Hiring to decline as production slows

The recruitment demand in HCM City in August is forecast to drop by 20 per cent against July to 20,000 vacancies, according to a report released by the city Centre for Forecasting Manpower Needs and Labour Market Information.

The recruitment need for workers with college and vocational training degrees would account for half of the total employment demand in August, the monthly report showed.

Workers at Nha Be Garment Co in HCM City make products for export. Labour intensive industries in the city, including the textiles and garments, footwear and services sectors, reportedly saw a drop in the number of workers being hired due to a slowdown in business production last month. (Photo: VNS)

Tran Anh Tuan, deputy director of the centre, said the rising consumer price index (CPI) in July was the chief reason for a drop in demand, reflecting the slowdown of business production.

HCM City's CPI rose by 1.07 per cent in July, compared with the previous month, a year-on-year increase of 17.9 per cent, according to the city's Statistics Office.

In July, recruitment need declined in most sectors compared with each month in the second quarter of the year.

Labour-intensive industries such as textiles and garments, footwear, services and other industries, including electricity and electronics, engineering, construction, and auto and motorbikes, saw a drop of 60 per cent in the number of new employees against June.

The number of newly employed skilled workers for managerial, sales and marketing positions fell by 40 per cent against June.

‘Irresponsible’ newspaper ex-chief faces charges

A former newspaper boss has been prosecuted for allowing two subordinates – also indicted -- to embezzle money.
Phung Hien, 72, previously an editor-in-chief of Nguoi Cao Tuoi (The Elderly People) newspaper, has been charged with “irresponsibility causing serious consequences,” the Supreme People’s Procuracy said.
Hien is also a former deputy chairman of the Vietnamese Association for Elderly.
Tran Duc, a former deputy editor-in-chief, and Hoang Tuyet Oanh, a former cashier, face similar charges.
Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy, another former deputy editor-in-chief and chief accountant, and Nguyen Thi Hoang Ngan, an accountant, face embezzlement charges.
Between March 2004 and March 2007, Thuy and Ngan allegedly drew up false payment vouchers worth around VND380 million (US$18,500) to swindle money, and Hien signed off on them without bothering to check.
He also failed to oversee work to upgrade the newspaper’s head office, causing a loss of VND650 million to the treasury.

Poachers attack central forest rangers

Forest ranger Hoang Thanh Tam was assaulted and injured when interrogating poachers in the central province of Quang Binh's Quang Trach District on Friday.

District ranger station director Doan Van Ngai said the poachers in two lorries loaded with forestry products were stopped by rangers for routine checks.

However the poachers resisted and assaulted the rangers.

Tam, of Canh Hoa Commune, suffered an injured back and was taken to hospital for treatment.

Two days earlier, another ranger in Minh Hoa District of the same province was attacked by poachers. He also is being treated in hospital.

Motorbike-taxi driver alleges assault by cop

A motorbike-taxi driver in Nha Trang, has accused a police officer of assaulting him so violently that he had to be hospitalized.
At the Khanh Hoa General Hospital yesterday, Aug 1, Nguyen Truong Vu, 29, told Tuoi Tre that he has filed a complaint with competent agencies against Lieutenant Lang Thanh Dung of the city police.
In the complaint, he alleged that on July 26 he and another driver, Truong Tri Binh, 41, were looking for fares on Tran Phu Street when a group of men came on motorbikes and assaulted them.
The group, led by a man who called himself Dung “bear,” were not in police uniforms but took the two to the police station. There, Dung handcuffed them and asked if they had stolen money from a passenger.
When the duo denied it, Dung and his colleagues beat them with batons in an effort to make them admit it.
“You are Hung, aren’t you?” Dung asked Vu, and when he denied it, there was more beating.
The officers then filed a report to seize his motorbike, mobile phone, and VND5.8 million (US$282) in cash, but did not give him a copy of the report.
At around 1 am on July 27 they released Vu and his relatives took him to hospital that evening.
Binh told Tuoi Tre: “The man named Dung beat me with a baton and ordered me to return VND7 million, but I refused. After seizing my motorbike, mobile phone, and wallet, they let me go.”
Vu and Binh later identified the leader of the group as Dung.
Senior Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Ngan, director of the city police, said yesterday he had asked Dung for a report on the incident.
Vu said three officers had visited him at the hospital.
Dung’s mother also visited him, apologized to him for her son’s act, offered to pay for his treatment, and pleaded with him to drop the case, he said.

Over-60s to receive discounted travel fares

Vietnamese people aged over 60 will receive at least 15 per cent discount on ticket prices on trains, ship or planes, following Government Decree 06.

HCM City's Department of Transport has directed authorised bodies to execute the decree.

200 mothers to perform ‘breastfeeding show’

On the Week of Breastfeeding (August 1-7), the Ho Chi Minh City Nutrition Center will host a breastfeeding show to be performed by 200 women on August 6.

The event is jointly organized by the center, the Health Education and Communication Center and the Reproductive Health Care Center.

The show will include experts’ talks on the benefits of breastfeeding, correct ways of breastfeeding, and other interesting issues.

