Vietnamese pharmaceutical market harbours immense potential, but domestic enterprises are exploiting only half of this at best.

 Most local companies have shown optimism about business results in 2016, providing momentum for further growth in 2017.

 The export of wood and wood products is expected to fetch US$8 billion this year, up from US$7.3 billion last year.

Olympian sharpshooter Hoang Xuan Vinh fell just short of making it through to the final round of the 50m Pistol at the International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup.

 The national index of industrial production (IIP) rose by 2.4 percent year-on-year in the first two months of 2017, according to the latest report of the General Statistics Office.

 Vietnam is to suspend import of five agricultural commodities from India, which are peanuts, cassia alata seeds, cocoa seeds, French bean seeds and tamarind from India due to the high risk of them containing insects.

Vietnam and India held their 10th defence policy dialogue at deputy ministerial level in Hanoi on March 1, focusing on the implementation of the agreement reached between the two countries.

Preparations for the first APEC Senior Officials Meeting have been completed after the SOM Steering Committee on ECOTECH, the SOM Friends of the Chair on Connectivity and the Policy Support Unit concluded their final meetings.

 President Tran Dai Quang and his spouse hosted a State banquet in Hanoi on March 1 in honour of Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, who are on their State visit to Vietnam from February 28 – March 5. 

PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked ministries and sectors to work together to build growth scenarios for each sector and field, towards realising the targets of a 6.7 percent growth and 4 percent inflation in 2017. 

After winning first prize at the 12th national creativity competition for youth, two students from Da Nang will go to Japan to attend an international exhibition in May to display their Braille printer.  

If state management agencies approve a plan to sink 1.5 million cubic meters of waste sludge into waters, the waste will destroy the entire biological and physical circle of a vast sea area. 

VietNamNet Bridge - With big real estate players such as Vingroup, Sungroup and FLC and the provincial authorities’ policy on investment in infrastructure, Quang Ninh has become a new magnet in the resort real estate market.

VietNamNet Bridge - MOET has asked universities to publicize surveys and reports on the employment of their graduates. The statistics must be published on the schools’ websites, beginning this year.

Vietnam has unveiled a new plan to transform the country into a regional logistics hub by 2025.

 Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko laid a wreath at the mausoleum of President Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi on March 1 to pay tribute to the greatest leader of Vietnam.

 Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs to study recent reports that Vietnamese workers sent to work in Taiwan were paying brokerage fees that were higher than regulated.

 Unseasonal rains are likely to hit central, Central Highlands and southern regions in March spurred by the active operation of the equatorial low pressure belt, according to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.

 A “German Science Day” was organised in Ho Chi Minh City on March 1 on the occasion of 20 years of scientific-technological cooperation between Vietnam and Germany.

 Consumer price index rises 0.23 % in February