Inspectors uncover violations

The Government Inspectorate reported yesterday, Oct 10, that after examining about 390 cases, inspectors detected violations of about VND304 billion (US$14.5 million) in the third quarter of this year.

Speaking at a press conference, deputy head of the Government Inspectorate Ngo Van Khanh said its reports on the activities of Electricity of Viet Nam (EVN) and VNPT (Viet Nam Post and Telecommunications Group) were still being finalised. The Government Inspectorate was also working on 10 major inspections and would report its results to the Prime Minister in October. Targets of those inspections include Vietnam Development Bank and Agribank, among others.

Khanh said the Government Inspectorate would also monitor whether the results of the inspections were effectively used to increase transparency.

In addition, the Government Inspectorate succeeded in returning VND 245million ($11,400) to the state budget and revoked about 11,000 square metres of land in the third quarter.

Inspections are carried out in various areas, including business regulations, construction regulations, food safety, and petrol quality.

‘Training must meet market demands'

Labour market-oriented training was a common trend in developed countries across the region and throughout the world that Viet Nam needed to follow, said Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan at the Regional Technical and Vocational Education and Training Conference held in Ha Noi yesterday, Oct 10.

The two-day conference, which drew the attendance of about 250 participants from 14 countries, was co-organised by the German Academy for International Co-operation (GIZ) and the Viet Nam Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA).

Nhan's statement mirrored the same opinion of Hans-Jurgen Beerfeltz, State Secretary of the Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development, who shared that 60-70 per cent of Germans received training offered by companies while only 30-40 per cent studied at training schools.

Nhan said Viet Nam's labour force must meet the professional standards of the regional and global labour markets to integrate into the world economy.

This was especially important as Viet Nam must ensure a quality work force for the development of an industrial country as targeted by 2020.

Nhan also cited reforms in management and training as well as application of scientific and technological knowledge as solutions to creating breakthroughs in quality training.

Viet Nam, therefore, needed to strengthen co-operations with ASEAN and developed nations, including Germany, to learn from their experiences and successes in vocation training, especially enterprise-linked training.

Horst Sommer, director of Vietnamese - German Reform Programme for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, said Germany would focus on helping Viet Nam raise the practical skills of vocational trainers and promote training courses which engaged enterprises' involvement.

Hans-Jurgen Beerfeltz said Germany would provide financial aid to construct a vocational training centre of international standards in Viet Nam. The project is expected to be completed by 2015.

Nguyen Tien Dung, director of MOLISA's General Department of Vocational Training, said Viet Nam would follow the standards of Malaysia in the region and those of Germany in vocational training.

He said technical and vocational training of high quality following Malaysian standards would be piloted in eight vocational schools.

Nguyen Ngoc Phi, MOLISA's deputy minister, said enhancing international co-operation was very important in promoting quality training as it required high expense and many facilities.

The National Institute for Vocational Training's 2011 report revealed that as of July 2011, Viet Nam had more than 51.3 million people aged 15 or above entering the labour force, accounting for more than 58 per cent of the entire population. Among whom, 71.5 per cent lived in rural areas.

Of the population aged 15 or above, the number of people who never graduated from primary school and were illiterate accounted for over 17 per cent.

According to MOLISA, vocationally trained workers accounted for 32 per cent of the total labour force in Viet Nam.

Commune residents face shortage of clean water

More than half of families living in a commune in Can Tho city do not have access to clean water.

The city water supply system and two small treatment plants in nearby communes can serve the needs of only 900 families in Tan Thanh, according to Luong Duy Khanh, the commune chairman.

Others have to draw water from nearby canals or store rainwater, he said.

Both have their drawbacks. Residents in the commune complain that the canal water is heavily polluted by daily waste and pesticides used by farmers.

Collecting rainwater in large pots serves as a breeding ground for mosquitoes, threatening the spread of several diseases.

Locals have petitioned authorities to connect pipelines to their houses, but have been refused.

Tien Minh Khoa, a commune resident, said he even offered to pay for the connection.

"They refused, saying there are not many houses in the alley where my house is located, so they cannot make profits," he said.

Tran Van Moi, secretary of the commune Party committee, said plans to build six pumping stations and a small treatment plant have been approved by district authorities.

Each station would be able to supply 80 litres of water per resident daily, he said, but did not say when they would be built.

Ecstasy-style drug use up in City

More people in HCM City are using amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) like Ecstasy and crystal meth, according to reports from the city's rehabilitation centres.

This year, the Thanh Da Rehabilitation Centre in HCM City saw an increase of 50 drug abusers compared to the same period last year, Dr Nguyen Huu Khanh Duy, the centre's director, said.

In the first six months, the centre admitted 156 people who had used ATS, 33 of whom were diagnosed with psychological disorders as a result. Since 2005, the centre has treated more than 300 users of ATS.

The Binh Trieu Rehabilitation Centre said that more than 25 per cent of the 290 people being treated for drug abuse at its facility were ATS users.

Duy urged the city Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and Division for Prevention of Social Evils to develop preventive measures to reduce the use of ATS drugs.

Nguyen Van Minh, the department's deputy head, has also asked agencies to disseminate more information on the danger of using these stimulants.

For the first nine months of the year, the number of users who relapsed and were sent back to rehab centres rose nearly 6 per cent against the same period last year, according to the department's report.

Districts Tan Phu and Thu Duc as well as District 1 saw an increase in the total number of first-time drug abusers.
In the first nine months, the city sent a total of 3,840 drug users and prostitutes to rehab centres. Apart from drug abusers, the centres are also tasked to help female sex workers leave prostitution and seek work elsewhere.

Minh said the districts should also try to find jobs or provide loans to those who were sent to rehab centres so they can start businesses.

Social insurance scammer gets 4 years

The People's Court in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Tra Vinh on Tuesday passed a four year prison sentence on Doan Van Cuong, 29, for appropriating over VND200 million (US$9,615) in maternity insurance from pregnant women.

After leaving the Can Tho social insurance department, Cuong set up his own company, the Online Communication Company, and recruited pregnant women from the southern provinces of Tra Vinh, Vinh Long, Kien Giang and An Giang.

After the women gave birth, Cuong made fake documents to claim maternity insurance payments and collected the money on behalf of the women.

Cuong's accomplice, Doan Kha Mil, 27, received a one year jail sentence.

Free polio vaccine for young children

Supplemental doses of oral polio vaccine will be provided to 1 million children under the age of five in a Ministry of Health campaign launched yesterday.

The ministry's Expanded Programme for Immunisation (EPI) will be implemented in 79 high risk districts of 19 provinces and cities nation-wide.

"We should actively prevent the invasion of wild polio, a disease that causes paralysis or death, as it has returned in neighbouring countries," said the EPI director Nguyen Tran Hien.

Last year, EPI provided supplemental doses of polio vaccine to more than 700,000 children in 23 provinces and cities nation-wide.

Tra Doc commune to receive aid from Japan

A primary school in the central province of Quang Nam will be granted US$117,000 as non-refundable aid from the Japanese government, the chairman of the district's people's committee, Dang Phong, told Viet Nam News yesterday.

Under an agreement signed on Monday, the funds will be provided to expand the Nguyen Thi Minh Khai primary school in the commune of Tra Doc – which has been hit by earthquakes rising to 4 on the Richter scale more than 20 times.

The school building was found to contain cracks after uninterrupted excitation quakes hit Tra Doc.

Industrial zone sees second mystery fire

A fire occurred in the Sung IL Viet Nam company buildings in the Minh Hung–South Korea industrial zone in southern Binh Phuoc Province's Chon Thanh District on Tuesday morning, burning down tens of production lines.

The blaze was extinguished after two hours, causing damage worth more than US$1 million to the company.

However, no death or injuries were reported.

The cause of the fire is still unknown.

RoK naval ship visits HCM City

Wang Goen naval ship from the Republic of Korea (RoK), led by Captain Kim Ju Yeon, arrived Ho Chi Minh City on October 10.

The crew, including 306 officers and sailors, will pay their official visit to the city in three days.

During their stay, they will lay a wreath at Ho Chi Minh monument and pay courtesy visits to leaders of the municipal People’s Committee and the High Command of Military Zone 7.

The RoK sailors will also attend sport activities with student of Naval Technology High School.

The Wang Goen’s visit is part of external activities in the framework of the 20th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and South Korea.

VNN/VOV/VNS