RoK television supports Vietnamese AO victims

The Republic of Korea’s MBC Television wants to support Agent Orange (AO) victims in Vietnam, MBC General Director Kim Jae Cheul said.

The MBC leader affirmed this willingness while working with the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange /dioxin (VAVA) in Hanoi on October 26.

MBC will bear all expenses for 80 Vietnamese AO victims to come to the RoK for medical check-ups in June 2012, he said, adding that during this trip, the Vietnamese AO victims will meet with Koreans who share the same plight, to exchange experience in overcoming difficulties in their life.

From 2013, MBC will annually invite top doctors and health experts from large RoK hospitals to provide medical check-ups and treatment for AO victims in Vietnam.

The television channel plans to make a TV programme on Vietnamese and Korean AO victims to seek more support for them.

The same day, the MBC delegation visited the Friendship Village where Vietnamese AO victims are provided with care, treatment and vocational training.

According to VAVA, nearly 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to AO, of whom around 3 million suffer from health problems.

Partners of HIV people ‘seem forgotten'

Partners of HIV-positive people who do not have the disease need more support and attention, according to a workshop held in Ha Noi yesterday.

The workshop, funded by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) through the Community Advocacy Initiatives Project Vietnam, aims to raise awareness on issues faced by sero-discordant couples – where one partner is HIV-positive and the other is HIV-negative.

The majority of HIV-negative partners in these couples are women, and most are faced with many health care problems and are vulnerable to infection.

"We have many concerns that need counselling and support, but there is a lack of enabling policies and services to help us," said Do Thanh Hoang, leader of a self-help group of HIV-negative partners in Quang Ninh. The group was formed in February this year in a bid to fill the void in support organisations for these types of people.

Hoang said the group's members gathered to share experiences and raise awareness about ways to protect their health, but the group did not receive much attention from other organisations or the authorities.

While people living with HIV seemed to receive more and more attention from society in recent years, their sex partners appeared to be forgotten and did not have a strong voice of their own, said Khuat Thi Hai Oanh, director of the Centre for Supporting Community Development Initiatives.

According to a study conducted by the Institute for Social Development Studies and the Vietnam Civil Society Partnership Platform on AIDS in 2009, among 1,300 males living with HIV who took part in the survey, nearly 50 per cent were living with a HIV-negative partner.

Another survey of 307 HIV-negative partners of people living with HIV conducted by the Centre for Supporting Community Development Initiatives found that 90 per cent of these HIV-negative partners were women. Out of all survey respondents, only 18 per cent said they were informed of their partner's HIV status before making the decision to commit to the relationship.

The majority of them did not make the choice to have a positive partner, but decided to stick with their partner because of a strong emotional attachment. Some of the HIV-positive partners were not aware of their own status before the relationship started and some became infected while they were already living together with their partners.

According to Hai Oanh from the Centre for Supporting Community Development Initiatives, the nature of a sero-discordant couple's relationship is complicated. The biggest problems faced by these couples are complications in being able to have HIV-negative children and challenges to leading a normal sexual relationship.

"They have huge unsatisfied needs for information on ways to prevent HIV transmission, along with a lack of access to risk-minimised contraception and counselling on their relationships," said Oanh.

She said a lack of proper counselling led to some couples relying on measures to reduce the risk of HIV transmission that were not really effective.

According to Chris Fontaine, Partnerships Adviser of UNAIDS Vietnam, there was growing evidence that most HIV-positivBe women were infected by their intimate partners.

Vietnamese women, Fontaine said, were widely perceived as being responsible for contraception, but many had a limited say on reproductive issues in their relationships.

Some women, however, hesitate taking a HIV test and have to be persuaded to go to a hospital for a test.

"We are very emotionally vulnerable and have this constant fear of being infected, which makes us avoid doing the test," said Pham Thuy Linh, leader of a self-help group of HIV-negative sex partners in Ha Noi.

Both negative sex partners and researchers at the workshop called for more attention from the government and society on HIV-negative partners.

"It is the health sector's responsibility to take care of those vulnerable women and ensure their safety and happiness," said Oanh.

Gov't workers get aid for home loans

The HCM City Housing Development Fund is continuing to provide soft loans to Government workers for buying houses.

It provides up to 70 per cent of the value of a house, but not exceeding VND400 million (US$19,000), for up to 15 years at 9 per cent. The rate will be periodically fixed by the city People's Committee.

The fund has disbursed more than VND226 billion ($10.78 million) to 817 people since the programme began a few years ago.

It has also lent to developers of low-income, social, and resettlement housing and worker and student accommodation in the city at a maximum interest rate of 16.4 per cent for up to three years.

The Ha Noi People's Committee yesterday set aside VND94.5 billion (US$4.5 million) to build houses for 3,780 poor families.

They include households who are defined as poor based on the city's new poverty standard and are living in rundown or seriously damaged accommodation they cannot afford to repair.

This raises the question: Will the committee pay to repair the house instead of building a new house. Last year they repaired some houses

Under the standards, poor households have an average income of less than VND750,000 ($36) per person per month in urban areas and VND550,000 ($26) in rural areas.

The money will be sourced from the city budget and fund for the poor.

The committee expects the houses to be built by the end of next year.

During 2009-10, the city built and repaired nearly 7,500 houses for poor households costing more than VND257 billion ($12.3 million).

ILO country director receives local honour

The Viet Nam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL) hosted a ceremony in Ha Noi yesterday to confer the "For the Cause of Trade Union" insignia on Rie Vejs Kjeldgaard, director of the ILO Country Office for Viet Nam.

It is the highest award the VGCL bestows on individuals.

Kjeldgaard, who comes from Denmark, will finish her tenure in Viet Nam next month to become Special Initiative Co-ordinator for Knowledge Management at the Geneva-based ILO headquarters.

Dead girl’s mother demands action against doctor

The Ben Tre Province police are considering a complaint by a local woman against a doctor saying she had caused her daughter’s death earlier this month by being negligent.

Nguyen Thi Thuy of Giong Trom District had filed a complaint against Dr Truong Thi Dung of the Nguyen Dinh Chieu General Hospital saying she had given 17-year-old Vo Nhu Hao a shot though she had told her another doctor had warned against giving Hao any shots, the police said.

They are waiting for the autopsy result to make a decision, they said.

Dung and nurse Nguyen Thi Mai had been suspended for causing Hao’s death, Ngo Van Tan, director of the provincial Department of Health, said.

The two had admitted to their wrongdoings and were prepared to accept any punishment, the hospital said.

Dung and hospital representatives had visited Hao’s family and apologized, the department said.

On October 5 Hao was hospitalized with breathing difficulty and fatigue, and Thuy had to implore Dung twice before she even examined her.

Nguyen Thi Thuy gives incense to her deceased daughter Vo Nhu Hao, who died after being injected with Calcifore at the Nguyen Dinh Chieu General Hospital in Ben Tre Province (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

“Just hypocalcaemia, so no problem,” she had said but Hao remained in critical condition.
Thuy pleaded with Dung to again examine Hao, but she refused. Thuy carried her daughter on her back to Dung’s office, begging her to save her daughter.

When Mai was about to give the girl a shot of calcifore on Dung’s orders, Thuy told her that a doctor at another clinic had warned that Hao should not be given any injection in her current condition.

But Mai ignored this and shouted at her, “It is we who will decide what to do.”

Soon after getting the shot, Hao died.

Hand, foot and mouth not a pandemic: ministry

The number of children contracting hand, foot and mouth disease has risen to nearly 78,000 and the death toll to 137, but the Ministry of Health has yet to designate it as a national pandemic since it “remained under control.”

At a press conference Tuesday, Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said many other countries, like China, South Korea, and Japan too had been affected by the disease but none of them had announced a national pandemic.

Vietnam’s incidence rate was only 1 per 1,000 people, while in Japan and Singapore the rates are 2.5 and 3, she pointed out.

The disease had peaked and was likely to taper off in the following weeks if efforts to control it were strengthened, she said.

The worst-affected localities like Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai Province were now seeing the numbers of new patients fall, the Preventive Health Department said.

Last week there had been around 2,900 new cases in the country, 400 higher than a week earlier, but mainly in newly affected localities, the department said.

“We have thus brought the disease under control, but we need to boost our efforts in newly affected areas to prevent its spread,” it added.

Tien urged the media and relevant agencies to educate people, especially women with children aged under five, about the disease and how to prevent it.

Besides keeping the environment clean, regular washing of hands was a key measure to prevent the disease, the ministry said.

The 137 children who had died of the disease comprised mostly of those aged less than three, the ministry reported.

Children aged three to five made up 16 percent, it said, adding male children accounted for 70 percent of all fatalities.

Apartments foist telecom services on residents

Residents living in Ho Chi Minh City apartments complain building managers do not allow them to choose their own telecom operators, an action that violates Vietnam’s telecom laws.

A resident living in SREC (Saigon Real Estate Company) apartment building in District 3, who did not want to be named, told Tuoi Tre that she and her neighbors are forced to use internet and other telecom services designated by the building management regardless of their quality.

Nguyen Anh Tuan, deputy director of Ho Chi Minh City’s Department of Information and Telecommunications, told Tuoi Tre that the law provides customers the right to choose and switch telecom service providers.

A similar situation occurs in many other areas in the city.

In the Hoa Lan residential area on Hoa Hong Street, Phu Nhuan District, and in some areas in District 5 households have no option but to use cable TV services provided by Saigon Tourist Cable Television (SCTV).

Tran Xuan, deputy director of Saigon Real Estate Company (RESCO), which owns SREC, said the building had been completed in 2003 when SCTV had been the only cable TV provider in the country.

But in 2007, after other operators had come into existence, the company had signed another contract with its services partner VTSG to provide SCTV as well as another cable TV service, HTVC, to residents, he claimed.

But a VTSG spokesperson told Tuoi Tre over phone that it provided telecom services only at RESCO’s request.

When asked why it did not offer HTVC cable service as stipulated in the 2007 contract, VTSG refused to answer, saying they it needed more time to review the contract.

34 charged for revengeful acts over girl’s death

The police in Nam Can District, Ca Mau Province, have indicted 34 people for causing public disorder, resisting law enforcement officers, and destroying public assets to revenge for 16-year-old Nguyen Thi Thu Huyen who died at a local hospital last June.

Colonel Le Thanh Son, head of the district police department, said yesterday that these people committed their crimes to veng anger against the doctors who were treating Huyen at Nam Can General Hospital.

Huyen died of a severe brain injury which the doctors had failed to diagnose.

On June 28, Huyen was hospitalized after her neighbors found her lying unconsciously on the street with bloodstains on her clothes and scratches on her body.

Her aunt, Nguyen Thi Phuc, who took care of her at the hospital, said the doctors in Nam Can asked the family to bring Huyen home after examining her.

“They said my niece’s health was normal, but we asked them to let her stay at the hospital, as she was still writhing in pain and was unable to speak,” Phuc said.

At midnight on June 28, as Huyen suddenly had difficulty breathing, Phuc took her to doctor Nguyen Huy Tu, who checked her conditions summarily and said she would be okay in the morning.

The house of Dr Tu was destroyed by angry mob after Huyen's death (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

Tu then went back to sleep and asked Phuc not to disturb him anymore.

Huyen died at 4 am on June 29.

To Van Mung, deputy director of Nam Can, admitted that Tu and his two nurses hadn’t performed adequate and appropriate medical checks on Huyen’s conditions and thus failed to diagnose her brain injury.

The team was later suspended by the provincial health department.

According to the Nam Can District People’s Committee, Huyen was raped by Le Minh Lo after going to a karaoke club with him and 4 other people on June 27.

The provincial police have arrested Lo and will charge him with rape.

Real estate agent arrested for swindling

The police in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 12 have arrested a woman for selling houses to hundreds of people and taking deposits from them without giving them ownership certificates.

55-year-old Do Thi Luan, a real estate trader in Hiep Thanh Ward, was arrested yesterday for swindling to appropriate assets, said the district police.

In 2008, Luan bought a large amount of land in the district and then built houses to sell at cheap prices to local residents.

After making documents related to the sales of the houses, Luan took the buyers to a local notary office for certification.

She then asked the buyers to pay a deposit of VND500 million – 1 billion (US$2,400-4,800) per house and promised to obtain house ownership certificates for them, but didn’t keep her promises.

Instead, Luan used the houses as mortgage for loans worth a total VND30 billion.

As she failed to repay the loans, her creditors forced her to hand them the mortgaged houses which she had sold to others.

