Events in Hanoi & HCMC on December 31-January 6 

 A tower has been set up at Sa Dec flower village in the southern province of Dong Thap to help visitors observe the whole village from above.

 An enticing art performance took place in Nha Trang city in the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa on December 31 to welcome the New Year and announce the 2019 National Tourism Year.

 During this time of the year, food businesses in HCMC are busy organising for the Tet holiday. So far, food goods have been prepared with a total value of over 790 million USD, with food health and safety set at the top priority.

 The first nine out of 12 Vietnamese tourists injured in a recent bomb attack in Egypt arrived at Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh City in the afternoon of January 1.

In an article issued on the first day of 2019, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc laid out six major tasks that ministries, agencies, sectors and localities must focus on throughout the year.

 The Government on January 1 issued a resolution setting targets for improving the business environment and national competitiveness for 2019 through to 2021.

 Vietnam will be short of 70,000 to 90,000 information and technology (IT) workers next year despite increasing salary and welfare, according to a TopDev, a recruitment network and ecosystem in mobile and IT, report on the IT market in Vietnam.

 Up to five cold spells are predicted to hit the northern region in January, according to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.

 Five officials of a company which operates build, operate and transfer (BOT) toll stations of HCM City-Truong Luong Expressway in the southern region have been arrested for being accused of fraud.

 CBRE Vietnam has seen that the condominium market in Ho Chi Minh City has attracted greater attention from foreign buyers in the high-end and luxury segment. 

 A trip to the already pricey city of Venice, Italy, will now leave your wallet even emptier than before. Venetian officials have announced plans to charge day visitors up to $11 (€10) to enter.

VietNamNet Bridge - The highlights of the stock market in 2018, according to the Securities Journalist Club, included the following:

The Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MONRE) estimates that if a 9.2 Richter earthquake occurs at the Manila Trench, it may cause a 10.6 meter tsunami in Quang Ngai province and a 5 meter tsunami in Nha Trang City.

Two of Vietnam’s universities were listed among top 1,000 best universities in the world, marking a milestone in Vietnam’s tertiary education. Vietnam also won high prizes at international competitions for general school students.

Ki-Ki, the first Vietnam-made chatbot, was presented at Zalo AI Summit 2018 in late December 2018, where Vietnam’s AI community showed optimistic signs about the development of AI (artificial intelligence) in the country. 

 When Katsunori and Kaori Osaka had their first child, they were living in a cramped apartment in Nagoya, a city of more than 2 million people in central Japan.

VietNamNet Bridge - High-quality, made-in-Vietnam products are also becoming better known to consumers.

 Let's takes a look back at major international cultural events hosted by Vietnam in 2018.

Vietnamese enterprises need to take the initiative and increase exports through official channels to China as Chinese consumers now demand higher quality products, experts say.