Vietnam Talent Contest awards ceremony held

The 2011 Vietnam Talent Contest awards ceremony was held in Hanoi on November 20 to honour achievements in the fields of information technology (IT), natural science, health care and pharmaceuticals.

This year’s contest had received 240 products.

In the field of natural science, health care and pharmaceuticals, three prizes, each worth VND100 million, were given to a research group of Viet Duc Friendship Hospital, the heart transplant council of Hue Central Hospital, and both Prof. Dr. Tran Duc Thiep and Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Do from the Institute of Physics, under the Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology.     

In the IT field, there were five third prizes, each valued at VND30 million.

The second prize worth VND50 million went to a group of researchers in information and tourism knowledge services applying iCompanion technology.

There was no first prize in these two fields.

The event was organized by the Ministry of Information and Communications in co-ordination with the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Education and Training and the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group.

Woman declares bankruptcy after borrowing $1mil

The Binh Phuoc Province police have indicted a local woman for borrowing a huge amount of money from the public at high interest rates and suddenly announced bankruptcy, shocking at least 30 creditors.

Nguyen Thi Sanh, 51, of Chon Thanh District, was prosecuted yesterday for “abusing trust to appropriate assets,” said Senior Lieutenant Colonel Van Quang Tien, deputy head of the provincial Police Department.

From 2006 to the end of 2010, Sanh, the owner of a large gasoline and oil distributor in the district, mobilized a total of VND22 billion (US$1.05 million) from many people before she recently declared insolvency, the police said.

Sai Gon Giai Phong newspaper reported that Sanh used her husband’s contacts, which he amassed as the former head of the Hon Quan District People’s Procuracy and as an official at the provincial prosecutor’s office, to borrow money from others.

She lied to her victims, telling them that she needed to borrow a large amount of money to help her acquaintances repay their bank loans that were due but, in fact, she spent all of the borrowed money on personal needs, local police said.

Many of Sanh’s victims, who had lent her all of their money, have fallen into misery. Some of them have been hospitalized for mental treatment due to their stunned reaction after Sanh announced that she had gone bankrupt.

Some creditors said Sanh and her relatives had sworn at them when they came to her house to reclaim their money.

They also said Sanh showed a defiant attitude towards them.

The police are continuing their investigation into the swindling case.

Italy helps Thua Thien-Hue develop education and health care

The Italian government will continue give high priority to improving educational and healthcare services, and expanding the Integrated Management of Lagoon Activities (IMOLA) project in Thua Thien - Hue province.

Italian Ambassador to Vietnam Lorenzo Angelon made the affirmation at a press briefing in the central province on November 19 to introduce Italian-funded projects in Vietnam.

Angelo also outlined projects under the Italian development cooperation programme in central Vietnam.

The same day, the provincial People’s Committee and the Italian Embassy in Vietnam hosted a seminar on the results of the first and second phases of the IMOLA project which has been funded by the Italian government since 2005.

The project aims to assist local fishermen in the sustainable management of natural resources in the Tam Giang - Cau Hai lagoon.

President celebrates Viet Nam Teachers' Day

President Truong Tan Sang attended a ceremony at the National Economics University in Ha Noi on Saturday to mark its 55th founding anniversary and the Viet Nam Teachers' Day.

On this occasion, the university was awarded the Ho Chi Minh Order by the Party and State for the second time.

President Sang praised efforts by the university's teachers, staff and students for their great contributions to the cause of national construction and defence.

He affirmed that developing human resources was an important task to implement the 11th Party Congress target to turn the country into an industrialised country by 2020.

To successfully implement the strategy, the education sector must reform with the most urgent issue being to improve the comprehensive quality of tertiary education, he said.

The National Economics University, previously called the Central Financial Economics School, was established in 1956.

Over the past 55 years, the university has trained 55,639 regular graduates, 52,194 in-service graduates, and almost 7,000 masters and doctors.

It also led the trend of expanding international integration and renewal of the university management mechanism.

On the same day, National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung visited the Border Guards Academy on the occasion of the Teachers' Day. During his visit, he witnessed the academy receiving the title "Hero of the People's Armed Forces".

One dead, others missing as ferry sinks

A small ferry carrying around 35 passengers in Nui Thanh district in central Vietnam’s Quang Nam province sank early this morning, killing one pregnant woman.

Rescuers and locals have saved most of the passengers on board the ferry. Some others still remain missing.

The retrieved dead victim was identified as Vo Thi Tham, 25, who was 3-4 months pregnant. Tham was a garment worker for a company in Nui Thanh district.

Besides the passengers, the ferry also carried 30 motorbikes and one truck carrying wood products, which weighed more than 2 tonnes.

Local authorities believe that overloading was the cause of the accident.

The ferry owner cum driver, identified as Bui Van Thu, fled the scene after the incident.

Thu had already been fined three times for carrying more than the ferry’s designed capacity, but he continued to overload the vessel anyway.

Local authorities are retrieving the ferry and identifying how many people are still missing.

Remote villages long for power supply

Nearly 200 households in a remote village in Phu An Commune, in southern Dong Nai Province's Tan Phu District, are still without power, despite offering to pay half the cost of installing a local transformer station.

High–voltage power lines to the area, paid for by the State, were installed in 2009.

"When will the village be connected to the national power grid?" is the question on every villager's mind.

The villagers makes up one-third of the total commune's population. Fruit trees such as durian and rambutan, as well as rubber trees are vital to the local economy.

Each household has at least 2ha of arable land.

"However, about 30 per cent of the households in the village still live in poverty," said local resident To Thi Minh, adding: "It was because we do not have power for production."

In the dry season, villagers were forced to use oil-powered pumps to water their trees, which costs 70 per cent more than electrically powered pumps. As a result, many of the poorer households had had to watch their trees die, Minh added.

Ngo Van Bang, a local resident, said his entire plantation was lost last year as a result of drought and disease. He said he would not be able to pay back his bank debts unless there was electricity.

As night falls in the village, kerosene lamps are lit, but they are a poor substitute for electric light bulbs. The situation is almost medieval.

On major holidays, such as Tet (Lunar New Year), batteries are used to supply power for lighting and music.

Ngo Van Phuc, another resident, said the cost of goods was much higher than in surrounding areas because of the village's inaccessibility. He said on rainy days the road turned muddy and was impassable.

Do Thanh Huy, chairman of the commune's People's Committee, said that funding for a local transformer station was unjustifiable because the village was sparsely populated.

"We are ready to pay," said Phuc. "We have been longing for stable power," he said.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre