More elderly people hospitalized as mercury drops 

As temperatures drop in the north, the elderly people are suffering and being hospitalized in larger numbers in Hanoi.

More elderly people hospitalized as temperatures drop.

Normally the Vietnam National Hospital of Geriatrics receives an average of 50 elderly people each day but since last week the number has doubled. The older people are being admitted with high blood pressure, cardiovascular and cerebral vascular diseases, as well as knucklebone and pneumonia.

According to doctors, the elderly must not venture out in the cold weather and must protect themselves especially during the next few days. Doctors are warning people to be careful of cerebral vascular which can result in contra lateral hemiplegia (Paralysis occurring on the side of the body opposite to the side of the brain in which the causal lesion occurs) or even death.

Dr. Nguyen Hong Ha, the director of the National Tropical Diseases Hospital sees about 50 cases of rubella patients a day including many serious complication cases. He said that due to the initial symptoms resembling those of measles, it is hard to treat these

cases.

MIC predicts shortage of IT personnel 

The Ministry of Information and Communications predicts that Vietnam will see a serious shortage of IT personnel in the future.  

The ministry put forth this view at a meeting on March 18 in Hanoi with relevant agencies on the implementation of the project “Developing Vietnam into a Powerful ICT Country” approved by the Prime Minister on September 22.

The project expects to create ICT hubs in Vietnam in the future focusing on the development of IT human resources, broadband infrastructure and IT applications.

Meeting participants said that all personnel in the IT field will play a key role in conducting the project.

The ministry predicted that all enterprises in the country will need around 411,000 IT employees but it may fail to do so if there were not enough trained IT personnel.

Chairman orders stepping up of Tan Son Nhat – Binh Loi highway 

Le Hoang Quan, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, has ordered working units to step up the construction of the Son Nhat – Binh Loi outer ring road. 

He was speaking while visiting the route site and listening to reports of the execution units about the work progress on Saturday.

He said that as soon as any section of the ring road is complete, it would be opened to ease the traffic overload for the surrounding areas.

By the end of the first quarter of the year is the deadline Chairman Quan set for completion of site clearance in districts.

As of now, only Binh Thanh has finished handing over the site of the road construction. Go Vap and Thu Duc are only half way through.

Good architectural works along the side of the road play a significant role in creating the city’s appearance. With this in mind, Quan instructed relevant departments not to build very slim houses.

The 13.7 kilometer Tan Son Nhat – Binh Loi highway forms the city’s outer ring road. The highway starts at Truong Son Road near Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Tan Binh District and ends at the Linh Xuan crossroad in Thu Duc District.

The highway will link the east and west parts of the city and will conveniently connect the airport and seaports with industrial zones, contributing in reducing traffic congestion within the city.

First patriarch of Vietnam Buddhism commemorated 

The Vietnam Buddhist Sangha Central Committee (VBSCC) hosted a solemn ceremony in Hanoi on March 17 to commemorate the 1,000th death anniversary of Imperial Councillor Khuong Viet, the first supreme patriarch of Vietnamese Buddhism.

Present at the event were religious dignitaries, leaders of several ministries, agencies and Hanoi, and a large number of Buddhist monks and followers, who devoted a minute in remembrance of the deceased in the recent powerful earthquake and devastating tsunami in Japan .

Most Venerable Thich Thanh Tu, Permanent Vice President of the VBSCC’s Executive Council, said the ceremony was an occasion to recall the history and tradition of defensing the nation and guarding the people of Vietnamese Buddhism.

The dignitary expressed deep gratefulness for the care of the Party, State and Fatherland and the sympathy sharing of the people, which he said are great encouragement to the Buddhist Sangha on the path of serving Buddhist dharma and the nation.

Over the past 2,000 years, Buddhist monks, nuns and followers throughout the country have always been active and trusted members of the great national solidarity bloc, contributing to building a strong and prosperous country.

Addressing the ceremony, Vice President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee Ha Van Nui said the event was of profound significance and a chance for everybody to express respect and gratefulness to the Imperial Councillor’s great contributions to the nation as well as the development of Vietnamese Buddhism.

Most Venerable Thich Thien Nhon, Vice President and Secretary General of the VBSCC’s Executive Council, said Imperial Councillor Khuong Viet, real name Ngo Chan Luu, was born in 930 and once managed the Khai Quoc (now Tran Quoc) pagoda.

When he was 40 years old, Khuong Viet was invited to the royal palace by King Dinh Tien Hoang to discuss Buddhist and national affairs. He was appointed by the King as the supreme patriarch (the top position) of Vietnamese Buddhism and the Great Tutor a year later. Khuong Viet was then promoted to the rank of Imperial Councillor by King Le Dai Hanh.

The ceremony was followed with an incense offering ritual to pray for peace of the nation and people, and a requiem for the dead during the quake and its consequent tsunami in Japan .

Most Venerable Thich Thanh Tu also extended the sympathy and deep condolences to the Royal Family, Government and people of Japan over huge losses of humans and property during the recent quake and tsunami.

The participants and the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha also raised VND 50 million to support the disaster-affected Japanese people.

