National investigation into vehicle fires begins
    
It could take authorities up to 18 months to complete a national study into the spate of unexplained vehicle fires, an official has said.

Trinh Ngoc Giao, Director of the Ministry of Transport’s Vietnam Register, told DTiNews that it remained a pressing issue, and they would try to shorten the investigation to around one year if possible.

According to the Ministry of Public Security's Firefighting and Rescue Department, localities across Vietnam recorded a total of 196 vehicle fires in 2011 with 90 cases remaining unexplained.

After the spate of unexplained vehicle fires, in early 2012, Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang said the ministry, especially the national vehicle registration authority Vietnam Register, would take responsibility for all vehicle fires in 2012.

However, the number of vehicle fires has continued to increase since the beginning of 2012. The country recorded up to 47 vehicle fires from early this year through February 10. The causes of the fires in 40 cases, 85 percent of incidents, have yet to be found.

The country has 37 million vehicles, including two million cars and 35 million motorbikes in use. In response to the recent spate of vehicles fires, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung assigned the Ministries of Transport, Public Security, Industry and Trade, and Science and Technology to co-ordinate in carrying out a national investigation into the incidents as well as work out the best solutions. However, they have yet to release any persuasive results up to now.

Trinh Ngoc Giao said, “Everyone are waiting for the exact cause of the vehicle fires to be announced but I don’t think one specific reason for the incidents while be found. Our study will focus on fuel quality, vehicle maintenance, the integrity of the vehicle and material used to manufacture the vehicle. We have completed an appraisal for the project and are waiting for the Ministry of Science and Technology’s approval to get funding.”

Giao said that the prime minister has requested the Ministry of Science and Technology to carefully investigate claims that poor quality fuel was a cause, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s institute of petrochemical technology is carrying out more tests.

“It’s really difficult to conclude that petroleum is a major cause of vehicle fires as we could not take samples from all the incidents. We should wait for the final results of the national study.”

Associate Prof. cum Dr. Hoang Manh Hung from the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations (VUSTA) said the Vietnam Register’s claim that the study would take at least a year was likely to prove controversial.

He added that it would better to only assign the Ministry of Science and Technology to carry out the study to ensure objective results, instead of involving the Ministry of Industry and Trade which is currently managing petroleum products.

Vietnam’s ethnic festival sells…Chinese goods?

Opened on April 19, the Vietnam Ethnic Groups Cultural Festival promises to be a good chance to promote the cultures of 13 ethnic groups from eight cities and provinces in the north, centre and south of Vietnam. Yet, many of the event’s shortcomings have greatly disappointed the visitors.

Held at the Vietnamese Ethnic Groups Culture and Tourism Village in Dong Mo tourist area, 40km from Hanoi, the 9-day festival has stunned visitors by displaying Chinese goods next to the traditional products and handicrafts of the ethnic minority groups.

Moreover, many televisions and speakers at the venue blasting out infomercials about the minority communities only detract from already weak ethnic ambience of the festival.

Most disappointingly, the performance of ethnic music falls far short of the visitors’ expectations. Instead of performing traditional music instruments to liven up the festival and draw visitors, local artists only performed for a camera crew. After staffs of a local television station finished their filming, the artists stopped playing the music even though many visitors asked them to continue.

In addition, the choice of venue is also a disappointment to the visitors. Established in 2010, the Ethnic Groups Culture and Tourism Village has but a few constructions to showcase the ethnic minorities’ cultures, besides some bamboo houses which have been damaged due to termites.

The village’s managing board said that the houses were built on the same design and materials of ethnic people’s houses, and they were “planning to repair the houses with more durable materials.”

Vietnam to offer VAT refunds for foreign tourists

As of June 1, foreign travelers will receive VAT refunds for the goods they have purchased in Vietnam when leaving the country via Hanoi's Noi Bai or Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhat airports.

Under this pilot scheme launched by the Prime Minister, any foreigner leaving Vietnam with an invoice worth at least VND2 million (US$95.2) can claim VAT refunds at the two major terminals, says the Ministry of Finance in its newly-issued circular for implementation of the scheme.

Foreign tourists are entitled to receive 85 percent of the total VAT in Vietnamese dong, while the remaining 15 percent will be given to selected commercial banks as VAT refund fees for their handling of the tax repayments.

If they want to convert their refunds into another currency, tourists can conduct the transaction at the exchange rate listed at the time of the exchange.

Foreigners wishing to receive the refunds are required to present to the banks in charge their boarding card and invoice cum VAT refund declaration form approved by the customs agencies prior to their boarding.

Woman held for trafficking women to China

Police in Hanoi have arrested a 32-year-old woman for smuggling women to China by lying to them that she would arrange jobs for them there.

Phan Thi Thu Thuy, a resident of Ward 4, District 10, Ho Chi Minh City, was seized on Wednesday at a hotel room in Hanoi when she was preparing to send 9 women to China, police in Hoang Mai District reported.

Thuy would be prosecuted on charges of women trafficking, police said.

Thuy told investigators that she had lied to her victims that she would give them secure jobs at a salary of VND2.8 million (US$134) per month in China while in fact would sell them when they arrived in the country.

If she had not arrested, she would have taken the nine women to Mong Cai Town in northern Quang Ninh Province before selling them to China, Thuy told police.

Thuy said she was once sold to China by a human trafficking gang several years ago but she managed to return to Vietnam 2 years ago.  

She confessed that in December 2011 she successfully cheated and sold 4 women to China for money.

After investigating her previous record, the police have found that Quang Ninh Province Police Department has issued a nationwide warrant for the arrest of Thuy for the same offense.

The police in Hanoi and Quang Ninh are expanding their investigation to search for the four victims.

6 mil people to get higher pay next month

Millions of people across the country will see their salary increased when the basic minimum wage is raised from the current VND830,000 to VND1,050,000 ($50.4) under a governmental decree that will take effect on May 1, 2012.

Dang Huu Phap, deputy head of the Budget Department under the Finance Ministry estimated that more than 6 million people will get a higher pay as a result of the new wage rate, which is 26,5 percent higher than the current one.

Under Decree No. 31 by the Government, the new minimum wage rate will be applied to civil servants and people working for State-owned agencies, the armed forces, political and socio-political organizations, public administrative organizations, and one-member limited companies owned by the State under the Law on Enterprise.

The new minimum wage rate serves as a legal basis for all relevant entities to calculate and determine salary levels and salary-based allowance levels for their staff from May 1, 2012.

It will also be used for calculating redundancy payments for workers who lose their jobs due to the reorganization of State-owned one-member limited companies, according to the decree.

Total spending from the State budget on the increase of minimum wage is estimated at VND48 trillion (US$408.2 million), Phap said.

The current minimum wage meets only 46 percent of the average costs of living of civil servants in the administrative sector, said Hoang Minh Hao, deputy head of the ministry’s Labor and Wage Department.

For workers in state-owned enterprises, it covers 65 percent of their living costs, Hao said.

Along with the new minimum wage, the pension rate, social insurance allowance and monthly allowance will also increase by 26.5 percent from May 1 for 7 groups of beneficiaries, under Decree 35 of the Government.

15 Chinese work without permit in Ba Ria-Vung Tau

Inspecting Meisheng Textiles Vietnam Co. Ltd. in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province for their use of labor, the provincial Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has found 15 unskilled Chinese laborers working without a work permit.

The company, located in the Ngai Giao Industrial Park in Chau Duc District, is a 100% foreign owned company belonging to Leading Textiles Group, which was established in Australia and have associate companies in Malaysia and Vietnam.

Chief inspector of the department, Le Hong Men, yesterday said the agency fined the company VND17.5 million (US$840) for violation of Vietnam’s regulations on foreign labor management.

In addition, the department also requested that the company train Vietnamese workers to replace the unskilled Chinese.

Talking with Tuoi Tre the same day, Colonel Le Toi Sung, deputy director of the provincial Police Department, said concerned agencies have urged the company to get work permits for these workers or they would face expulsion.

Under Vietnam’s current regulations, foreigner workers who work on contracts for more than three months in Vietnam are required to obtain a work permit.

In August last year, the southern Ca Mau Province authorities found more than 600 Chinese working on over-3-month contracts without work permits at the construction site of the Ca Mau Urea Plant, part of the Ca Mau Gas-Power-Fertilizer complex.

Rural investment programs prove costly

A number of investment programs for agriculture, rural areas and farmers turn out to be unreasonable and costly, said a report of the National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee.

The investment capital for agriculture, rural areas and farmers in the 2006-2011 period totaled over VND432.7 trillion, equivalent to 50% of the total investment capital sourced from the State budget and Government bonds. In addition, the State also prepared backup funds worth VND7-8 trillion a year, mostly used to tackle the consequences of storms and flooding.

Furthermore, farmers also enjoyed agricultural tax exemption and reduction worth more than VND2 trillion per year. Some VND8 trillion sourced from the lottery every year was prioritized for infrastructure development in rural areas, said the report on public investment in agriculture, rural areas and farmers released in Hanoi on Wednesday.

The report said such investment capital was not commensurate with up to 70% of Vietnam’s population living in rural areas. However, many national target programs and supporting programs for agriculture, rural areas and farmers have failed to achieve their goals and caused much waste.

For example, under the migration and settlement program for ethnic minorities carried out in 2007, a household in Lai Chau was financed as much as VND1 billion, equal to the central budget fund for a remote commune for a year.

Laws and polices for agriculture, rural areas and farmers also expose multiple shortcomings, such as the regulations on farmland use terms, land ownership and land use rights.

Cold front set to cool northern region

A cold front is set to slam the northern mountainous region by tonight, April 20, bringing with it showers and thunderstorm, said the National Hydro Meteorological Forecasting Centre.

From tonight, it will spread to the Red River Delta and the central northern region and trigger showers and thunderstorms. Strong northeasterly winds will blow along coastal areas.

The cold front will linger for 2-3 days, after which the weather will be sunny again in the northern region.

Meanwhile, hot and muggy conditions will continue to prevail in Ho Chi Minh City and the southeastern region throughout this week. Temperatures might reach 33-36 degrees Celsius, but remain 1-2 degrees milder in the Mekong Delta.

In related news, a tornado hit Ba To District in the central province of Quang Ngai killing one and injuring three others on Thursday afternoon. The tornado and heavy rainfall also collapsed and damaged over 100 homes and one nursery school.

Banned chemical substances seized in Dong Nai Province

The Department of Market Management in the southern province of Dong Nai on April 19 detected and seized banned lean-meat chemical substances from two stores in Cam My and Trang Bom Districts.
Police detect containers stuffed with eight tonnes of decomposed meat

One of the market management teams discovered a store belonging to Nguyen Van Luom in Bao Binh Commune having four packages of animal feed of brand B.Complex-C and Nutri Meat. Test results showed that both products contained the banned chemical Sabultamol.

Meantime, another team in Trang Bom District seized 568 kilogrammes of animal feed without a brand name at a shop in Tay Hoa Commune. Tests showed it contained 9.9 kilogrammes of Sabultamol.

On the same day, the provincial People’s Committee worked with relevant agencies to estimate damages to honest pig-breeding farmers, due to fall in pork prices in markets throughout the country. The loss can be calculated to around VND500 billion.

Relevant agencies have petitioned to withdraw licenses of 20 veterinary medicine stores and close down 35 unsafe slaughterhouses in Trang Bom, Xuan Loc, Vinh Cuu, Cam My and Nhon Trach Districts.

On the same day, police in Thuan An Town in the southern province of Binh Duong raided a cold-storage facility at 21G/3E in Binh Hoa Commune and discovered more than 8 tonnes of decomposed cow and buffalo meat in containers.

It is worth mentioning that of the above volume of rotten and smelly decomposed meat, 2.2 tonnes of the meat was stealthily removed from the incineration site that Dong Nai Province inspectors were burning.

Market management officials in Dong Nai along with veterinary unit inspectors discovered the truck transporting this 2.2 tonnes of decomposed cow and buffalo meat in Bien Hoa City.

The truck’s driver, 27-year-old Nguyen Van Hoan, failed to produce any documents for the meat, saying that he was hired to transport it from Hanoi to District 12 in HCMC.

Market inspectors escorted the truck to a yard in Long Binh Ward to destroy the meat. They put all the bags of meat in a large hole in the yard and set fire to the meat using 5 litres of petrol. While the meat was still burning, the inspectors left the yard.

Seeing their absence, driver Hoan and his assistant pulled out all the bags of meat from the   hole, loaded the meat back onto the truck and continued their trip to Binh Duong Province.

Tran Ngoc Son, head of the Bien Hoa veterinary centre, said the inspection team should have invited the local government of Long Binh Commune to witness the destruction to offer proof and also protect the scene. Consequently, four inspectors were asked to write letters acknowledging their wrongdoings.

On April 19, Tran Van Vinh, deputy chairman of the People’s Committee of Dong Nai Province considered suspending the four inspectors from work.

Commune 10 years without clean water

Water scarcity has affected the lives of nearly 9,000 residents in Thach That District's Chang Son Commune, over 30km from the city centre, for the past 10 years.

Deputy Chairman of the commune People's Committee Nguyen Kim Toan said all of the 15 local wells have dried up inexplicably.

About 15 years ago, residents accessed water from 9m deep wells they dug into the earth, but now even when they dig to 30m, they found no water at all, he explained.

Accordingly, residents have been forced to buy clean water for daily use from neighbouring communes, spending about VND500,000 (US$23) per month on average each.

Toan confirmed that the water shortage has caused nearly 70 per cent of local residents, mostly children, to regularly suffer from skin disease, diarrhoea, dengue fever and sore eyes.

He added that since 2006, a number of ministry and water company representatives have conducted surveys in the commune, but with very little result.

Last year two delegations from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development visited the area to research and install tap-water pipes, but one said it could find no source of water while the other promised to return in the first quarter of this year, but nothing has happened, Toan said.

The commune also submitted a request for help to the Thach That District People's Committee and municipal People's Committee, but has not received any reply.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chairman of the Thach That People's Committee Tran Duc Nguyen said that last year the district set up a project to supply clean water for Chang Son Commune with a total fund of VND40 billion ($1.9 million), but that until now, capital had remained scarce.

Petechial fever and HFM cases increase in HCM City

Last week, 128 cases of petechial fever were reported in Ho Chi Minh City, an increase of 17 cases compared to the previous week, according to the municipal Department of Health.    

Binh Hung commune in Binh Chanh district recorded the most cases with six, followed by ward 16 in District 8 with four. No deaths from the disease were reported.

Since the beginning of this year, as many as 2,658 local residents have contracted the disease.

Meanwhile, 211 cases of hand-foot-mouth (HFM) disease were reported last week, showing an increase compared to the previous week and the same period in 2011.

So far, the city has recognized 2,315 cases of the disease with Dong Thanh commune in Hoc Mon district recording the highest infection rate.

To deal with the issue, the HCM City Department of Health has called on all 24 districts to step up the fight against this disease, release immediate warnings, and propose detailed measures to combat them.

Illiteracy falls over 20 years but more to be done: World Bank

The portion of the Vietnamese population aged 25 to 55 without any schooling has fallen from 23 per cent to less than 1 per cent over the past 20 years, according to a report released yesterday by the World Bank.

The Viet Nam High Quality Education for All Report presented a comprehensive picture of both achievements and setbacks in education during the last two decades, aiming to provide a deeper analysis of domestic primary and secondary schools, said Keiko Sato, the World Bank Portfolio and Operations Manager.

The report showed that the national education sector has faced major challenges, including persistent inequalities in grades, attendance and completion among disadvantaged groups.

Elsa Duret, Budget Support Advisor from the Belgian Development Agency, said progress was most evident at the primary and secondary levels.

The primary education completion rate rose from 39.6 to 88 per cent in rural areas between 1992 and 2008, while the lower secondary completion rate increased from 19.6 to 73.5 per cent.

The report said that the Vietnamese literacy rate is on par with those of East Asian countries and middle-income countries with significantly higher GDPs.

The problematic findings related particularly to low-income and ethnic minority groups, which had attendance rates below the national average: 84 per cent for lower secondary education and 48 per cent for upper secondary education.

Only 52 per cent of children from ethnic minority groups completed lower secondary education, compared to 80 per cent of majority students.

Completion rates for upper secondary for minorities are one-third the rates for the Kinh group accounting for nearly 90 per cent of the whole population in the same period.

Le Tien Thanh, head of the Ministry of Education and Training's Primary Education Department, said the education sector has to ensure that all Vietnamese students have equal access to education and that schools continue to improve in the future.

"The most important thing is that we need to increase the effectiveness of spending in the education sector," he said.

According to Thanh, the Government has allocated 20 per cent of the State Budget to the education sector.

Viet Nam should prioritise funding for the education sector and improvements in both teaching methods and school management, said Emanuela di Gropello, lead author of the report.

According to Sato from the World Bank, this reform agenda is critical to meeting public demand for a higher performing education system and building a sustainable foundation for development in middle-income Viet Nam.

The report is the result of collaboration between the World Bank, the United Kingdom's Department of International Development and the Belgium Development Co-operation.

Vietnam handicrafts join charity fair in Japan

Vietnam and 26 other member countries of the Asia Pacific Ladies Friendship Society (ALFS) sold their typical handicraft articles at a charity fair on Apr. 18 in Tokyo to raise money for welfare activities and aid relief to natural disaster victims worldwide.

The event offered a good chance for regional women to exchange information, enhance knowledge and learn about the culture of other countries.

ALFS is an organization under the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the aim to promote exchanges, enhance friendship and contribute to social welfare. The 500-member organization gathers wives of former prime ministers, politicians and diplomats of Japan and wives of 27 Asian-Pacific ambassadors to Japan.

All proceedings from sales of goods at the fair will be sent to the society’s fund, and then be distributed among member countries for domestic charitable work.

In 2011, all the earned money was donated to people in Japan’s Northeast who suffered from the severe earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.

Beaten up, student still suspended

A high school in the central province of Ha Tinh has suspended a student for one week after she had been beaten up by her schoolmates.

Le Thi My Duyen, a 10th-grader at Mai Thuc Loan High School in Loc Ha District, has been shocked ever since she was informed of the suspension last Thursday, two days after she had been admitted to a local hospital following the beating.

She has sustained brain injuries since then, according to hospital doctors.

Duyen recalled on her sickbed that she was attacked by a group of students last Tuesday on the way home from school after she had tried to stop some 11th-graders from striking one of her classmates.

Her father Le Huy Hoang said the school then asked him to come to get a formal notice of the suspension while he had expected to receive its condolences instead. Hoang had earlier reported the incident to Mai Thuc Loan together with local authorities and the media.

“The principal told me that I had ruined the school’s reputation by reporting my daughter’s case to the media, so it had to suspend her,” he protested.

Nguyen Cong Huyen, the principal, later told Tuoi Tre that the suspension resulted from Duyen’s violations of the school’s internal regulations, but he failed to point out anything specific.

“We have suspended her simply because she broke our rules,” Huyen explained to local media.

“It is not a sensible thing to suspend the student when she is suffering from such physical injuries,” said Nguyen Quoc Anh, vice director of the Ha Tinh Department of Education and Training.

Local police said they are interrogating one female student who is believed to be involved in Duyen’s beating.

They added it is inadvisable to take any disciplinary action against Duyen when no conclusions related to the case have been reached.

Hoang has lodged an appeal against the suspension to the department, which said it would step in to help settle the problem and keep him informed of any progress.

School violence has recently become a topical issue in Vietnam when videos of student fighting are continually uploaded to the Internet.

VNA, TTA fund house for Binh Phuoc AO victim

A house, funded by the “For Victims of Agent Orange” Fund of the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) and China’s Taiwan Trade Association (TTA), has been gifted to Agent Orange victim Dao Thi Thanh Kieu in the southern province of Binh Phuoc.

The 44 m2 house was built at a cost of VND48 million, VND30 million coming from the VNA’s Fund and the TTA and the rest being raised by Kieu’s family.

This is the first house built by the Fund for disadvantaged AO victims in Phuoc Thien commune’s Bu Dop district.

Binh Phuoc province is now home to more than 4,000 AO victims. Many have already died from cancer and 901 AO victims are currently entitled to subsides because of their medical condition.

Dong Nai firefighters assigned to guard funeral

More than a hundred officers of Dong Nai province’s fire department have received a new duty to handle besides extinguishing fires: guard colonel Vo Van Sang’s mother-in-law’s funeral in An Hoa commune, Bien Hoa City.

Officers in different divisions were assigned on shifts to stand guard at the funeral for four days, from April 14-17. This list was signed and approved last Saturday by senior lieutenant colonel Tran Tuan Trieu, deputy head of the department.

“When a relative of a leader dies, we should open our heart and come to their funeral to support him. I needed to sign a document to mobilize officers to come and guard the funeral,” answered Trieu as Tuoi Tre reporters inquired asked the senior lieutenant colonel about the reasons behind his decision to sign an official document for a private affair.

“The loss of a family member and a funeral are unexpected. Because of the deep sentiments, they come to visit and share in sadness with us,” explained colonel Vo Van Sang.

Vietnam loses 2% of GDP to climate change

Vietnam has suffered an annual loss that makes up about 2% of its GDP due to natural disasters caused by climate change, deputy minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha told the sixth international conference on Community-Based Adaptation (CBA6) held in Hanoi on April 19.

The conference -- jointly organized by Vietnam government and the International Institute for Environment and Development -- aims to seek ways to ultimately enhance the capacity of communities to cope with disasters and improve the livelihoods for some of the most vulnerable groups in developing countries.

During the four-day conference, stakeholders and practitioners from around the world will discuss knowledge of community-based adaptation planning and practices from different parts of the developing world, particularly from Vietnam.

The conference also includes a three-day field trip to some local projects to see how communities living in different ecosystems have adapted to climate change.

Fukuroi, Hue boost cultural, educational ties

The Chairman of the Fukuroi City Council, Katsumi Nagata, led a delegation on a working visit to the central city of Hue from April 18-20.  

At the meeting, the two sides discussed ways to increase bilateral cooperation, especially in culture and training.

Accordingly, Fukuroi will strengthen relations with schools in Hue which teach Japanese for their students.

Both cities promised more cooperative agreements in the next year to mark the 40 years of diplomatic ties between Vietnam and Japan.

On the occasion, the delegation visited the memorial sites of the late nationalist Phan Boi Chau and joined a cultural exchange there.

Katsumi noted the foundation for the Hue-Fukuroi relationship was created more than 100 years ago, when Chau sent some outstanding Vietnamese youths to Japan to study as part of the Dong Du (Visit the East) Movement in 1905-1908.

During hard times, the Movement received great support from Japanese Doctor Asaba Sakitaro who had a radical spirit.

After returning to his homeland, Chau visited Japan again to express his gratitude to his benefactor, but unfortunately the doctor had passed away.

To commemorate Asaba, the Vietnamese nationalist then built a stone stele in Umeda village, Fukuroi City.

Later, the Asaba Vietnam Association was founded and since then many activities have been held to support both countries’ education and training development.

Recently, a number of businessmen and individuals in Umeda village have raised funds to erect a stone stele to mark the friendship between the two cities in the memorial site.

National Physics Olympiad opens in Dak Lak

The 15th National Physics Olympiad opened in the Central Highland province of Dak Lak on April 20 with the participation of 400 students from universities and colleges across the country.    

Contestants will compete in three forms: multiple-choice, exercises and experiments.

The contest aims to recognize talented young physics students for the country and contributes to improving the quality of  physics teaching and studying at universities.

This is the biggest Physics Olympiad so far, with a large number of students taking part.

The awards ceremony will be held on April 23.

Medical laboratory gets quality certification

A medical laboratory at the Hue Central Hospital has become the third and latest to get International Standard Organisation certification this year.

They are part of a programme supported by the Viet Nam Administration for Medical Services, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and FHI 360, an international NGO, to improve quality standards and quality management systems in laboratories in Viet Nam.

Following 18 months of hard work under the National Laboratory Capacity Building Program, five out of the six have achieved the standards, though the other two are yet to get the certification.

Ha Noi, HCM City on 25 most liveable list

ECA International ranked the two biggest cities of Viet Nam as among 25 most liveable cities in Asia out of 49 cities under survey.

Singapore was ranked the most liveable city with Kobe (Japan) and HongKong following in second and third place.

These cities have the good conditions of climate, health, social systems, entertainment, safety, infrastructure and policy.

Updated annually, ECA International's Location Ratings system helps companies to establish appropriate expatriate allowances to compensate for the level of adjustment required to complete an assignment.

Phu Tho to relocate 400 households

About 400 households and a kindergartens will be relocated soon in the northern province of Phu Tho's Ninh Dan Commune due to being affected by serious land depression, according to the provincial People's Committee.

Local authorities are rushing to complete a new 21-ha-resettlement area and expand one residential area from 88 houses to 100.

By 2013, about 100 households will be moved to new areas.

Large reservoirs to be equipped with cameras

Large reservoirs under construction will be equipped with cameras to monitor their operation, according to Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat.

The large reservoirs nation-wide, which have capacities of over one million cu.m or a height of more than 10 m, will also be automatic parameter devices.

Statistics recorded from these devices will be sent to the National Steering Committee for Storm and Flood Control and Prevention for lowlands flood prevention.

Salvage of sunken Truong Hai Star starts

Sao Mai Marine Co. Ltd. and Vietnam Salvage Corporation (Visal) on Thursday started salvaging the wrecked container ship Truong Hai Star in Vung Tau sea.

Sao Mai is in charge of recovering 41 containers on board the ship while Visal is responsible for removing oil from the vessel and lifting it up, said Nguyen Van Kha, general director of Visal.

The 80-meter-long ship sank to a depth of 15 meters.

“It will take around 7 days to get the job done at a cost of VND8 billion. The Truong Hai Star owner will cover this expense,” Kha said.

There are no sign of oil leaking from the ship but prudence must be practiced when pumping out a large volume of oil. At present, Thanh Trung Co. and Hung Thai Co. have laid down buoys around the wreckage site to prevent oil from spreading in case of an oil spill happening, according to Visal.

The Thai-flagged vessel Krairatch Dignity collided with Truong Hai Star in Vung Tau last Monday while the latter was preparing to enter a HCMC port with 66 containers on board.

Hanoi proposes 7 new resettlement areas
    
Due to lack of resettlement space in apartment blocks, the Hanoi Department of Planning and Architecture proposed a check of existing projects and 167 hectares in resettlement areas.

According to this department’s assessment, most projects approved by the Hanoi People’s Committee and the department are going at a too slow pace, unable to keep up with site clearance.

Each urban area has been required to use 20% of its land to build resettlement apartments, however, investors do not hand over the land to authorities in time for such the apartments to be built.

To address the issue, the department has recommended adding seven new resettlement areas equipped with adequate infrastructure to meet the demands of relocated people.

The department suggested three areas in Hoai Duc District. The first 42-hectare resettlement area, called X1, has 41 hectares in Viwasen Urban Area and one hectare in Duc Giang Urban Area.

The second 42-hectare area, called X2, has one hectare in Tay Do Urban Area, 33 hectares in Son Dong Urban Area, and 8 hectares scattered in residential areas.

X3 has a total area of 35 hectares with 8 hectares in Son Dong Urban Area and 27 hectares scattered throughout residential areas.

19-hectare X4 is in Dong Anh District. 6-hectare X5 lies in Dan Phuong District’s Lien Ha Commune. 4-hectare X6 is located in Dan Phuong District’s Tan Hoi Commune. 19-hectare X7 is in Chuong My District’s Chuc Son Town.

All these resettlement areas are cultivated land, but they will be converted to resettlement land in accordance with the capital planning.

The Department proposed Hanoi People’s Committee that the Department of Construction should co-operate with relevant agencies to check the progress of these approved projects.

Also, the projects are to be based on resettlement statistics and projected demands through 2020.

People’s Committee at all levels need to check and find out wastelands scattering in residential areas to take advantage of.

The Department of Planning and Investment and the Department of Construction have been assigned to check for possible difficulties in the process of investment and construction, in order to make a proposal to the municipal People’s Committee. Afterwards, these agencies will come up with solutions that would speed up the process of the construction of resettlement locations.