Fear of robberies heightens before Tet

Many people in Ho Chi Minh City said that they were very fearful of robberies that usually increase as Tet, or the Lunar New Year, approaches.

19-year-old Truong Ngoc Bao Han from District 10 said she remembered exactly what had happened to her on November 20.

“When I was driving on Ly Thuong Kiet Street, a man on his motorbike overtook me from behind and asked me the way to Nguyen Hue Street. I told him I did not know but the man kept driving close to my bike and then turned his vehicle to the right to block my bike,” Han recalled.

When Han stopped, the man said, “Give me some money for drugs.” Han was so terrified that she didn’t know what to do. The man then urged, “Hurry up! You will suffer if I pull my knife out…”

Han gave him VND150,000 (US$7.3), but the man asked her to give him her mobile phone that he had found in her purse from which she took the money out.

Many people in the Tran Hung Dao – Nguyen Trai Street area in District 5 also said they had been robbed in broad daylight.

48-year-old Cao Huu Minh, an employee of the Dong Da Trading and Entertainment Center, showed Tuoi Tre a sheet of paper on which he had taken notes of recent cases of robberies in the area.

“Most recently, on December 3, when a couple stepped out from Dai De Hotel, a youngster on a motorbike rushed to them and snatched the handbag containing VND3 million and a mobile phone from the woman’s hand.”

A section of Nguyen Thuong Hien Street that crosses three districts, Go Vap, Binh Thanh, and Phu Nhuan, was called by locals as the “road of robberies”.

Suong, a woman living on the street, recalled, “I was standing at the counter of my shop when a young man drove a motorbike close to the shop and then snatched a gold necklace from my neck in the twinkling of an eye.”

Another local, Trang, said, “There was a case in which some robbers entered a hairdresser’s and threatened both the attendants and guests with sharp knives, forcing all to give them money and mobile phones.”

According to Dong Van Hung, head of the guard team of Quarter 1 in Go Vap’s Ward 1, said as Nguyen Thuong Hien Street crossed three districts, it was not easy to assign responsibility clearly among the local police forces when a robbery occurs. “Robberies have thus become increasingly serious,” Hung said.

Hung said gangsters usually wandered in the area to hunt for their preys.

21-year-old Dang Ngoc Tuan who lives at Hamlet 606 on Ba Thang Hai Street in Ward 14, District 10, told Tuoi Tre about a “scenario” of a gang that had robbed a large quantity of mobile phone cards from his shop.

On the morning of November 23, a young man came to the shop asking to buy a phone card worth VND50,000. After the purchase, he stayed on to look at the list of the number of SIMs of mobile phones.

At this moment, two men came on a motorbike and stopped in front of the shop. They sat on their bike and asked to buy two VND150,000 cards.

They waved a VND500,000 banknote and asked Tuan to give them changes.

Tuan came out to give them the cards and changes. When he walked back to the shop, the first customer had disappeared along with all the cards worth VND43 million displayed on the counter.

21-year-old Tran Van Uoc said a week ago, someone broke into his rented room on Xo Viet Nghe Tinh Street, Binh Thanh District, and took a mobile phone, an earring, and a wallet containing VND800,000.

Vuong Liem, a resident in District 1, told Tuoi Tre that despite efforts of local authorities to crack down on criminal gangs, locals were still worried about going out.

According to Vo Van Sen, headmaster of the HCMC University of Social Sciences and Humanities and member of the city’s People’s Council, many residents are now worried about increasing organized criminal activities.

Hanoi to improve transport, administration

Hanoi will focus on transport, planning and administrative reform in 2012, according to resolutions adopted at the third session of the municipal People’s Council, 14 th term, which concluded yesterday.

In measures to ease traffic jams, the city will boost planning, and invest in construction of key transport projects, including belt roads, highways to the city centre, urban railways, and underground and high-rise car parks.

In 2012, the city will strive to control inflation, stablise the economy, maintain suitable growth, as well as improve investment environment, renew investment structure and improve investment efficiency.

Priority will also be given to raising the competitiveness of the economy, ensuring social welfare and improving people’s spiritual and material life.

The city will strengthen planning works, the management of land, construction and urban order while building more framework infrastructure projects and striving for sustainable urban development.

Attention will be paid to the development of culture, education and training, science, healthcare, physical training and sports.

Can Tho mobilizes over VND4 billion for AO victims

The Mekong Delta city of Can Tho has mobilized VND4.3 billion in 2011 from individuals and organizations to support AO victims.

The Can Tho municipal Agent Orange (AO)/Dioxin Victims’ Association used the funds to build 23 new houses and buy 60 wheelchairs for the victims. It also presented gifts worth VND1.3 billion to nearly 5,000 victims on the occasion of the upcoming lunar New Year.

Other activities in support of AO victims were launched, such as providing free medical check-ups and granting tuition fees and scholarships to poor students.

Deputy Chairwoman of the Can Tho municipal Agent Orange/Dioxin Victims’ Association, Tran Kieu Lien, said she expects to mobilize more funds for local victims and build 30 new houses for those in need in 2012.

WB-funded transport project in Bac Ninh

The first two biding packages of a World Bank-funded project to develop transport in the northern delta were launched in the northern province of Bac Ninh on December 10.

The project has a total investment of US$201.5 million, of which US$171.5 million comes from the World Bank loans and the remainder from the Vietnamese Government.

The project was designed to upgrade major waterway corridors and river ports in the northern region in a bid to reduce transport costs and improve the quality of transport services.

Waterways corridors linking Viet Tri city and Quang Ninh province through the Duong River and Hanoi and the East Sea through Lach Giang estuary will be upgraded, while new ports will be built in Phu Tho and Ninh Binh province.

French-funded projects prove effective in Yen Bai

Most cooperation projects between the northern mountain province of Yen Bai and the French province of Val de Mane have proven successful and brought benefits to local people.

Val de Mane’s officials made the conclusion at a recent meeting with Yen Bai’s authorities after having inspected their projects implemented in the province from December 6-12.  

They also asked local authorities to speed up water supply projects in An Thinh and Yen Phu communes, which have been slow going due to recent floods.

During their visit, the French provincial delegation held working sessions with some of agencies in Yen Bai to inspect progress in other projects, including a medical waste treatment project at the provincial general hospital.

Official involved in accident escapes

After admitting he was sitting inside a truck carrying wood from Pu Uot Mountain in Nghe An Province when it capsized, forest protection official Dao Cong Thang has escaped.

This is the second time Thang has run away, said Trinh Thanh Long, head of the Pu Huong Forest Protection Office. Long said Thang had earlier “hidden” for 2 days, then shown up to write a report about the accident but has run away again.

According to Thang’s confession, he was sitting inside the truck at the time of the accident that killed 10 and injured 4 others. Most of the victims were wood cutting workers.

The truck transporting wood overturned and plunged into a deep pit when it was halfway down Pu Uot Mountain in Binh Chuan Commune, Con Cuong District on the morning of December 7.

Thang also said the wood inside the truck belonged to his “boss”.

After the accident, investigators found a forest protection official’s badge at the site and later identified it as belonging to Thang.

Thang’s subordinate, Nguyen Kim Hung, has also been identified as being present at the time of the accident.

The driver of the truck, Vuong Dinh Hanh, has also been arrested for investigation. Hanh was slightly injured after the accident.
 
Fire breaks out at gas store, kills two

2 people were killed and 5 others were injured when a fire broke out at the 2-floor Phu Vinh Gas Store in Tu Liem District, Hanoi early this morning.

The owner of the store and her 6-month boy who were taking a nap on the first floor lost their lives.

Her husband and an employee were seriously burnt. 3 student tenants who lived on the second floor were slightly injured.

The first floor of the store was completely destroyed.

More aid for flood-hit provinces

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved an aid package of VND55 billion and 3,100 tonnes of rice from the national reserves to help four central provinces overcome the aftermath of recent floods.

According to the decision, signed on December 9, VND15 billion and 1,000 tonnes of rice will be allocated to Thua Thien Hue; VND25 billion and 1,000 tonnes of rice to Quang Nam. Quang Ngai will receive VND5 billion and 100 tonnes of rice and Binh Dinh  will get VND10 billion and 1,000 tonnes of rice.

The chairmen of the four provincial People’s Committee will be responsible for supervising the dissemination of the aid and allocating funds from the local budgets to mitigate the consequences of the floods.

