Vietnam aims to further improve people’s health

Improving people’s health is a strategic target of Vietnam’s healthcare sector from now to 2020, Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien has said at the 66th session of the World Health Assembly.

The World Health Assembly is the supreme decision-making body of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Tien is leading a 27 member delegation to join other delegations from all WHO member countries at the session which is underway in Geneva, Switzerland, from May 20-28.

The prevention of infectious and non-infectious diseases such as leprosy, tuberculosis, malaria, AIDS, cancer, and diabetes has been given attention and become national target health programmes, she emphasised.

At the session, Tien also represents the West Pacific region which comprises 37 countries and territories as she is President of the 63 rd WHO West Pacific Conference.

Participants will concentrate on ways to monitor, prevent and fight emerging infectious diseases like bird flu in poultry and humans in Asia.

They will also touch on the issues of aging, health insurance for all, health finance and economics, the WHO’s budget distribution in 2014-15 and its reform.

The Vietnamese delegation will deliver presentations in various fields to this year’s session.

Over the past years, Vietnam’s efforts in controlling infectious diseases such as SARS, bird flu and tuberculosis have been highly valued by the international community.

It was one of the first countries in the world that have successfully controlled SARS epidemic.

Five arrested for robbing taxi drivers

Police in the northern port city of Hai Phong's Ngo Quyen District have temporarily detained five people who are suspected of being behind a series of robberies targeting taxi drivers in the area.

The five suspects are aged between 16 and 28, and are all residents in the district. Police also confiscated one knife, two choppers and two swords.

Since the beginning of this month, different taxi firms in the city have been reporting that their drivers have been robbed. The gang would use various tricks. For example, taxi drivers would be asked for a ride to a deserted place, where they were attacked with a knife and had their money and property taken away. In other cases, the robbers paid the fare with foreign bank notes of low value, but then asked for change in Vietnamese dong in a high values.

The five arrested suspects admitted to the investigators that they had conducted 10 robberies of taxi drivers.

Four crewmen rescued over the weekend

Three crewmen from a sand-carrying vessel sunk by huge waves off the coast of Hai Phong City's Cat Ba District on Sunday have been rescued, according to the National Search and Rescue Committee.

Illustrative image.— Photo vov

Six local border guards were dispatched to take the victims to the shore.

In another incident, four fishermen were left adrift when their ship's engine broke 15 nautical miles from Truong Sa (Spratly) Archipelago on Sunday. Rescuers had contacted the victims by yesterday morning, according to the committee.

The rescue force also gave prompt instructions for how to save a sailor who had a working accident near the archipelago a day earlier.

Seminar scrutinize anti-corruption initiative programme

A seminar was held in Hanoi on May 20 by the Government Inspectorate and the World Bank (WB) to review the 2011 Vietnam Anti-Corruption Initiative (VACI) programme.

Participants said the Government Inspectorate should closely work with ministries, local departments and sponsors to foster favourable conditions for community initiatives to combat corruption in Vietnam.

At the event, 34 projects were recognised for their positive impacts on anti-corruption work in localities. The winning projects also made significant contributions to realising the 2011 VACI goal of raising public awareness on the enforcement of anti-corruption law.

As of May 1, 2013, most projects had been finalized, meeting the programme’s requirements.

However, some projects have not been successful due to their lengthy design, failure to define key activities and lack of support from local authorities and relevant agencies.

The Government Inspectorate needs to ask the Prime Minister to direct ministries and local departments to study the outcomes of the 2011 VACI and continue to launch the next VACI in 2013, representatives noted.

Protecting geographical indication a must

ASEAN and EU intellectual property experts is sharing experience in registering and protecting geographical indications (GI) at a workshop in Hanoi on May 20-21.

Tran Huu Nam, Deputy Head of the National Office of the Intellectual Property (NOIP) of Vietnam, said the GI is of great importance to promoting socio-economic development in rural and remote areas.

The Vietnamese government has issued a number of legal documents on protecting the GI to support its businesses and individuals in exporting products overseas, he said, adding that Vietnam has so far developed two programmes on intellectual property for businesses and producers.

He noted that the workshop will help ASEAN countries to have an overview and come up with strategies for registering their GIs in Southeast Asia and Europe.

The event is part of the EC-ASEAN Intellectual Property Rights Cooperation programme (ECAP III) – an EU-funded programmefor ASEAN with a total budget of EUR5.1 million. It has been implemented from 2010-2013 to help ASEAN nations integrate deeper in the global economy and international commercial system to boost economic growth and reduce poverty in the region.

“Vietnam in int’l community” discussed in Russia

Researchers and scholars from Vietnam, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Poland gathered at a seminar in Russia on May 20 to talk about the issues Vietnam is facing in its relations with the international community.

The event was organised by the Centre for Vietnam and ASEAN Studies under the Far East Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Discussions put on table included Vietnam’s international integration process, its relations with two powers of the US and China and in Russia-ASEAN ties, amendments to the country’s Constitution, and climate change.

Director of the Far East Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences Mikhail Titarenko described the seminar as a follow-up activity of the recent official visit by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to Russia and the 123rd birth anniversary of the late President Ho Chi Minh.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Russia Pham Xuan Son stressed that Vietnam always considers its relations with Russia as one of the priorities in its foreign policy.

The two countries announced their comprehensive strategic partnership in July 2012 during President Truong Tan Sang’s visit to Russia, marking a new milestone in their relations.

WB hails results of projects in Lao Cai province

The World Bank (WB) Country Director in Vietnam, Victoria Kwakwa, has hailed the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai’s efforts in implementing projects and programmes funded by the World Bank and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID).

Kwakwa made the statement at a workshop in the province on May 20 to evaluate the implementation of these projects.

However, she said, Lao Cai province needs to consider promoting its internal sources to develop its socio-economy as the official development assistance (ODA) fund may be reduced in the time to come.

Speaking at the workshop, Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, Nguyen Van Vinh pledged to ensure the process of ongoing projects and programmes.

He expressed his hope that the WB and DFID will further support the province in improving the quality of education and health care and the supply of clean water and electricity for mountainous areas. Lao Cai also needs more support to deal with climate change, natural disasters and environmental sanitation in rural areas, as well as providing loans for small and medium-sized enterprises, he said.

In the 2009-2013 period, the WB and DFID have provided Lao Cai province with US$106.3 million through projects and programmes to upgrade 70 kilometres of rural road and basic infrastructure, provide school lunches for 4,323 students, invest in building roads, bridges and water systems, and improving livelihood for more than 6,000 poor households.

All communes now have main road links to the provincial centre, 84 percent of local households are provided with clean water and 85 percent of their farmland are irrigated.

In the coming time, the DFID will help the province improving its administrative management skills and capacity to combat corruption.

VNN/VOV/VNS/VNA