CCIFV holds press briefing on job fair

Photo: VOV
A press briefing on recruiting workers for businesses was held by the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Vietnam (CCIFV) on November 23 in Hanoi. 

CCIFV representative Muller raised the question of how to employ skilled workers. The unstable labour market, low salaries and weak personnel management are big problems for all businesses, he said. 

Job fairs create opportunities for enterprise leaders and personnel managers to meet and hire skilled workers, and job candidates can approach talk with potential employers to find the best job for their professional skills and qualifications. 

This year’s event will take place on November 27 at the Cultural Friendship Palace in Hanoi.


Hospitals to open rural branches

Instead of relocating hospitals from the centre of Ha Noi, new branches should be opened in rural areas, said Minister of Health Nguyen Quoc Trieu during a National Assembly question and answer session yesterday, Nov 22.

Trieu was responding to the concerns of National Assembly Deputy Nguyen Lan Dung, about whether relocating overcrowded hospitals was a wise decision, due to the dense population of the capital.

Minister Trieu said that as previously stated in a ministry publication, it only planned on opening new branches of existing hospitals.

"Instead of opening brand new hospitals, we'd rather expand well known hospitals because when it comes to healthcare services, reputations are important," he said.

Trieu said that good reputations were one of the main reasons hospitals in the city had become overcrowded, because patients trusted the standard of healthcare they would receive at them.

It was reported that everyday, 6,000 patients still had to share hospital beds in the capital, often in large hospitals.

Viet Nam National Cancer Hospital, located in the centre of Ha Noi, was the first major hospital to open a new facility in Thanh Tri District to the south of Ha Noi, with a capacity of 1,000 beds.


Overseas Vietnamese stars raise public awareness of traffic safety

Movie star Kathy Uyen and Australian Idol Thanh Bui were chosen as Goodwill Ambassadors for the public awareness campaign launched by the Asia Injury Prevention Foundation (AIP Foundation) in coordination with the HCM City Traffic Safety Committee.

For the first time, Vietnam has joined the event together with more than 100 other nations to remember road accident victims and share the suffering of the injured. The event also helps raise public awareness of road accident deaths and injuries in hopes preventing more road injuries and fatalities.

In 1993, the Road Peace initiated the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Accident Victims and on 27 October, 2005, the United Nations endorsed it as a global day to be observed on the third Sunday in November every year. This year’s event was celebrated on Sunday 21, November. 

Kathy Uyen and Thanh Bui will be involved in many activities including visiting road accident victims, meeting with government officials to come up with solutions to prevent road accidents, and raising public awareness of traffic safety via the mass media.


Vietnam strives to prevent drink-driving

The National Traffic Safety Committee and the International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP) jointly held a seminar on preventing alcohol abuse on November 23.

Addressing the seminar, which is aimed at devising measures to control drinking while driving, ICAP Vice Chairman Brett  Bivans highlighted the roles of Vietnam’s ministries and relevant agencies’ in proposing measures to prevent alcohol abuse and respond to the global initiative to combat drink-driving.

Under the programme, ministries, agencies and producers of alcoholic beverages are asked to work together to prevent drink-driving and reduce traffic accidents.

The action plan, which has so far been implemented in 18 low- and average-income countries including Vietnam, focuses on three major issues: reducing drink-driving, taking responsibility for advertising and marketing alcoholic drinks, and controlling home-brewed alcoholic drinks.


Local leaders fail to cope with prolonged floods in coastal province

Three weeks of flooding has caused huge economic losses and chaos in coastal villages in south central Phu Yen Province leaving local leaders at a loss as to how to deal with the sheer scale of the disaster, the like of which has never been seen before.

"Prolonged heavy rains and sea tides have raised the level of underground water, turning the lower ground into massive water containers," said deputy chairman of Hoa Hiep Bac Commune People's Committee Tran Minh Tien.

"Water from underground veins has risen, flooding houses, roads and crops," he added.

He said local leaders didn't know how to cope with the natural disaster, hoping the flooding would subside naturally while healthcare centres remained alert for the potential outbreak of diseases.

Meanwhile, the local husbandry industry has been hit hard.

"The province's leading commune in husbandry, Hoa Hiep Bac, has lost about 15,000 birds in the floods," said Tien.

Local residents are also living in a badly polluted environment, with power cables dangerously close to the water level.


Hail, tornado cause significant damage

The 20-minute-long hail storm on Sunday evening in Central Highland Dak Nong Province's Dak Song District damaged dozen of houses and hundreds of hectares of coffee.

Last Saturday, a tornado occurred in Dak R'ap District damaging 11 houses, 4 hectares of pepper and injured Phan Boi Chau high school student Nguyen Minh Nguyet.


Book on Uncle Ho featured in Germany

A book entitled “Ho Chi Minh – A Chronicle” has been presented to German readers by its author, journalist Hellmut Kapfenberger, in Berlin.

This was the fourth time the book has been brought to the atttention of German readers since it was first published in 2009 by the Neues Leben Publishing House.

The event was jointly held by cadres who had worked at the Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and Solidarity Service International (SODI).

At the event, the author summarised the biography of President Ho Chi Minh and read two chapters of the book.
He said that he had tried to complete the book on the 119th anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh’s birthday and presented it to the German public before it was translated into Vietnamese and published in Hanoi on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of the former President’s birthday.
Journalist Hellmut Kapfenberger lived and worked in Vietnam as a correspondent of the Eastern German news agency ADN and New Germany newspaper during 1970-73 and 1980-84.
With deep sentiments and respect towards President Ho Chi Minh he had collected documents and articles as well as met with Vietnamese Party and State leaders and people to study about Uncle Ho with a desire to write a book on the Vietnamese celebrity.


Vietnam hosts 10th Asia endoscopic surgery meeting

Almost 1,500 leading Vietnamese and foreign specialists from 36 nations and territories will attend the 10th meeting of Endoscopic and Laparoscopic Surgeons of Asia (ELSA 2010 Vietnam) scheduled to be held in Hanoi from November 24-27.

ELSA Vice President and Secretary General Asso. Prof. Tran Binh Giang said that the participants will introduce the latest applications of endoscopic and laparoscopic techniques, including robotic, thoracic and bariatric surgery and gastric and pancreatic resection.

ELSA holds an annual conference in rotation with member countries. The Vietnam Association of Endolaparoscopic Surgeons (VAES) was set up in Hanoi in 2006 with more than 800 endoscopic experts in gastroenterology, thorax, urology, gynaecology and paediatrics. VAES will host its third congress in conjunction with ELSA 2010.


HIV/AIDS seen through a museum prism

The danger of HIV/AIDS has been viewed for the first time at an exhibition that opened at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology (VME) in Hanoi on November 22.

The event, co-organized by VEM and the Centre for Public Health Research, marks the 20th anniversary of the first case of HIV/AIDS reported in Vietnam.

In the language of the museum, through documents and objects, the exhibition aims to raise social awareness and concern about HIV/AIDS and related issues.

It opens up opportunities for people living with HIV/AIDS and other insiders, including healthcare staff, media, managers, religious organizations and scientists, to exchange experience and specialist knowledge.

The event is also a chance to review the great efforts of the public, people living with HIV/AIDS, government and the entire society in coping with the disease over the past 20 years.

A number of activities will be held such as direct talks or recorded interviews with HIV/AIDS infected people to make visitors, especially young people, better aware of the deadly disease.


VNN/VOV/VNS