HCM City plans to slow mother-child HIV transmissions

The rate of mother-to-child HIV transmission will be cut from 4.5 per cent now to 3 per cent by 2015, the HCM City AIDS Committee said.

To achieve this, the city will continue to collaborate with international organisations for interventional work to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child.

Five intensive training courses will be held each year for obstetricians in the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission.

The AIDS Committee will continue to work with preventive medicine centres to ensure at least 96 per cent of pregnant women receive counselling on the benefits on HIV testing during pregnancy.

Besides, 90 per cent of pregnant women with HIV will be treated early and 75 per cent of babies with HIV will get preventive treatment after birth.

The AIDS Committee will step up propaganda through the media to improve awareness of HIV/AIDS prevention.

HIV testing and counselling centres will be set up at cultural houses around the city in collaboration with the Communist Youth Union and university students associations.

They will also be set up at public and private hospitals.

Mobile centres will visit industrial and export processing zones as well and bus stations in districts that lack HIV counselling and testing establishments, including Nha Be, Can Gio, Cu Chi, 11, and Tan Phu.

The city is home to 16,187 people with HIV/AIDS many of whom receive treatment at its four methadone-substitution centres for drug addicts.

In the first nine months of this year 3,099 people were diagnosed with HIV, a decrease of 985 from the same period last year.

In the same period the number of people with AIDS also fell to 707 from 983.

Seized fishermen back home for Tet 

Indonesia is considering releasing 126 Vietnamese fishermen who had been seized by the country's authorities for violating its territorial waters, Indonesian ambassador Pitono Purnomo said on Thursday.

The ambassador said that currently, the country was holding the crew of 33 ships, all of whom would be set free before Viet Nam's Lunar New Year Festival so that they could be re-united with their families.

Indonesia had treated the fishermen well and would enable them to return home to enjoy Tet with their families, Purnomo said.

Chu Tien Vinh, head of the Bureau of Aquatic Resources Exploitation and Protection under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the Vietnamese side fund the cost of the returning fishermen's airline tickets.

The fishermen were seized after choosing to either deliberately fish or had accidentally strayed into Indonesian territorial waters, he said.

The Vietnamese side had requested a list of the detained fishermen from Indonesian authorities, Vinh added.

Four Vietnamese hotels in world’s top 

In the January, 2011 edition of US Travel plus Leisure Magazine, four Vietnamese hotels were listed in world’s 500 leading hotels.

According to list, in Vietnam, the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi comes first with 90.89 points, followed by the Caravelle, the Park Hyatt Sai Gon (HCM City) and the Hilton Opera (Hanoi).

The annual selection, called T plus L 500, is considered the most prestigious in the tourism sector.

This year’s selection attracted more than 973,000 online readers.

Fundraising for the poor

More than VND6,574 billion has been raised for the Fund for the Poor in a programme “Joining hands in a Great Circle” this year.

The figure was announced at a press briefing in Hanoi on December 24 by the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee.

Le Ba Trinh, VFF Vice Chairman, said that this year the “Day for the Poor” campaign has received great attention from the Party, Government, VFF, and people at home and abroad.

According to the Mobilising Board for “Day for the Poor” campaign, from January 1 to December 23, 2010, 63 provinces and cities have registered to take part in “Joining hands in a Great Circle” programme with the capital of nearly VND1,230 billion. They have so far raised VND3,199 billion, which is already to 160 percent of the target sum.

The “Fund for the Poor” and other social welfare programmes in the “Joining hands in a Great Circle” programme on December 31, 2009 raised VND6,574 billion, much more than the registered capital of VND4,919 billion.

With money from the fund and the Government support, 85,404 houses have been built and repaired for the poor in 2010, bringing the total number of houses for the poor to 1,051,973 since launching the campaign 10 years ago.

Trinh also announced that the “Joining hands in a Great Circle” programme will be broadcast live on VTV1 (Hanoi) and HTV9 (Ho Chi Minh City) on December 31, 2010 from 8pm to 10pm.

Present at the event will be Party, State, Government, VFF leaders, businesspeople, representatives of non-governmental organisations, international organisations, embassies as well as Vietnamese people from both within the country and from overseas.

Many valuable items will be auctioned at the programme to raise funds for the poor. Among these will be a thousand-year Thang Long drum with the engraving of 100 dragons from the Ly Dynasty, three ritual bells, a couple of lions made of special wood and a gemstone cup “For the Poor”.

Booming VN telecom sector earns trillions

The telecom sector is expected to earn revenue of VND200 trillion (US$10 billion) in 2010.

The figure was released at a conference to review the implementation of the telecom and Internet development plan to 2010, in Hanoi on December 23.

Addressing the conference, Permanent Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Le Nam Thang affirmed that in the reviewed period, the telecom sector had a rapid development step, becoming a spearhead economic sector of the country with an average annual growth rate of 30-40 percent. Marked achievements - the modern telecom infrastructure system and higher competitiveness in the telecom market - helped narrow service gaps between regions.

The country has 162 million telephone subscribers or 189 telephones per 100 people, including 91 percent mobile phone users. The number of people using the Internet has hit 26 million or 31 percent of the country’s population.

At present, Vietnam has 11 network infrastructure enterprises and 81 Internet service providers. They are operating well in the domestic market and have begun to invest abroad. The military firm, Viettel, has invested in Cambodia, Laos , Myanmar , Haiti and Mozambique, while the National Post and Telecom Group (VNPT) has opened a representative office in the US.

Vietnam acts to overcome UXO consequences

The State Steering Committee on the National Mine Action Plan (or Steering Committee 504) has been set up following the Prime Minister’s decision.

Under the decision, the committee is assigned to study and propose measures, plans and actions to mobilize domestic and international resources, and promptly overcome the consequences of mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) left by the war.

The committee will also draft proposals on participation in mine clearance abroad, in accordance with agreements signed with other countries. The committee, together with the Government, will build plans and carry out the National Mine Action Plan.

Vietnam is among 70 countries most contaminated by bombs and mines, and is the most seriously affected nation in the world, said a report of the General Political Department of the Vietnam People’s Army at an art exchange programme in response to World Day of Bomb and Mine Prevention in early April in Hanoi.

The volume of mines and UXO left by the war is estimated at 800,000 tonnes, contaminating over 20 percent of the countryside. Since 1975, mines and UXO have claimed more than 40,000 lives and left about 60,000 injured, mostly rural workers and children.

Cold front freezes northern region 

Temperature in the northern mountainous region will drop to 7-9 degrees Celsius on Sunday. It might even fall to 0 degree, causing ice and snow in places including Sa Pa in Lao Cai Province, Mau Son in Lang Son, Sin Ho in Lai Chau and Moc Chau in Son La.

Ice and snow occur at the top of Mau Son Mountain in the northern province of Lang Son in a recent cold spell. The severe weather conditions are forecast to repeat itself on December 26, as a new cold front moves into northern Vietnam.

According to the National Hydro Meteorological Forecasting Center, the northerly cold front on Saturday began covering some areas in the north. This eventually spread to the entire region, decreasing the common temperature to 12-14 degree Celsius.

After blanketing the north, the cold weather will move to the central area causing medium to heavy rains and strong winds at sea.

The Gulf of Tonkin and the waters off the central coast are set to see strong northeasterly winds at level 7 (50-61 kilometer an hour).

Northern and central parts of the East Sea, including the Hoang Sa (Paracel) Islands, will see gusts up to level 10 (89-102 kilometers an hour). The sea will be very rough and there is a chance of tornadoes.

After crossing the Hai Van mountain pass, the cold front will approach the southern region. In Ho Chi Minh City and southeastern provinces, temperatures will decrease to 18-20 degrees, with the chance of thick fog.

Yesterday afternoon, the Central Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Prevention met to discuss measures to cope with the cold front.

The committee ordered local authorities from Quang Ninh to Ninh Thuan provinces, to assist any boat that might get trouble, because of the strong northeasterly winds.

In related news, tourists have flocked to the northern mountainous region to see the arrival of snow.

Tang Van Toan, director of the Vietravel Company said the number of visitors coming to Sa Pa for Christmas has increased by over 30 percent over the same period last year.

Laos to preserve Ho Chi Minh Trail 

Laos will preserve a section of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in its territory as part of its project to upgrade Highway 15 linking Lao southern province of Saravan to Vietnam. 

Bouachanh Ouansavanh, director of the project said that the 147 km highway worth over 58 million USD is expected to finish by 2012.

Once completed, the route would help Saravan province reduce poverty, boost trade with Vietnam’s central region and improve living conditions of local people, especially in the districts of Toumlane, Taoy and Samuoy.

Ouansavanh affirmed that the Ho Chi Minh trail would be preserved as a historical relic of the Indochina war in Laos and a symbol of the special Vietnam-Laos ties.

Running through the southern region of Laos, the Ho Chi Minh Trail served as a route to supply food and weapons from the northern to the southern regions of Vietnam during the war against the United States.

Inspectors to destroy satay with unclear origin 

All Chinese satay or ‘hotpot species’ that have an unclear origin will be collected and destroyed, said the director of the Department of the Food Hygiene and Safety Nguyen Cong Khan on Thursday.

The decision came following revelations made by the Chinese media, who stated that their satay might contain a toxic cancer-causing substance.

In addition, the Ministry of Health is to set up 12 investigating agencies to examine food hygiene and safety around the country. The agencies would focus on businesses that produce, process, trade and import food and species.

The Department of Food Safety and Hygiene has recommended residents to use foods and species that origins are clear. If any person is in doubt about the origins of the species they are buying, they should report this to the authorized organizations.

PV