Flash flooding kills 1, injures 6 in Ha Giang

One person was killed, seven were injured or missing and more than 10,000 households remained isolated due to the heavy rains and a sudden flash flood in Bac Me District of northern mountain Ha Giang Province last Friday and Saturday.

The flood seriously damaged 42 houses, seven of which were swept away, and destroyed hundreds of hectares of rice and farm produce of local ethnic and minority people.

Two communes of Lac Nong and Giap Trung were isolated due to the Na Phia suspension bridge in Yen Phu town being totally washed away by the flood.

Traffic in the national roads 34 and 4C and Minh Ngoc – Mau Due 34 route of Ha Giang Province was seriously tied-up due to a landslide and overflow of mud until Sunday morning.

The Bac Me District People's Committee Deputy Chairman, Dang Van Thuy, said that the province had mobilised rescue forces to search for missing people and repair flood problems.

Six injured people are currently in recovery and rescue teams are searching for the missing person in Giap Trung Commune, according to Thuy.

The province's hydro-meteorological forecasting centre said that the water level of the Gam River was still high at 17.8 metres on Sunday morning.

Belgium, Vietnam cooperate in tourism training

The Belgian Universite libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and Hanoi University have signed a cooperation agreement on joint training in tourism administration.

A signing ceremony was held in Brussels on June 22 with ULB rector, Didier Viviers, and Hanoi University rector Nguyen Dinh Luan as signatories to the document.

The agreement is one of the cooperation projects between Hanoi University and ULB that have been implemented over the past three years, said Luan.

This is the first time the two schools will cooperate in training high-quality human resources for the Vietnamese tourism industry.
The joint training will take place in Hanoi over one year and involve lecturers from both universities. All teaching, presentations and examinations will be conducted in English.

The graduates from these courses will receive MA degrees in tourism with the logos of both universities and the signatures of their respective rectors.

The first course is scheduled to begin in September 2013.

Teenagers in walk to promote traffic safety

More than 400 members of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union and teenagers last Saturday took part in a walk along roads in HCM City's District 10 to raise public awareness of traffic safety.

The walk was part of the Traffic Safety Fair 2012, jointly organised by the district's Traffic Safety Board and Liberty Insurance Limited.

The fair featured various activities, including a traffic law awareness and safe driving contest, a photo exhibition and a propaganda poster drawing contest.

HCM City calls for foreign investment in transport projects

Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is finalizing a list of 14 key infrastructure projects suitable for foreign investment, worth billions of US dollars.

The projects will transform the city into a modern transport hub and will include the city’s first electric tram route, its second and third monorail track, the development of its urban railway (Line No 6), three new elevated railway tracks and the expansion of National Highway 22.

Foreign investors will be collated between 2011 and 2015.

Those interested will be invited to invest in two different models: BOT (build-operate-transfer) or PPP (public-private partnership).
It is estimated that the development of the city’s traffic infrastructure requires a total investment of VND46.8 trillion by the year 2012.

The southern hub is attempting to mobilize capital from various sources independent of the State budget.

Work starts on school for coastal students

Ground breaking for construction of the nearly VND33 billion (US$1.57 million) Nam Yen Secondary School started last Saturday in An Bien District of southern Kien Giang Province.

The 32,000-sq.m school that was funded by VinGroup and the Viet Nam Investment and Development Bank, will include 30 study rooms, practical training rooms, canteens, playing and sport grounds, and a parking area.

The school will benefit more than 700 students across the district's coastal communes of Nam Yen, Nam Thai, Nam Thai A and Tay Yen.

Vietnam helps upgrade finance college in Laos

A groundbreaking ceremony for a project to expand and improve the Northern Lao Finance College in Luang Prabang, Laos, was held on June 24 in the presence of representatives from the Vietnamese and Lao Ministries of Finance.

Vietnam is providing more than VND21 billion for the VND22 billion project and Laos will contribute the rest.

Once completed, the project will accommodate nearly 300 students and offer better working conditions for teachers.

The college aims to provide high quality human resources for Luang Prabang and provinces in northern Laos.

This is a key project in the 2011-2015 cooperation program between the two Finance Ministries.

Blue-ear disease has two new outbreaks

Two more cities confirmed outbreaks of blue-ear pig disease, raising the number of total infected localities to ten, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's Department of Animal Health has said.

Ha Noi and southern Binh Duong were the two newly-infected cities. More than 200 infected pigs were found infected in five communes of Ha Noi and up to 400 others were in four communes of Binh Duong.

Local authorities have implemented measures such as culling animals infected with the disease and vaccinating the rest.

VNN/VOV/VNS