Hanoi launches campaign for the poor

More than VND51 billion was raised at a “Day for the Poor” launch ceremony in Hanoi on October 7.

At the event, Dao Van Binh, Chairman of the Hanoi Fatherland Front Committee and head of the municipal “Fund the Poor”, praised local businesses’ effort to contribute supporting the poor and promoting socio-economic development in the city.

Over the past 12 years, Hanoi has built or repaired nearly 30,000 houses and assisted a large number of poor households.  
 
In 2011 alone, the fund and other social welfare programmes allocated more than VND200 billion for building or repairing nearly 4,700 houses and providing capital and production materials for 14,000 poor families.

Currently, more than 80,000 poor households and 33,000 others who are near the poverty line need further support to stabilize their lives.

Hanoi is set to reduce the poverty rate to below 2 percent in 2015.

Land-use review tipped to help management

Ha Noi will review its land use plans and the status of delayed projects in the city in an effort to improve urban planning and management, says the director of the city's Department of Planning and Architecture, Nguyen Van Hai, at a conference last week about urban planning in eight inner-city districts.

Ha Noi will review its land use plans and the status of delayed projects in the city in an effort to improve urban planning and management.

Faster-than-expected population growth in the city has also rendered obsolete a number of previously approved plans, Hai said.

Under the city's master development plan approved by Prime Minister, the inner city had been projected to have a population of 800,000 by 2030, but its current population was 1.2 million people. To curb the rapid population growth in these areas, the Government has adopted policies to move universities, factories and ministries to outlying districts.

Hoang Mai District People's Committee vice chairman Nguyen Duc Hai said that his district's population had already exceeded what had earlier been projected for the year 2020, and it was necessary to adjust plans to match real-life situations.

Hai Ba Trung District People's Committee vice chairman Lam Anh Tuan also called for the elimination of outdated and infeasible plans. He gave the example of Tran Dai Nghia Street in the district, a crowded street that, under the city's plan, was designed to become a river with two 13-metre-wide roads running alongside.

The rapid pace of urban development, poor planning and insufficient co-ordination among Government agencies have all been blamed, as well, for rampant violations of construction regulations and plans.

In the past two years, over 1,700 projects have violated building regulations, noted Hoan Kiem District People's Committee chairman Vu Van Vien, who suggested that authorities should issue "completion documents" to contractors to better control construction works. A finished building could only be put into use once "completion documents" were issued, he said, a requirement that would reduce the number buildings erected without licences or in violation of approved plans.

Education vital in fighting drug crimes

Increased communication and education efforts were key to the success of the fight against drug related crimes, a national meeting in the central province of Da Nang heard last Friday, Oct 5.

Former drug users learn vocational skills at the Treatment, Education and Social Labour Centre in Ha Nam Province. Education is seen as crucial in helping former drug addicts start a new life.

The fight, which aimed to prevent drug trafficking and addiction, had brought police, border guards, militia and communities together.

Local people had provided authorities with 1.7 million pieces of information regarding criminal activities as well as drug and human trafficking over the past five years, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Following a report from the Viet Nam Fatherland Front, residents set up 20,000 mailboxes and 22,000 hotlines to receive reports on criminals in the community.

Nearly 700,000 security teams had been set up at community level in a mass campaign against drugs.

"Communication in the community has played a crucial role in the endeavour to prevent drug related crimes. Media and armed forces nationwide have also joined hands in the communications campaign, which started in 2006," said Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Do Quy Doan.

He also said that over 7,500 community-based education centres had been built to raise awareness of drug prevention

Between 2006-10, the Public Security Ministry's drug-related crime forces arrested 79,000 drug offenders and seized 236kg of opium, 945kg of heroin, 9,200kg of marijuana, and 22,000 amphetamine tablets, along with guns and ammunition.

The results were significant given that authorities did not have hi-tech equipment to hunt down criminals.

"We have faced difficulties while trying to monitor drug traffickers. Police dogs are only trained to detect opium, while criminals have increased the illegal trade of heroin, amphetamine, ketamine and crystal methamphetamine," Major Nguyen Ngoc Hanh from the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum told Viet Nam News.

"Criminals are also equipped with weapons and cars, and hire local people to carry drugs over our borders. We have been assisted by the border guards and militia along the 47-km border between Kon Tum Province and Laos," Hanh said.

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Cong Khoai from the northern mountainous province of Son La's Public Security Department said dozens of policemen and border guards had died during clashes with drug traffickers.

"Son La is known as a major drug trafficking hot spot. The province, which shares a 250-km border with Laos, is favoured by traffickers because of its remote nature and scattered inhabitants," Khoai said.

"The province, with a population of 1 million, has 17,000 addicts – the highest figure in the country's 63 provinces and cites," he said.

"The province has wiped out 79ha of opium in 28 districts, and helped communities to become drug-free by raising awareness of drug trafficking and addiction."

He said that Son La Police alone had seized 195kg of heroin and 34,000 amphetamine tablets, along with 60 rifles and pistols.

Fields symposium to honor Prof Ngo Bao Chau

A symposium dubbed ‘Fundamentals of the Langlands Program’ in honor of famous Vietnamese professor Ngo Bao Chau, will be held by Fields Institute in Toronto Canada from October 15-18.

The Symposium will focus on Prof. Chau’s project and its dramatic impact.

The goal is to bring the general area of automorphic forms and the Langlands Program to a broader audience and, in addition, to present recent developments in the area that are related to his work.

The scientific program is aimed at a wide audience, including graduate students, mathematicians in other areas of research, and scientists for whom mathematics is an important part of their work.

The Symposium will feature a public opening with Ingrid Daubechies, President of the International Mathematical Union and Le Sy Vuong Ha, Vietnamese Ambassador to Canada.

There will be public lectures by other outstanding mathematicians, such as James Arthur, Gerard Laumon, Edward Frenkel, Richard Taylor, Edward Witten, Diana Shelstad, Laurent Lafforgue and Nigel Hitchin.

Charity opens dental centre in Da Nang

The East meets West charity organization last Friday opened a new building that will provide free dental care to disadvantaged children in the central region.

The Dental Centre run by East meets West has been operating since 1996, but it had to borrow building space to provide its services.

The new three-storeyed building with well-equipped facilities will help the foundation provide better services to more children in need.

The organisation's dental programme has, over the last 16 years, supplied free dental care to 111,200 people.

Vinh Long, Kampong Speu boost exchange

A series of activities are taking place in Cambodia’s Kampong Speu from October 5-10.

Businesses from Vietnam’s Vinh Long province are showcasing essential commodity goods, handicraft products and variety of agricultural plants and seeds at the Kampong Speu-Vinh Long Friendship Trade Fair.

Hundreds of technicians, students and farmers from Kampong Speu are attending a two-day seminar on rice and fruit production and fishing breeding techniques.  

Agricultural experts and officials from Vinh Long introduced them to modern farming techniques to improve the economic efficiency of the agricultural and forestry sector.

Phan Anh Vu, Vice Chairman of the Vinh Long provincial People’s Committee, said since establishing sisterly ties in 1979 the two provinces have regularly exchanged visits to share management experience and promote cultural cooperation.

Kampong Speu’s Deputy Governor, Tong Seng spoke highly of Vinh Long’s cooperation in helping Cambodian farmers diversify their products.

An exchange between businesspeople and investors from the two provinces will take place in Kampong Speu, on October 9.

Ceremony promotes hand-washing day

A ceremony to observe Global Hand-Washing Day (October 15) was held in the northern port city of Hai Phong on Saturday with the participation of leaders and policy-makers from ministries and organisations.

According to Victoria Kwakwa, Country Director of the World Bank, washing hands with soap helped prevent diarrhoea, pneumonia and other illnesses, and children were the most vulnerable. She stressed that washing hands with soap at the proper time could reduce the risk of diarrhoea and respiratory diseases among children under five years old by half and a quarter, respectively. These diseases caused losses estimated at US$780 million each year, equivalent to 1.3 percent of the country's GDP.

On the occasion, the Vietnam Women's Union with 14 million members pledged to stand side by side with all families to promote change for women and children's health.

Confab reviews work on curbing corruption

More than 6,900 inspections on potential corruption activities in 10 southeastern provinces were conducted in the first nine months of the year, according to speakers at a conference held yesterday in southern Binh Phuoc Province.

Members of provincial-level agencies that deal with corruption met at the conference to review corruption-prevention tasks and create plans for the coming months.

Most of the inspections focused on fields that are prone to corruption, including financial management, construction and investment management, capital construction, land-use management, education and health.

The inspections succeeded in returning VND85.6 billion (US$4 million) to the State budget. Inspectors handed out penalties to 113 officers and 225 individuals, and sent seven cases for criminal investigation.

Inspections were conducted in HCM City as well as the provinces of Binh Duong, Tay Ninh, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Binh Thuan, Long An, Tien Giang and others.

Thirty-eight cases of corruption, including bribery, were brought to court during the first nine months of the year.

HCM City and Dong Nai Province had the highest number of cases brought to court and sent for further investigation.
Provincial-level agencies found 113 violations of transparency and publishing regulations.

Inspections were also conducted on communication principles and ethic codes of civil servants at 475 offices. Three violations were found.

Binh Thuan, Tay Ninh, Dong Nai and Binh Phuoc provinces had the highest number of penalties handed out to lower-level officials. In such cases, the leaders of those officials are charged as well.

To better inform the public, several agencies have worked together to print nearly 233,600 leaflets describing regulations on corruption prevention.

The steering board on corruption-prevention in the southeastern region said that a closer eye must be kept on the fields of land-use management, budget management, public assets, banking and civil-servant management.

It also called for tighter monitoring by all of the provinces' People's Councils and Fatherland Front Committees.

Underground water supplies discovered

The Northern Division for Water Resources Planning and Investigation has confirmed its discovery of a significant source of underground water in the northern mountainous Ha Giang Province's Meo Vac District.

Hoang Van Nhu, director of the provincial Natural Resources and Environment Department, said "both the quality and quantity of the underground water source satisfy the needs of the local people living in Dong Van Rock Plateau".

The plateau, which is 1,000-1,400 metres above sea level, covers four districts: Dong Van, Meo Vac, Quan Ba and Yen Minh.

Local people have suffered from a lack of water for a long time, impacting both their daily needs and agricultural production, Nhu said.

Scientists from the division drilled the first hole leading to the discovery of the underground water source in Meo Vac District's Pa Vi Commune in 2007.

After that, the division began a project to investigate further water sources in Meo Vac Town.

The project played an important role in helping local people improve their daily lives and increase agricultural production, he said.

PhD Tong Ngoc Thanh, chief of the division, said that over the past three years the scientists have been collecting documents and conducting surveys to identify other areas in the district which might contain underground water sources.

Then, the scientists began to drill and take water samples for tests, he said.

Underground water has been discovered at five of the seven holes they investigated, he said.

VNN/VOV/VNS