Safe pork approved in disease struck areas

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's Animal Health Department has approved the slaughter of healthy pigs for consumption in localities hit by blue-ear pig disease, said Hoang Van Nam, director of the department.

The move was aimed at curbing the increasing price of pork in localities where the disease had hit, Nam said.

The ban on transporting, trading and slaughtering pigs in affected localities had unintentionally caused a decrease in the consumption of pork.

Veterinarians from local animal health departments will supervise slaughterhouse activities.

To prevent the spread of the disease, the department has prohibited the transport of healthy pigs to infected areas.

The disease has infected pigs in 15 provinces nationwide, including the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta provinces of Ca Mau, Tra Vinh and Kien Giang in the past three weeks, the Animal Health Department reported.

Four runaway orphans find new home

Four injured children who were found last week after having escaped from an orphanage in Dong Nai Province have a new home at Bien Hoa City's Vocational Training Sponsor Centre.

The decision to move the children there was made by southern Dong Nai Province's Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.

The department will also inspect the orphanage where the children were allegedly tortured and abused.

Garment workers return to job after strike

More than 1,100 workers at Tran An Garment Ltd Co in northern Hai Duong City returned to work yesterday after a six-day strike, according to the city's Labour Union president Bui Ngoc Van.

The company had committed to meeting workers' demands, including to raise salaries from next year, to build motorbike parking during the next two months and to ensure hygienic drinking water.

The workers will also have a day off on Sundays and finish work at 4.30pm on Saturdays.

Mine explosion kills one, injures two

One man died and two women were injured when an underground bomb exploded in a rubber farm in An Lap Commune in southern Binh Duong Province's Dau Tieng District.

Le Thanh Phong, 33, was reportedly killed while cutting grass with a lawnmower that activated the mine.

The blast also injured his wife and another woman who were working about 100 metres away.

The explosion created a 40-cm-deep hole.

Water resources management conference in Ninh Thuan

A conference on sharing water resources was held in Ninh Thuan province on November 17 with the aim of raising public awareness and promoting effective use of water resources.

At the event, Dr Nguyen Dinh Tuan from a college for natural resources and the environment made a brief introduction of the concepts related to water resources and provided an overview of the world’s and Vietnam’s water resources.

Mr Tuan underscored the fact that these water resources are facing the danger of pollution and exhaustion. He urged measures to protect and rationally exploit water resources. Management of these resources should be conducted in a comprehensive and sustainable manner on the basis of economization and sharing, he said. Water protection must be closely associated with environmental protection.

Participants in the conference heard reports on climate change, and its impacts on Ninh Thuan and water resources, and discussed proposals for adaptation.

They proposed some solutions to conserve water resources such as strengthening management capacity, controlling pollution, protecting aquatic ecologies and launching awareness campaigns to change people’s behaviour in dealing with water resources.

VUFO marks 60th anniversary

People-to-people diplomacy for peace, solidarity, friendship and aid from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has created breakthroughs and a social, public foundation for the relationship between Vietnam and other countries and peoples, said the head of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations (VUFO).

Reviewing VUFO’s achievements over the past 60 years of construction and development, President Vu Xuan Hong recalled that in a letter sent to a conference on the establishment of the Vietnam World Peace Protection Committee on Nov. 17, 1950, President Ho Chi Minh affirmed the Vietnamese people’s ardent desire for peace and their noble task in protecting world peace.

The inauguration of the Vietnam World Peace Protection Committee and friendship associations and the Committee of Solidarity with Foreign Countries has reflected the clear-sighted vision of the Party and Uncle Ho on the important and unique role of people’s diplomatic organizations in each of Vietnam’s revolutionary periods, said Mr Hong.

In the context of national integration and the renewal process, VUFO has fulfilled its task in the fields of peace, solidarity, friendship, cooperation, keeping contact with old friends while developing relationships with new partners.

Foreign Trade University honoured with Labour Hero Title

 The Foreign Trade University (FTU) received the Labour Hero Title from the Party and State at a ceremony in Hanoi on November 16 to mark their 50th anniversary of its establishment.

Attending the ceremony was Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung, Party and State leaders, representatives from embassies and institutes of 25 countries and with lecturers and students from the university.

Deputy PM Hung said it is essential to turn the FTU into a centre for research, creativity and the transfer of knowledge to match the modern international environment. It should strive to become a state-of-the-art university by 2020 and one of the top 100 leading universities in the region by 2030.

In his speech, Professor. Dr Hoang Van Chau, the FTU Rector reviewed the university’s achievements over 50 years, which have significantly contributed to the country’s process of industrialisation, modernisation and international economic integration.

In the last 50 years, the FTU has provided 50,000 civil servants with higher education and postgraduate degrees to the country and opened dozens of different training programmes in collaboration with foreign countries to train students at BA and MA levels.

It is worth noting that 95 percent of FTU graduates get a job after their graduation and many former students have held and are holding important positions in State agencies, organisations, and major businesses. The FTU currently maintains a relationship and cooperates with 120 international organisations and foreign universities.

Seminar discusses ODA in 2011-2015

A seminar was held in Hanoi on November 16 by the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) to give opinions on attracting, managing and applying ODA in the 2011-2015 period.

According to Ho Quang Vinh, Head of the MIP’s External Economics Department, Vietnam will continue to mobilise all outside resources, including ODA funding, to implement its five-year plan for socio-economic development (2011-2015).

Over the past two decades, ODA along with other capital inflows, have played an important role in boosting Vietnam’s socio-economic development.

In the near future, developing countries like Vietnam will face the fact that ODA funding will decrease while less preferential loans will increase, posing a huge challenge to Vietnam which the country and its partners must find ways to deal with.

According to international practice, ODA funding is provided for low-income countries, therefore, now that as a middle-income country, Vietnam’s ODA funding will be changed.

JICA Chief Representative in Vietnam, Tsuno Motonori highlighted Vietnam’s positive socio-economic achievements while saying that the country still faces a lot of challenges regarding high-quality human resources development, macro-economic stabilization and administrative reform.

However, Vietnam’s development partners have pledged to continue to provide ODA to the country after 2010, based on new changes in line with a middle-income country.

VNN/VOV/VNS