Previously, PM Dung decided to spend VND135 billion and allocate 3,600 tonnes of rice to help Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien Hue, and Quang Ngai provinces overcome the aftermath of the severe flooding.
 
First national conference on blood donation

The Vietnam Red Cross (VRC) held the first national conference on blood donation in Hanoi on December 10.

Participants in the event highlighted the importance of donating blood to ensure an adequate supply for patients in hospitals across the country.

Young people, especially Youth Union members, workers and members of the armed forces, were encouraged to donate blood to help those in need.

Ngo Manh Quan, an official from the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, said that it is essential to have a strategy for voluntary blood donation approved by the Government.

Healthy people should take part in blood drives and consider it their responsibility and duty to the community, he added.

VRC Deputy Chairman Phung Van Hoan said that since 2008, 550,000-750,000 units of blood have been collected each year and 84.2 percent of those came from volunteers. However, he said, this only meets 40 percent of the total demand.

Handling climate change is national strategy

Vietnam shares responsibility with the international community in implementing measures and initiatives to deal with global climate change.  

This was affirmed by Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha at the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP 17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Durban, South Africa.

He said Vietnam will also use the event to introduce international friends to the current impacts of climate change in Vietnam as well as its policies and plans for tackling the issue in the future.

Vietnam has issued important legal documents regarding long term plans for coping with climate change, most notably the National Climate Change Strategy approved by the Prime Minister prior to the COP 17.

Deputy Minister Ha said he hopes that through bilateral and multilateral discussions, Vietnam will be able to help boost the progress of some common agreements and commitments, especially those related to the Kyoto Protocol and its second phases.

This year’s conference is a multilateral forum representing the interests of all countries in the world.

Crime-fighting ‘everyone's duty'

Crime prevention and fighting is the responsibility of the police sector as well as the entire political system and the general population, said Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in an online meeting on crime prevention.

Phuc said he appreciates the participation of many organisations, the Fatherland Front and the general population in crime prevention and fighting in the past year. However, problems still exist such as an increase in the number of crimes and their more complicated nature, the appearance of new types of crime and the fact that some provinces have not perform well crime prevention activities.

Dissemination of laws has also not been carried out effectively, he said.

Phuc asked provincial authorities to consider crime prevention and fighting work as one of their most important and regular political responsibilities, especially during the 2011-15 period.

If a province does not properly carry out the work, the provincial Peoples' Committee Chairman, the Party Committee Secretary and the Director of the Police Department must take the blame, he said.

During the online meeting, Phuc also asked the Ministry of Public Security to launch a campaign to fight different kinds of crimes, especially in residential quarters, and to reduce the number of drug-related violations.

Monkey escapes, bites two people

Last Thursday, a monkey escaped from a cage in the house of Nguyen Ba Luu in Dong Xoai Town, Binh Phuoc Province and bit two people, seriously injuring them.

The accident happened at 12.30 pm when the monkey, which is said to weigh tens of kg, struggled and broke free from the iron cage.

It jumped on Khuc Thi Thoa, a student tenant living in the house and bit her thigh.

Many people tried to catch the monkey which managed to bite on the right arm of Hoang, a 60-year old woman before being captured and put back to the cage.

Thoa and Hoang bled heavily and were rushed to Binh Phuoc General Hospital.

According to neighbors, Luu’s cousin gave him the monkey a couple of days ago. Luu intended to kill the money and take its bones to make some traditional Chinese medicine.

Hospital gives wrong babies to two mothers

On Wednesday, a nurse at Quang Ngai General Hospital mixed up babies by handing a male newborn to a woman who had given birth to a girl.

At 5:50 am, Tran Thi Hong Cam, 22, of Tu Nghia District, Quang Ngai Province, was very surprised when a nurse handed her a boy, since she knew she had given birth to a girl.

Cam complained to the hospital’s obstetrics department about the mistake, insisting that her newborn baby was female, not male.

Dr. Huynh Ngoc Thanh, head of the department, immediately launched an investigation and finally found that a nurse had handed Cam’s baby girl to 20-year-old Dinh Thi Hoai, who had given birth to a boy.

After postnatal care, the girl was handed to Cam, but a moment later the nurse took the baby to another area to keep it away from the from screams of another woman who was giving birth, Thanh said.

The nurse later accidentally returned Hoai’s boy to Cam, Thanh said.

“We confirmed the mistake after comparing the medical records of the two women and testing the blood of the two babies. The issue has been resolved and the two mothers have received their babies.”

Hoai explained to the department that after her childbirth, she did not know the gender of her baby, so she had no idea she was receiving the wrong baby from the nurse.

Hoai also said she had not had a fetal gender test before giving birth.

Dr. Nguyen Tan Hung, director of the hospital, said, “Luckily, the mistake was discovered soon, and right at the hospital. If not for this, the issue may have become very complex.”

Fire rages through barley sugar factory

A raging fire swept through a barley sugar factory in Binh Tan rural district in Ho Chi Minh City during early hours of this morning.

A neighbor said the fire erupted following an explosion and almost immediately engulfed the factory belonging to Thanh Cong Ltd. Company.

At 5:25 am, firefighters arrived on the scene and successfully put out the blaze 3 hours later although many firefighters sustained burns and injuries while battling the flames.

Around 180m2 of the factory were burnt to the ground. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

According to initial information, the factory has been in operation for 10 years and is owned by Le Tan Loc, a local resident.

Conference discusses empowering women

More than 120 delegates from domestic and international agencies and organisations shared experiences and discussed measures to strengthen the role of women in international economic integration.  

Speaking at the annual conference in Hanoi on December 9, National Assembly Vice Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan stressed the role and contribution by women to implementing the country’s socio-economic development over the next decade.

She suggested policies for training and appointing female cadres and mobilising all resources to implement the national gender equality programme during the 2011-20 period.

Talking about leadership roles for women, Head of the United Nations Development Programme’s Asia-Pacific Regional Centre on Gender Practice Kim Henderson cited the changes that have already occured in this area.

Henderson said barriers and challenges remains, including socio-cultural norms, traditional gender roles and difficulties in accessing adequate education, institutional barriers and lack of focus on gender equality in human resources.

To achieve change, she listed strategies for success, involving recruitment, recognition, retention and re-entry.

Sharing Canada’s experiences with initiatives to promote women’s leadership and empowerment in the public sector, the Ambassador of Canada to Viet Nam Deborah Chatsis said it is important to have a constitutional or legislative framework to guarantee the rights of women.

In Canada, the equality provisions of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and human rights legislation have been used by many women to ensure the protection of their rights in the work place, Chatsis said.

Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh National Institute of Politics Administration Dang Anh Tuyet proposed relevant agencies raise quality of communication activities to change public awareness about gender equality issues.

She stressed the support of husbands to women’s participation in politics is of great significance, saying it was a key factor in women participating in management and leadership.

The national strategy on gender equality during the 2011-20 period of Viet Nam targets more than 35 per cent of the ratio of women participation in the National Assembly and People’s Councils at all levels, and 70 percent of Party’s bodies.

Vietnamese, Lao localities speed up border marker planting

Vietnamese and Lao localities aim to complete border marker planting by June 2012 according to a plan approved by the two countries’ Governments.

The borderline between Vietnam’s central Quang Tri province and the Lao provinces of Savannakhet and Salavn will have a total of 68 markers.

Quang Tri is one of ten Vietnamese provinces bordering Laos. So far, 51 markers have been planted along the common borderline.

By the end of this year, about nine more markers are expected to be installed despite hard terrain and harsh weather.

US finances Danang’s disaster prevention fund

The Central City of Danang plans to set up a natural disaster prevention and control fund worth VND8.4 billion (US$403,200).

The fund, supported by the US-based Institute of Social and Environmental Transition, will build and upgrade storm-shelters as well as support local households vulnerable to climate change.

It will also improve public awareness of the impact of climate change, especially among local women’s association members.

The project will be carried out from 2011-2014 in four districts, including Son Tra, Lien Chieu, Ngu Hanh Son and Hoa Vang.

HCM City reviews OV affairs

A conference was held by the Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs in HCM City on December 9 to review six years of implementing the Political Politburo’s resolution 36 on overseas Vietnamese (OV) affairs.

The effective implementation of Resolution 36 over the past six years has attracted a large number of overseas Vietnamese to visit and invest in the homeland country.

Since 2004, more than 2.7 million Vietnamese nationals abroad have returned home during the Traditional Lunar New Year Festival (Tet) not to mention those who keep close contact with the committee to get updated information about Vietnam’s policies on land and housing, national citizenship, repatriation and residency.

To date, 2,500 overseas Vietnamese-invested projects with a total investment capitalization of VND45,000 billion have been licensed to operate in the country.

Nearly 450 overseas Vietnamese experts and intellectuals have decided to stay and work in HCM City.

At the conference, many delegates proposed measures to increase the operational efficiency of the committee in the new situation. They underlined the need for the State to complete legal documents overseas Vietnamese to fulfill their obligations towards the homeland.

The Chairman of the HCM City Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs, Phan Tham, said the committee will act as an advisor for the municipal People’s Committee to help the people to bring to life Resolution 36 which emphasizes that overseas Vietnamese is an indispensable part of the nation.

The committee will create the best possible conditions for overseas Vietnamese to get involved in the city’s socio-economic development, Tham said.

Project to train Gov’t officials abroad a success: deputy PM

The Project 322 where Vietnamese officials were sent abroad for advanced studies with State money has played an important role in improving domestic human resources, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan said at a workshop reviewing the decade-old project held in Ha Noi yesterday.

He said since 2000, each year there were on average 460 people sent abroad under the project, which has established partnerships with 832 educational institutions in 34 countries.

“Although the figure was still modest, the important thing here is that we have adopted a new way of training,” he said.

He said the ratio of returnees was high, citing 3,000 officials who successfully acquired PhD degrees abroad had returned home to work, about 95 per cent of the total.

Nhan said there was still room for improvement and during the next phase the project should establish ties with new institutions and broaden fields of training.

“There should be more scholarships in the fields of sciences and arts,” he said.

As the majority of the project’s scholars, 93 per cent of them, study in only 11 countries, Nhan wanted the project to send scholars to a wider range of countries.

Director of HCM City National University Nguyen Duc Nghia said the practice to promote PhD holders in scientific research to managerial posts should be minimised because such posts were not the best position to utilise their in-depth technical knowledge.

Director of Ha Noi National University of Education Nguyen Viet Thinh said there should be stricter language requirements when selecting candidates so they would be better prepared with the courses abroad.

Former Deputy Minister of Education and Training, who laid the foundations of the project, said considering the project’s efficiency, he proposed extending the project up to 40 years.

Over the last decade, some 7,000 Vietnamese have been sent abroad as part of the project, with total funding amounting to about VND2.5 trillion (US$125 million).

ILO urges focus on job-rich growth

The International Labour Organisation yesterday called for Viet Nam to promote job-rich growth and the quality of employment as the country drafts its national employment strategy for 2011-20.

Azita Berar-Awad, director of the Employment Policy Department at the ILO Geneva, said that very often countries focused on high and steady GDP growth and that in some cases such growth maximization policies did not lead to high quality employment.

“The global financial crisis deteriorated the structural jobs’ crisis, but also opened up the space for re-thinking employment policies,” Berar-Awad said at a national seminar discussing employment strategies in Viet Nam yesterday.

These include the reduction of dependence on external resources and exports for growth, raising public investment in infrastructure and focusing on raising productivity in the informal economy, among others, she added.

Minister of Labour, Works and Invalids Pham Thi Hai Chuyen agreed that the changing global environment had forced Viet Nam to create sustainable and green jobs, better restructure its labour workforce and reassess its protection policies for both rural and urban workers.

Jose Manuel Salazar, executive director of the ILO Employment Sector, said that countries should realise that reducing unemployment is only the tip of the iceberg. Policies should be addressed to assist those who “work in difficult conditions, with low earnings and little protection,” he added.

Under the new draft, Viet Nam aims at maintaining an employment workforce of nearly 57 million by 2015 and 63 million by 2020, equivalent to adding millions of jobs per year.

The strategic draft also suggests reducing the percentage of the agriculture workforce to 30 per cent in 2020 while increasing the percentage of paid workers to 65 per cent and the number of trained workers to 70 per cent in the same year.

Nguyen Dai Dong, head of the Ministry of Labour, Works and Invalids’ Department of Employment, acknowledged that the economy, despite impressive growth, had not been able to generate significant quality jobs.

“Most Vietnamese workers engage in simple jobs requiring no skills, with low productivity and without social protection,” he said.

