Housing for workers on low incomes

The capital city's People's Committee has entrusted the BIC Viet Nam Joint Stock Company to take charge of a project on building high-rise apartments for low-income earners.

Under the project, seven 12 to 18-storey buildings will be built on a 2.2-ha area south-west of Linh Dam Lake in Hoang Mai District. It is expected to provide homes for 1,000 households.

Central region faces forest fire threats

Some forested areas in central Khanh Hoa and Thua Thien-Hue provinces are facing an extremely high risk of fire due to hot weather and water shortages, according to the Forest Management Department, under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The areas at risk include Khanh Hoa Province's Cam Ranh Town and Khanh Son District; and Huong Thuy and Huong Tra districts in Thua Thien-Hue Province. Hot weather conditions in the area have authorities concerned, as any outbreaks of fire will spread quickly. Housing for workers on low incomes

Landslides erode Phu Quoc homes

Sea water is eroding land and causing landslides on Phu Quoc Island in the southern province of Kien Giang.

Authorities are seeking ways of coping with the intrusion, which has even affected wells on the island, including one belonging to the Weather Forecast Bureau in Duong Dong Town.

Head of the bureau Nguyen Van Hung said that the well, which was more than 50 metres in depth, was drilled 13 years ago. Formerly, it was full of pure, clean water and supplied dozens of local households.

"However, now the water is brackish and undrinkable. Many other wells on the island are also affected, creating problems for residents," said Hung.

Landslides along some coastal areas have created dangerous obstacles for locals.

People living in residential quarters No 3, 6, 9 in Duong Dong Town are anxious about landslides during the storm season from May to October.

Phu Quoc Island authorities have no exact statistics on the number of landslides and places at high risk, but they are developing plans to move threatened villagers to safe areas.

A typical example of the problem is displayed at the house of Huynh Van Bo in residential quarter No 9. The walls have cracked wide open due to land sinking and landslides.

Bo said that residents had invested a lot of effort and money to build embankments to limit the movement of earth.

"However, it is only a temporary measure and will not ensure safety in the long term," said Bo.

Meanwhile, Phan Van Trung who lives in Ganh Dau Commune said that in the past two years landslides had uprooted many casuarinas.

To cope with the issue, Phu Quoc authorities have called upon local residents to plant more trees and to keep the seashore clean.

The island has sped up the development of a new residential quarter to move householders from dangerous areas.

Four arrested for trafficking 21 women to China

Police in southern Tay Ninh Province have cracked down on a ring led by a couple who had sold 21 Vietnamese women to China as wives to Chinese men.

The four human traffickers who have sold 21 Vietnamese women to China. (Photo: VNE)

Nguyen Tan Nho and his wife, Tran Le Thuy, both 48, and Dang Thi Nguyet, 55 and Vo Thu Thuy, 42, were arrested yesterday after police caught the couple carrying out procedures for two girls to fly from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi at Tan Son Nhat Airport.

All four will be prosecuted for human trafficking, police said.

Nho told investigators that they had wanted to take the two women to Hanoi before bringing them to Quang Ninh province’s Mong Cai Town, where they would be illegally sent to China via the border crossing.

Nho and his wife said they have a daughter who has married to a Chinese man. Through that man, the couple met another person, also Chinese, who asked the couple to select Vietnamese girls and then send them to China as future wives for men there.

The couple said the man paid them VND25 million (US$1,200) for each girl that was successfully sent to China.

Nho and Thuy later asked Thuy and Nguyet, their acquaintances, to seek and select girls for them. The couple paid the brokers VND3 million per girl sold.

Since the total cost for selling a girl to China was about VND5 million, the couple was able to pocket VND17 million in each affair.

Nho confessed that his ring had successfully sold 21 young women to China since June.

The women would be bought by Chinese men for 40,000 yuan ($6,280), Nho said.

The provincial police are expanding their investigation to find other ring members and identify the ring’s victims.

Last month the provincial People’s Court tried four members of a human trafficking ring that had sold 16 Vietnamese women to China. Tran Thi Lan, the ring's leader, got 14 years imprisonment while the others were sentenced to 10 years, 7 years, and 2 years and six months in prison.

Students receive scholarships

More than 800 school children from Ca Mau, Kien Giang, Bac Lieu and Hau Giang provinces and Can Tho City yesterday, Aug 15, were provided with US$45,700 scholarships under an initiative launched since 2009 by the National Fund for Vietnamese Children.

The initiative was funded by a group of four businesses led by Chevron Viet Nam.

HCM City to host Secutech Vietnam 2012

The fifth International security, fire and safety exhibition and conference (Secutech Vietnam 2012) will be held at the Saigon Exhibition & Convention Center (SECC) in Ho Chi Minh City from August 22-24.

The event co-organised by Vietnam Advertisement and Fair Exhibition Company (Vietfair) and German Messe Frankfurt New Era Business Media will gather 110 businesses from Vietnam and 13 other countries and territories, including famous ones, such as Ahua, EverFocus, Koukaam, QNAP and Vivotek.

They will showcase their latest products, equipment and technologies in the fields of security, safety fire prevention, search and rescue, including video surveillance technologies (IP & HD CCTV), access control, intrusion alarms, management software, and home automation.

During the event, there will be forums and seminars on global digital observation, fire prevention at buildings and observation in the retail sector.

Fewer skinny houses in Ha Noi

The Ha Noi Department of Construction has promised to clear away 375 super slim and distorted houses in the city by the end of this year.

A total of 19 structures (in Dong Da and Thanh Xuan districts) were knocked down in July.

The complicated process and a shortage of funds and resettlement houses make the situation more difficult.

JICA proposes $1.8 bln upgrade on North-South railway

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has proposed the north-south railway line be upgraded to reduce the Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City travel time by about 3 hours.

A group of railway experts from JICA made the proposal at a meeting held yesterday by the Transport Ministry to discuss the construction of high-speed railway lines.

The experts, who have studied Vietnam’s railway system for a year, said the current plan to increase the speed of trains to 200 km per hour on the north-south railway line is unfeasible technically.

In addition, investments required to improve the railway for that purpose will be equal to the cost of building a new railway, said Iwata Shizuo, head of the expert group.

Moreover, such a plan fails to meet the increasing demand for transport by 2030, since some forecasts say the demand for transport at that time will be three times higher than present.

Therefore, the group advised that north-south railway be upgraded from now to 2020 under a different plan that maintains the travel speeds at 90 km per hour for passenger trains and 60 km per hour for cargo trains.

According to this plan, travel time between Hanoi and HCMC would be reduced from the current 28 hours to 25 hours and 24 minutes and the number of trains on the route would be increased to 50 compared with 30 at present.

The total cost for the upgrade is expected to be US$1.8 billion, JICA said.

As regards high-speed railways, the group mentioned two routes it considered feasible. One of them will would Hanoi and Vinh, with 280 km in length, and the other would connect HCMC and Nha Trang (360 km). The total investment of the routes is about US$21.4 billion, or 6.3 percent of Vietnam’s GDP in 2030.

Accordingly, two sections of the routes should first be built for trial operation before the entire routes can be constructed. The first section is 40 km, running from Ngoc Hoi (Hanoi) to Phu Ly (Vinh), and the second is 30 km, linking Thu Thiem (HCMC) and Long Thanh (Dong Nai Province).

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre