National action month for population launched

The Hanoi Municipal People’s Committee in coordination with the General Office of Population and Family Planning on December 6 organised a ceremony to launch national action month for population.

The national action month for population in 2010 aims to distribute information and minimize the growth of the national birth rate, as well as control the imbalance of gender equality. 

Despite good results in previous years, population and family planning nationwide still meet difficulties such as the large scale of the population, high population density, and unstable birth rate reduction.

In 2010, Vietnam continued to rank as the 13th most populous nation in the world, and the number of women reaching childbearing age keeps increasing. Vietnam’s population rises on average by 1 million people annually.

In particular, as the imbalance of gender equality continues to increase, it becomes necessary to take control of population growth.

The low living standards of the population also hinder development, the number of children with congenital malformations occupies 1.5-3 percent of growth per year, and the Vietnamese people’s health is still generally weak in comparison to some foreign nations.

Population and family planning in remote and mountainous areas is still limited, as many local authorities are not well aware of this work, leading to births of the third child.

Indonesian community donates blood

The Indonesian community in HCM City and neighbouring provinces donated 13,600ml blood during a humanitarian activity held yesterday afternoon by the General Consulate of the Republic of Indonesia in the city.

At the consulate's third blood drive, around 50 people donated blood with the support of the HCM City Red Cross Association.

According to Indonesian Consul General Pande K. Wuri Handayani, the event was aimed at enhancing solidarity between the people of Viet Nam and Indonesia.

Artist's Viet Nam ride promotes road safety

Artist Quang Dat starts his month-long journey on his Vespa scooter today, from southernmost Ca Mau Province to Ha Noi, to promote traffic safety.

More than 1,000 traffic police have signed his scooter. Dat had previously owned another scooter with the signatures of 500 names of famous Vietnamese people.

Thua Thien Hue trains rural workforce

Thua Thien Hue Province will spend VND290 billion (US$14,871) on a vocational programme to train rural workers who will be required to take jobs in the industrial sector.

The programme, which will begin in 2011 and end in 2020, targets to raise the percentage of trained workers in the labour force to 60 per cent by 2015 and 70 per cent by 2020.

The province People's Committee, which wants to shift the economy from agriculture to industry, is offering the courses to ensure that there are a sufficient number of trained workers for the province's industrial parks.

Funds for the programme are from State and provincial budgets as well as the private sector.

Market violations continue to rise

The municipal market management bureau has, as of November this year, discovered a total of 15,149 violations including counterfeit goods, illegally imported goods and banned goods, an increase of 579 cases over the same period last year.

The bureau has levied fines worth more than VND70.2 billion (US$3.5 million) in 10,284 cases.

Inspectors said that although supervision and inspections have been strengthened this year, the production and trafficking of counterfeit goods still continued in more "complicated" ways. They did not elaborate.

Bureau officials said their key task from now until the Tet (Lunar New Year) festival that falls in February, 2011 would be to carry out inspections at sales points participating in the city's price stabilisation programme.

Investors reticent to support culture

Investment in cultural, sports and tourism activities in the southern region has fallen short of expectations because of poor State management and overlapping duties, experts have said.

State policies and regulations needed to be adjusted and revised to be in line with socio-economic development, according to Ho Anh Tuan, deputy minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, speaking at a conference in HCM City on Friday.

Non-State companies in the cultural, sports and tourism sectors have not been sufficiently encouraged to invest in projects, and State budgets of agencies and departments were the primary sources of funds.

"HCM City failed to tap the potential resources of all economic sectors to invest in tourism due to a lack of a long-term development plan and poor coordination between State agencies and departments," said La Quoc Khanh, deputy director of the HCM City's Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Short-term planning, which spans only one year, had resulted in unprofessional results, Khanh said.

Le Duy Hanh, deputy head of the Viet Nam Stage Artists Association, said that although HCM City had been successful in calling for non-State investment in the theatre sector, with the establishment and effective operation of private theatres, such as Phu Nhuan Drama Theatre, Idecaf Drama Theatre and San Khau Nho (Small Stage) Drama Theatre, the theatre sector was still without a long-term development orientation.

Private stages offered a platform for young artists, stage managers, authors and managers, who play an important role in the development of the theatres' activities in the city, Hanh said.

"Management of public theatres, which are subsidised by the State budget, is not innovative," he added. The Government should restructure the country's stage system and allocate State budget funds to ensure the sustainable development of theatre activities, he said.

Nguyen Ngoc Minh, director of the Tien Giang Province's Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said that investment from private enterprises in tourism activities had increased significantly over the last few years, with most investors participating in the hospitality sector.

The number of hotels jumped to 113 units with 1,912 rooms in 2009, from 25 units with 385 rooms in 2000.

"The development of tourism helps create jobs for local workers, and promotes socio-economic development and infrastructure," Minh said.

Poor coordination between State agencies in implementing State policies had limited the amount of investment from enterprises in the culture, sports and tourism industry.

Minh said that incentive policies related to tax, credit and land were not sufficiently attractive to promote investment from all sectors.

Revision of nation-wide master plans ordered

The Construction Ministry has ordered a total revision of master plans across the country to ensure better co-ordination of planning.

Approved construction master plans had been made for about 98 per cent of Viet Nam but their implementation had revealed numerous weaknesses, said Construction Minister Nguyen Hong Quan

The ministerial document sent to people's committees showed a breakdown between construction master plans and local development goals.

"Many investment projects were based only on industry planning and not construction planning," the minister said.

The result was many changes, including location, and heavy economic losses.

Some industrial zones and new urban precincts added to already- approved master transgressed provincial transport, electricity, water and environment infrastructure, he said.

"The major reason for this is the shortage of clear regulations for co-ordination between master plans."

$600 million needed for 2011 road building

Almost VND12 trillion (US$600 million) will be needed for road building next year, estimates the Transport Ministry's Roads Directorate.

More than VND3.7 trillion ($188 million) would be drawn from Government bonds and more than VND1.8 trillion ($90 million) from official development assistance, he says.

The directorate says it will co-operate with relevant agencies in the use of the capital and seek money from both domestic and international sources.

The directorate will also seek capital via build-operate-transfer and build-transfer projects.

Projects that can be completed in 2011 – 2012 will be given priority.

The directorate has 20 projects planned, if it can raise the necessary funds.

Ethnic minority poverty target of new strategy

Sustainable poverty reduction for ethnic and mountainous areas should be an important task for the 2011-15 period, attendants at a conference in Ha Noi were told on Friday.

The function, held by the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs (CEMA) in collaboration with the United Nations in Viet Nam, was aimed at recommending ways of reducing poverty.

Chairman of the National Assembly's Ethnic Council Ksor Phuoc estimated that the poverty rate in some communes and villages would increase to more than 60 per cent or even 70 to 75 per cent next year.

Giang Seo Phu, a member of the Party Central Committee and chairman of the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, said the rate of reduction for ethnic people was much slower than the national average.

"Life expectancy, nutrition and other aspects of their lives remain low. Without big challenges in strategies in the near future, most poor people in Viet Nam will still be in ethnic minority and mountainous areas," Su said.

He said Viet Nam had made remarkable achievements in hunger eradication and poverty alleviation. The poverty rate had fallen from 58.1 per cent in 1993 to 12.1per cent last year.

But there is steady progress. The poverty rate among ethnic minorities and people in mountain areas fell from 86 per cent in 1993 to about 31.2 per cent last year.

This was in part due to the National Target Prog-ramme for Poverty Reduction, the Programme for Socio-economic Development of Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas in the 2006-10 period, the Programme for Rapid Sustainable Poverty Reduction in the 62 poorest districts and the policy on supporting ethnic groups facing extreme hardship.

John Hendra, UN resident co-ordinator, said if the ethnic problem was to be effectively addressed, new approaches had to be considered.

"Future poverty reduction is likely to be much more difficult, more complex and more costly," Hendra said.

He said poverty reduction among ethnic minority groups was culturally sensitive and specific targeting measures were necessary.

Hendra said ethnic minorities would continue to need extra support through national poverty reduction programmes and more attention in key sectoral policies, including health, education, water and sanitation and nutrition.

"In addition, creating opportunities for employment and integration in the market economy is just as important for sustainable poverty reduction," he said.

Tran Van Thuat, former director of CEMA's Ethnic Policy Department, said poor people should be classified into different groups to make intervention more effective.

PV