, from now to 2020, the water pumping stations will be built to serve about 556,000 ha of agricultural production and aquaculture areas in the locality.

The construction will be in line with the socio-economic development strategy of the province and the Mekong Delta region.

Apart from changing old diesel-engine pumping stations to new electrical ones, the province will also focus on repairing and upgrading downgraded stations across the locality, especially in border and remote areas.

The project is expected to contribute to promoting the movement of new-style rural area building in the direction of industrialisation and modernisation in the province, while responding to unfavourable impacts caused by climate change and rising sea levels.

It will also help the locality reduce water loss and save electricity.

VNA/VNS/VOV