Implementing national strategy on gender equality

A seminar to discuss measures to boost the implementation of the national strategy on gender equality was held in Hanoi on September 29.

The seminar was organised by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women).

The strategy focuses on strengthening women’s involvement in leadership to gradually narrow the gender gap in the political system, reducing the gender gap in economics, labour and jobs and helping poor women in rural and ethnic minority areas access economic resources and employment. The plan also targets improving the quality of female labour resources, and gradually ensuring equal participation of men and women in education and training. It also strives to ensure gender equality in the fields of information, culture and family and in accessing and enjoying healthcare services.

Participants at the seminar said that to better implement the strategy relevant authorities should continue to direct, inspect and complete the legal system, improve the state management capacity on gender equality, pay more attention to disseminating information on gender equality, develop services, and use financial resources effectively.

130 primary students hospitalized from food poisoning

More than 130 students at Phan Chu Trinh primary school had to see doctors after having lunch on September 29. (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

Most of them suffered from headache, dizziness, and vomiting and were taken to a local hospital for care. Of them, 10 had severe swelling on hands, legs, and face.

Their meal including braised catfish and sweet leaf soup was provided by the school’s canteens.

The district’s health center has taken samples from the dubious lunch for testing.

By 3:00 pm the same day, most of them were discharged from the hospital.

Germans advise on traffic lights

A team of local and foreign scientists at the Vietnamese-German Transport Research Centre at the Vietnamese–German University is developing new road traffic signals that will help improve traffic flow and safety on the country's roads.

They would be based on the latest German guidelines for traffic signals, though with variations to suit local conditions, the team told a seminar held yesterday in HCM City.

Do Quoc Cuong of the University of Transport and Communications' Road and Traffic Engineering, said the congestion and accidents that often occurred at intersections were due to poor road safety signals.

The current signal system caused a chaotic build-up of buses, cars, motorbikes, and bicycles at red lights, he said.

"The signals are based on 1950s standards and have not been updated," he said, suggesting that different kinds of vehicles should be separated into different zones at red lights to improve traffic safety and speed up the flow.

He also suggested establishing new forms of intersections.

In HCM City, there are 628 signals, 524 of them using a countdown system.

Le Thu Huyen, head of the University of Transport and Communications' Consulting Centre for Transport Development, said violating traffic regulations, such as jumping red, was common in Viet Nam.

Human behaviour caused almost all traffic accidents, including fatalities, she added.

Dr Khuat Viet Hung, head of the Vietnamese – German Transport Research Centre, said the research, being done by the Vietnamese - German University, University of Transport and Communications, and Germany's Darmstadt University of Technology, would be finished in a year's time and the result submitted to the Ministry of Transport.

A new national standard for road traffic signals will be piloted in Ha Noi and HCM City before nation-wide application.

Fuel leaked from ship collision off Vung Tau

Around 343 cubic meters of fuel has been spilled off Vung Tau City from the Vietnamese-owned tanker Petrolimex 02 early this morning after it was hit by Singaporean vessel Lewek Penguin.

The collision, which took place at 4:00am, breached the right side of the tanker with the capacity of more than 20,000 tonnes and spilled A92 gasoline into the sea, around 16 nautical miles east and southeast off Vung Tau.

There has been no report of human injuries.

According to the Vung Tau port authorities, the accident occurred when Petrolimex 02 were heading towards Ho Chi Minh City from the Dung Quat refinery in Quang Ngai central province.

After being informed, local authorities mobilized a 3,000-horsepower boat and dozens of troops to the scene.

They also ordered a patrol of coastal areas around the province to minimize the effect of the spill.

The province’s Environmental Protection Agency has also asked staff to go along coastal areas from Vung Tau to Xuyen Moc in Dong Nai southern province to keep close watch on the oil leak.

However, by 9:30am, no fuel has been detected near the beach, local authorities said.

Vung Tau government this morning held an emergency meeting with relevant authorities to discuss measures to cope with the incident.

Tran Ngoc Thoi, deputy chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, has instructed his subordinates to rigorously monitor the spill and to inform other boats to stay away from the affected area.

The Lewek Penguin is being docked at Vung Tau’s seaport while the Petrolimex tanker is asking local port authorities for permission to unload its goods.

Ceiling rules for service charges in capital's apartment buildings

The municipal People's Committee has answered high-rise tenants' pleas and set a ceiling price for service charges.

Housing developers previously had free reign to set prices as they saw fit, leading to exorbitant service charges and outcry among the city's tenants.

After numerous attempts to resolve the issue through talks between landlords and tenants, representatives from five buildings took their case to the People's Committee to ask for intervention last week.

The ceiling price has been set at VND4,000 per square metre per month for buildings equipped with elevators.

Trinh Thuy Mai, a representative for the homeowners association from the Keangnam Ha Noi Landmark Tower told Viet Nam News this morning that she was pleased with the decision.

"This is the good news for all of us. We tenants feel so relieved that our voices have finally been heard.

"From now on, we have a legal document to refer to during our negotiations," she said.

The new rules will be valid for one year.

209 kg ivory worth $288,000 seized in Nghe An

Police in the central Nghe An Province have caught three men with 209 kg of ivory thought to be smuggled in from abroad following a tip-off from the public.

Le Anh Chien and Bui Quang Trinh, both 40, and Nguyen Van Tinh, 35, were arrested yesterday while carrying the banned cargo in a van on National Highway 1A in the provincial capital Vinh. All of them belong to neighboring Ha Tinh Province.

Another man escaped when three police cars stopped the van for examination, Colonel Tran Hong, the city/province? police chief, said.

The WHICH? provincial anti-environmental crime police department had kept tabs on the vehicle driven by Chien when it departed from Tay Son town in Ha Tinh, he said.

The smugglers told the police they had been taking the ivories for delivery to a trader in Vinh.

The Ecology Institute examined them ivory and concluded they were of foreign origin and worth more than VND6 billion (US$288,000).

The police are hunting for the escaped smuggler.

This was the largest ever ivory smuggling case discovered in the province, Hong said.                     

Four Vietinbank staff fired for alleged fraud

Director of the Viet Nam Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank) has decided to fire four staff members working at the bank's branch in central Quang Binh Province for allegedly embezzling funds.

Another five employees were demoted to positions with lower salaries.

Earlier, former director of the Quang Binh Branch's Hai Dinh Trading Room, Nguyen Duc Hai, had been prosecuted and detained for four months for allegedly embezzling more than VND3.2 billion (US$152,400).

Hanoi’s taxi driver threatened with toy gun

A taxi driver in Hanoi was threatened with a toy gun and robbed of his cell phone by a passenger last Tuesday.

30-year-old Le Van Quy was driving Phan Duc Tuan on Nguyen Nhu Do Street when the latter took out a toy gun to threaten Quy and took away his cell phone.

Tuan, who is 27, was later arrested in a house where he and his friends were using drug.

He admitted having sold the cell phone for VND1 million (US$50) to pay house rent.

The local police started criminal proceedings against Tuan this morning.

4 houses destroyed, 2 killed in landslide

A landslide following days of drenching rain destroyed four houses and killed two people in Van Phu Commune in the northern province of Yen Bai on Wednesday.

According to local authorities, at 11:45pm on September 28, nearly 500 cubic metes of rock and mud tumbled down a hill and completely buried four houses.

40-year-old Nguyen Thi Lien and her 16-month-old grandson couldn’t escape and were buried alive. The victims’ bodies were found at 3:00 am today.

Local officials said site clearance and heavy rains in the past days might have caused the landslide.

Hoang Quoc Cuong, Deputy Chairman of the Yen Bai People’s Committee said the province would provide the family of the deceased with VND9 million, as well as VND6 million to each of the affected families.

The remaining households have been evacuated to safe places.

Korean experience helps development

Viet Nam has benefited from Korean experience to boost the development strategy until 2020 at an international conference held yesterday in Ha Noi.

Coming under the framework of a Korean Government-funded project titled Sharing Korean Development Experiences with Viet Nam, the conference aimed to share medium and long-term socio-economic development strategies.

"Viet Nam will reform its methods for developing over the next five years with a focus on modernisation as a key basis for country development and creating high productivity and efficiency," Ministry of Planning and Investment's Development Strategy Institute director Ngo Doan Vinh said.

The project has also allowed Vietnamese policy makers to garner knowledge in specific areas including science, technology, human resources, labour, job development, environmental protection and agriculture development.

"Four national systems should be established to provide essential data for the country's socio-economic development strategy in coming years, including systems for quality evaluation, invention, information, forecast and warning," Vinh said.

"Based on Korean experience, Viet Nam should not rely on imported technologies, but develop its own inventions," Vinh said.

According to Vinh, 70 per cent of Viet Nam population live in rural areas and agriculture makes up 20 per cent of the nation's GDP, so farmers should be provided with sufficient technology for developing these areas.

At the event, Hankyong National University president Kim Sung Jin said the project would contribute to exploring ways to overcome challenges and achieve goals in the next 5-10 years in Viet Nam's social and economic development strategies.

"In the course of passing through a final stage of take-off, faced with various challenges, Viet Nam is expected to undergo a deeper round of reforms and structural adjustments, as shown in the case of Korea's development experience," Kim said.

He added that beside domestic financial investment, Viet Nam should have policies for attracting foreign investment with preferential and monetary tightening policies in the next future development strategies.

The event was co-organised by the Ministry of Planning and Investment's Development Strategy Institute and the Korea International Co-operation Agency in Viet Nam.

Vietnam, South Africa to fight rhino horn trade

Vietnam, South Africa have signed an agreement to work together to fight the smuggling of rhino horns.

The memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed by Vietnam’s Forestry Management Department and South African Ministry of Environment in Johannesburg yesterday.

According to the Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network, Vietnamese citizens were involved in the majority of rhino hunting cases in South Africa recently.

The South African ministry said the MOU would create a mechanism for cooperation conservation, law enforcement, and prevention of the smuggling of rhino horns, which are used for medicinal purposes.

South Africa lost about 13 rhinos every year during 1990-2007.

The number has soared since 2008, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

In 2010, 333 rhinos were killed for horns and since the beginning of this year, another 302 have fallen victim to poachers, the WWF said.

Ha Noi multi-storey car park ready for 2012

The first multi-storey, above ground car park is expected to open to vehicles in next year's third quarter in Ha Noi's Tu Liem District's My Dinh Commune.

The 4,600sq.m parking area is part of the city's development plan for the 2011-15 period.

The Ha Noi People's Committee has assigned FLC Investment Finance&Real Estate Joint Stock Company as an investor.