The Asian Development Bank (ADB)’s branch in Vietnam had a working session with the Hoa Binh provincial People’s Committee on August 24 to review the use of ADB funding in the province.         

The northern province of Hoa Binh currently has 19 projects in operation with total investment capital of over VND1 trillion, including VND850 billion sourced from ODA and more than VND220 billion from corresponding capital.

Since 1998, many projects have covered education and training, health care and traffic. In particular, a nearly VND30 billion project to supply fresh water to the districts of Kim Boi, Tan Lac and Lac Son has got off the ground, benefiting 61,000 households.

At the working session, the Hoa Binh authorities proposed that ADB focus on some projects to improve the quality of infrastructure facilities in Luong Son and Yen Thuy districts, which are estimated at a total cost of US$45-50 million.

Three killed, one survives with arm severed in northern homicide

A jewelry shop owner and two of his family members were killed at home in a gruesome murder in the northern province of Bac Giang on Wednesday.

Photo: VNN

Many slashes were identified on their bodies.

The other daughter, 9 year old Trinh Ngoc Bich, was found alive under a wardrobe with her right arm chop off and left one seriously stabbed.

She was admitted to a Hanoi hospital for emergency treatment.

Local police said all the gold and money put in a safe on the second floor were stolen while the shop window on the first floor was broken with some jewelry pieces for display still left behind.

Ngoc’s neighbors said the couple had run the shop on the first floor for over one year.

The gold shop is situated in a bustling street in Luc Nam District.

Bac Giang police are hurriedly searching for the victim(s). 

Policy dialogue focused on green growth

 “Green growth - Opportunities, challenges and options for Vietnam” were the main topic of a policy dialogue, which was held in Hanoi on August 24. 

The dialogue provided an overview of green growth and global development trends, global green cooperation trends and opportunities for Vietnam, Germany’s experience in building and implementing green growth strategy and the UN Environment Programme’s method of approach to the green economy. 

Dr. Vo Tri Thanh, Deputy Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management, pointed out a number of shortcomings regarding Vietnam’s sustainable development, such as the over-exploitation of natural resources for economic growth, out-of-date technology, environmental pollution and the community’s consumption acts and behaviour. 

To build a green economy, Director of the Institute of Strategy and Policy on Natural Resources and Environment Dr. Nguyen Van Tai said the economy should be restructured in a more environmentally-friendly direction by developing green economic sectors, environmental services and clean energy. 

He suggested that Vietnam should pour more investment in developing a number of spearhead economic sectors such as eco-tourism, regenerating natural forests and mangrove forests, and developing renewable energies and environmental services. 

The dialogue was co-organised by the Institute of Strategy and Policy on Natural Resources and Environment (ISPONRE) under the Vietnamese Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Hanns-Seidel Foundation of Germany.

Hanoi lady stops car, dances, extorts cash

A woman in Hanoi’s Hai Ba Trung district was spotted intercepting a car in broad daylight, after which she danced and counted numbers and only let go when she received some money.

The incident is said to happen at mid-noon Monday and was recorded and posted on YouTube.

In the video uploaded yesterday, Aug 24, the woman ran in front of a car that was passing by the busy corner of Goc De and Minh Khai alley, banged on it, rested her behind on the windscreen and started to play with her phone.

Not stopping at that, she suddenly danced and began to count to 100.

As the car blocked most of the narrow road, other bikes and cars honked but the woman persisted.

Eventually, the poor driver had to hand her some cash, probably a VND10,000 note (US 50 cents) so that his car could pass.

According to some YouTube users who claimed to be locals in her neighborhood, the woman has no signs of a mental disease.

Dong Nai authorities wary of hydropower projects

Dong Nai Province authorities have called for a careful study of the possible adverse impacts of two hydropower projects planned to be built on the Dong Nai River on four downstream provinces.

In a report on the impacts of the Dong Nai 6 and Dong Nai 6A, the province people committee said the government should order the builder, Duc Long Gia Lai Group Joint Stock Company, to carefully assess the impacts they could have on the social and economic development of Dak Nong, Binh Phuoc, Lam Dong, and Dong Nai.

Local residents’ opinions about the projects should also be considered while deciding whether they should be built, it said.

The projects will use 137 hectares of land belonging to the Cat Tien National Park, and this would affect Vietnam’s application for its recognition as a world natural heritage, the report added.

Last week the Vietnam River Network and the Union of Vietnam Technical and Scientific Associations said they would also ask the National Assembly to reject the hydropower projects on environmental grounds.

Dr Vu Ngoc Long, a representative of the Vietnam River Network and deputy director of the Tropical Biology Institute, told Tuoi Tre that the projects’ environmental impact assessment does not mention or only mentions insufficiently many important issues, including the impacts on the ecosystem, movement of fish, wildlife, river currents, and water saturation level.

According to Article 7 of the Law on Biological Diversity, except for defense and security works, all others are banned from being built in strictly protected areas like the Cat Tien National Park, he pointed out.

Vietnamese boy held by loan shark in Cambodia

A 15-year-old boy from Ho Chi Minh City, who went with his friends to Cambodia to gamble and lost all his money at a casino, was held captive there by a Vietnamese loan shark from whom he had borrowed US$1,500.

N.H.T. of Cu Chi District had to call his relatives in Vietnam and ask them to come with the money to Cambodia to repay the loan. He told them his captor was threatening to sell him.

He was released on August 23 and returned to Vietnam after his relatives repaid the loan.
T.’s family reported to the HCMC police, and T. told them that some friends of his had taken him to gamble.

The police have launched an investigation to find out if there is a ring luring students to Cambodia to gamble.

On August 9 a Vietnamese man, Do Thanh Cong, 34, fatally jumped off the fifth floor of a casino in the Cambodian province of Svay Rieng where he had been held captive after failing to repay a loan to a loan-shark ring.

The local police have since arrested members of the ring.

Vietnamese held in Cambodia for gambler’s death

Cambodian police Tuesday arrested Nguyen Thi Bich Lan, a member of the loan shark ring in Svay Rieng Province that allegedly caused the death of a Vietnamese gambler on August 9.

They concluded that the ring had detained some Vietnamese debtors, including Do Thanh Cong, and beaten them violently for failing to repay their debts after losing all their money gambling in a local casino.

Cong, 34, jumped off the fifth floor of the casino where he had been held after borrowing US$2,000 from the sharks.

He died instantly and the police said Lan confessed that her ring threw his body in a river. It was found two days later by locals who buried it in a pagoda.

Tung, another debtor who had been held with Cong, also jumped and broke his limbs, and was taken to hospital. Lao Dong newspaper quoted a source Monday as saying he died at the Svay Rieng General Hospital.

Besides Lan, a resident of Vietnam’s border province of Tay Ninh, the Svay Rieng police arrested some others who detained and beat Vietnamese debtors while waiting for their relatives to bring money to Cambodia to pay off their debts.

Lan has pleaded guilty to playing a role in detaining Cong.

Bui Thi Huong, Cong’s wife, arrived in Cambodia on August 21 and identified her husband from some photos taken at the pagoda before the burial.

Svay Rieng authorities helped her take her husband’s remains back to Vietnam.

IAEA helps train Vietnamese in nuclear power safety

Experts on nuclear power from Russia, Finland and Spain are helping Vietnamese officials develop an integrated control system and safety culture for the nuclear power programme.

The experts were sent by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has coordinated with the Atomic Energy Department and the Electricity Group of Vietnam in organising a three-day training course on the work, beginning on August 23.

They have introduced to the Vietnamese officials the requirements of the integrated control system and safety culture in the process of designing, constructing and operating nuclear power plants.

As coming from the countries with the developed nuclear power industry, the experts have also supplied the Vietnamese trainees with updated information on standards for environmental safety, security, human health, quality, economy and social responsibility when a nuclear power plant runs.

Justice reporter uses toy gun to threaten lender

Nguyen Tien An, a journalist of Cong Ly (Justice) newspaper in Hanoi, last Monday night asked his creditor Nguyen Minh Viet to delay the debt payment with… a toy guy.

According to police, An previously borrowed VND50 million (US$2,500) from Viet but did not return the money as promised. He then asked Viet to a café in Ba Dinh district to talk.

However, a fight broke out and An took out a gun and asked Viet to extend the debt payment.
Police arrived and found out An’s gun was just a toy.

Police are finding solutions to the case.

HCM City urges districts to speed up dyke construction

The HCM City government yesterday urged district-level authorities to speed up construction on dyke projects circling the city's suburban districts.

City's officials have said that land clearance was the main hurdle for the construction projects which started in 2008.

Tran Cong Ly, deputy head of the city's Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Prevention and Search and Rescue, said that construction progress was good, except that some projects faced land clearance issues with local city residents.

The city had no official policy about compensation of these residents for their land. They were persuaded to donate land for the public project to be built, Ly said.

So far, suburban districts including Thu Duc, Can Gio, Nha Be, Hoc Mon, Binh Tan, Go Vap and others, have put in use 246 of 260 dykes planned in 2008 and 2009.

The newly built 222-km dyke system protects 9,370 hectares of agricultural land and 15,500 households in the districts.

"The project has clearly proved that it is protecting these areas," Ly said. "In 2008, the tide peaked at 1.55 metres. One year after the construction was carried out, the tide peak was recorded at 1.56 metre. Last year, the number of areas that had been affected the worst were reduced to 11," Ly said.

Le Minh Tri, deputy head of HCM City's People's Committee, urged the local government and related agencies to speed up land clearance and construction, and noted that the remaining 14 projects should be completed this year.

"Dyke construction is a priority area," Tri said. "The city government has decided to cut public expenditures, as instructed under the Government's Resolution No.11. The budget for several public projects in the city have been cut, except dyke construction projects."

Flood prevention in suburban districts helps to protect agricultural production of more than 1.4 million farmers in the city.

"The quality of the projects is also a top priority," the deputy chairman told city officials.

Besides work completed in 2008 and 2009, early this year the city planned an additional 59 dyke works.

Seven of the 59 projects in Binh Thanh, Binh Tan, Thu Duc and Cu Chi districts, which protect 200 hectares of agricultural land and 750 households, have been completed and are in use.

In 2008, the city outlined a plan to build 519 dyke works, stretching 350 kilometres around the city's suburban districts.

2 tons of Chinese moon cake fillings seized

The Hanoi environmental police, the market management agency, and Tay Ho District police yesterday seized a large quantity of Chinese-made moon cake fillings without clear origins from a house in Thuy Ke Street.

Pham Quoc Thai, head of Market Management Team No.11, said Nguyen Huy Cuong from the northern Hai Duong Province was caught red-handed while unloading 2,000kg of fillings from a vehicle in front of the house.

Authorities had been keeping a watch on the car since it left the border province of Lang Son, he said.

Cuong confessed to buying the fillings to supply moon cake makers in Hanoi.

The raiding officials also seized 50,000 salted duck eggs, another moon cake ingredient, which lacked invoices, labels, or food safety certificates.

Newswire VnExpress said the house is the address of a well-know moon cake maker.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre