Vietnam calls for int’l aid to build new rural areas

A number of prioritised areas in which Vietnam is calling for international assistance during the implementation of the national target programme on building new-style rural areas have been identified at a forum in Hanoi on May 14.

They cover supporting agricultural production to raise rural residents’ incomes, improving their spiritual lives; and protecting the environment and natural resources as well as coping with climate change.

Poverty reduction, organisational reform through public-private connections and investment attraction in rural areas, and improving policy quality through research and lessons drawn from real models are also included in the list.

Director of the French Development Agency (AFD) Jean-Marc Gravellini said his agency targets deep and reasonable growth models, job creation and efficient use of resources in Vietnam.

During the 2013-2015 period, the AFD will assist Vietnam in modernising production areas that may affect the environment and social development, combining agricultural sectors and boosting high-quality vocational training, he added.

Henning Pedersen, Country Programme Manager of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), praised Vietnam’s success in mobilising resources from localities for infrastructure development.

However, he indicated the programme’s limitations in improving rural people’s livelihoods, reducing poverty or creating links with major donors such as the World Bank and the IFAD.

The IFAD proposed that the Vietnamese Government encourage the private sector to take part in the programme, help poor people access the market by upgrading infrastructure and identifying the market while revamping financial services.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat also pointed out weaknesses during the implementation of the national target programme, especially in agricultural production and improving rural residents’ incomes.

Court prosecutes gambling ring

The People's Procuracy in the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong yesterday, May 14, decided to prosecute people involved in the province's biggest-ever gambling ring.

Twenty-five suspects have been detained.

Late last month, local police raided an area in a rubber tree forest in Dak R'Lap District and caught 43 gamblers red-handed playing xoc dia (a game in which the participants shake coins in a bowl).

The game owner was identified as Tran Van Dai, 43, from Nhan Dao Commune. Dai made profits up to 10 million (US$476) each day, according to police.

Vietnam pledges to cooperate in combating human trafficking

Combating human trafficking has always been a priority policy of the Vietnamese Government, as reflected in numerous legal documents and national action plans in various fields.

Vietnamese Ambassador Le Hoai Trung, Head of Vietnam’s permanent mission to the UN, affirmed this at the UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting to review the Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons, which is being held in New York on May 13-14.

According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC), Vietnam has one of the highest conviction rates for traffickers in the world.

The Vietnamese Government attaches great importance to international cooperation, said Ambassador Trung, adding that the country has ratified the UN Convention on Transnational Organised Crime and its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Human Trafficking.

It has also actively participated in many regional and international initiatives and processes on preventing human trafficking and also has bilateral agreements related to the issue, he said.

The ambassador highlighted Vietnam’s policies and laws, saying that they conform to the four main pillars of the Global Plan of Action and conventions on the fight against human trafficking.

The Vietnamese Government and relevant organizations have also worked effectively with the UNODC and other international organizations in the field.

Vietnam looks forward to continued cooperation with the international community to end human trafficking, he stressed.

Representatives at the meeting expressed their concern about the increase of human trafficking and called for countries, governments and non-governmental and civil social organizations, as well as the private sector, to cooperate in the battle against this serious international crime.

Tourism guide books withdrawn from airport

Nearly 100 tourism guide books with wrong information on Viet Nam's sovereignty were confiscated at central Da Nang International Airport on Monday.

These books, printed in China, were brought to the country by a Chinese tour guide.

According to the airport's Customs Office, Viet Nam's map contained in the books were without the Spratly (Truong Sa) Islands and Paracel (Hoang Sa) Islands.

The tourist guide said he bought these books in Guangzhou to bring to Viet Nam to hand out to tourists visiting Da Nang.

Earlier in March, the office confiscated and destroyed 480 publications of a Taiwanese company, TCIE, based in the city's Hoa Khanh Industrial Zone. They included maps of Viet Nam without the Spratly (Truong Sa) Islands and Paracel (Hoang Sa) Islands.

Japan supports Vietnam’s technical cooperation projects

The Japanese Government will give support to 12 technical cooperation projects in Vietnam for the 2013 fiscal year, announced the Japanese Embassy at a press briefing in Hanoi on May 14.

The projects focus on enhancement of State-owned enterprises’ capacity in financial management, banking restructuring, climate change, agriculture and rural development, and vocational training.

In 2011, Japan provided JPY10 billion for Vietnam’s technical cooperation projects.

The country is Vietnam’s second biggest bilateral donor, with ODA totalling JPY2.118 trillion since 1992.

Japan now ranks third among 84 countries and territories investing in Vietnam in terms of registered capital and first in terms of the amount of disbursed capital.

Bricklayer dies after being electrocuted

One bricklayer died on the spot after being electrocuted and another was seriously injured from an electric shock and a 7-metre fall in the central province of Ha Tinh's Cam Xuyen District.

A third bricklayer, Pham Van Phong, who is the dead man's son, said the accident happened when their group was laying bricks on a house's second floor.

A bricklayer, named Dat, got stuck in high-tension wires near the roof and Phong's father went to help. His father was electrocuted and Dat fell and was injured.

Around 100,000 TB cases found yearly in Vietnam

Vietnam is one of the 12 countries having the highest rate of tuberculosis (TB) patients in the world, with about 100,000 new cases detected a year.

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Xuyen released the information at a recent conference to review a TB management project at general hospitals jointly conducted by the Health Ministry and the World Health Organisation.

Implemented since 2010 on a trial basis, the project aimed to improve diagnosis and treatment capacity for doctors in Hanoi-based Bach Mai Hospital, Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City and Hue Central Hospital.

Under the project, additional 7,000 TB patients were detected and the role of private health care in TB control was hailed.

However, the project faced numerous obstacles such as limited expenditure and irregular training for doctors and nurses.

VN student wins Gates Millennium grant

A Vietnamese high school student in Bloomington, Minnesota, in the USA, has been awarded a Gates Millennium Scholarship, which will provide full tuition for her tertiary studies.

Ngan Nguyen, a student at Kennedy High School, was among 1,000 outstanding students throughout the US selected from 54,000 applicants for the scholarship.

Ngan Nguyen was reported to have moved to the US at the age of seven.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation began the Millennium Scholarships in 1999 and has awarded over US$763 million to 16,000 students since 2000.

National programme launched to clear bombs, mines

Vietnam has adopted a national action programme worth VND14 trillion (about US$700 million) to address the consequences of war-left bombs and mines by 2015.

According to a newly-released Prime Minister’s decision, the programme aims to minimise the threats and impact of bombs and mines left from the war, ensuring safety for local residents and helping mine victims live in harmony with the community.

The programme will mobilise funding from both domestic and foreign sources, to implement projects supporting victims, awareness raising campaigns and clearance plans which aims to demine 500,000 ha of contaminated land.

Poverty reduction exceeds initial target

Vietnam’s 2012 poor household ratio was pushed down a further 2.12 percent from 2011, a reduction 0.12 percent better than the National Assembly’s (NA) set target.

The accomplishment was recorded in the Government’s 2012 socio-economic task implementation report, submitted to the NA’s Standing Committee on May 14.

The good results are attributable to the comprehensive measures undertaken by the Government, ministries, departments, and localities.

Official bodies have promulgated policies supporting disadvantaged households and invested extra effort in both the national sustainable poverty reduction programme as well as in international projects aiming to raise poor people’s living conditions.

Deputy Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs Minister Nguyen Thanh Hoa said that although the state budget is under significant fiscal pressure, the Party and State always reserves sufficient funding for its poverty reduction programmes.

Other social welfare targets—including supporting jobseekers and assisting the families of social welfare beneficiaries—continue to receive the Government’s special attention.

The NA’s overall 2013 poverty reduction target is two percent, the same as in 2012, with a four percent reduction target in poor districts.

VNN/VOV/VNS/VNA