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UK-based Medical and Scientific Aid for Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia (MSAVLC) has presented 90 wheelchairs worth more than VND100 million to Vietnamese Agent Orange victims.
The beneficiaries are from Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho, Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Soc Trang, Hau Giang, An Giang, Dong Thap and Tra Vinh provinces.
At the presentation ceremony in HCM City on April 10, vice chairman of the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA), Tran Ngoc Tho, said the MSAVLC has provided significant medical assistance for the three Indochinese countries over the years and the gifts showed the UK government’s interests in issues related to Agent Orange.
Disadvantaged students receive support
Students who pass university entrance exams, but lack the funds to pursue their studies, will receive financial support, according to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
The PM called on the Education and Training Ministry and the People's Committee chairmen of provinces and cities to determine the number of disadvantaged students in their localities.
The move aims to provide opportunities to disadvantaged students nation-wide to study at universities and colleges.
Over 2.3 million students from around 1.8 million disadvantaged households gained benefits since the preferential credit programme kicked off in October 2007.
It is estimated that total programme support has reached over VND32.5 trillion (US$1.5 billion).
Under a Government decision, which took effect last August, students nationwide can access monthly loans of VND 1million ($48) each at a ficed preferential interest rate of 0.65 per cent per month.
Vietnamese workers owned backed-pay by Malaysia company return home
Forty of a total 52 Vietnamese workers owned back-pay by Malaysian company Asmana, yesterday returned home, according to a Vietnam News Agency correspondent in Malaysia.
It is reported that the 12 remainders expect to stay and continue working in the country.
The workers went to Malaysia under contracts with Asmana in June 2010 to clean hospitals, buildings and public areas in Penang State, around 300km from Malaysia's capital of Kuala Lumpur. Their salaries ranged from US$400-500 per month.
Since August 2011, Asmana has failed to pay taxes and obtain visa extensions for the workers due to financial difficulties, effectively stranding them in Malaysia.
All workers received minimum salaries from February until their return to Viet Nam, overtime pay for January and February and other allowances. Asmana also bought airline tickets for the workers.
"All workers are high-spirited. Many of them expect to come back to Malaysia to work," said the correspondent.
Deputy Director of the Viet Nam Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Ministry's Overseas Workers Management Department Le Van Thanh said Malaysia had a high demand for Vietnamese workers in particular and foreign workers in general.
"We should improve the procedure for people working in Malaysia. First of all, we need to better value our partners and introduce quality workers to the country," Thanh said.
He added that Malaysia remained a potential market, especially after its 6P legalization programme for foreign workers and illegal immigrants.
Luu Quang Binh, director of Viet Ha-Ha Tinh Trading which sent the workers to Malaysia, said the company had decided to support each worker with VND1 million (US$48) upon their return to the country and dealt with their contracts according to the Viet Nam Labour Law.
As for the number of workers who wants to stay and continue working in the country, the company will try its best to help them get jobs as soon as possible, Binh said.
On March 17, 52 workers, alongside 30 others from Nepal, were arrested by the Penang Immigration Department and moved to Kuala Lumpur and Malacca witnesses protection centres. On March 31, the workers were sent back to the Penang Immigration Department to receive settlements following Malaysian Immigration Law.
Ha Long tourist boats receive GPS systems
More than 230 tourist vessels in northern Quang Ninh Province's Ha Long Bay have been equipped with global positioning systems.
The province plans to complete a programme on installing the satellite navigation system on all 500 vessels cruising the bay by April 30.
The installation, which started last year, is part of the province's VND12 billion (US$572,000) programme on improving management of tourist vessels and better ensuring the safety of tourists in the bay.
Force Foundation Director awarded Friendship Medal
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism presented the Friendship Medal to Director of the Force Foundation of Netherland Matthijs Balfoort in Hanoi on April 10.
Matthijs has made positive contribution to humanitarian activities for blind people in Vietnam through the provision of audio books, braille documents and training for library staff serving the blind.
Force Foundation’s activities have helped library services to become more friendly to disadvantaged readers.
Thai Consul General presented with peace award
The Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations (VUFO) has presented the “For Peace and Friendship amongst Nations” award to Thailand ’s Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City , Sochai Powcharoen.
He received it at a presentation ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City on April 10.
During the ceremony, Powcharoen announced that 30 scholarships worth one million VND each will be granted to exceptional pupils, who are studying at Nguyen Dinh Chieu School for the Blind in the city.
The funding was raised by Thailand’s Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City last year from events held to celebrate the birthday of Thailand’s King in December.
Pollution threatens cultivation in HCM City’s outskirts
More than 9,000 hectares of agricultural production and aquaculture farming in the outlying districts of Binh Chanh, Cu Chi and Hoc Mon are being destroyed due to polluted water discharged into irrigation canals.
The information was released by Doan Van Hung from the HCMC Irrigation System Management Co., Ltd in a briefing on Monday on canal pollution with the participation of the HCMC departments of Natural Resources and Environment and Agriculture and Rural Development.
Canal pollution results prove that many local businesses discharge sewage into the canal system. And the pollution is getting worse with industrial zones in neighboring provinces like Long An and Tay Ninh also recently performing similar actions.
“The summer-fall crop is coming but we have to close all irrigation pipelines due to heavy pollution. This may lead to a shortfall of water serving agricultural production and anti-forest fire campaign,” Hung told the Daily.
Hung proposed competent authorities to strengthen supervision on sewage discharge in industrial zones and production bases and to impose proper sanctions. Local authorities must work closely with neighboring provinces to control wastewater discharge from industrial estates there.
The city’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment will join forces with relevant agencies in Long An and Tay Ninh provinces on the issue, said Nguyen Thi Du, chief inspector of the department.
Vietnam to use nets to prevent sharks from entering beach
Authorities in the central province of Binh Dinh said they will use nets to block aggressive bull sharks from entering Quy Nhon Bay and attacking tourists and swimmers at the beautiful beaches there.
The nets will be deployed soon to prevent any sharks from approaching busy beaches, according to authorities of Quy Nhon -- a town in the province.
Other steps being taken to hinder the shark’s mobility include the clearance of bushes installed by locals to catch shrimp, and moving fishing cage far from beaches to prevent sharks from approaching with the intention of hunting and attacking tourists.
The solutions were proposed by the Nha Trang Institute of Oceanography as part of a research project on shark attacks at Quy Nhon beaches.
The first case of a shark attack on a tourist was recorded in 2009. From that time till May 2010, three sharks have attacked and injured six people in Quy Nhon. Binh Dinh authorities and fishermen have managed to catch six sharks so far, one of which weighed half a ton.
German State assists students in central Vietnam
The German state of Hessen presented 26 scholarships worth VND6 million each to outstanding students from colleges and universities in central Vietnam on April 10.
The scholarships are part of a cooperative programme between the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training and Hessen’s Ministry of Science and Art with the aim of encouraging disadvantaged students to successfully complete their studies.
Doctor Bui Cong Tho, chief representative of the Hessen Office in Vietnam, said these students achieved high academic achievements and are also very active in community work.
In 2012, the Hessen Ministry of Science and Art will present a total of 150 scholarships to students at universities and colleges in Hanoi, Thai Nguyen, Danang, Buon Me Thuot, Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho.
Three killed as man-made mountain collapses in Dong Nai
Three were killed and one was injured as a man-made mountain in Lan Phuong tourist area in Tra Co commune, Tan Phu district in Dong Nai province on Tuesday morning.
According to initial information, four three workers were taking off pillars from the man-made mountain when the whole construction collapsed. As they fell down, three died immediately and one was seriously injured.
This mountain, which is 12m high and 10m long, was being built on a contract between Lan Phuong tourist site and a contractor in Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Phu district for over a month.
The authorities are investigating the case.
Massive tumor girl hospitalized in HCMC
For years, little girl Nguyen Thi Loan living in Tan Ha district in the central highlands province of Lam Dong has been suffering agonizing pains due to a massive tumor on her left leg.
Nguyen Cong Duc, 35, Loan’s farther, said Loan was born with an abnormal leg 8 years ago.
About 20 days after Nguyen Thi Tam, Loan’s mother, gave birth to her, the family brought Loan to Pediatrics Hospital No. 1 based in Ho Chi Minh City where she was diagnosed with innate hemangioma, an abnormal buildup of blood vessels, but doctors claimed it was inoperable.
Since Loan was 3, the tumor has grown larger and larger. The girl has also sufferred some bleeding from small growths on the leg.
The mother said whenever the weather changes, her daughter cannot sleep and needs some type of painkillers to relieve her chronic pain caused by the tumor.
Dr. Le Quy Son, head of the surgical department of Lam Dong General Hospital, said Loan also develops another tumor on her anus that needs to be removed.
However, he added the hospital is not able to diagnose or treat her condition with its available medical facilities.
A massive tumor on Loan's left leg makes it difficult for her to move over the past several years.
Yesterday (April 9), Loan was hospitalized at the Ho Chi Minh City-based Pediatrics Hospital No. 2 where she was initially diagnosed of having congenital tissue producing disorder on her left leg and hip.
The disorder has spread to her back and genital organ.
Loan is expected to undergo comprehensive diagnosis on April 11 at the hospital following medical imaging technique MRI and biochemical and genetic tests.
Providing eye care for the disabled
The event brought together representatives from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, the Hanoi Disabled People’s Association, ORBIS, the Fred Hollows Foundation, ICEE and Ausaid.
The seminar, organized by the Vietnam National Institute of Ophthalmology (VNIO) and the Christoffel Blinden Mission (CMB), aimed to encourage disabled people to access eye care services. Due to social discrimination, many disabled people do not take part in community activities, including medical check-ups.
According to the Vietnam National Coordinating Council on Disability (NCCD), there is unknown number of disabled people in Vietnam, especially those living in remote and mountainous areas, accessible to eye care services.
The General Statistics Office of Vietnam reported that Vietnam had 12.2 million disabled people in 2010, accounting for 15.5 percent of the population.
Participants at the seminar discussed difficulties and obstacles in providing communal eye care services, particularly for the disabled, such as a lack of doctors and equipment at the grass-root level, poor infrastructure at local hospitals, and no special policies for disabled and poor people.
They also reviewed CBM’s “Avoidable Blindness Initiative” (ABI) implemented in Son La and Nghe An provinces and pointed out the challenges and difficulties that were faced trying to offer eye care to disabled people in these two provinces.
All initiatives and proposals from the seminar will be sent to the Ministry of Health and relevant agencies to ensure that everyone, including the disabled, have equal access to eye care services in the future.
Vietnam helps build boarding school in Laos
A ceremony was jointly held by the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) and the Lao Ministry of Education and Sports on April 9 to break ground a boarding school for 315 students in the Xiengkhuang province in Laos.
Addressing the ceremony, the northern Lao provincial party committee secretary, Somkot Mangnomek, expressed his gratitude to the Vietnamese Party, State and Government for their assisstance in building many educational centres for local students.
The construction of the boarding school is an important event to mark the 2012 Vietnam-Lao Solidarity and Friendship Year.
Hanoi’s ad panel rule to cost firms $2.3 mil
Advertising companies that are forced by Hanoi authorities to downsize and lower their advertising panels have sought the city Party Committee’s intervention to change the rule that will cost them a nine-figure sum to have each of the violating panels fixed.
As part of the new regulations on advertising activities that took effect in January 2012, the People’s Committee in Hanoi has announced that every overhead ad panel on the Phap Van-Cau Gie expressway must have a surface area of no more than 120 square meters. Panels that exceed the limit must be taken down and downsized.
The authorities also required that ad panels cannot be installed more than 17 meters above ground.
In their appeal to the Party Committee, businesses say the changes to their current billboards, most of which are 200-250 square meters, will cost them VND370 million (US$17,760) per panel.
The total cost for shrinking and lowering all 128 panels along the expressway will amount to VND47.7 billion (nearly $2.3 million).
In addition, changes in the size of the panels also mean violation of the advertising contracts they have signed with their customers.
Before 2008, most of the panels, which are located in Thuong Tin and Phu Xuyen districts, were allowed to have a surface area of 250 square meters when the districts belonged to Ha Tay Province at that time.
In August 2008, when Hanoi expanded its administrative boundary to include these districts, the authorities ordered advertisers to reduce their panels to 200 square meters each.
Affected advertizing firms have therefore asked the Party Committee to interfere to allow panels that were installed on the expressway before 2008 to maintain their heights and sizes – at 200 square meters.
Following the businesses’ petition, the Party Committee has requested Hanoi authorities to deal with the issue appropriately. Deputy chairperson of the city People’s Committee, Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc, has ordered the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to review the situation and report to both the authorities and the Party Committee before April 15.
Businesses that obtained a license for their panels before August 2008 should be given a reasonable timeframe to make changes, but firms that installed panels without a license or not in accordance with their licenses must be strictly punished, she said.
Emirates Airlines to recruit Vietnamese staff
As part of its plan to launch direct flights between United Arab Emirates’ Dubai and Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City in June, Emirates Airlines, the official international airline of the UAE, will recruit Vietnamese employees later this month.