A number of actresses will take part in the event, which contributes to enhancing the public’s awareness of the benefit of breastfeeding to babies, the organizer said.

At a recent press conference on breastfeeding in HCMC, heath experts warned that only 19.4 percent of babies are exclusively breastfed in their first 6 months of life.

Meanwhile, exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months would help reduce mortality among children below five by 13 percent.

Babies exclusively breastfed in the first 6 months after birth will suffer less from respiratory, digestive, and obese problems and will be more intelligent than those fed with baby milk formula, experts said.

At a recent recently seminar titled “Boosting breastfeeding in Vietnam” in Hanoi, Nguyen Duc Vinh, deputy head of the Department of Health of Mothers and Children, said only 61 percent of the babies born last year were breastfed within the first hour after birth.

Of the estimated 1.5 million children born in Vietnam every year, half are not breastfed immediately after birth, he said.

Gold mine blast in Quang Nam kills one

An explosion last Saturday occurred at the gold mine Bai Muoi in the central province of Quang Nam, killing one worker on the spot, local sources told Thanh Nien.

Police identified the perished victim as 18-year-old worker Quang Van Du, who had his abdomen exploded by the blast.

The gold mine is managed by Phuoc Minh Ltd. Company located in Kham Duc town in Phuoc Son district.

Eyewitnesses said on the afternoon of July 30, Du had slept in the tent before the disaster happened.

Around 120 workers were working when the explosion occurred, police said.

Police suspect Du of committing suicide by setting off the explosion.

Shortly after the incident, the company promptly evacuated all workers from the scene.

Forty out of them were sent back to their hometown Nghe An province the same day.

A source said the cause of the accident is due to escalating conflicts between workers and the gold mine’s manager.

According to the source, the manager had beaten a worker hailing from Nghe An, causing other workers to angrily attack him. Some of them blew up dynamites, causing the blast.

Local police are investigating.

Phuoc Thanh commune in Phuoc Son district has been dubbed the “metropolis of gold” in Quang Nam for its numerous gold mines. Many gold mine collapses and assaults among gold miners have frequently been reported in this locality during the past years.

The most serious incident is the assault among workers in Thanh Loc Son Company in October, 2007 when they threw dynamites at one another, causing many injuries.

Bus accident injures 11

Eleven passengers were heavily injured in an accident between a truck and a bus on National Highway 18 near Cam Pha Town in north-eastern Quang Ninh Province yesterday, Aug 1.

The bus, heading towards northern Hai Duong Province, crashed into a truck heading in the opposite direction. Initial investigations have revealed that the bus driver had been speeding and using his mobile phone.

Local authorities donated VND3 million (US$146) to each of the injured while the provincial Youth Union mobilised 40 people in donating blood for surgery purposes.

Ministry sets up teams to combat epidemic

The Ministry of Health yesterday, Aug 1, set up 10 teams to help local authorities combat the hand, foot and mouth epidemic that has spread to many provinces and cities.
The teams will coordinate with the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology and the Pasteur Institute around the country.
The number of people contracting the disease in the first seven months was more than four times higher than in the same period last year, with 60 of them dying, the ministry reported.
More than 1,800 new cases were being reported every week, it said, warning the epidemic usually worsened between September and November before slowing down.
It called on people to ensure their children followed hygiene practices and take them to hospital immediately if they develop symptoms such as fever, headache, loss of appetite, rashes with very small blisters on the hands, feet, and diaper area, and ulcers in the throat (including tonsils), mouth, and tongue.
HFMD is most commonly caused by the coxsackievirus A16, and the time between infection and the development of symptoms is three days to a week.

People panic as hydropower plant releases water

Hundreds of residents living along the lower Ba River in three districts in the central Phu Yen province evacuated their livestock and poultry in panic when the river rose unexpectedly Sunday after a hydropower plant upstream discharged water.

There is no official word yet about casualties or damage to property from the floods.

The Ba Ha River hydropower plant in Son Hoa District released 1,000 cu.m of water per second starting 11.30 pm July 30.

Le Van Truc, deputy permanent chairman of the province people’s committee and head of the Committee of Storm and Flood Prevention, Search and Rescue, said the plant authorities had told him that they would only release 200 cu.m per second.

The Tay Hoa people’s committee said it had received no warning about the release from either the plant or the storm committee.

“Tay Hoa District residents definitely knew nothing about a water release in the dry season.”

A source said the plant was forced to discharge water due to flooding upstream in the Central Highlands region which has been hit by torrential rains.
Meanwhile, tropical storm Nock-Ten killed two people in Nghe An and Son La Provinces and caused damage to four fishing boats in Northern Vietnam July 31.

20 cases of malaria found in HCM City

More than 20 cases of malaria have been reported in HCM City's Nha Be District within the past 10 days, raising fears the disease may be spreading.

Preventive Medicine Centre director Tran Phu Manh Sieu said, however, that only two were infected with malignant malaria, which is characterised by recurrent symptoms of chills, fever, and an enlarged spleen. The disease can be treated with medication but it often recurs.

Chemicals have been sprayed to kill mosquitoes in the area.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre