Vietnamese Minister Chu Ngoc Anh has thanked the Lao Government for its assistance and provision of favourable conditions for cooperation between the two countries’ ministries of science and technology.

 The central coastal province of Ninh Thuan and the Russian locality of Kursk signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on December 8 to strengthen cooperation.

 Senior officials from Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies gathered at an informal meeting in Hanoi on December 9 to discuss priorities for the APEC Year in 2017.

 National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan will lead a Vietnamese delegation to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to attend the 11th Global Summit of Women Speakers of Parliament slated for December 11-13. 

VietNamNet Bridge - Management agencies are considering setting quotas to restrict the number of new aircraft that airlines can buy and the number of flights each day as airports are becoming overloaded.

 Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc urged ASEAN countries to take measures to facilitate cross-border trade and investment, while warning against the re-emergence of protectionism on December 8.

 The Russia - Viet Nam oil and gas exploration joint venture, Vietsovpetro, announced completion of the initial drilling and perforation on their Thien Ung gas field on December 6, 2016.

 The HCM City People’s Council is reviewing the socio-economic situation and the city’s revenues and spending this year, drawing up plans for 2017 and reviewing all voters’ complaints at a four-day meeting which ends yesterday. 

Interaction between firms and public land administration officials pose major and serious corruption risks, posing a threat to public-private partnership (PPP) policies aiming to boost Viet Nam’s infrastructure development.

 In the last ten years, a meagre 10 per cent of assets worth of VNĐ60 trillion (approximately US$2.65 billion) involved in nearly 1,900 corruption cases have been recovered.

 Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked Ministry of Health to check the veracity of a newspaper report stating that Viet Nam ranks the top in the world in antibiotic-resistant infections.

 At least 123 people were hospitalized in the central Thua Thien -Hue Province’s Phong Dien District after eating bread bought from a local shop between November 28 and December 2.

 Four people died and two others went missing in the central provinces of Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh on December 6-7, while more than 2,300 houses were submerged in water.

 Though the Vietnam dream of making the AFF Suzuki Cup is over, there were some decent individual displays of talent out there on the evening of December 7 in Hanoi, says FourFourTwo.

 Vietnam’s potential for e-commerce development in the retail sector could achieve a US$10-billion revenue by 2020, accounting for half the country’s total retail sales.

 The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will  send experts from the French Viola Group to the central region to inspect the quality of Formosa’s waste and sewage treatment equipment from December 12.

 Ho Chi Minh City absorbed 3.7 billion USD in new foreign direct investment (FDI) so far this year, including expansion and acquisitions, according to the municipal People’s Committee. 

 The fifth International Conference on Vietnamese Studies will be held in Hanoi on December 15-16, announced the Vietnam National University (VNU) – Hanoi on December 8.

All countries, regardless of big or small, must have goodwill and responsibility to comply with regulations in the 1982 UNCLOS, Vietnamese Ambassador Nguyen Phuong Nga has said at a plenum of the UN General Assembly.

 The Party Central Committee’s Secretariat has decided punishments on some officials for violations related to Trinh Xuan Thanh, former Vice Chairman of the Hau Giang provincial People’s Committee.