Her swindling act was then exposed and her victims reported to the police and filed complaints to the district People’s Court.

According to some newspapers, the amount Luan has appropriated from her victims is about VND100 billion.

Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper cited a source as saying that a number of local officials and police officers in District 12 had also been involved in Luan’s real estate trading activities.

The case will thus be likely to be referred to the HCMC Police Department.

The district police are checking the legality of the houses built by Luan, making a list of the sold houses, and the exact figure of the amount she has swindled.

Taxi driver inexplicably attacked

Mai Linh taxi driver Vuong Chi Binh was chased by three young men on a bike when he was driving on Pham Van Bach Street in Ward 15, Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Binh district on Wednesday morning for no apparent reason.

Binh said he was crossing Ong Lo Bridge in Tan Binh District when 3 men riding a Mio bike without helmets followed.

After a while, they started to throw bricks they had carried with at his car.

Panicked, Binh drove around Tran Thai Tong, Nguyen Phuc Chu and then Pham Huy Ich streets then back to the bridge but the men kept tagging along and casting bricks fiercely.

He then ran into alley 343/1 on Pham Van Bach Street, got out of his car and ran away.

Unable to follow Binh, the men broke his taxi’s windows and mirrors.

Pham Duc Hanh, head of Mai Linh Taxi Group in Ward 15, Tan Binh District, said he immediately informed other drivers when he received Binh’s call for help.

“When we came to rescue Binh, they tried to stab into my thigh but failed,” Hanh said.

“Then they took an 80 cm log to hit me, making my ear bleed.”

After destroying the taxi, the men went to a beer shop called Th. in Tan Binh’s Ward 2.

Binh said he had no idea why the men attacked him.

3-floor house on fire, 1 killed

A big blast followed by a huge fire broke out from the second floor of a 3-storey house at 180 Binh Loi, Ward 13, in Ho Chi Minh City’s Binh Thanh District at 7am today morning, killing one and injuring another.

Neighbors tried but couldn’t break in to help the people who were sleeping inside.

According to witnesses, when the blaze had burned the whole second floor and spread to the third floor, a group of young men and women dashed out.

They soon caught a taxi and left the site.

3 trucks and 50 firemen arrived shortly after and put out the fire in 30 minutes. They also rescued 38-year-old Le Van Hieu, who had been hired to look after the house. Hieu was severely burned and hospitalized under serious conditions.

A body which had been burnt and deformed was also discovered.

Authorities are trying to find out the body’s identity.

The ward police are still blocking the site pending inspection from the city police’s criminal science office.
 
Fresh probe ordered in $6.8 mln theft case

A Dong Nai Province court has halted the trial of a Japanese former company executive and his lover for allegedly misappropriating $6.83 million from his company after the latter provided contradictory testimonies.

The Dong Nai Province People’s Court had yesterday begun the trial of Nishimura Setsuo, 56, former financial director of the province-based Sanyo Di Solutions Vietnam Co Ltd, and Duong Thi Thanh Nhan, 29, a local who once owned a bar in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1, for “abusing trust to appropriate assets.”

When the company discovered the money was missing, Setsuo and Nhan fled but the police caught up with them and arrested them.

The trial began despite the absence of some witnesses and the company representative, but the court ordered the case to be reinvestigated.

According to the indictment, between July 2008 and April 2009, Setsuo ordered an accountant to withdraw VND30.4 billion (US$1.45 million) from the company’s bank accounts.

Setsuo told the police he had given all the money to Nhan, with whom he had lived. He also gave her $530,000 he took from the company.

Nhan admitted to taking the VND30.4 billion and US$530,000 to open her bar despite knowing it had been taken illegally from the company by Setsuo. But she said she had returned VND11.9 billion to him.

The indictment thus made Nhan an accomplice in Setsuo’s alleged crime.

But in court Nhan claimed she had received only VND19.4 billion from her lover and had returned VND11.9 billion.

She confessed she had spent the money on her restaurant and on gambling during numerous trips abroad.

But Setsuo insisted: “I gave all the money directly to her or through her relatives. I did not use the money for any other purpose. I do not understand why she says so.”

Japanese-owned Sanyo Di Solutions Vietnam Co Ltd manufactures digital cameras and is located in the Bien Hoa II Industrial Park in Bien Hoa.

Blue-ear pig disease hits 5 provinces

Recent outbreaks of blue-ear disease among pigs in four southern and one central provinces have caused severe losses to farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development reported.

While the foot-and-mouth and avian flu diseases have been contained, blue-ear disease has spread rapidly in Long An, Tay Ninh, Soc Trang, and Tien Giang in the south and Quang Nam in the central region, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Diep Kinh Tan said at a meeting of the National Steering Board for Prevention and Control of Pandemic in Cattle and Poultry yesterday.

Long An is the worst hit, with 68 communes in nine of the province’s 14 districts affected and 7,000 pigs culled, Tan said.

In Quang Nam, the disease had broken out in Hoi An city and Dien Ban and Dai Loc Districts, local authorities reported.

Thousands of pigs had contracted it and 700 had died, they said.

Health authorities in Dien Ban have announced a pandemic.

The provincial Department of the Agriculture and Rural Development said it had bought 30,000 vaccines against the disease to distribute to affected areas.

Pork prices in Quang Nam had fallen by VND4,000-15,000 per kilogram, the department said.

Tan has ordered the Central Veterinary Drug Company to immediately provide 500,000 JXA1-R shots to the five provinces.

He ordered all relevant agencies in the affected provinces to tighten control over the disease to prevent its spread to other localities.

Viet Nam,Cambodia boost drug prevention

A co-operation agreement was signed yesterday between local officials of southern Tay Ninh Province and Cambodia's Kom Pong Cham and Svay Rieng provinces to strengthen the fight against drug trafficking over common borders in Tay Ninh Province.

The co-operation is expected to be valid until the end of 2012.

Southern Tay Ninh Province's police have arrested 25 drug traffickers and seized over 2,700 kilos of heroin since 2009 thanks to the co-operation between two countries' police.

Two new weigh stations to be built

Viet Nam Road Administration (VRA) will put into use two more weigh stations on National Highways 5 and 70 under the request of the Ministry of Transport.

According to VRA, on National Highway 5 (Ha Noi – Hai Phong Route), there are over 1,000 overloaded vehicles per day, accounting for 20 to 30 per cent of the total traffic volume on the road.

Vehicle overloading has also caused damage and downgrades on Highway 70 (Yen Bai – Lao Cai Route).

Flood-hit zones get 3,600 tonnes of rice

The Prime Minister has asked the Ministry of Finance to supply 3,600 tonnes of rice from the national reserves to aid flood-hit people in central Nghe An Province.

Continuous heavy rain in the province has recently caused flash floods in Con Cuong District and other mountainous districts, damaging agricultural production.

According to provincial statistics, as of September 15, floods killed six people, inundated nearly 2,000 houses, and nearly 26,900ha of rice and subsidiary crops.

Soft skills programme gets approval

A plan to build 10 centres for soft skills training and outdoor activities for youth nation-wide received the go-ahead by the Government yesterday.

Three pilot programmes will take place in northern Hoa Binh Province's Ky Son District, central Quang Nam's Tam Ky District and HCM City's Can Gio District.

More new private jets imported into Vietnam

Two batches of 4 small-sized aircrafts imported by a local business have arrived at Hai Phong port and are now waiting for customs clearance and tax payments, said the Hai Phong Customs Agency.

The agency said they had received the customs declarations of Hanh Tinh Xanh Co. Ltd. on the batches including two double-seated low-wing ATEC 321 FAETA aircrafts produced by the Czech Republic’s ATEC v.o.s. and two double-seated A600 TALON helicopters by the US’s Rotoway International.

The imported aircrafts would have to pay for the value-added and special consumption tariffs and their owners had to have aviation licenses and certificates, the agency said.

At least 2 millionaires in the finance and security sectors have made public their aircraft purchases.

Doan Nguyen Duc, Chairman of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Corporation and the richest stock investor in 2008 and 2009, was the first businessman to have a private jet in Vietnam, a $7.5 million Beechcraft King Air 350.

The other private jet owner is Tran Dinh Long, Chairman of Hoa Phat Corporation, who spent $5 million to buy an EC 135P2i helicopter last year.

Long was ranked the fourth richest domestic stock investors in 2009.Meanwhile, Do Quang Hien, Chairman of T&T Corporation, also told the media last year that he planned to buy a helicopter for his company.

Hien was ranked 48 out of the 100 richest stock investors in 2009.

In August helicopter dealership Vinacopter Vietnam also said it had received 6 orders for helicopters this year and would hand over the first of these by this year’s end.

Vietnam aims to ensure sustainable agricultural development

Vietnam is moving towards sustainable agricultural development with agricultural output increasing by 20 percent, CO2 emissions dropping by 20 percent, and poverty rates falling by 20 percent over each decade.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Cao Duc Phat, said this at a Plenary Meeting of the International Support Group entitled “Vietnam towards the New Vision in Agriculture”.

According to a report by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), Vietnam’s agricultural sector has seen significant development, with production value increasing by 5.5 percent annually, accounting for 3.7 percent of the GDP.
 
Although there has been a relative decline in the value agriculture, forestry and fishery activities have contributed to the overall GDP,  from 24.5 percent in 2000 to 20.58 percent in 2010, the nation’s food security is ensured with food supply per capita reaching 513 kilos and agricultural exports reaching US$ 19.5 billion in 2010.

Victoria Kwakwa, World Bank Country Director for Vietnam, highlighted Vietnam’s effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions. She urged the country to continue its innovation in agriculture by improving the role of the private sector and promoting public-private partnership.

She pledged to continue supporting the Vietnamese government in dealing with newly-emerging challenges for agriculture and developing environmentally-friendly agriculture to boost average local incomes.  

Participants in the meeting discussed issues for Vietnamese agriculture such as financial investment, sustainable agricultural development, as well as improving the competitiveness of some agricultural products.

They also emphasized the important contributions of the agricultural sector to social development and ecological preservation as the world becomes more modern and integrated.

Released Vietnamese fishermen return home safely

The Vietnamese Embassy in Indonesia, in coordination with relevant local agencies, on October 25 arranged for 27 Vietnamese fishermen to fly home safely.

The Vietnamese fishermen were arrested by Indonesian authorities while fishing in the vicinity of Indonesia’s Pontianak island.

They received an amnesty from Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s visit to Indonesia in mid-September.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono assigned Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries Fadel Muhammad to coordinate with the Vietnamese Embassy to complete necessary procedures to allow the fishermen to return home.

JICA helps Vietnam develop cooperatives model

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has pledged about US$3 million to put in place the second phase of a project to develop and modernize Vietnam’s agricultural cooperatives.

The commitment followed an agreement signed between JICA and the Department of Economic Cooperation and Rural Development under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Hanoi on October 26.

The project’s second phase will be carried out in five provinces, namely Thai Binh, Hoa Binh, Hai Duong, Binh Dinh and An Giang from 2012 to 2014. Each province will develop a model of agricultural cooperatives, which will then be applied to other regions around the country.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ho Xuan Hung, said that Vietnamese farmers are facing difficulties in agricultural production and consumption, explaining that traditional cooperatives often focus on agricultural production at the expense of crucial areas like processing and consumption. A newly-developed agricultural cooperative model will try to overcome these challenges by helping local farmers access modern production methods and technologies, he added.

Chief Representative of JICA Vietnam, Motonori Tsumo, said his agency wants to expand cooperative models following research results of the project’s first phase, which was implemented in Thai Binh and Hoa Binh provinces from March 2006 to September 2010.

Mr Tsumo elaborated that Japan has experience in developing multi-function cooperatives. The country is willing to assist Vietnam in building this model to raise local farmers’ incomes.

EADS Singapore helps Vietnam improve landslide forecast capacity

The EADS Innovation Works of Singapore (EADS IW), a division of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company has pledged to help Vietnam seek methods of biomass measurement and landslide forecast.

Dr. Doc Doan Minh Chung, Director of the Space Technology Institute under the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology says both sides will discuss possibilities for cooperation in this field in the near future.

As a member of the United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD), Vietnam will receive fundings based on results of biomass measurement which also helps its member countries earn revenues from carbon credit sales.

In addition, the two sides will hold a national contest to seek new storm early-warning technologies for fishermen. The activity is part of their efforts to raise young Vietnamese people’s awareness of these social issues.

PV