WB helps Vietnam improve safe dams

The Song Tranh 2 hydropower dam is seen in Quang Nam Province, located in central Vietnam.

About 6.8 million Vietnamese people will get benefits from the Vietnam Dam Rehabilitation and Safety Improvement Project with the credit support worth 415 million USD from the International Development Association, approved by the World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Director on December 16.

Under the project, upgrades will be made to 450 irrigation dams which have been prioritised based on their ages and degraded condition. This will help 2.7 million people who rely on the dams for agriculture production, aquaculture and water supply as well as 4.1 million people and economic assets downstream that are at risk in the event of a dam failure.

“We are pleased to support the Government’s dam safety programme with financing for this critical rehabilitation project. This project will help protect the safety and livelihoods of 6.8 million people who rely on these dams”, World Bank Country Director for Vietnam Victoria Kwakwa said in a WB press release.

In addition to the dam rehabilitation, the project will endorse the Vietnamese Government to implement a sustainable framework for ensuring dam safety across the portfolio of dams. This includes the establishment of technical and regulatory standards, codes, guidelines and norms applied to the dams to ensure that the overall dam safety is more standardised, transparent and accountable.

Two die in truck collision

Two trucks collided with each other, killing two persons and injuring two on National Highway 4D in the northern Lao Cai Province's Bat Xat District early this morning.

The accident happened when a truck carrying fresh cassava from Sa Pa Town to Lao Cai City hit a container truck travelling in the opposite direction.

It took rescuers and the traffic police nearly two hours to remove the people from the two trucks. The driver of the truck carrying cassava died instantly, while his assistant died on the way to hospital. A passenger on that truck and the driver of the container truck were injured.

The accident caused a three-hour traffic jam on the national highway.

Local police are investigating the case.

Local houses affected by blasts for constructing highway

Many households gathered yesterday at the National Highway 19 construction site in this central province's Nhon Hoa Ward to halt the work.

Most residents in An Son Township have complained that the construction work has affected the safety of their houses, the local newspaper reported.

According to local residents, many houses have been damaged by blasts conducted two months ago.

The blasts and rollers produced strong vibrations lasting several days, which created cracks in the walls of many houses, residents said.

Nguyen Chi Tam, a local resident, said his newly built house had been used for just over a month, but many cracks had appeared as a result of the blasts at the construction site.

Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Nhon Hoa Ward Nguyen Minh Muon said the building and upgrading of the highway had affected many households here and in other wards.

Further inspection revealed that some 142 houses had sustained cracks, but the committee is still waiting for the final conclusions of the inspection agency, Muon said.

The local authority will propose that the contractor and construction unit create a compensation plan upon receiving the results of the inspection, he added.

A representative of the construction unit, Le Tan Lai, director of Minh Thao Company, admitted that the rollers had caused the damage to many of the local residents' houses, confirming that the company would work with local authorities to assess the level of damage and to compensate the residents.

Vuong Chi Thien, a representative of the contractor, also acknowledged the existence of cracks in local houses and said the company had begun working with the construction unit and local authorities to inspect the damage after receiving the residents' complaints.

"We invite an independent inspection agency, the insurance company and the local authorities to examine the losses, and we will compensate for houses that have really suffered damage from the construction," Thien said.

He also added that the blasts had been approved by the provincial people's committee and relevant agencies. However, the vibrations and other negative effects on local households were inevitable, he said.

Highway 19 is a major transportation route connecting Binh Dinh Province and other Central Coastal provinces to the Central Highlands and neighbouring countries.

The construction project plays an important role in the socio-economic development of the province and is important for national security.

One fisherman missing in rough sea

Search and rescue teams of Quang Ngai Province are seeking a missing fisherman in Ly Son Island as tropical storm Merlo approached the East Sea yesterday.

Vice chairwoman of the district island, Pham Thi Huong told Viet Nam News that two fishermen, Nguyen Van Ba, 43, and his son-in-law Nguyen Van Loc went fishing on a small boat on Tuesday morning and did not return till evening.

