Vietnam bags 5 gold medals at ASEAN Skill Competition

With five golds, four silvers, five bronzes and 11 certificates of excellent skills, Vietnam was placed second only to the host Indonesia in the 9th ASEAN Skill Competition.

During the event, held in Jakarta from November 14-19, 275 contestants from nine countries in Southeast Asia, including 44 from Vietnam, competed in 22 skill areas.

Receiving the team back to Hanoi on November 20, Duong Duc Lan, Deputy Head of the Vietnam General Department of Vocational Training, described their achievement as proof of Vietnam’s human resource quality and capacity to integrate into the region.

Winners of the contest will be chosen to attend the World Skill Contest 2013 in Germany.

Substandard petrol found in Dong Nai

About 20,000 litres of petrol in Hiep Phu Thanh Petrol Station in Tay Hoa Commune in southern Dong Nai Province was found to be substandard, the provincial inspection team reported.

Tests showed the octane index of A92 petrol at the station was 90.8 compared to the national requirement of 92, it said.

The test was made after people complained their motorbikes broke down after running on petrol from the station.

The inspection team noted the colour was abnormal, took tests and impounded petrol.

Hanoi to host Green Food Fair

Green Food Fair 2012, themed “for health and the environment”, will be organized for the first time at Vietnam Exhibition Centre for Culture and Arts  from November 24- 28.

The event aims to raise public awareness of protecting the environment for the community’s benefit, as well as encouraging a new nutritional eating habit in order to protect health.

WHO and UNICEF warn that the over-consumption of meat and fish has been a significant factor in human illness, and also a contributory cause for global warming due to the expanding livestock industry.

Green Food Fair 2012 also helps to promote companies and organizations that are active in producing green, healthy food in Hanoi.

It will include a wide variety of cultural and culinary activities, such as “cooking with the stars” contest, Yoga practice instructions, and discussions on vegetarianism and health, the power of a quiet mind, scientific premise of praying, health and the environment.

Pesticide use falls within safety margins

The pesticides that farmers are currently allowed to use in Viet Nam do not contain carcinogenic substances and the use of pesticides in agriculture is closely monitored, Nguyen Xuan Hong, director of the Plant Protection Department, said at a monthly meeting to review food safety controls in Ha Noi yesterday.

Over the last month, he said, the agency conducted a test on 50 samples of vegetables mainly eaten raw and found that the trace amounts of pesticide residue and heavy metals were within permitted limits.

Over the last year, the agency has analysed 1,545 vegetables samples, and only 12 revealed excessive pesticide residue, accounting for a miniscule 0.8 per cent.

This figure was relatively low compared to the equivalent ratio in neighbouring countries, like Thailand (10 per cent) and Malaysia (12 per cent). In China, the ratio varied from 2 to 17 per cent.

"Over the next five years, we want to lower the ratio to 0.5 per cent," he said. He noted that while Viet Nam allowed the import of farm products from 59 countries and territories, only 13 of those areas had the right to export farm products of plant origin to use as foodstuffs.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Xuan Thu asked relevant agencies to step up inspections on farm products from the countries that had not acquired such rights. By the end of this year, if these countries still did not have the right to export such products, Viet Nam would stop importing their farm products, she said.

She also asked the department to regularly check the quality of pesticides. Once a pesticide was discovered to be of low quality, its manufacturer should receive a strict punishment such as having its business licence revoked.

Kien Giang to build 38 concrete bridges

A project to build 38 concrete bridges near schools in Kien Giang province by 2015 has begun.

Kien Giang Union of Friendship Organisation chairman Le Van Hong said the VND7.6 billion (US$364,800) project had received financial support from organisations and individuals.

It would improve transport for one million people, especially children going to school in the wet season.

Figures from the provincial Transport Department showed the province had more than 1,010 temporary bridges, of which, An Minh District had 250.

Men’s role in domestic violence prevention highlighted

The role of men in domestic violence prevention was discussed at a workshop in Hanoi on November 19 with the participation of women and farmers’ union members from six northern provinces.

The National Study on Domestic Violence Against Women in Vietnam said one in three married women have suffered physical or sexual abuse from their husbands at some point in their lives.

It affirmed that domestic violence to Vietnamese women is a serious matter.

According to the Vice Chairman of the National Assembly’s Committee for Social Affairs, Do Manh Hung, domestic violence not only erodes social morality but also has a negative impact on future generation and may result in family break-ups.

Vietnam, like other countries, is confronting gender imbalance and violence towards women, he said, stressing the joint effort from State agencies, socio-political organisations, non-governmental organisations and people is needed.

But most importantly, people should be aware of the role of men in the issue, Hung said.

The UNFPA Vietnam Acting Chief Representative, Mandeep K. O’Brien, said men play an important role in promoting gender equality and ending domestic violence.

Non-violent male role models should be encouraged while the relations between men and women should be strengthened via the activities of such organisations as the women and farmers’ unions, she suggested.

Workshop participants said many programmes and projects have been conducted to help women escape domestic violence. However, they said if domestic violence prevention activities do not focus on improving men’s awareness and change their behaviour, the gap between men and women will widen and violence will increase.

At the workshop, some non-governmental schemes to involve men in domestic violence prevention were introduced.

Displaced families in tents after four months

About 25 households displaced by a hydro-power project in northern mountainous of Lai Chau Province have lived in tents for four months due to the slow construction of their resettlement area.

The local authority of Than Uyen District said the families would be moved to Cap Na resettlement area in the commune before the rainy season.

It blamed the delay on the Government's failure to provide construction funds on time.

Currently, the houses were 70 per cent completed and would be ready for occupation in two months.

Two feared dead in coal mine collapse

Two workers are missing, believed dead, after a Vinacomin-Uong Bi Coal Company mine collapsed yesterday morning in northern Quang Ninh Province.

Rescue teams were still looking for the missing miners, Nguyen Quoc Huy, 27, and Pham Van Quy, 34, last night.
Police of Dong Trieu District are investigating the cause of the collapse.

Five accidents related to coal mines in Viet Nam have occurred so far this month, killing five workers.

Quang Ngai reservoirs upgraded with Japan aid

The Japanese Government has granted 698 million JPY to a non-refundable aid project to upgrade seven small-scale reservoirs in the central province of Quang Ngai.

The upgraded facilities include Tri Binh and An Hoi in Binh Son district, Mach Dieu and Hoc Mit in Mo Duc district, and Duc Pho district’s An Tho, Hoc Nghi and Huan Phong.

Local leaders said that the two-year project helps reduce the risk of dam breach, improve management capacity and ensure water for 846 hectares of agricultural land.

Experts from the SANYU Consultants Incorporated held two training courses to strengthen operation capacity at seven agricultural cooperatives from project-funded communes.

VNN/VOV/VNS