“In many areas, we are also faced with partial imbalance in labour demand-supply as people migrate within the country in search of better opportunities.”

Addressing these issues, under the new plan, Viet Nam will prioritise creating quality jobs by reforming labour market institutions to ensure security and flexibility, implementing fiscal and monetary policies to boost growth and jobs while reforming education and vocational training programmes.

Cao Bang praised for work on socio-economic plans

President Truong Tan Sang yesterday held a working session with leaders of the northern mountain province of Cao Bang, praising the province’s efforts in implementing socio-economic plans.

He stressed the need for the mountainous province to follow the Resolution of the 11th Party Congress and competently perform State management in all socio-economic fields in order to fulfil the 2012 growth target of over 12 percent.

The President said he agreed with the provincial plan to focus on six major areas, including boosting forestry and industrial development, improving the investment environment and reducing poverty.

He noted the provincial authorities were promoting advantages of residential wards incorporating into rural areas.

As a northern border province with 322km of borderline and three border gates with China, Cao Bang has effectively maintained security and political stability over the past year.

In 2011, the province is expected to register an economic growth rate of 11.8 per cent and earn US$230 million from exports.

On the same day, Sang visited the Cao Bang Police Department.

Resettlement projects in Can Tho to be put on hold

The southern province of Can Tho's Construction Department would ask the Can Tho People's Committee to halt 16 resettlement projects which were licensed in 2006, but not yet completed.

Director of the department Le Hong Phat made the affirmation yesterday.

Phat attributed the delays to difficulties in land clearance which had caused nine out of the 16 projects to grind to a halt, and difficulties for investors who were trying to access loans, due to the Government's tightened fiscal policy.

In the first quarter of next year, the department would propose a withdrawal of licences from investors who could not prove their financial capacity or the feasibility of their projects to create conditions for local people to resettle.

There are currently 88 ongoing resettlement projects in the city of which 30 have already been put into use, providing accommodation for 516 households and accounting for 48 per cent of households that lost land.

Since the beginning of the year, three projects in the city have been suspended.

Police seize thousands of smuggled toys from China  

Thousands of smuggled toys from China with unclear markings were seized by the economic police in a raid on December 9 at the crossroad of Pham Van Chi and Binh Tien in District 6 of Ho Chi Minh City.  

The owner of the smuggled goods was named as Dan Thi Dan, a resident of District 6. Police also checked Dan’s store on Pham Van Chi Street and uncovered 4,200 children’s toys smuggled in from China with no proper invoices.

In related news, the economic police in Hanoi on December 9 seized two vans in Mong Cai town of Quang Ninh Province carrying 8 tons of chicken with no invoices. The drivers said that they had been hired to transport the goods to the Ha Vy wholesale market in Thuong Tin District for a fee of VND4.5 million per van.

The police have confiscated the entire lot of chickens.

City transport department assures of sufficient buses during Tet

The Department of Transport in Ho Chi Minh City said on Thursday that the city will maintain a sufficient number of buses to meet the travel rush during the coming Tet holiday season.  

Department authorities met with bus station managers and transport companies to implement a plan to serve passengers returning to their hometowns to celebrate the annual Tet holidays.

Thuong Thanh Hai, director of the Mien Dong Bus Station said that this year the demand will be higher as compared to last year on routes to the central and northern provinces. The station has thus proposed to the transport department to permit it to ply 200 more buses and allow companies operating in the station to hire extra buses to serve passengers.

Mr. Hai said that the department will contact transport departments in other provinces and cities to approve an additional charge of 60 percent on bus fares during Tet. All provinces and cities must   synchronize and apply the increased fares at the same time.
 
A representative of the Mien Tay Bus Station also forecast an increase in the number of passenger travelling during the coming Tet season by 5-10 percent over last year. The station proposed mobilizing an extra 80 buses to prevent an overload during peak days of January 19 and 20.
 
Duong Hong Thanh, deputy director of the transport department said that the department will supply Tet buses with badges so that traffic police can identify and create advantageous conditions for travel on various routes.

Besides, the department will also allow high end service providers to hire more buses provided they comply with transport regulations. The department will seek way to mobilize more buses to run on inter-province routes, in an attempt to ensure that no passenger is stranded for want of a ticket.

Bus stations must order transport companies to post fares on boards so that passengers are well informed of the fares.