"Loc was saved by locals in Duc Pho district, 30kms from Ly Son district. However, his father-in-law is missing, and rescue and search teams are continuing the search," Huong said.

"They were fishing near the coast because their boat was too small and they did not have any communications," she said.

"We banned all vessels from operating on the seas from Tuesday afternoon in anticipation of Merlo's arrival. Some 80 visitors and regular traders had to stay on the island from Tuesday when passenger ships docked at the district port due to big waves and strong winds," she said, and added that they (visitors) stayed at hotels and homes of relatives.

Chairman of Cham Island's People's Committee Nguyen Van An said visitors were also leaving for the mainland from Tuesday afternoon before the ban of vessel operations was imposed in the evening.

Government bodies asked to balance budget for salary hike

Governmental bodies have been asked to balance their budget estimates to generate fund for basic salary increase in 2016 according to the Prime Minister’s decision 2100/QD-TTg.

Under the decision, from January 1, 2016, the salary hike will be applied to pensioners, who are receiving less than 2 million VND (88.9 USD) a month, and a subsidy plan will be implemented for primary school teachers who have begun their work before 1995. The move aims to ensure those people’s pension is equal to basic salary.

Other pensioners and contributors to the nation continue receiving an 8-percent increase in salary and subsidy as they did in 2015.

From May 1, 2016, the basic salary for State employees, civil servants and servicemen will be increased from 1.15 million VND to 1.21 million VND per month.

The PM asked provinces and centrally-governed cities to implement measures to generate fund for salary reform in 2016 from their incomes and save 10 percent of their non-salary regular expenditure, among others.

They are also asked to save 10 percent of frequent expenditure right from the planning of budget estimates.

The PM assigned the Ministry of Finance to judge the demand and fund for salary reform and report supplementary amounts needed from the central budget for localities to adjust salary and allowances in 2016.

Consultations about cigarette detoxification via telephone and at medical stations and hospitals will be improved.

That's one of the targets of the Vietnam Tobacco Control Fund's action plan for next year which was declared in a conference held in Hanoi on December 15.

Last year, the fund supported the Hanoi-based Bach Mai Hospital to found a cigarette detoxification consultation centre.

During the past year, the centre gave training on cigarette detoxification for more than 800 medical workers from 63 provinces and cities across the country.

The fund also set up the hotline 1800-6606 at the Bach Mai Hospital to give consultations on the issue. So far the hotline has received more than 8,000 calls.

This year, the fund will support 10 other hospitals across the country to open cigarette detoxification centres. The centres' work will be supervised and then expanded to other localities. The fund will improve the work of the hotline.

The fund's action plan has five other targets including raising people's awareness on the harm of cigarettes, expanding no-smoking models in offices and supervising the implementation of the Tobacco Control Law.

Associate professor Luong Ngoc Khue, director of the fund and director of the Medical Services Administration, said that last year the fund met some obstacles due to a manpower shortage and lack of co-operation between upper and lower levels at several provinces.

He proposed to enroll more workers to the fund's management office to ensure the fund's work process and quality.

People's Committees at provinces and cities should improve their inspection on the implementation of the Tobacco Control Law, especially the regulation of a smoking ban in public places, he said.

Addressing the conference, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Xuyen said that the rate of using cigarettes by youths in the country decreased from 3.3 percent in 2007 to 2.5 percent last year.

As many as 90 percent of youths using cigarette have the intention of giving up smoking.

It meant that cigarette usage had been prevented and is decreasing, she said.

The model of no-smoking tourism cities was conducted at many places such as Hue, Hai Phong, Hoi An and Nha Trang.-

Phu Yen: poor families enjoy storm, flood resistant houses

Hundreds of poor families in the central province of Phu Yen are enjoying better lives thanks to housing support provided under a government decree.

In 2013, the province built 100 flood-resistant houses for needy families at the mouth of the Cai River in Tuy An district and the mountainous district of Dong Xuan.

In 2015, another 258 households have received financial assistance.

Under the decree, each poor household will receive from 20 million to 26 million VND (892-1,160 USD) and can access loans worth up to 15 million VND (670 USD) at a preferential interest rate from the Bank for Social Policies.

An Dan commune in Tuy An district is among the localities with the most beneficiaries under the programme.

Storm and flood-resistant houses were built for 68 needy families in the commune’s flood-prone areas between 2013 and 2015, according to Nguyen Minh Duc, vice chairman of the commune’s People’s Committee.

Ngo Anh Dan, 66, one of the beneficiaries of the programme, said thanks to the financial assistance, his family has built a two-storey house that protected them from the floods.

Vice Chairman of the Dong Xuan People’s Committee Nguyen Huu Tu said the storm and flood-resistant houses built in the district have also provided shelter for many others who are not targeted under the programme.

According to the plan, another 158 houses of this kind will be built for local disadvantaged households in 2016.

Phu Yen was one of seven provinces in the coastal central region to be selected for the pilot model following a 2012 Government directive.

Each house has two floors, with the second floor covering an area of no less than 10 square metres. This floor is designated for storing essential property during floods.

A huge flood in 2009 inundated all 126 houses in An Dinh commune, Tuy An district at depths of up to three metres.

The number of foreign visitors to Ho Chi Minh City this year is estimated at 4.7 million, fulfilling this year’s target and up 7 percent from 2014, according to the municipal People’s Committee.

The number of domestic visitors is put at around 19.3 million, up 13 percent from last year. The tourism sector estimates its revenues for the year at 94.6 trillion VND (4.22 billion USD), 10 percent higher than last year.

The city has focused on tourism promotion on the mass media, particularly television, said Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Tourism Pham Huy Binh.

Additionally, a wide range of promotion events have been organised throughout the year, such as Nguyen Hue Flower Street Festival, Tourism Day, Southern Cuisine Festival, Southern Fruit Festival, Long Dress Festival, Binh said.

The launch of the Nguyen Hue pedestrian street and the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe waterway tourism route was also believed to help attract visitors to the city.

In 2016, HCM City aims to receive 5.1 million foreign holiday makers and 21.8 million domestic ones.

To realise the target, the city has offered incentives for investors in the sector while investing more in training personnel, developing infrastructure and connecting with other localities.

A Finnish-funded project to enhance the integration of persons with disabilities was officially launched in the northern province of Thai Nguyen on December 16.

It is organised by Inclusive Development Action, a non-governmental organisation, and financed with 210,000 EUR (nearly 229,400 USD) by the Finnish Embassy in Vietnam.

The project has been already implemented since September this year and will last until November 2017 in Tan Cuong and Thinh Duc communes in Thai Nguyen city.

It is set to provide capacity building training for 170 local disabled persons and 40 officials in issues relating to the targeted group. It will also give consultations and hold forums, workshops and other events where participants can raise opinions about the disabled’s problems.

Exhibitions to raise public awareness of the disabled’s inclusion will also take place as part of the project.

At the launching ceremony, Annika Kaipola, Counsellor at the Finnish Embassy, said the project focuses on improving awareness and building capacity of people with disabilities, especially women, to facilitate their access to education and stable employment.

It ultimately aims to help the disabled overcome their own barriers and make their voice be heard by the community, thus changing the society’s attitudes towards them, she noted.

Population work decisive to sustainable development

Population and family planning work has been defined as a key player in Vietnam’s socio-economic development strategy, heard a workshop in Hanoi on December 16.

The workshop, themed “Population and sustainable development in Vietnam”, was jointly held by the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Popularisation and Education and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

A report presented at the event disclosed that Vietnam’s fertility rate has remained stable at 2.0-2.1 kids for every woman since 2006.

With the current population scale, the country is likely to fulfill the target of keeping its population at below 93 million in 2015, no more than 98 million in 2020 and about 115-120 million in the mid-21 st century.