US helps Vietnam find MIAs

Ann Mills-Griffiths, Executive Director of the US National League of POW/MIA Families, told a Saturday press conference the US was helping to increase Vietnam’s capacity in searching for MIAs.

Mills-Griffiths said it wasn’t too big of a challenge to identify bodies which were buried separately and with identification.

The greater challenge, however, was to identify bodies buried in mass graves without anything that can point to personal identification, she said.

Mills-Griffiths said the Hawaii-based forensics institute of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command under the US Department of Defense is expected to work with Vietnamese scientists on this area.

In her visit to Vietnam, Mills-Griffiths and the league’s consultant Richard Childress also met top officials from the Vietnamese defense, police and foreign affairs ministries.

Fake NGOs, fake jackpot, bogus firm in Dong Nai

On March 16 alone, four swindling cases involving fake international officers, bogus company and over VND500 million (US$24,000) occurred in four communes of Tan Phu district in the southern Dong Nai province, readers told Tuoi Tre.

All the cheats were carried out right at the victims’ houses in Phu Thanh, Phu Xuan, Phu Lam and Thanh Son communes.

At 10 a.m. that day, two women came to the house of N.V.K., 79, in Phu Lam commune’s Phuong Mai hamlet, and claimed themselves to be international charity activists.

They offered the aged man a lucky scratch card and after he scratched the card to expose the numbers printed on it , they said he won a cash prize of VND450 million (US$21,500).

They then prepared a report on his winning the “prize” and said he had to declare his assets as a condition for receiving it.

The ‘lucky’ man told them he had VND20 million (US$960) and 0,5 tael (0.6 ounce) of gold and showed the assets to the two women, who then left the house bringing with them all these assets.

With the same trick, at noon the same day, they appropriated VND10 million ($480) and 1.3 taels of gold from the family of Mrs. N.T.H., 67, in Thanh Son commune’s Cay Dau hamlet.

L.V.T. later found himself a victim of two swindlers including a man and a woman.

On March 14, he gave them VND5 million ($240) as a deposit for a contract with a ‘manufacturer’ of anti-mosquito products. Under the ‘contract’, some advertisement posters would be posted at his house and he would be paid VND3 million ($143) per month in return.

But on March 16, after a man asked to buy such products, T. phoned the man to whom he gave the money but no one answered the phone.

Senior Lieutenant Colonel Tran Tuan Trieu, head of the Tan Phu district police, said the swindlers had taken advantage of both the gullibility and greediness of their victims.

The police are trying to track down the swindlers.

Two ministries had break-ins, laptop, cash stolen

Police are hunting down brazen thieves that broke into the headquarters of the Ministry of Justice in Hanoi recently, stealing big cash from the incumbent deputy justice minister and a laptop and voice recorder from another ministry.

Hanoi police told Tuoi Tre that on March 18, they received news that the office room of Mr. Hoang The Lien, standing deputy minister of justice at floor 2, block N1 at 60 Tran Phu Street, Dien Bien Phu ward had signs of a break-in.

Police found that thieves (thief) took away VND245 million and US$2,000 in cash from Mr. Lien’s room.

The above sum is Lien’s personal savings and money entrusted to him by his relatives, Thanh Nien reported.

According to Thanh Nien, security staffs guard the headquarters of the justice ministry 24/7. The building also has a security camera system.

Two days earlier on March 16, police also received news that a laptop and a voice recorder worth a total VND60 million were stolen from the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

According to Thanh Nien, the place where this theft took place is a subsidiary of the ministry located in Dong Da district.

HCMC seizes illicit TV signal recorders

Ho Chi Minh competent agencies yesterday seized hundreds of made-in-China satellite digital TV signal recorders stored at three companies without documents.

At Au Thien Quang Trading and Services Co., Ltd. in Tan Binh District and Anh-Em Telecom Electronics Co., Ltd. in District 8, local police, market management officers, and telecom and post inspectors found hundreds of satellite digital TV signal recorders without invoices or other related documents.

Using such recorders and memory cards, a TV viewer has to pay just VND2 million ($96) per year for watching Vietnamese and foreign TV programs.

Meanwhile, the cost for viewing copyright-protected TV programs is up to VND10 million ($480) per year.

All of them were manufactured in China, the joint inspection team said.

Earlier, local police caught Nguyen Minh Luan, 29, from southern Can Tho Province, delivering 2 illicit recorders and some memory cards to a consumer.

Tuan said he is an employee of Tuan Tu Telecom Electronics Co., Ltd, located on Pham Van Bach Street, Ward 12, Go Vap District.

During an inspection later at this company, the police found about 200 satellite digital TV signal recorders made in China but the company’s representative failed to provide any documents related to the goods.

Tuan Tu and the two above-mentioned companies bought recorders illegally imported from China and then sold them to the Vietnamese market for VND1 million (US$48) each, according to Luan and some others.

After the seizures, the overseas server turned off the satellite TV signal decoder and all the seized recorders can no longer work now, since they have no longer received signals from the relevant satellite, said the police.

