Provinces to be joined in economic zone

An area of over 3,600 square kilometres across the southern part of Nghe An and the northern part of Ha Tinh provinces is set to become a key economic zone of the north central region by 2025, according to a plan ratified by the Prime Minister recently.

The plan gives priority to industrial development, including food processing, textile and mechanical industries, which would apply high technology in manufacture. The total area of land designated for the industrial zones would be 2230ha.

In addition, a system of urban areas and infrastructure would be developed.

By 2015, all communes in the region would have a road leading to their centres. The percentage of concrete and asphalted roads in remote mountainous communes was set at 15 per cent by 2015 and 20 per cent in 2020.

Also, the road system would be upgraded, along with the railroad, waterway and Vinh City Airport, to turn the region into a centre of trade in goods and services.

About 40 per cent of the region's population would live in urban areas by 2015, doubling the current rate. The proportion of urban residents in the region was expected to reach 60 per cent by 2025, along with an expansion of urban land by 50 per cent, compared with the target of nearly 20,000ha set for 2015.

The region also planned to develop tourism, based on the resources of sea, rivers, lakes and ecosystem as well as historical monuments.

The Huong Son and Thac Muoi hydroelectric plants were considered as strategic projects to be implemented to meet growing power demand.

The region includes Vinh City, Cua Lo Town and Nghi Loc, Hung Nguyen, Nam Dan and Thanh Chuong districts in Nghe An Province and Hong Linh Town and Nghi Xuan, Duc Tho and Huong Son districts in Ha Tinh Province.

Foreman suspended for gluing worker’s hands

A Chinese foreman at the Taiwanese-owned Hong Fu Shoe Company in Hoang Hoa District, Thanh Hoa Province has been suspended after he glued the two hands of a female worker with 502 super glue last Saturday.

At noon on November 26, A Wang caught Le Thi Hoa using the glue to close an opening in the sole of a shoe. Company rules stipulate that workers must use the company’s own glue, not 502 super glue, to mend defective shoes.

Upon noticing the infraction, Wang angrily shouted at 25-year-old Le Thi Phuong, the shift leader, and then poured the glue on both of her hands before pressing them together.

Phuong suffered serious pain, cried profusely, and then fainted.

Panic stricken after witnessing the incident, Hoa and another worker, Tran Thi Thom, also passed out, Dan Tri newswire reported.

Some other workers took the three women to the Hop Luc General Hospital for treatment.

Doctors were able to separate Phuong’s hands, but she required further treatment.

After the incident, many workers went on strike that day to object to Wang’s violent act, asking the company’s management to punish him.

“According to the company’s report, despite the ban on using such glue to mend defective shoes, many workers often bring the glue along with them for their convenience,” chairman of the Hoang Hoa District People’s Committee, Pham Ba Oai, told the media.

“Nevertheless, Wang’s act is unacceptable. The district authorities have requested the company’s management to suspend Wang and punish him,” Oai said.

The district Labor Federation has requested that the company bear all expenses related to Phuong’s medical treatment and pay enough wages to all workers who had taken industrial action.

The local police are investigating the case.

Localities respond to National Month for HIV/AIDS Prevention

A variety of activities have been held nationwide in response to the National Month for HIV/AIDS Prevention and the World AIDS Day (December 1).

This year’s National Month for HIV/AIDS Prevention, themed “Getting to Zero: Zero New Infections; Zero AIDS-related Deaths; and Zero Discrimination”, aims to build an action program to combat HIV/AIDS with the coordination of relevant agencies at all levels. The action plan will go ahead with other programs to combat drugs and prostitution to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS infection.

In Hanoi, nearly 500 representatives from mass organizations attended the launch of a campaign to prevent HIV/AIDS.

Speaking at the event, Phung Van Hoan, Vice President Cum Secretary General of the Vietnam Red Cross Society said although HIV/AIDS transmission is dangerous, it is likely to be put under control. He emphasized the need to raise public awareness of effective ways to prevent the disease.

** On the same day, similar events were held in Haiphong and Can Tho cities and Tra Vinh and Long An provinces, with the participation of thousands of people from all walks of life.

The aims was to enhance the responsibilities of local administration and people for combating the disease.

According to the Ministry of Health, Vietnam has more than 190,000 people living with HIV, 46,000 of whom have developed full-blown AIDS and more than 50,000 have died of the disease so far.

2.6 tons of rotten pork, pig organs seized

Yesterday, Nov 27, a joint inspection team in Hanoi caught a truck carrying nearly 1 ton of rotten pig organs without documents, while Ho Chi Minh City veterinary officers seized 1.6 tons of pork and pig organs in the same condition.

Following a tip-off from the public, at 5 am Sunday the team, which included members of Hanoi’s anti-environment crime police and market management officers, stopped a truck in Phuc Tan Ward, Hoan Kiem District, for examination.

The officers found the vehicle carrying 22 cartons containing rotten, stinking pig organs, with each carton weighing more than 40 kilograms.

The driver, 23-year-old Luong Dinh Anh from Hung Yen Province, failed to show any documents for the goods.

The team escorted Anh and his truck to the office of the Market management Team No. 11, where Anh confessed that he had bought the goods in Bac Ninh Province at a cheap price, and planned to sell them to restaurants and other eateries in Hanoi.

The team seized and then destroyed all the goods.

Later the same day, a traffic police team coordinated with the Thu Duc District veterinary station in HCMC to seize a passenger van carrying 1,074 kg of suckling pork and 577 kg of pig tripe and skin from the Central Highland province of Dak Lak.

All of the goods were rotten and the driver, Truong Hung Lam of central Quang Nam Province, had no documents for them.

The station later destroyed the goods.

No masks allowed during ATM usage: State Bank

Customers withdrawing or transferring money on automatic teller machines (ATM) are not allowed to cover their face or obstruct security cameras, according to the State Bank’s new draft on guidance circulars on equipping, managing and operating ATM systems.

If customers do not follow this new regulation, their transactions will be rejected by the bank.
The State Bank also required banks to equip rear-view mirrors inside every ATM booth so that customers can observe what is happening behind them during a transaction.

Banks also need to install devices in their machines to prevent criminals from copying security numbers or stealing cards.

The period of time to resolve complaints after receiving a report from a customer is seven working days for internal ATM transactions, and 12 days for external ones.

The maximum allowable to time to handle problems involving an ATM is 72 hours. If an ATM runs out of money, the bank must reload it within four hours during operational time, and 15 hours during off time.

German bank supports vocational schools in 2011-2014

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs has recently signed a vocational training project with the German Reconstruction Bank (KfW).

Under the project, the German bank will provide 10 million euros in official development assistance (ODA) loans to Vietnamese vocational schools to improve the teaching quality and enhance their training capacity.  

The Vietnamese Government will contribute 2.5 million euros to the 12.5million euro project which will be implemented over four years until 2014.

Priority will be given to upgrading equipment for vocational training centres specialising in electricity, electronics and mechanical engineering.

Doctor leaves gauze in patient’s head

Dr Le Van Anh of the Binh Thuan Province General Hospital is facing discipline after leaving behind two pieces of gauze in a local man’s head during an operation, causing his death after a third surgery was performed to remove the gauze.

The hospital’s board of directors yesterday, Nov 27, said they were reviewing the case and considering possible disciplinary action against Dr Anh, who is the deputy head of the Surgical Neurology Department.

Nguyen Van Dong, 49, of Ma Lam town in Ham Thuan Bac District, was hospitalized on September 20 after he fell into a coma due to an earlier stroke at home.

Dr Anh diagnosed Dong with a brain hemorrhage and decided to perform an emergency surgery on the patient the next day.

Fifteen minutes after the first operation, Dong continued suffering from the cerebral hemorrhage, and the doctor performed a second procedure, during which he used a large amount of gauze to prevent heavy bleeding in the brain, according to the clinical record.

After the operation, the incision area was swelled and Dong’s condition remained unchanged. A CT scan later showed two pieces of gauze left behind in the brain.

Dr Anh decided to conduct one more surgery on November 22 to correct his mistake, and Dong died a few hours after the operation, the third within 24 hours.

8,000 households isolated by landslide

A landslide has cut traffic on a road and isolated 8,000 households in the mountainous district Ba To in the central province Quang Ngai.

The disaster, that happed two days ago, has disconnected a road linking communes Ba Bich and Ba Nam and isolated 8,000 local households.

Ba To District’s People’s Committee chairman Le Han Phong admitted his locality has been badly affected by landslides in other communes Ba Le and Ba Giang.

The National Highway 24 linking Quang Ngai and Kon Tum has just been cleared after a recent landslide.

Meanwhile, the neighboring province Binh Dinh has been affected by floods.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre