National strategy maps out eradication of malaria by 2030  

Vietnam has mapped out a strategy to eradicate malaria from the country by 2030 according to the National Strategy for Prevention and Eradication of Malaria for the period 2011-2020.

The Prime Minister has approved the national strategy which states clearly that the affected people and those at risk of contracting the disease must have timely access to diagnose and treatment. The government should also carry out effective measures to combat the disease in vulnerable areas.

Health authorities have also been asked to raise awareness of the disease so that people can take effective action and incorporate preventive measures.

For the strategy to be successful, four measures will have to be adopted. These measures include right policies and society awareness, techniques, scientific research and application of science in preventive measures and international cooperation.

Besides, the government must provide mosquito nets and blankets soaked with anti-mosquito chemical repellant to migrants and disadvantaged households. People will have to be encouraged to adopt the habit of sleeping under mosquito nets.

Binh Cach Bridge collapses for fifth time

The Binh Cach Bridge on Road 879 that links Cho Gao in Tien Giang Province and Chau Thanh District in Long An Province collapsed when a 15-ton truck carrying cow excrement ran over it.

The incident occurred at 10 pm Saturday, causing the truck to fall down to the canal. Bags of cow excrement from the truck then drifted over the canal’s water surface.

The driver managed to get out of the cabin and suffered no wounds.

Fortunately, there were neither other vehicles nor pedestrians on the bridge at the time of the collapse.

The incident blocked traffic between the two ends of the bride as well as the waterway traffic in the area.

It is the fifth time that the bridge has collapsed due to overloaded vehicles.

The 21-meter-long bridge has no supporting piles, so it is vulnerable to collapse, according to some experts.

More than three months ago, the bridge collapsed under the weight of a truck carrying 40 tons of rice on July 19. After just two days of repair, it was into operation again.

Police challenged by deaf suspect’s case

The police in Dong Nai Province are finding it difficult to handle a deaf, dump and illiterate man who allegedly hit a man with an iron bar on October 4. The victim died one day later from a severe brain injury.

The suspect, 29-year-old Nguyen Van Duc from Long Thanh District was arrested on October 8 in a rented room. The police said Duc didn’t know sign language for the deaf and could only communicate through gestures.

The police thus had to ask two sign language specialists to help questioning him.

Duc told the specialists he had wanted to steal from a phone shop and hit the man who tried to catch him.

However, a lawyer from the Ho Chi Minh City Bar has warned the police about the accuracy of such questioning.

“No one can know for sure if Duc and the specialists fully understood each other,” he said.
“It is likely that only Duc’s mother or father can fully understand him through his gestures.”

The lawyer also said Duc should have a legal representative during the questioning process and advised the police to invite somebody who is close to him to act on his behalf.

A source told the police that Duc had a girl friend who took him to the hospital to treat his injuries caused in his fight with the two men who tried to catch him.

After Duc was hospitalized, the girl disappeared.

Duc and the girl have been living as husband and wife, the source said.

However, Duc refused to talk about the girl with the specialists.

In the early morning of October 4, Nguyen Van Tang, 43, a resident of Hiep Phuoc Commune, caught Duc using an iron bar to force open the door of a mobile phone shop next to his house.

Tang rushed toward him and shouted for help.

While fighting with Tang, Duc struck him in the head with the iron bar.

Tang then fell to the ground and passed out. Another resident then showed up to fight with Duc, who later ran into an alley where he parked his motorbike and drove away.

Tang was taken to Cho Ray Hospital in HCMC but died one day later.

The police launched an investigation and suspected Duc, who have previous convictions and have left his residence for years.

The police then sent wanted notices for Duc to many hospitals and health centers since they thought Duc could need medical treatment for his injuries.

They also asked all boarding houses to report any suspicious guest. Three days later, a hospital called the police.

But when they arrived, the suspect had escaped.

On October 8, after being informed by the owner of a boarding house, the police rushed to the scene and arrested Duc in his rented room.

At present, they are searching for Duc’s girlfriend.

Electrician electrocuted, hung on air

30-year-old Truong Huu Phu in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang was electrocuted and hung up in the air for two hours last Saturday afternoon while climbing up a low tension pole to connect wires for a customer.

As Phu, a home electrician, was working on the pole located in Tan Huong Commune in Chau Thanh District, he got an electric shock and died immediately at 2.40 pm.

His body kept dangling on the pole although many locals said they tried to call Chau Thanh Electricity Company to ask it to turn off electricity.

In an interview with Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper, Luu Thanh Dien, director of the company, said there were five staffs working during that shift.

Because the team was then busy fixing an electricity network at Luong Hoa Lac Commune in Cho Gao District, they couldn’t turn off power right away.

Dien said the team finally did so at 3 pm.

Phu’s body was removed at 4.37 pm when local authorities came to inspect the scene.
 
HCM City seeks trained employees
 
More than half of the 22,000 jobs that need to be filled next month will require employees with at least vocational, college or university training, according to HCM City's Centre for Forecasting Manpower Needs and Labour Market Information.

Tran Anh Tuan, the centre's standing deputy head, said 45 per cent of the remaining jobs would be filled by manual workers.

Employees are needed in fields of garments, sales, mechanics, healthcare, construction, hotels, IT and business administration.

At least 10,000 new seasonal jobs are needed for sales, hotels and tourism next month. The city continues to face an imbalance in supply and demand in the labour market.

For October, companies operating in the fields of mechanics and metallurgy met only 10 per cent of their employment demand.

A similar situation exists in the IT field where initial figures of industrial parks indicate that a large number of trained employees are needed.

However, many graduates in this field have weak skills and little experience and do not meet the required qualifications.

Companies and enterprises in the field of garment and footwear also need many more workers because of year-end orders to fill. But they are finding it difficult to fill jobs.

Labour shortages also exist in marketing, tourism, chemicals, electronics and real estate.

In recent months, many people have sought jobs in accountancy and auditing, personnel management and office administration, especially in October.

The number of people seeking jobs in accountancy and auditing increased by 32 per cent compared to September.

Tuan said an imbalance in supply and demand would continue through November.

Allergic rhinitis affects population

Over 12 per cent of Viet Nam's citizens (around 10 million people) has been diagnosed with allergic rhinitis, according to Viet Nam Association of Otorhinolaryngologists Deputy Chairman, Vo Thanh Quang.

He noted that numbers were on the increase due to environmental pollution and changes in living conditions.

Patients with allergic rhinitis, he added, often suffered additional ailments such as sinusitis, otitis and asthma.

Quang warned against the use of drugs without prescription, explaining that allergic rhinitis was a chronic disease necessitating long-term treatment under strict supervision.

Journalists turn to social media
 
Social networking sites are an enriching source of information and the media should take full advantage of this, says Luu Vu Hai, a senior official with the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Hai, the head of the ministry's Broadcasting and Electronic Communication Department, told a seminar in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue last Friday that social networks have forced media organisations to change from what used to be a one-way communication to one that interacted with their audience.

"Journalist are no longer exclusively providing and distributing information. Social networking sites have become an environment where diversified information is rapidly disseminated and there is a lot of interaction between information providers and receivers," Hai said at a seminar on ‘Social network and media' organised jointly by the ministry and the Swedish Embassy.

Many ‘hot' issues on the social network have been explored and used by professional journalists to publish on the mainstream media, meeting the audience's demand for that kind of information. It has, therefore, become a source of input information for the media, which can also use the social network to disseminate their own, more orthodox information and reach out to a wider audience, Hai said.

Statistics compiled by the ministry show 130 social networking sites have so far been given permission to provide their services.

The leading Vietnamese social networking site, ZingMe has 5.1 million accounts. Facebook, the world's most popular social networking site, has 2.9 million Vietnamese users and Yume, another local social site, has a similar number.

Around 80 per cent of young Vietnamese people have accounts on social networking sites. Studies show that 40 per cent of social network users who are under 18 years of age, have one account each, 25 per cent have two accounts and 13 per cent have more than three on different sites.

The owner of ZingMe, Le Hong Minh, told the seminar that using a social network was an irresistible trend among young people and this has posed challenges to the traditional media.

The director of Swedish Institute for Further Education of Journalists (FOJO), Annelie Ewers, said journalists should spearhead the use of social networks, not prevent their development. She said this approach would help social networks and professional journalism coexist, provide verification for each other's information, protect the truth and ensure balance and diversity of information.

The social network has become an essential part of the society, attracting the participation of many people while providing useful tools of information and meeting the needs of people's communication, experts said at the seminar.

However, media outlets have not taken advantage of social networks as a source of information while the latter have been making good use of the media, they said.

Ewers said the social network has been benefiting from the rapid development of technology and the media has the responsibility to provide social networking sites with credible information.

The information on networking sites was diversified and fast but it could be inaccurate, said Ewers, urging journalists to verify the information they use to protect the truth and at the same time take responsibility to get the citizens involved in the news making and even investigating process.

The seminar, which also discussed the tendency of multimedia practices and the development towards social networks in the near future, would serve as a start to building up of the relationship and interaction between social networks and traditional media, said Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Do Quy Doan.

Such discussions would help initiate proper management of social networks which, apart from providing useful news, can also disseminate harmful information, he said.

Doan asked journalists to use and verify the information from the social networks, and "not be afraid of them."

He said the ministry would continue to study the relationship between social networks and media to ensure the best benefit for users. Results from such studies would provide the basis for the Government's social network management policies, he added.

HCM City resettlement homes ‘substandard'
 
Many buildings in HCM City for people whose lands and houses were acquired for public projects show signs of deterioration, the Department of Construction has said.

A recent inspection of so-called "resettlement" buildings by the department found that not only those built five to 10 years ago but also newer ones – like An Phuc-An Loc in District 2 (built in 2008) and Tan My in District 7 (2010) – are run-down.

Some common problems include leaks from bathrooms in the floor above, seepage of rainwater into walls, and blocked drains.

An Phuc – An Loc appears to be sinking while the elevators do not work properly at Tan My building in District 7.

In many buildings fire safety systems do not work, at Tan My the firefighting equipment is not connected to a water pipe, while at Binh Trung it is damaged.

The department blamed the deterioration on inadequate maintenance, poor construction quality, and lack of awareness among residents about the use of public areas.

Besides, repairs and changes to structures inside apartments by their owners also affected the building's quality, it said.

Developers of many resettlement buildings have drafted plans to upgrade them.

The Sai Gon Real Estate Corporation, which is bound by agreement to freely maintain Tan My until 2014, has agreed to fix all the damage both inside and outside the building.

The department said that in some places this agreement had expired.

The District 2 Public Benefit Service Co has completed the design at An Phuc-An Loc and cost estimates for the repairs which are expected to be finished this quarter. At An Suong and Chu Van An the developers and managers have agreed to fix all the damage.

The department has ordered building managers to closely monitor repairs to ensure they are done thoroughly.

Where the maintenance contract has expired, it said all the concerned parties should sit down to discuss ways to fix the problem.

It plans to carry out a second round of inspections next month to identify the causes of poor quality buildings.

Elementary students to get financial training

Around 150 pupils in grades three to five will benefit from a course in basic financial skills under a programme that was launched on Saturday.

The course, held every Saturday for six weeks, will use materials prepared by Junior Achievement Worldwide, a US-based non-profit organisation that educates youth in business economics.

The pupils selected from three schools in HCM City – Tran Hung Dao, Tran Binh Trong and Luong Dinh Cua – will be helped by 30 volunteers from HSBC Viet Nam.

The course teaches children about earning, spending, sharing and saving money, and about businesses they can start or jobs they can perform.

Construction of HCM City kindergartens needed for compulsory education
 
The HCM City People's Committee has urged districts to speed up construction of kindergartens so that the plan to make kindergarten education compulsory could be achieved.

It called for particular focus on the city's 13 industrial and export processing zones.

Statistics from the Department of Education and Training show that there are more than 750 public and private kindergartens and more than 1,000 family-run nurseries in the city.

But there are no public kindergartens in 13 wards and communes, and none of any kind in the industrial and export zones.

If the situation persisted, the compulsory kindergarten target would be difficult to achieve, Nguyen Dinh Thai Chau, head of the city's school-building committee, told a meeting last Thursday between the committee and the district project management boards, who build schools among other tasks.

This week the committee would work with the HCM City Export Processing and Industrial Zones Authority to obtain land for building kindergartens in the zones, he said.

The city People's Committee has chosen six communes in Cu Chi, Hoc Mon, Binh Chanh, Can Gio, and Nha Be and ordered the districts to give priority to building schools by 2012 under the new rural area programme.

In the year to date 1,385 new classrooms from kindergarten to high-school levels have opened.

The city has allocated VND955.7 billion (US$46 million) this year for building schools.

Developers encroach upon public spaces

In the drive to develop, Viet Nam has neglected the need for public places, urban experts said at a conference in Ha Noi on Wednesday.

Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Dinh Toan said there were more than 750 cities and 485 newly built urban areas in the country. However, the number of public spaces for entertainment, relaxation and shopping in major cities fell well short of what was needed.

He said too much attention had been given to the construction of residential and office buildings and not enough to green spaces.

He cited the example of central Ha Noi, where just 0.3 per cent of its land bank is allocated to parks and flower gardens – just 1 sq m per person.

Urban planners around the world suggest that there should be a minimum of 40 sq m of green space per person in developed areas.

Do Viet Chien, deputy director of the ministry's Urban Development Department, said planners usually incorporated green spaces in their designs but that they were ignored by investors because they brought no profit.

He also said public spaces had been built on because local officials had been lax in their supervision of development projects.

Nguyen Thanh Binh, a PhD student at Ha Noi University of Architecture, said numerous public places had been encroached upon by developers, such as Dong Da, Thanh Nhan and Ho Ba Mau parks in Ha Noi.

He said tougher penalties should be imposed on developers who illegally built on green spaces.

Kristie Daniel, from the Healthbridge Foundation of Canada, said officials should ensure that public spaces were not used as car parks and that more streets should be pedestrianised.

The conference was co-organised by the Ministry of Construction and the Healthbridge Foundation of Canada.

14% of urban population lives in rented houses

One in every seven urban dwellers is living in a rented house, while numerous others are residing in substandard homes, according to the Ministry of Construction in a draft strategy on housing development.

In its proposal, the ministry seeks the Government’s approval for its target to build 100 million square meters of houses each year to supply enough housing units for the people.

The ministry also reveals that about 10.64% of people nationwide equivalent to 2.2 million households are living in houses with area of no more than 30 square meters each. Even worse, the proportion of households with houses measuring less than 15 square meters each is 2.4%, let alone makeshift shelters.

In urban areas, households living in tiny houses accounts for 4%.

Condos account of some 1.23% of housing units nationwide as people prefer living in low-rise houses rather than in apartments. Hanoi City has the highest rate of people living in apartments, but still at just 16.64% while that in HCMC is 6.13%.

To quicken the housing development pace and reach the target of building 100 square meters each year, the Ministry of Construction has put forward eight solutions, including amending land policies such as compensation, site clearance, and land withdrawal to attract firms to develop housing projects.

The ministry has also proposed to expand medium- and long-term loans, complete the housing development fund, forming saving funds, and revise mechanisms for housing mortgage loans and design relevant tax policies.

The goal of the draft strategy is to target an area of 25 square meters per capita in 2020 on average, 29 and 22 square meters in urban and rural areas respectively, and to build at least 12.5 million square meters for social housing projects in urban areas.
 
Food supplement could be harmful

The Department of Food Safety and Hygiene recently uncovered that a food supplement named Cishi (Quingguo Capsule) contains the banned substance Sibutramine.

Sibutramine (contained in a 28.4 mg/tablet), which helps people lose weight, has been banned since April, 2011, due to causing harmful effects on the cardiovascular system and increasing strokes.

The Chinese functional food is imported by the Delta Viet Nam Medical Devices JSC, based in Cau Giay District's Mai Dich Street.

Sewage treatment works get approval

A combined sewage treatment project, set to cover 737,000 sq.m in Soc Son District, recently received approval, according to the Ha Noi People's Committee.

The project, expected to be completed in 2016, will include two rubbish treatment zones and involve a total investment of VND969 billion (US$46million) provided by the State. Around VND420 billion ($20 million) will be used for compensating and supporting resettled residents.

Promotion tours in the fall by Saigontourist

Saigontourist Travel Service Company has collaborated with Vietnam Airlines to offer tourists a number of economical tours with attractive promotions.

There is a popular six-day trip to Hanoi-Sapa priced at VND8.8 million, departing from HCMC on November 1 and 15. Sapa Town in Lao Cai Province is famous with beautiful terraced fields, colorful features, unique ethnic festivals and markets of ethnic people of H’Mong, Red Dao, Tay, Giay or Xa Pho. Tourists to Sapa will be amazed by the splendid valleys Muong Hoa and Ngoi Dum and four-seasons of weather in one day. Meanwhile, Hanoi is also famous in the fall with its cool weather and milk flower season.

Another tour in the North is a four-day Hanoi-Bai Dinh Pagoda-Trang An Tourist Area-Halong Bay venture priced at VND6 million, departing from HCMC on November 9, 23 and 30.

In the Mekong Delta, Saigontourist introduces to travelers a four-day tour to Phu Quoc Island in Kien Giang Province priced at VND5.4 million, departing from HCMC on November 1, 15, 20, 27 and 29. Phu Quoc Island, also known as Dao Ngoc (Pearl Island) is famous for stunning beaches such as Bai Dai, Bai Sao, Ong Lang, undamaged coral reefs and fresh seafood. There are activities offered on the island from swimming, scuba diving to squid fishing.

Tourists can choose from hundreds of tours to other sites in the central such as the Highlands, Nha Trang, Mui Ne and Con Dao.

For trips abroad, tourists will get a 5% discount if they book in advance before January 15 and a VND100,000 discount on tours to Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, Brunei, Hong Kong and China, a VND200,000 discount for tours to South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia-Singapore, Hong Kong-China, VND400,000 discount for tours to Japan and VND1 million discount for tours to the U.S and Europe.

The Saigontourist Travel Service Company is located at 45 Le Thanh Ton Street in HCMC’s District 1, tel: (08) 3827 9297, web: www.saigontourist.net.
 
Lam Dong plans railway project
 
The People's Council in Lam Dong Province plans to spend US$3 billion to develop a local railway system by 2030, according to a council member.

Under the 10-year scheme, the province's railway system will include urban railway lines and inter-provincial railway lines.

To realise these objectives, one of the immediate and important jobs is to restore and upgrade the old Thap Cham–Da Lat Railway that cuts through mountainous areas.

This 84-km-long railway, which links Phan Rang-Thap Cham City in the central coastal province of Ninh Thuan and Da Lat, opened in 1931.

Ten kilometres of the railway are structured in a zigzag shape (especially for use on steep slopes). They extend from the Song Pha Mountain Pass to Eo Gio and also the Ngoan Muc Pass.

In addition to the old line, Lam Dong will also build new railway lines to serve the development of the aluminium industry in the Central Highlands province of Tay Nguyen and the southern-central regions.

The new railway system will include a section from Gia Nghia Town in Dak Nong Province to the Tan Rai Aluminium Factory in Lam Dong, ending at the Ke Ga Port in Binh Thuan Province.

This railway line will have a length of 250 kilometres, including 97.6 km in Lam Dong Province.

The multi-purpose line will be a trix-twin railway with a gauge of 1,435mm, which is expected to facilitate the transport of bauxite exploited from Tan Nguyen to the seaport.

Another new railway one will also be built to link Dac Nong Province with Lam Dong Province over a section of 150 kilometres.

An important part of Lam Dong's railway development plan is a new urban railway network within Da Lat that will serve tourism activities.

Six monorail lines running from Da Lat's centre to tourism destinations such as Suoi Vang, Langbian, Tinh Yeu valley, Tuyen Lam Lake and Lien Khuong Airport, will be built. The length of each section will be 18.5 km, 8.55 km, 6.9 km, 11.7 km and 28.2 km, respectively.

Confab on climate change adaptation adaptation

The 6th international conference on community-based adaptation to climate change will be hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Ha Noi on April 16-21 of next year, the ministry announced on Tuesday.

The conference would bring together stakeholders and practitioners to share and discuss knowledge of community-based adaptation, including planning and practices from different parts of the developing world, said Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Dao Xuan Hoc.

It was hoped that the event would enhance the capacity of practitioners to help those most vulnerable to climate change improve their livelihoods by disseminating lessons learned through workshops and conference proceedings, Hoc said.

The agenda would include a three-day field trip to community-based projects in different ecosystems in Viet Nam, followed by another three days of interactive discussions.

The conference would be open to anyone interested in community-based adaptation, including policymakers, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), research and policy institutes and government officials.

The event's other organisers include the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the International Institute for Environment and Development, the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies and related NGOs.

The conference was expected to draw 300 participants, with at least 250 from outside Viet Nam. Last year's conference in Dhaka, Bangladesh, drew the participation of 400 from around the world.

PV