Vietnamese doctors have successfully performed 1,500 kidney transplants, 50 liver transplants and 13 heart cases to date.

  The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee on December 17 chose Trungnam Group to implement the phase 1 of a project to control flooding caused by tides in the City.

VietNamNet Bridge - The business fields that Thais have poured money to in Vietnam – infrastructure, building materials, retail, consumer goods, food and automobiles – are all fields with great potential.

 All six Vietnamese students attending the 12th International Junior Science Olympiad (IJSO) held in the Republic of Korea brought home medals, according to the Hanoi municipal Department of Education and Training.

VietNamNet Bridge - Nearly all high school students who won top prizes at competitions for excellent students, when asked about their future plans, said they want to study abroad.

VietNamNet Bridge - Domestic banks are struggling to compete with foreign banks, which are powerful in online payment technology, and with businesses applying online payment methods.

VietNamNet Bridge - Thousands of hectares of forests have been cleared to make room for industrial crops, but many project investors have ‘forgotten’ to plant new forests to compensate for land that was cleared.

On December 18, the temperatures continue to fall in the North of Vietnam. Many locations, including Sapa, one of the most famous destinations in Vietnam, were covered with frost.

VietNamNet Bridge - Economists have repeatedly urged to think of solutions to escape the reliance on Chinese goods, but the task remains difficult.

The minimum wage increase, a lack of highly qualified personnel and strict regulations on extra working hours all have been cited by foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) as problems they are facing.

VietNamNet Bridge - Investors have repeatedly voiced their concern about Vietnam’s public debt which has been increasing rapidly, and about the national default risk, according to Le Xuan Nghia, head of the Business Development Institute (BDI).

VietNamNet Bridge - Doctors and experts of Asia Animals have arrived in Vietnam to treat diseases and wounds of tamed elephants.

 Do Hoang Anh Tuan, deputy minister of finance, said reduction in the world crude price to US$36 per barrel in future transactions would not affect budget revenue this year.

Co-working spaces with a special focus on startups are opening in response to the explosion in the number of startups.

 The People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City on December 16 opened a trial for violators of regulations on lending in credit organisations’ activity and fraudulence at the branch 7 of the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.

Banks in the last three years have rushed to provide retail banking services, encouraged by the increased spending of middle-class income earners. Fifty-three percent of the 95 million population are of working age.

Despite not appearing in top 13 of Miss World’s talent contest, Vietnamese representative Lan Khue was still selected to perform at ‘Dances of the world’audition shows in the upcoming final night.

 ArchDaily has cited the 2.5 House (a/k/a Khuon Studio) in the Tan Binh District of Ho Chi Minh City as one of the architectural masterpieces of the world.

VietNamNet Bridge - The valuation of Vietnamese companies on the stock market is lower than 40-50 percent than in neighboring markets, according to Dominic Scriven.

 In 2015 the insurance market has achieved its best performance of the last five years, growing at nearly 22 per cent and earning revenues of US$3.1 billion, the head of the insurance watchdog told an ongoing conference in HCM City.