The Dubai-based firm has authorized Sovilaco, a labor exporting company under Vietnam’s Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, to carry out the recruitment of flight attendants in Hanoi on April 28, 2012.
Candidates are required to be 21-35 years old and at least 1.6 meter tall. They must have an educational level of at least high school graduation and must be fluent in conversational English.
According to the recruitment plan there is no limitation on the number of candidates or on interviews, said Vu Minh Xuyen, general director of Sovilaco.
Winning candidates will be sent to Dubai within two months after they are selected and have completed necessary procedures.
Selected candidates are required to pay VND22 million (US$1,056) as recruitment expenses to Sovilaco before they leave Vietnam for the UAE.
An Emirates Airlines representative said the firm has yet to announce the exact number of Vietnamese employees to be selected, but noted that those who have good command of languages other than English and Vietnamese will be given positions other than flight attendants.
Selected candidates will work for the firm under a 3-year contract, which can be renewed, and will be paid a minimum basic salary of 4,020 AED (US$1,090) per month, Xuyen said.
Besides the base salary, employees can enjoy additional pay and allowance depending on the number of hours of flight, he said.
Employees will be provided with accommodation, uniforms, healthcare, and insurance free of charge, according to the Labor Law of UEA.
Return tickets will be given to employees who return to Vietnam on annual leave.
Some candidates who have submitted their application say they believe that the total income of a Vietnamese employee at the firm will be more than US$2,000 per month.
Emirates Airlines is one of the key corporations in the Emirates Group and is one of the fastest growing airlines in the world.
Lethal gas explosion leads to safety calls
Authorities have been urged to apply stricter punishment for people who illegally tamper with gas canisters, following a gas canister explosion that killed one woman and injured 10 others in southern Binh Duong Province on Saturday.
The explosion occurred when Le Minh Viet, 31, a fried fish seller from southern Dong Thap Province renting a room in the boarding house, allegedly opened a gas cylinder in an attempt to transfer gas into another container on Saturday evening.
Gas leaking from the canister exposed to heat caused an explosion that ripped through nine out of 43 rooms in the boarding house.
Viet, his wife and eight other injured people suffered serious burns and are being treated at the HCM City-based Cho Ray Hospital.
Head of the hospital's Burn and Plastic Reconstructive Department Tran Doan Dao said the patients were hospitalised with large and deep burns, covering 21 per cent to 87 per cent of their bodies.
He said that gas-related burns were more serious than other types of burns as victims suffered a extreme heat in a high pressure blast.
Illegal gas transfer posed a high fire and explosion risks but violators so far were mostly fined and not prosecuted as criminals, said vice head of southern Binh Duong Province's Market Watch Department Nguyen Thanh Danh.
As the punishment was not strict enough, the number of gas transfer violations had not fallen, said Danh.
Police in the province's Thuan An District are now considering launching a criminal investigation into Saturday's incident at the boarding house.
Danh said the case has raised the alarm over management and control of gas transfer in localities.
He said the province's authorities detected dozens of gas transfer-related violations each year.
Last week, 12 gas cylinders, each weighing 45 kilos, were discovered being transferred into smaller containers at Hue Minh Gas Store in Thuan An Town's Thuan Giao Ward.
Authorities also found more than 500 mini gas cylinders which were re-used many times and sold at retail stores.
At the same time, local authorities also found another store that had over 80 gas cylinders containing less gas than was indicated to customers. The shop's owner also failed to show certificates of origin for the gas canisters.
Le Thi Anh Man, vice chairwoman of the Viet Nam Gas Association, said illegal tampering with gas containers had increased significantly across the nation following a rise in gas prices at the beginning of the year.
Almost all recent gas explosions have been related to illegal gas extraction or low quality gas containers. The Southern Gas Association reported that last year, authorities seized more than 1,500 gas cylinders of unknown origin in southern provinces.
Border guards catch drug trafficker suspect
Border guards in central Ha Tinh Province, in co-operation with Lao police, yesterday arrested a suspected drug trafficker after a two-day investigation that led to the confiscation of one tonne of marijuana and 39 cakes of heroin.
On Saturday, Vietnamese border guards and Lao police stopped a car in Laos' Bolikhamxay Province and found the marijuana as the accused trafficker fled the scene.
One day later, the trafficker was arrested with the heroin. A car with Lao plates was also seized.
The case is under investigation.
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