450 businesses to attend Pharmed & Healthcare Vietnam 2012

More than 550 stalls representing 450 businesses from 25 countries and territories will attend the 7th Vietnam International Medical and Pharmaceutical Exhibition (Pharmed & Healthcare Vietnam 2012) to be held in Ho Chi Minh City from September 26-29.

Illustrative image.

This year’s event will display categories of reputable domestic and foreign trademarks in different areas. The Parmex area offers pharmacy, machinery, pharmaceutical processing and packaging equipment; Analytex includes diagnostic equipment and supplies; Medex features medical equipment and tools; and hospital equipment and facilities are presented in the Hospex area. Beauty care products and services will also be represented at the exhibition as well as and medical services.

Ring sending “bar girls” to Malaysia busted

Vietnamese police are investigating a case in which a Vietnamese woman and a Malaysian man had attempted to send 9 Vietnamese women to Malaysia to work at night clubs or brothels.

Police in southern Bac Lieu Province yesterday said they were questioning Vo Thanh Nga, 28, of Vinh Long Province, and her Malaysian boyfriend Hiau Yoon Kong, 34, for their scheme to send women to Malaysia as travelers on paper, though they were in fact potential sex workers.

Last Saturday, after receiving a tip-off about the ring’s activities, the police, with the assistance of their counterparts from the Ministry of Public Security's criminal investigation police department, disrupted the scheme at Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat Airport, where Nga and Hiau were guiding nine women to carry out procedures to leave Vietnam.

The nine women are Nguyen Thi Phuong Trang, Tran Thuy Nu, Vo Thi Ngoc Tu – all 25, of HCMC; Bach Thien My Nhan, 18, of Tay Ninh Province; Lai Thi Kim Ngan, 25, and Vo Thi Diem My, 23, both of Tien Giang Province; Huynh Kim Ngan, 19, of Bac Lieu City; and Le Thi Chi, 28, and Le Thi My Hang, 24, both of Kien Giang Province.

Nga confessed to the police that each woman paid her VND17.5 million (about 2,500 ringgit, or US$845) as a package price for their trip.

She also said she had previously organized five similar trips, with 3-4 women each time, and that when the women arrived in Malaysia, Vietnamese people there would pick them up.

Nga would bring along with her cosmetics and other consumer goods to sell to Vietnamese women who were working at bars or brothels there, she said.

The police are expanding their investigation to track down others involved in the ring.

France provides VND35 billion for Hanoi public transport

France will provide VND35 billion for a project to help Hanoi limit the use of private vehicles and encourage city dwellers to use public transportation.

Nguyen Hoang Linh, Vice Director of the Hanoi Department of Transport, said this is a critical investment as the number of private vehicles has increased sharply and local people have interest in taking public transport.

The project will be implemented in 2012-2013 with the aim of improving the quality of public transport services in Hanoi and upgrading infrastructure for buses, which should help reduce traffic jams and the need to use private vehicles.

Vice Chairman of the Hanoi Urban Planning and Development Association Dao Ngoc Nghiem said there are many obstacles between public and private transport in Hanoi and many other cities. The public transport system is weak and there is a huge number of private vehicles. The city’s 1,000 buses do not meet the demands of local people and they are large and cumbersome, which creates a negative effect on the overall transport system.

7 million doses of bird flu vaccine imported

The local Department of Animal Health has imported 7 million doses of bird flu vaccines for reproductive poultry, said Can Xuan Binh, acting department director.

The department also supplied 7,000 litres of sterilising medicine to districts at high risk.

So far, Ha Noi has vaccinated 60,500 chickens and ducks, a process expected to reach completion by March 20.

If farmers refuse to vaccinate their poultry, they would receive no damage support in case of an outbreak, according to the department.

A small pocket of bird flu was recently detected in the capital's Phuong Duc Commune, Phu Xuyen District. All ducks tested positive for H5N1 were culled.

US bomb uncovered in Bac Lieu

A 227kg bomb was uncovered in the bed of the Bac Lieu-Ca Mau canal along National Highway 1A in the southern province of Bac Lieu last week. It was successfully defused by the provincial Military Headquarters engineers.

The MK 82 bomb was used by American troops during the war in Viet Nam. It is the smallest of those bombs in current service, and one of the most commonly air-dropped weapons in the world.

The bomb was found on a barge that was transporting sand. The owner and crew threw the bomb into the canal without reporting it. It was discovered later by local residents and they informed local authorities.

Local authorities said that the canal was an important route from HCM City, Can Tho and Mekong Delta provinces to the Ca Mau Peninsula. If the bomb had not been defused quickly, passing boats may have triggered an explosion.

Bombs and bullets are often found in the cargo of barges carrying sand from Can Tho City to Bac Lieu Province, and owners are required to report them to the relevant authorities.

Seminar on Vietnam’s international commitments on gender equality

A seminar on Vietnam’s international commitments to gender equality was held in Can Tho City On March 5 by the National Assembly (NA) Committee for Social Affairs, in collaboration with a group of female NA deputies.

The event provided a forum for NA deputies and experts to discuss issues of gender equality as well as the process of building and supervising the implementation of the legal policies related to this issue under the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

The seminar is part of a cooperation programme between the National Assembly (NA) Committee for Social Affairs and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

The project aims to accelerate the progress of the UN Millennium goal to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and ensure real gender equality by 2020 in terms of available opportunities; political, economic and cultural participation; and social affairs, thus contributing to the country’s sustainable development.

 Vietnam has set some specific targets including having the number of women involved in Party organizations in the 2016-2020 term reach 25 percent or more, and women representing 25 percent of trained rural workers under 45 years old by 2015 and 50 percent by 2020.

Thirty years of implementing the CEDAW were reviewed at the seminar along with 12 years of implementing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Over the past few years, the NA has revised and supplemented many codes and ordinances related to gender issues to ensure equal rights and offer equal opportunities for women to become involved in all areas of life. It has also adopted new laws and amendments on eliminating all forms of discrimination against women.

In 2006, the 11^th NA approved the Law on Gender Equality, legalizing the principles and regulations of the CEDAW in line with Vietnam’s legal system and its international commitments on gender equality.

Director of the National Assembly (NA) Committee for Social Affairs Truong Thi Mai said that the Law on Gender Equality has created significant changes in eliminating discrimination against women and create opportunities for both men and women to move towards true gender equality.

Vietnam now belongs to the group of developing countries that has been internationally praised in the Gender-related Development Index (GDI) compared to other Southeast Asian and Asian Pacific nations at the same development level, Ms Mai said.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre