Youth to submit ideas on ways to save costs

Young people's creative ideas should be taken into consideration and put into action to help the "Vietnamese Youth Take Action to Save Costs" campaign achieve success, according to speakers at the campaign's launch workshop held in Ha Noi yesterday, July 31.

The workshop saw the attendance of representatives from the Communist Youth Union, State agencies, young entrepreneur groups and an economic institute, who shared their experiences in saving money, energy and time from daily and office lives.

"A youth-centred campaign should be characterised by the youth's creativity," said Bui Truong Giang, deputy director of the Viet Nam Institute of Economics.

Such creativity was reflected in a number of young people's saving practices, especially in those aimed at helping society such as the "A Cup of Tea for the Community" campaign, implemented by the Ha Noi University of Science and Technology.

The campaign calls for weekly contributions equal to the cost of a cup of iced green tea (VND1,000-2,000 or US$0.05-0.1). While this seems to be an insignificant amount of money for some, according to Le Hieu Hoc, secretary of the university's youth union, it could gradually contribute to a considerable fund.

Hoc said that, with a total of 25,000 students, the university can save up to VND25 million (more than $1,160) per week, and VND1 billion (more than $46,500) per school-year as part of its campaign.

The fund will be used to help the university's disadvantaged students who suffer from financial or social limitations.

In addition to its community work, certain daily saving practices and administrative reforms such as the "paperless office" model applied in the Institute of Economics discourages printing and saves paper.

According to Nguyen Doan Thang, administrative head of the Viet Nam Young Entrepreneur Association, online meeting is another effective method to save money, energy and time.

In addition to sharing ideas, workshop attendees discussed the effectiveness of existing ideas in reducing costs.

Hoc said that the university's youth union had drafted a "saving handbook" for the next generation of students to raise common funds and save daily costs.

According to Phan Van Mai, secretary of the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, smaller group reports on campaign results should be submitted on a monthly and quarterly basis for review.

Local officials skeptical as storm fizzles out

With tropical storm Nock-Ten not bringing the widespread rains or strong winds to Thanh Hoa and Nghe An provinces it was forecast to, local authorities are skeptical about the weather bureau’s storm forecasting ability.
In its forecasts last week the Central Hydro-meteorological Forecasting Center warned that Nock-Ten would pack winds of 87-102 kph and gusts of 117-132 kph and would bring showers and thunderstorms.
But in the two provinces, the storm only brought winds of 39-45 kph and scattered rains Friday, local authorities said.
Leaders of several communes in Nghe An’s Quynh Luu District contacted district authorities to express their surprise.
They had taken many preventive measures to cope with the strong winds, they said, wasting money and effort.

In the region from Hai Phong City to Ha Tinh Province, 44,193 people had been evacuated as a precaution.
Authorities in Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Quang Ninh, Nam Dinh, and Thai Binh provinces and Hai Phong City said Saturday they had not received any reports about damage to property or infrastructure.

The Central Steering Board for Storm and Flood Prevention and Control reported that Nock-Ten caused a death each in Nghe An and Son La Provinces.

However, Nghe An authorities reported three deaths as of 5 pm yesterday, July 31.

US$10 million to resettle ethnic people

The Prime Minister has decided to provide the support of VND209 billion (US$10 million) to resettle ethnic people in Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) Province and the southern Binh Phuoc Province, according to the Central Highlands Steering Committee.

The financial support allocated by the Government is reported to not have met the region's demand to resettle ethnic people migrating into the region.

For instance, Dak Lak Province has been allocated only 26 per cent of the total money needed, with seven projects under stagnation due to lack of capital. Only three out of eleven projects in Dak Nong Province have been implemented, to date.

There are more than 40,000 ethnic families migrating to the region, who now need support in their resettlement. Most of them live in poverty.

Poisoned kids discharged from hospital

All 30 children who were mistakenly fed a floor cleanser at a preschool in Thuan An town have recovered, and 24 of them were discharged from hospital yesterday afternoon, July 31.
On Friday afternoon 30 students from Hoa Binh Preschool aged two to three had been admitted to the Thuan An General Hospital after vomiting and passing out.
They had mistakenly been fed a floor cleanser instead of cereal powder.
The toxic substance that caused the poisoning was identified as chloramine B, a pesticide.
Doctors said it was fortunate that the children had only consumed small amounts of the toxin.

