VietNamNet Bridge - Local students are so busy they don’t have time to have meals at home, and instead sometimes eat while on motorbikes when they are taken to school or extra classes by their parents.

The area for organic farming makes up only 0.2 percent of total agricultural production, but the figure is expected to increase rapidly as more investors are considering developing organic farming projects.

 A road show introducing Vietnamese tourism took place on December 5 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

 The Government has limited to 89 the number of additional aircraft that four domestic carriers can purchase by the year 2020.

  Domesticated elephants in Vietnam’s Central Highlands are receiving ultrasound scans by international experts to check their fitness for mating.

 Eleven Vietnamese pupils have won high prizes at the Australian Mathematics Competition (AMC) and Australian Intermediate Mathematics Olympiad (AIMO), the first to be held in Vietnam so far.

 The reshuffle and reform of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) must be considered the most important task of 2017, underscored Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at a national conference on SOEs rearrangement and reform on December 6.

 The Vietnamese Embassy in Indonesia, in coordination with Indonesian agencies, sent 37 Vietnamese fishermen back to Vietnam on December 6. 

 After 10 years of captivity, six Asian black bears have been rescued from a farm in Buon Ma Thuot City in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak  Province.

VietNamNet Bridge - The continued decrease in freight and transport demand has pushed shipping firms against the wall. Many of them have gone bankrupt, while others have had to sell ships to pay off debt.

 A pilot control centre of security cameras in public places has been put into operation in District 5, Ho Chi Minh City, on December 6.

Senior officials from the APEC member economies will gather at the Informal Senior Officials Meeting (ISOM) in Hanoi on December 9 to discuss priorities and key activities for the 2017 APEC, to be hosted by Vietnam.

 The third session of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Council opened on December 6 to set socio-economic-cultural goals for 2017 and discuss ways to settle issues of public concern. 

 Vietnam wishes to deepen its relations with Canada, National Assembly Vice Chairman Do Ba Ty has told Bruce Stanton, Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada. 

 Vietnam and Estonia have seen bilateral cooperation growing in recent years, as evidenced by close coordination and mutual support at international organisations such as the UN, UNESCO, the UN Human Rights Council, and the Asia-Europe Meeting.

 Vo Van Tuan, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army, has said he hopes the incoming Pakistani Defence Attaché to Vietnam will help boost defence cooperation between the two countries.

Deputy Minister of Public Security Le Quy Vuong led a Vietnamese delegations to join the 16th Tripartite and Bipartite Ministerial Conference of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos on Drug Prevention and Control that opened in Phnom Penh on December 6. 

VietNamNet Bridge - The translation service market appears quiet, but it could generate $100 million in revenue a year.

 Although the real estate market in Ho Chi Minh City has been warming up in the last two years, there are still hundreds of ghost luxury villas.

Five thermal power projects have been developed in Binh Thuan province, raising serious concerns about pollution, as the plants are located near marine protected area (MPA).