Truck lunges, takes down house, kills one

At 5am today (Sunday), a truck transporting frozen foods on the North-South route crashed into a house on the arterial Highway 1A in the central province of Phu Yen’s Dong Hoa district, killing one on the spot.

The 85T-2459 vehicle’s front was badly damaged.

The house was completely wiped out.

Luckily house owner Tran Van Dan, 29 sustained a minor head injury and his wife and daughter were left unharmed.

However, Huynh Thanh Phuc, 28 who was on the truck was crushed to death while driver Diep Ban Phuoc, 28 and Le Phong Vu, 30 who was also on the truck had severe injuries.

Ninh Thuan to have renewable energy power plant

The southern coastal province of Ninh Thuan last Saturday approved a US$250 million project to build a renewable energy power plant.

The Phuoc Nam Enfinity plant, with a total capacity of 124.5 MW, aims to produce electricity from wind and solar power.

The plant, a Vietnamese-Belgian venture, will be located in three communes, Phuoc Nam, Phuoc Minh and Phuoc Ninh, in Thuan Nam District.

Ninh Thuan also approved three other projects in hydroelectric power, tourism and mineral exploration with a total investment of US$50 million.

Ninh Thuan province is also reviewing a VND85.5 trillion (US$4 billion) project to develop the Mui Dinh Urban Zone by Korean company Polo Beach International Ltd.

Korean CEO found hanged in Binh Duong

51- year-old So Joon Kwak, Director of O.L Plastic Vietnam Ltd. in the southern province of Binh Duong was found hanged Saturday morning.

About 8 am, not seeing him at the office, So’s Korean colleagues went to his rented house in 1A Area, An Phu Ward, Thuan An Commune, Binh Duong.

So was found hanged from the door.

So had been working as the director of the plastic producer for the past 5 years. His employees said he was a cheerful and friendly person.

A month ago, his wife and two children from Korea visited him in Binh Duong.

Yesterday afternoon, staff from the Korean Consulate in HCMC was present at the scene to take So’s body back to Korea.

Police initially said he committed suicide.

They are investigating.

Mistake to license mushrooming private colleges

Vietnam has made a mistake by relentlessly licensing universities and junior colleges that are wholly funded just by the private sector, according to Prof. Dr. Tran Hong Quan, former Minister of Education and Training.

Currently chairman of the association of non-public universities and junior colleges, Quan told a conference on the socialization of education and mechanism reform at higher education level that it is unfair that private school students have to incur tuition fees on their own.

He wondered why the government has not provided funds for such private educational institutions to improve the quality and suggested it should construct schools and authorize the private sector to manage and administer them.

Similarly, public schools should be allowed to raise money from the private sector to upgrade their own facilities, Quan added, hinting the country should think of a quality privately-owned lab or even a privately-run faculty inside a public university in the future.

Many also argued that the socialization of education has been abused and wrongly implemented.

Pham Thi Ly, of Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City, said the socialization should not merely take the form of mobilizing funds from society as is currently understood but should also include a variety of other contributions from the whole community.

Sourcing finance from society is just part of the socialization process, reiterated Nguyen Huu Lam, of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics. Lam proposed focusing on other channels like human resources.

Further investments need to be directed towards higher education, many delegates said, citing public funds, tuition, and aids from businesses and sponsors as major sources.

Man arrested for alleged murder and arson

After two months of investigation, Binh Dinh police have seized a local man on suspicion of killing two people and then set fire to their house to destroy evidence of the crime.

Yesterday evening central Binh Dinh province’s Tuy Phuoc district police arrested Nguyen Van Loi, 57, the suspect in the murder of a woman and her daughter.

On the evening of January 14, 2011, a violent fire broke out at the house of Do Thi Thin, 47, in Ky Son hamlet, Phuoc Son commune, Tuy Phuoc district.

Tens of locals used three water pumps to put out the fire but they failed to save Thin and her daughter, Truong Ngoc Doan Tram, 6, who could not escape from the burning house.

The fire burned down the house and at that time many locals thought it was caused by a short circuit.

Loi resides at the same hamlet as Thin.

The police are speeding up their investigation to shed light on the serious case.

Power economizers to be awarded $10

Electricity of Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh (EVN HCM) will award VND 200,000 (US$ 9.6) and a certificate to any household that can cut off more than 10% of electricity consumption in this April, May and June compared to last year’s.

The campaign is mounting amidst a 15.28 percent increase in electricity price taking effect since this March 1.

Those that save the most can get VND 500,000 (US$ 24) of incentive from the state-owned energy group.

Total amount of these financial awards fetches up to VND 2 billion (US$ 96,000) which will be given away in the coming July.

According to EVN HCM, if households can reduce electricity consumption by 10 percent, the city will not have to suffer from power blackouts.

Also, low income families will enjoy a preferential rate under the new price scheme.

Specifically, households certified as poor according to national standards which use less than 50 kWh a month will have to pay VND 993 per kWh (VAT not included) in stead of a usual VND 1,242 per kWh in their first 100 kWh.

To be illegible for the program, low income households have to register with their electricity providers before March 31.