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24/12/2022 23:20 (GMT+07:00)

VIETNAM NEWS HEADLINES DECEMBER 23

National conference reviews journalism activities in 2022

A national journalism conference was held in Ho Chi Minh City on December 24 to review activities in 2022 and launch tasks for next year.

Addressing the event, Nguyen Trong Nghia, Secretary of the Party Central Committee and head of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Information and Education, emphasised the press’s important role in performing information and education tasks of the Party, protecting the Party’s ideological foundation, and refuting wrongful viewpoints of hostile forces.

He asked press agencies to continue closely following the Party’s targets on journalism management and development, especially the orientation for building revolutionary, professional, humane, and modern press.

In particular, he noted, in its sixth session, the 13th Party Central Committee also underlined the need to strongly apply science and technology while bringing into play the human factor in journalism activities.

In her remarks, Director General of the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) Vu Viet Trang held that building a professional, humane, and modern journalism environment should be a target of the revolutionary press in the digital era since the ultimate goal of the revolutionary press is to serve the Fatherland and people and navigate people towards humane values.

Aside from complying with legal regulations, journalists should also show a high sense of responsibility and overcome many objective and subjective barriers to create valuable press works, she added.

A report at the conference highlighted major achievements of journalism activities in 2022 but also pointed out certain problems.

On this occasion, 32 collectives with outstanding performance in journalism activities this year were honoured with certificates of merit by the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Information and Education, including the VNA’s Department of Domestic News.

“Sa Pa – Snowy Paradise” winter festival opens

The People’s Committee of Sa Pa town in the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai on December 23 opened the Winter Festival themed “Sa Pa – Snowy Paradise”.

Located 350km northwest of Hanoi, Sa Pa is 1,600m above sea level, with the average temperature of 15-18 degree Celsius. The town is among few locations in Vietnam where snow and ice sometimes appear in winter.

The Travel, a well-known travel site in Canada, recently listed Sa Pa among the 10 most attractive snow-watching destinations in Asia.

The winter festival is one among five seasonal festivals held by Sa Pa authorities this year, which also include Spring Festival, Love Season Festival, Summer Festival and Autumn Festival. This festival is expected to serve 120,000 domestic and foreign tourists

So far this year, the town has welcomed 2.43 million tourists, earning 7.12 trillion VND (301.88 million USD).

Free coach helps workers return home for Lunar New Year

Organisations and individuals over many years have been helping poor workers, and people return to their hometowns to spend the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday with their families.

"Coach number 7" is a volunteer project implemented by the TES sponsor fund, formerly the VNO Organisation.

The coach brings poor people to their hometown for free, departing from Ho Chi Minh City to central provinces such as Khanh Hoa, Phu Yen, Binh Dinh, Quang Tri and Quang Binh.

Huynh Thi Thu, who lives in district 8, has received a ticket for Coach No 7 . She has sold lottery tickets in HCM City for ten years.

"It's been almost ten years. I haven't been able to enjoy Tet in my hometown with my family. Living in HCM City and do not have money, I stay in my boarding room, waiting for Tet to pass so I can return to work," she said.

Nguyen Hoang Anh, a student of Thu Dau Mot University in southern Binh Duong province, was pleased to receive the coach ticket.

Anh said that his family was poor, so he intended not to come back home this Tet.

"My mother had a traffic accident two years ago, weakening her health. Then she suffered from COVID-19 and needed treatment at three hospitals at much expense. As a result, my family had to mortgage our house. Now I'm thrilled with the free-of-charge ticket," he said.

In a small boarding room in district 12, Bui Thi Khue, from Quang Ngai province, said that with the work of selling lottery tickets, she did not have any savings.

She walks for more than 20km each day and earns about 200,000 VND (8 USD), just enough for the daily expense.

As for Khue, returning home on Tet was a distant dream.

"Honestly, I'm very moved by the free ticket. This year I do not have to worry about travel expenses. I hope to return home with my family soon after eight years of living in HCM City," she said.

It is scheduled that Coach No 7 will start in the middle of January next year. As many as 300 people will benefit from the project.

VNO Organisation was founded at the end of 2016 by Nguyen Hoang Khai, who lives in district 12.

He said that he founded a charity team in 2013 with 20 members. Most of them are high school students in Tan Phu district.

The team delivered gifts for poor children, people in sponsor centres, lottery ticket sellers and motorbike taxi drivers in HCM City.

In 2016, Khai decided to cycle from HCM City to Hanoi to understand more about people's life and culture in different regions.

While passing central provinces, Khai saw residents had to cope with natural disasters. Many properties they saved all their lives were swept away by flood water.

Back in HCM City, Khai founded the VNO Organisation, which conducts charity programmes and supports workers and students from central provinces who live in HCM City.

The first coach was organised in 2017, taking 70 people to central provinces from HCM City.

So far, more than 20 such coaches have been organised with nearly 1,000 beneficiaries.

Volunteers will come to their houses when receiving the poor's register to study whether they need the free tickets.

The volunteers also help bring luggage and take the people's health home.

Khai said that seeing the people's smiles and hearing their thanks were a great experience, giving him more motivation to continue his charity work.

The HCM City Labour Union said that the union's tickets of love programme planned to give 35,000 free-of-charge coach, train and plane tickets to poor workers this year.

The HCM City Youth and Worker Support Centre will also present 1,500 tickets during the Tet holiday. The centre's programme is scheduled to start on January 17 next year to take poor workers to their hometown to enjoy the holiday.

Project aims at increasing forest coverage in Lang Sen Wetland Reserve

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Lang Sen Wetland Reserve in the Mekong Delta province of Long An held a workshop on December 22 to introduce a project on special-use forest plantation in the reserve.

The project, sponsored by PAN Group JSC and CP Vietnam Livestock JSC, is implemented from December 2022 to December 2024, aiming to plant 340,000 trees on an area of 17 hectares in the reserve.

The purpose is to increase the coverage of the Melaleuca forest, create habitats for water birds, improve the habitats of aquatic species, and support the plan to plant special-use and border protection forests in Long An province in the 2021-2025 period.

Located in Tan Hung district, the reserve spreads over 5,000 hectares. It is the best sample of natural riverine forests in Dong Thap Muoi Wetlands, the Mekong Delta with cajuput forests, rice fields, grassland, trees and riverine swamps.

In 2015, Lang Sen was recognised as the 7th Ramsar site in Vietnam and the 2,227th worldwide.

Ramsar sites are wetlands of international importance designated under the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilisation of wetlands.

Vietnamese folk songs performed in Italian university

Students who are studying Vietnamese from the Faculty of Asian and Northern African Studies under the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice performed Vietnamese folk songs, water puppet shows and recited the Tale of Kieu during the “Vietnam Soul” event on December 21.

Le Thi Bich Huong, a lecturer of Vietnamese practice from the university, said performances by the first to third-year students are also meant to report the results of their studies on Vietnamese language and culture.

The Vietnamese language has been taught in the university in 2019. It is the only place in Italy with the most complete Vietnamese language curricula, providing students with knowledge of history, literature, economy, geopolitics, art and every aspect of Vietnamese culture.

Head of the faculty Prof. Marco Ceresa said next year, the faculty will launch a master programme in Vietnamese and hold more cultural exchanges between Italian and Vietnamese students in the university.

Army anniversary marked in Czech Republic

The Association of Vietnamese War Veterans in the Czech Republic on December 22 held a ceremony to mark the 78th founding anniversary of the Vietnam People’s Army (VPA) (December 22, 1944 - 2022) and the 33rd All People’s Defence Festival (December 22, 1989 – 2022).

Attending were Ambassador Thai Xuan Dung, Military Attaché Cao Hung Trang, representatives of overseas Vietnamese associations, and close to 200 veterans living in the European country.

Nguyen Van Son, president of the association, emphasised the VPA’s spirit of fighting and sacrificing for the revolutionary cause in its 78 years of construction and development, adding the gathering is a chance to talk about the fighting traditions and pay respect to fallen soldiers and Heroic Mothers.

Established on December 22, 2014, the association groups almost 600 members across the Czech Republic.

HCM City: Average Tet bonus surges 45%

The Tet (New Year) bonus of the upcoming lunar Year of the Cat will average nearly 13 million VND, 45% higher than that last year, according to the municipal Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.

Based on data from its survey of more than 1,000 businesses operating in the city, the department said the highest bonus reported so far is more than 756 million VND (31,900 USD) by a foreign-invested enterprise, and the lowest, more than 4.8 million VND.

According to deputy director of the department Nguyen Van Lam, as many as 386 enterprises among the respondents said their business faced difficulties due to fewer orders and more difficulties in collecting debts, which forced them to downsize their production.

Apart from the bonus, local enterprises plan other forms like providing free train and bus tickets and gifts for their employees to go home for Tet.
HCM City is home to nearly 249,000 enterprises, generating employment to over 2.8 million labourers.

RoK ministry hosts banquet to mark Vietnam-RoK diplomatic ties anniversary

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea (RoK) hosted a banquet in Seoul on December 22 evening to mark the 30th founding anniversary of Vietnam-RoK diplomatic relations.

Foreign Minister Park Jin said that over the past 30 years, the two countries have achieved encouraging cooperation results in various fields thanks to joint efforts of the two governments and peoples, calling this a firm foundation for bilateral relations in the future.

He highlighted the recent State visit to the RoK by President Nguyen Xuan Phuc, during which the two countries lifted their ties to the comprehensive strategic partnership level.

This will bring about substantive support for the two countries’ businesses and peoples, and create a momentum to boost collaboration in digitalisation and biology.

Via video, Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son said that Vietnam appreciates the RoK’s consideration of the country as a key partner in the Indo-Pacific Strategy as well as in the implementation of the Korea-ASEAN Solidarity Initiative.

Vietnam will join the RoK in efforts to achieve visions and goals of the new relationship framework - the comprehensive strategic partnership - and fulfill the role of a coordinator for ASEAN - RoK relations for the 2021- 2024 term, added Son.

Visit Vietnam Year-Quang Nam 2022 wraps up

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the People’s Committee of central Quang Nam province on December 22 organised a ceremony to wrap up the Visit Vietnam Year-Quang Nam 2022 and launch the National Startup Year 2023.

Speaking at the event, Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Le Tri Thanh said that throughout the Visit Vietnam Year 2022, more than 210 events took place across Vietnam, of which 73 events were organised in Quang Nam province.

He said the success of the Visit Vietnam Year-Quang Nam 2022 contributed to Vietnam’s tourism achievements this year with 3.5 million foreign visitors and 101.3 million domestic tourists. The country’s tourism revenue reached about 495 trillion VND (nearly 21 billion USD).

Particularly, in 2022, Quang Nam welcomed nearly 4.8 million visitors, 13 times higher than the figure last year. The province gained 3.8 trillion VND from tourism, eight times higher than the amount of 2021. Social incomes from tourism are estimated at 8.9 trillion VND.

Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Doan Van Viet said that the Visit Vietnam Year 2022 helped improve awareness of the role of tourism in socio-economic development.

Cultural and tourism activities towards "green" and sustainability have been effectively promoted while many projects were invested and completed, helping to attract international and domestic tourists, he said.

The south-central province of Binh Thuan will host the Visit Vietnam Year 2023 with the theme “Binh Thuan – Green convergence”.

Meanwhile, Quang Nam province will host the National Startup Year 2023 with the theme “Spreading the startup spirit”.

The event aims to create a start-up culture, arousing the entrepreneurship spirit, forming a sustainable national innovation startup ecosystem, and connecting startups with the One Commune-One Product (OCOP) programme and typical industrial and rural products.

Rare primates found in Quang Binh nature reserve

Eight primate species, including rare ones, were discovered in Dong Chau – Khe Nuoc Trong Nature Reserve in the central province of Quang Binh, according to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Director of the nature reserve Bach Thanh Hai said the species comprise Nycticebus coucang, Nycticebus pygmaeus, red-faced monkey, pig-tailed monkey, golden monkey, white-cheeked gibbon, brown-shanked douc langur, and Ha Tinh langur.

Of these species, two are fully investigated, including the white-cheeked gibbon with 309 individuals, and between 413-419 brown-shanked douc langurs.

These are species that are classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Sustainable sand management helps reduce climate change impact on Mekong Delta

About 40% of the Mekong Delta will disappear by 2100 due to a lack of sediment, and overexploitation of sand is to blame.

The alarming data was shared by experts from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Vietnam at a recent seminar titled "Sustainable sand management in the Mekong Delta and solutions to the scarcity of sand in the Mekong Delta" in the city of Can Tho.

According to the WWF, overexploitation of sand has exacerbated the effects of climate change and the rise in sea level, especially in the face of riverbank erosion.

The report of the WWF in Vietnam and the General Department of Natural Disaster Prevention and Control under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development showed that landslides have been widespread in the whole delta.

On average, each year, the Mekong Delta loses about 500ha of land. In the three years from 2018 to 2020, landslides caused more than 200 billion VND (8.4 million USD) in damage to the provinces of An Giang, Dong Thap, Can Tho, Vinh Long and Ca Mau.

The main cause of landslides is the overexploitation of groundwater and the construction of a series of hydroelectric dams upstream, especially the increasing exploitation of river sand. Excessive sand mining also increases the depth of the river bed.

According to Ha Huy Anh, Project Manager of Sustainable Sand Management in the Mekong Delta of the WWF in Vietnam, currently, the volume of sand poured into the Mekong Delta is about 6.18-7 million tonnes per year and about 6.5 million tonnes of sand is poured into the East Sea.

Meanwhile, the amount of sand extracted from rivers in this area is between 28-40 million tonnes per year. This means, every year, the Mekong Delta is experiencing a sand deficit from 27.5 to 39.5 million tonnes. Unsustainable sand mining is having a significant impact on the morphology of the two main rivers in the Mekong Delta, namely the Tien and Hau rivers.

Nguyen Nghia Hung, Deputy Director of the Southern Institute of Irrigation Science, said that riverbed sand is a particularly necessary resource for socio-economic development needs. In particular, in the Mekong Delta, riverbed sand is exploited and used mostly to make construction materials and level the ground. However, at present, the problem of sand mining in this area is facing challenges involving climate change and overexploitation.

According to Hung, there are many research topics on river management planning and irrigation planning. However, not much research is conducted on sustainable sand mining planning.

Recently, the WWF in Vietnam has implemented the Sustainable Sand Management project. The project will be implemented from July 2019 to May 2024 to contribute to maintaining important ecological functions and reducing socioeconomic risks due to climate change in the Mekong Delta.

One of the project's goals is to increase awareness among communities and decision-makers about the impact of unsustainable sand mining, which increases natural disasters in the region, and thereby promote the finding of alternative sources of sand and gravel for construction.

According to the WWF in Vietnam, the project will promote the participation and dialogue among key actors in the Vietnamese construction industry, providing information about the risks related to sand and gravel mining and opportunities for sustainable alternatives to sand and gravel in Can Tho as well as the Mekong Delta.

At the same time, a communication campaign on the impact of unsustainable sand and gravel mining in the Mekong Delta will also be carried out by the WWF to promote urgent action to tackle the problem.