Vietnam’s human development index (HDI) jumped from 0.573 points in 2005 to 0.638 points in 2013, ranking 121 among the 187 participating countries.

Its life expectancy rose from 72 in 2005 to 73.2 in 2014. The figure is now higher than that in other countries sharing the same per capita income with Vietnam, the report said.

Participants said such achievements have significantly contributed to national socio-economic development, the realisation of the UN Millennium Development Goals, the improvement of people’s living standards, poverty reduction and sustainable development.

However, they said, Vietnam is experiencing the “golden population structure,” also known as the “aging population”, which offers both opportunities and challenges.

The workshop heard that an unstable birth rate, a big gap in the fertility rate among regions across the country and gender inequality at birth are among challenges to the population work.

Bui The Duc, deputy head of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Popularisation and Education, said Vietnam regards sustainable development as a national strategic target.

In order to reach this goal, the official suggested changes in the population work in the new context, including improving the quality of human resources, promoting high-value jobs to take advantage of the golden population structure, and developing the educational and health care systems in line with the strongly evolving population structure.

A representative from the UNFPA said the fund always stays side by side with the Vietnamese Government by providing technical support for and sharing experience with the country in population-related issues.

It will assist Vietnamese policy makers in putting forth sound decisions that benefit locals, helping them fully enjoy their rights, including reproductive rights, the UN official said.

The workshop also looked into Vietnam’s birth rate forecast from 2015-2035 and impacts of population structure on national economic growth, among others.

Latest experience in addressing multi-dimensional poverty shared

The freshest experience in measuring and tackling poverty was shared at the “South-South Exchange Workshop: Addressing Multi-Dimensional Poverty and Improving Service Delivery” in Ho Chi Minh City on December 15.

Attendees learnt practices from Ho Chi Minh City alongside China, Mongolia, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan in using the Multi-Dimensional Poverty methodology and approach to address poverty and other related issues.

According to the Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) for the 2016-2020 term issued by the Prime Minister, poverty is measured in terms of not only income but also people’s lack of access to basic public services such as healthcare, education, housing, clean water–sanitation and information.

In his remarks at the event, Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Trong Dam said the MPI will create an insightful measurement approach to better identify poverty levels. It will help formulate effective policies for disadvantaged people with different needs, he stated.

After 20 years of beating poverty, Vietnam has seen a remarkable fall in the rate of poor households, from 58 percent in 1992 to 4.5 percent by the end of this year.

However, the traditional income-based poverty measures have hindered authority from properly evaluating different levels of poverty and achieving the country’s goals towards sustainable and comprehensive development, he added.

Speaking of Ho Chi Minh City’s achievements in poverty reduction over the past 23 years, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Thi Thu said the city now has only 0.76 percent of population, or more than 14,850 households, with annual income per person of less than 16 million VND (710 USD) and 2.23 percent of population, or approximately 44,220 families, with annual income per capita of less than 21 million VND (931.8 USD).

The city has been piloting the MPI to classify poor and near-poor households in Districts 6, 11, Tan Phu and Binh Chanh so as to offer them proper support.

For her part, Pratibha Mehta, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Vietnam, noted that sharing of fresh experience in measuring and tackling poverty, and delivering public services to vulnerable population would help Vietnam, including Ho Chi Minh City, design effective institutional and coordination mechanisms to put MPI in place.

The event was co-organised by the city’s People’s Committee and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The MPI in Vietnam measures lack of access to basic public services through ten indicators – access to healthcare services, social insurance, education attainment of adults, schooling status of children, housing quality, average floor area per person, water supply, condition of toilets/latrines, use of telecommunication services and devices owned for information access.

Accordingly, households are classified as “poor” if they have a monthly income per person of 1 million VND or less in rural areas and 1.3 million VND or less in urban areas. They must also score as deprived in three or more public service access indicators.

“Near poor” are those who have a monthly income per person of 0.7 – 1 million VND in rural areas or 0.9 – 1.3 million VND in urban areas and score as deprived in three or less indicators.

Middle-income families are those who have a monthly per capita income of 1 million – 1.5 million VND in rural areas or 1.3 million – 1.95 million VND in urban areas.

Disadvantaged residents in Northwest benefit social funds

The Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) has provided preferential loans for around 2.6 million poor and near-poor families in the Northwestern region, allowing 363,000 of them to escape from poverty, according to the bank.

The preferential loans have also supported the construction 712,000 clean water and sanitation works and 152,000 houses for the needy in the region.

Meanwhile, 128,000 people have found employment and 228,000 poor students could maintain their study as supported by the bank’s financial assistance.

By November 30, outstanding loans for the Northwestern region reached over 29.2 trillion VND (1.3 billion USD), representing an average growth rate of 15 percent and accounting for 20.8 percent of the country’s lending.

The Northwest is considered the poorest region in Vietnam and consists Hoa Binh, Son La, Lai Chau, Dien Bien, Yen Bai, Lao Cai, Lang Son, Tuyen Quang, Phu Tho, Bac Kan, Cao Bang, Ha Giang and part of Nghe An and Thanh Hoa provinces.

VNA, regional steering committees sum up 3-year media cooperation

The Vietnam News Agency (VNA) and the Steering Committees for the Northwestern, the Central Highlands and the Southwestern Regions met in Hanoi on December 15 to sum up their three-year media cooperation.

Following the cooperation agreement signed in May 2013, the VNA has directed its units to cover current affairs and topical news in the three strategic regions as well as upgraded three representative offices in Yen Bai, Dak Lak and Can Tho into key units in the work, General Director Nguyen Duc Loi said.

He added that over the past three years, the news departments for domestic and foreign services, together with the economic news and press photography departments published tens of thousands of articles and photos about the latest developments in these regions.

Apart from source news units, the VNA’s television channel (Vnews), e-news service Vietnamplus and “ Tin tuc ” (News) paper have directly provided news for audiences far and wide.

The “ Tin tuc cuoi tuan ” (Weekend News) paper also published a column featuring the three regions, making it a forum for regional officials and people.

In his speech, VNA General Director Nguyen Duc Loi suggested continued work to provide free News and Weekend News papers for the Party, State and relevant units, add news in more ethnic languages to the pictorial “Dan toc va Mien nui” (Ethnic and Mountainous Regions), and bring Vnews channel to more regional localities.

He called for increased coordination between VNA and the three committees, especially in covering important and emergency events, while exploring more effective ways to popularise news items.

The steering committees agreed with VNA’s proposal to call for State funding for regional news dissemination.

They proposed VNA continue assigning workforce and supplying equipment to key representative offices in Yen Bai, Dak Lak and Can Tho.

On the occasion, the VNA General Director also awarded the insignia “For the cause of VNA” to leaders of the committees in honour of their contributions to VNA’s communication campaign.

The Australian government will provide 1 million AUD (720,000 USD) in annual aid for Vietnamese and Australian scientists to carry out joint medical and health care research projects.

It was part of a memorandum of understanding signed between Vietnam’s National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED) and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia in Canberra, Australia on December 15.

Following the signing ceremony, the two sides discussed priority goals for research and specific steps to realise the deal.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Australia Luong Thanh Nghi commented that the event is to materialise the bilateral science-technology cooperation agreement signed in 2013.

Chief Executive Officer of the NHMRC Anne Kelso also expressed her delight at the bilateral ties and Australia’s support to Vietnam in medical and health care sectors.

Outcomes of UN climate change conference publicised

The significance of the outcomes of the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in France’s Paris was highlighted at a press conference in Hanoi on December 16.

Director of the Department of Meteorology, Hydrology and Climate Change Nguyen Van Tue said the adoption of the Paris Agreement on December 12 after two weeks of negotiations is an important breakthrough of the UN’s efforts over more than two decades to win over global Governments’ cooperation in reducing pollutant gas emissions and curbing global temperature rise.

The Paris Agreement with 31 pages and 29 articles will replace the Kyoto Protocol from 2020, he said, adding that the agreement will enter into force 30 days after at least 55 nations which account for at least 55 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions ratify the accord.

Deputy Director of the department Pham Van Tan, who was also the deputy head of the Vietnamese negotiating delegation, said the agreement commits countries to keeping the rise in global temperatures by the year 2100 compared with pre-industrial times “well below” 2 degrees Celsius, and says they will “endeavour to limit” them even more, to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The accord also sets up mechanisms for each nation to conduct self-review, and the UN will assess the effectiveness of countries’ efforts to prevent climate change every five years, starting from 2023. The assessment is to help countries update information and make deeper pledges.

It is noteworthy that under the agreement, developed countries will provide financial resources to help developing nations adapt and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They are encouraged to provide or continue providing the assistance on a voluntary basis, Tan noted.

The goal of jointly mobilising 100 billion USD a year by 2020 is considered important, but the Paris Agreement says the sum may not be enough and calls for more donation, he said.

The pact also includes climate change response issues that Vietnam is interested in, the official added.

At the press conference, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha said Vietnam’s active participation and strong commitments to the fight against climate change at the COP21 were shared and highly valued by many countries, practically contributing to the success of the historic COP21.

Road show promotes Vietnam’s tourism in Malaysia

A road show to promote tourism in Vietnam took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on December 16.

It is part of a tourism promotion campaign to introduce Vietnam’s new tourism services and visa exemption policy, Ngo Hoai Chung, vice director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, said in his opening remarks.

He said once the ASEAN Community is formed on December 31, Vietnam’s tourism sector will see both opportunities and challenges that will require the country to improve the quality of its workforce, vocational training and corporate governance.

Last year, around 330,000 Malaysians arrived in Vietnam. The 11-month figure for this year was 307,000, up 1.9 percent annually. It is expected to hit around 500,000 by 2020.

Thanh Hoa aims to become key tourism site by 2020

The northern central province of Thanh Hoa aims to promote its tourism potential and become a key national tourism site by 2020, said Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Pham Dang Quyen.

He said the hosting of the National Tourism Year 2015 has given the province useful lessons and new motivation towards new breakthrough development in the tourism sector.

In the 2016-2020 period, the locality targets to welcome 200,000 - 250,000 international tourists and serve 8-9 million domestic guests per year.

The sector is expected to generate more than 403 million USD by 2020, from the current 158.6 million USD.

It plans to develop typical tourism products while focusing on upholding traditional local culture.

Tourism promotion campaigns will be expanded in a bid to enhance awareness of tourism development among the local community and enterprises.

Priorities will also be given to training tourism staff and improving connections with regional localities and key national tourism sites, including Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang and Ninh Binh.

Resources will be mobilised for developing and upgrading infrastructure.

In the first 11 months of this year, Thanh Hoa received about 5.11 million visitors, up 15.7 percent compared to the same period last year, and reaching 92.9 percent of the annual target.

Of the figure, 119,000 were foreigners, a year-on-year increase of 31.2 percent.

Total revenue from tourism reached nearly 4.9 trillion VND (220 million USD), up 34.9 percent.

The HCM City People's Council has recently approved adoption of a multi-dimensional poverty measure in the city's 2016-20 poverty reduction programme.

It measures, besides income, also deprivation in terms of five basic needs — education, health care, employment and social insurance, living conditions, and access to information.

Nguyen Van Xe, deputy head of the city Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and deputy head of the Steering Committee for Poverty Reduction, told a three-day workshop on multi-dimensional poverty and improving service delivery that opened on Tuesday that the city tested the new measurement in Districts 6, 11, Tan Phu, and Binh Chanh.

It is now working on providing basic services to poor people around the city — after the new system is expanded next year to the rest of the city and the poverty rate is measured — to improve the quality of life and ensure sustainable poverty reduction.

It is developing comprehensive policies targeted at priority groups of MDP poor and near poor including migrants.

Following the test of the new poverty measure in the four districts and research done by the city in co-operation with the United Nations Development Programme, it has been affirmed that the number of targeted policies can be increased when using the new measure.

This does not even necessarily require more funds, it was discovered.

In the four districts it was found that the reasons for deprivation in terms of the five criteria were not simply a lack of money. For instance, many children were not attending school because their families did not care about education. In another case, people who did not have health insurance were simply not interested in it.

Thus, in cases like these, the relevant intervention should not be cash transfers but advocacy and encouragement, measures that should not involve a significant expense.

The current poverty rate using the old measure is 0.5 per cent, with the income threshold being VND16 million (US$710) per person per year.

Those with an income of VND16-21 million are defined as near poor.

The whole country will adopt the MDP measure and approach starting with the 2016-20 poverty reduction programme.

In the Asia Pacific region, eight countries including Viet Nam are members of the Multidimensional Poverty Practice Network.

At the workshop, other countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan are sharing their experiences in using MDP to measure and address various dimensions of poverty and improving institutional frameworks and co-ordination mechanisms.

Pakistan established a multi-dimensional poverty index at the national and provincial level in 2014. Local governments are increasingly responsible for public infrastructure development, primary education, basic health, family health, and social welfare.

An MDP approach can help governments at the local level to understand the dynamics of poverty and support planning.

Globally, 30 countries use MDP for poverty measurement, monitoring, as well as targeting and designing of poverty reduction and other social policies.

Renovation of Ha Noi's older buildings still not fast enough

The Ha Noi construction department this year has conducted examinations on 42 dilapidated apartment buildings to identify run-down apartments in need of relocation and structural support.

Among those buildings having been checked, two were categorised as being in type D, which means residents must be relocated to ensure safety.

The information was revealed by representatives of the municipal Construction Department on Tuesday at a meeting with media. The meeting aims to announce the results of a general review on quality verification and renovation of old apartment buildings in the city.

Vu Ngoc Dam, head of the Housing Management Department of Ha Noi's construction department, said that the majority of the residential buildings were built on weak foundations. Many buildings suffer from massive sinking, tilting and leaning such as block A-B of Ngoc Khanh residential quarter, blocks E6-E7 of Quynh Mai apartment building, blocks B7 and C1 of Thanh Cong residential quarter.

According to the examination of the department, due to the pressure of enlarging living areas and loose management, expanding and encroaching public land can be seen at all residential apartments in the city.

The expansion has affected the residents' escape in case of fire and increased the loading capacity of the construction work. Besides, faulty renovation and repair cause leaky walls and flooding.

Dam said that building maintenance has yet to be paid due attention, which results in rapid destruction and degradation, and threatens the life quality of inhabitants. In particular, most of the apartment buildings do not have fire prevention systems.

Statistics from the construction department show that there are about 1,516 two-to-five storey residential quarters in Ha Noi which were constructed between the 1960s and 1980s.

Only 14 out of more than 1,500 old buildings were reported to have been upgraded, according to Nguyen Chi Dung, deputy director of the municipal construction department, over the past 10 years.

He blamed the slow progress of upgrading and rebuilding old apartment buildings on financial difficulties. Some households even require compensation for their expanded areas, which lengthens the renovation process.

The State was lacking resources to rebuild all buildings, he said, adding that inhabitants who owned the buildings must be responsible for rebuilding their apartments.

Another challenge is the residents living on the second floor or higher may agree to rebuild their houses, however, the residents living on the first floor claim that they can no longer make use of this floor to run businesses if the building is under reconstruction.

Dung said that the department would have preferential policies to attract business investment on renovation projects, in addition to accelerating the examination of old apartment buildings to make a list of apartments in need of renovation and reconstruction. Next year, 135 old apartment buildings showing signs of leaning, tilting and massive destruction will be examined.

The department would submit to the municipal People's Committee the regulations which specify responsibilities of apartments' owners in renovating and rebuilding the quarters, Dung said.

VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/TT/TN/Dantri