Three of the poisoned kids had been in serious condition and transferred to the Pediatrics Hospital 1 in Ho Chi Minh City, but they too recovered yesterday afternoon.
Some students had a fortunate escape after refusing to drink their milk because it had a bad odor.
The school reported to local authorities that the headmistress and a teacher had accidentally mixed the cleanser in the food.
According to the Binh Duong province Department of Education and Training, the school, located in the town’s Binh Hoa Ward, had been operating without a license and did not meet the required standards for facilities and personnel.

Tra Vinh top cop sacked after drug suspect flees

The chief of the Tra Vinh city police has been removed from his post for “irresponsibility causing severe consequences” for allowing a suspected drug dealer to flee abroad two years ago.
Senior Lieutenant Colonel Le Van Viet was transferred to the Mobile and Guarding Police Division and also been removed from the Standing Committee of the city Party Committee, Major General Le Thanh Dau, director of the Tra Vinh Province police, said yesterday, July 31.
Last April Viet had been indicted in the case but the Supreme People’s Procuracy recently suspended the prosecution saying the offense was not grave enough to be treated criminally, and recommended an administrative penalty instead.
In June 2009 the police caught Vo Thi Dai Trang, 33, with drugs on her body at a hotel in Tra Vinh.

Three months later they prosecuted her and five accomplices, including Huynh Le Hoang, and took them in for interrogation.

In December 2009 the police recommended that the procuracy cancel the arrest warrant against Hoang and allow him to leave his house and travel abroad.

Viet signed the recommendation and it was approved by Nguyen Van Doan, deputy head of the procuracy.

Not long afterwards Hoang left for Japan and settled there with his wife.

The police were not aware of this until preparations for the trial were made.
Doan too has been removed from his post.

Firms urged to hire disabled workers

Enterprises are reluctant to employ people with disabilities, despite a Government request to do so, said Dinh Thi Thuy, vice director of the National Co-ordinating Committee on Disability of Viet Nam (NCCD), in the Department of Social Protection.

Thuy said the Government had requested people with disabilities make up at least 3 per cent of a firm's work force. She said the actual figure was far below that level.

A recent survey revealed that just 40 per cent of enterprises surveyed, mainly small and medium sized, met the Government's requirement.

Enterprises surveyed said they were reluctant to employ people with disabilities because they felt they would not be as productive as able-bodied workers. They also said people with disabilities often lacked the necessary work-place skills, Thuy said.

However, Nguyeãn Duc Van, from Hai Duong Province, who is himself handicapped and runs a computer company of his own, said discrimination against people with disabilities was rife among employers.

"People with disabilities often encounter social discrimination when seeking jobs," he said.

Van said he worked for a software company for nearly two years before starting his own company in 2010 and often encountered problems when trying to find work.

Despite rampant workplace prejudice, 75 per cent of enterprises said their disabled employees were "good" workers. They said people with disabilities were responsible, enthusiastic and loyal.

Meanwhile, Pham Hai Duong, from the Department of Tax in Ha Noi's Thanh Xuan District, said four people with disabilities worked in his office.

"Arranging work for the disabled not only makes full use of human resources but also encourages them to integrate into the community," he said.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Quang Thanh, director of Hiep Thaøøành Company, said he had found that there was no difference in productivity between handicapped and able-bodied workers.

Hoang Duc Khiem, principal of Ha Noi College of Information Technology

(ESTIH), said IT training was ideal for people with disabilities. He said the college implemented an IT training course designed for people with disabilities four years ago.

Under the programme, 90 people with disabilities had been trained in IT. Two-thirds had since gone on to find employment, he said.

Khiem said enterprises were missing out by not employing more people with disabilities.

Luong Minh Thuan, who is taking part in the college's training programme for the disabled, said the course had given him more confidence in his abilities.

There are about 5.4 million people with disabilities in the country. Of those, 55,000 have received vocational or academic training, while 15 per cent have since gone on to find stable employment.

102 endangered turtles seized from trafficker

Binh Dinh Province market management authorities and police seized 102 sea turtles that were being illegally transported in a car by a trafficker yesterday, July 31, following a tip-off from the public.
Of the endangered, protected amphibians, the largest had a shell measuring 0.85 meters long.
Their total value was over VND500 million (US$24,300) on the market, officials said.
Pham Quoc Thanh, 37, from the southern province of Ben Tre, the trafficker, was arrested after failing to furnish documents related to their origin.
The police also seized a cubic meter of timber from him.

Rain, storm, winds lashes HCM City

A rainstorm with a wind velocity of 40-62 kph lashed Ho Chi Minh City Saturday afternoon, injuring two people, uprooting numerous trees, and damaging many houses and vehicles.
The violent winds knocked down a tree, about 30 m tall and 1m in diameter, in front of the house at 325 Nguyen Tri Phuong Street in District 10.
The tree fell down on a house, causing some damage.
Another tree was uprooted and fell down on Pham Ngoc Thach Street causing a slight injury to a woman who was riding a motorbike as well as some damage to a taxi cab.
Meanwhile, the violent winds blew off a traffic signboard, which then hit a person on the face. The person was taken to hospital for emergency treatment.
On Vo Van Tan Street, a big tree branch fell on a car parking under it, breaking the car’s driving mirror.
At the crossroads of the Nam Ky Khoi Nghia- Le Thanh Ton streets, an electric pole was turned sideways after an uprooted large tree fell down on it.
Three trees at the Pham Ngu Lao-Do Quang Dau crossroads were uprooted and one of them crushed a motorbike whose owner had luckily just stepped out.
On Nguyen Van Linh Street, a big old tree fell down on two houses, causing a panic among the people inside the houses who immediately rushed out into the street.
Similar scenes of chaos and damage were seen in many other areas in the city, including Hoang Dieu Street and the Nguyen Truong To-Doan Nhu Hai crossroads in District 4, Tran Hung Dao Street in District 5, and the Pham The Hien apartment building in District 8.
Tran Thien Ha, director of the HCMC Green Tree and Park Co., Ltd, said as of Saturday evening, the company had yet to complete its statistics about trees that were damaged due to the rainstorm.
“However, we will clear those trees soon,” he said.
The rainstorm also caused delay to many ferries at the Cat Lai Quay in District 2.

“Agent Orange pain” exhibition in Hanoi

An “Agent Orange pain” exhibition is taking place in Hanoi from August 1-14 to mark Day for Agent Orange Victims (August 10).

The exhibition gives visitors an insight into the harmful effects of Agent Orange on human lives and the environment. During the US war in Vietnam, more than 72 million liters of AO chemicals were sprayed over the country.

The event also displays 300 objects, photos and documents on generations of AO victims and their children who were born in peace time but with serious defects.

Preschool suspended for feeding kids with cleanser

The authorities of Thuan An Town, Binh Duong Province, have suspended Hoa Binh Preschool, which is operating without a license, for mistakenly feeding 30 students with a floor cleanser on Friday.

The kids had to be hospitalized for emergency treatment after the accident. After being treated, 27 of them have recovered, Thuan An General Hospital reported yesterday.

The toxic substance that caused the poisoning was later identified as Chloramine, a powder pesticide.
Doctors said it was fortunate that the kids had just consumed a small amount of the toxin.
The other students who didn’t drink their milk had refused it because it had a bad smell.

When the 30 students, who are from 2 to 3 years old, were hospitalized on Friday afternoon, they had developed vomiting, fatigue and faintness after drinking what was supposed to be cereal powder.

Of the poisoned kids, three were in serious conditions and had to be transferred to Pediatrics Hospital 1 in Ho Chi Minh City, doctors said.

Many parents said when they went to the preschool to pick up their children at 5 pm that day, they were upset to know that their kids had been taken to Thuan An Hospital because of food poisoning.

According to the provincial Department of Education and Training, the school, located in the town’s Binh Hoa Ward, had operated without a license and did not meet the required standards for facilities and personnel.

Mexican Labour Party supports Vietnamese AO victims

The US chemical companies that supplied Agent Orange/dioxin for the US army to spray in Vietnam should take responsibility for the damage they caused to the Vietnamese people, especially the second and third generations that are still suffering from dioxin-related diseases.

Senator Alberto Anaya Gutierre, the General Secretary of the Mexican Labour Party, emphasized this while visiting the Vietnamese embassy in Mexico City on July 30.

Mr. Gutierre reaffirmed his support for Vietnam’s victims of Agent Orange in their struggle for justice.

The senator also granted 120 wheelchairs to the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange (VAVA) to help AO victims.

Two killed in train-motorbike crash

A couple was killed when a train crashed into their motorbike as they were trying to cross a railway in Tao Xuyen Town of Thanh Hoa Province Thursday night.
Tran Ngoc Anh, 39, of Thanh Hoa and his wife Ngo Thi Dao, 31, of Nghe An Province died on the spot.
According to witnesses, Anh tried to cross the railway even though the signal showed a train was approaching.
The train TN traveling on the north-south route was driving at a high speed. It hit the head of the couple’s motorbike, witnesses said.
The collision threw the motorbike into a pit nearby.
Local residents living near the accident scene in the town of Hoang Hoa District said traffic accidents usually occur on this location because there are no barriers separating the railway and the road.

12 fishermen in distress to come home ASAP

The Quang Ngai People’s Council sent a dispatch on July 31 to the Vietnamese embassy in the Philippines asking it to complete procedures to bring home all 12 Vietnamese fishermen in distress in the Philippines in the shortest possible time.

The Foreign Ministry’s Consular Department has finished verifying the fishermen's identities so the Philippines can issue travel papers for them to return to Vietnam.

The fishermen’s ship sank on July 28 when they were fishing in the waters of the Truong Sa (Spratly) islands. Eleven of the men come from Quang Ngai province, the other comes from Khanh Hoa province.

Two drowned, bodies unfound in accident

Two women were drowned in a traffic accident on Gia Rai River in Bac Lieu Province on Wednesday evening but their bodies haven’t been found.

According to Major Nguyen Van Han, the deputy head of the Gia Rai District police, the victims were Nguyen Thi Mun, 27, and Nhung, 24, both from Phong Thanh A Commune.

The police’s preliminary investigation shows that 4 people – 2 men and 2 women— were caught up in the accident. The two men however survived.

Pham Van Ky together with his elder brother, Pham Van Tien, and Nhung, a neighbor, used a motorboat to transport Mun, Ky’s wife, to Gia Rai District General Hospital as she was seriously ill.

Ky saw a strong flow of water from a drainage pipe when their boat was approaching it but decided to cross the drainage pipe.

When the flow of water sank the boat, Ky and Tien swam ashore while the two women were swept away.

One killed in tropical storm in central Vietnam

One person was killed and no damage was reported when tropical storm Nock-Ten hit Thanh Hoa and Nghe An provinces Saturday evening.

The dead was Pham Xuan Tu, 68, from Tho Son Commune, Anh Son District, Nghe An, local authorities reported.

Tu died after getting an electric shock from the public power line that was swaying in the thunderstorm while he was tying his house with cables to prevent it from being blown away.

After landing with a wind speed of 75-87 kph, the storm got weaker. The wind speed was reduced to 45 kph in Dien Chau District and then to 19 kph in Vinh City, said the Central Hydro-meteorological Forecasting Center.

However, the storm brought heavy rains to the province, with rainfalls of up to 200-300 mm being recorded in Quynh Luu District and Vinh.

Before the storm landed, the provincial localities had evacuated more than 43,000 people to safe places.

In Thanh Hoa, 32,000 residents had also been moved to shelters.

The province also guided 8,570 boast at sea to safe areas before the storm landed.

The rainfall in Thanh Hoa was 30 mm, much lower than in Nghe An and some other provinces.

In Linh Cam District, Ha Tinh City, the rainfall was 178 mm while in Quang Binh Province’s Tuyen Hoa District, it was 101 mm.

The storm, however, has died down in Laos. Heavy rain will thus cease on Sunday, said Vu Anh Tuan, head of the Short-term Forecasting Division of the Central Hydro-meteorological Forecasting Center.

Local authorities of Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Nam Dinh and Thai Binh Provinces, said they hadn’t received any report about any considerable damage done to property or infrastructure.

Bank officials indicted for causing loss of $584,000

Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province police have indicted Phan Van Muoi, director of the Tan Thanh District branch of the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, for irresponsibility causing serious consequences leading to losses of over VND12 billion (US$584,000) to the bank.
Also indicted were Tran Ngoc Phuoc, 42, head of the branch’s credit department and Tran Ngoc Chung, 46, a department officer. Both of them were charged with deliberately acting against credit regulations.
Muoi is let on bail while the two others have been detained.
According to the indictment, in 2007 and 2008, Tran Dinh Dung, 42, director of the Dung Hong Co., Ltd., applied for two loans totaling VND16 billion from the branch to develop a project for an ice-making plant.
Muoi approved Dung’s loan applications and signed two loan contracts with Dung while his two subordinates had neither verified the value of Dung’s mortgages nor examined the validity of documents included in his loan application files.
In early 2010, when the loans fell due, Dung did not repay the loan but took all his family away from their residence, in Ward 12, Vung Tau City.
The actual value of the ice plant has recently been evaluated at only VND6 billion, which means the banks suffer a loss of VND10 billion in principal together with an uncollected interest amount of around VND2 billion, the police said.

Businessman flees after swindling over $5mil

The Quang Tri Province police are hunting for Cao Xuan Thien, director of Thai Bao JSC in Dong Ha Town, who has fled with his wife after appropriating at least VND100 billion (nearly US$5 million) from his creditors.
During the past 15 days, tens of locals in the province reported to police that Thien had swindled them off hundreds of billions of dongs in loans, said Colonel Le Cong Dung, director of the Quang Tri Police Department.
The victims said Thien lured them to lend him money at high interest rates but he later did not pay his debts.
Also falling victim are the Quang Tri Branch of VietinBank and the Quang Binh Branch of VPBank, which have given loans of VND39 billion and VND29 billion respectively to Thien.
The directors of the two branches had confirmed the debts, police said.
VPBank’s Quang Binh Branch has sealed off the Lan Anh Hotel that had been used by Thien as a mortgage for his loans.
A source told police that Thien had traded in timbers in Laos for several years but he lost money and returned to Vietnam.
Recently, Thien went to Laos again and bought a forest area worth over VND100 billion, but when he had yet to exploit the forest, the Lao government ordered the forest to shut down, dealing a huge loss to him.
He returned to Vietnam again and began to mobilize capital at high interest rates, according to the source.

Miracle doctor’s ability not yet verified

A session was held Friday in Binh Phuoc province to test the controversial healing power of an Oriental doctor who is hailed as able to cure terminal diseases just by acupressure.

At the session held by the provincial Union of Science and Technology Association, 36-year-old traditional herbalist Vo Hoang Yen, from Ca Mau province, performed treatment on 5 patients in front of scientists, experts and mainstream doctors.

There, Yen’s acupressure succeeded in helping a 65-year-old cerebrovascular patient stand up by her own and to walk to and fro without her usual stick.

But his treatment resulted in “dubious effects” on the other four patients, scientists attending the session said.

However, Prof. Hoang Bao Chau, former head of the Vietnam Institute of Traditional Medicine, admitted that Yen’s methods have yielded an immediate effect on patients suffering from stroke and deafness.

“In terms of modern medical science, this is a form of rehabilitation,” he said. “But we cannot make any conclusion on its effects in the longer term.”

Doctor Quach Ai Duc, deputy director of the provincial Department of Health, said the health department would continue to test Yen’s methods to see if they have long-term effectiveness.

Dong Nai stays firm on fining overloaded bauxite-carrying trucks

With their roads and bridges severely damaged by Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Group (Vinacomin)’s overloaded bauxite-carrying trucks travelling through every day, the southern Dong Nai Province’s authorities have firmly put their foot down.

Duong Danh Quy, head of the provincial Traffic Safety Department, said Vinacomin neither discussed nor consulted with the local authorities about having their trucks pass by the province. Vinacomin’s own investigation on the plausibility of using the roads and bridges in Dong Nai was conducted several years ago and its findings were hopelessly outdated, he said.

According to Duong Van Hoa, Vinacomin’s deputy CEO, the company had to transport bauxite by land across Dong Nai while waiting for the construction of Ke Ga Port in the central southern province of Binh Thuan to be completed in 2014, at which point the minerals would be shipped by sea.

Every ten minutes, a 40-ton truck leaves its aluminum plant in Lam Dong, heading for Bao Loc Town, then taking the National Route 20 to Dau Giay T-junction and crossing the Provincial Route 276 and National Route 51 of Dong Nai to Go Dau Port, he said.

Quy said the trucks have created serious traffic and safety problems for Dong Nai province as many bridges on the trucks’ path have a lower capacity than 40 tons and most of the roads are in poor conditions.

“La Nga Bridge, for instance, has the capacity of only 25 tons and it would certainly collapse if a 40-ton truck crosses it every ten minutes,” he emphasized.

Tran Duy Nhan, deputy head of BVEC Company, said his company is in the process of enlarging and upgrading National Route 51, but Vinacomin’s trucks would likely destroy the new road in a short time.

“All the five bridges on this road have the capacity of only 30 tons, which will inevitably fail to withstand the passing of 40-ton trucks at some point,” he said.

No exceptions allowed

In a meeting with the provincial people’s committee on July 27, Vinacomin promised that they would have solutions to the problem.

But Tran Van Vinh, deputy head of the provincial people’s committee, pressed that the mineral company had to stop transporting bauxite across the province until they have found an alternative plan.

Meanwhile, the trucks will be fined if they are overloaded and violate road traffic regulations, as every other violator has to, he said.

“There are no exceptions when it comes to law,” he said.

“If we do not fine overloaded bauxite-carrying trucks, how could we fine other violators?”

For their part, the Ministry of Transport said they have planned to repair and upgrade the part of the National Route 20 from Lam Dong’s Bao Loc Town to Dong Nai’s Dau Giay T-junction for bauxite transportation while waiting for the Ke Ga Port’s completion.

But we are facing difficulties in raising capital for the plan, the ministry said.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre