Senior Party officials examine key, complicated issues

The 13th Party Central Committee convened its 6th plenum in Hanoi on October 3 to discuss Vietnam’s key issues described as difficult, complicated and sensitive.

A number of issues have been carried out for a long time, but there are still limitations and weaknesses that need to be redressed so as to meet the country’s requirements of the new development period.

Senior Party officials are scheduled to give opinions on national socio-economic development and state budget plan implementation in 2022, and tasks for 2023, orientations of the national master plan for the 2021 – 2030 period with a vision to 2050.

They will also discuss solutions to promote national industrialization and modernization until 2030 with a vision to 2045, and build and perfect the socialist law-governed state in the new period.

They will review 15 years of implementing the Resolution of the 10th Party Central Committee regarding renovating the Party’s leadership in the operation of the political system.

The Party Central Committee is scheduled to meet for a week.

Hanoi needs nearly 890 mln USD to fully convert to electric buses

Hanoi will need nearly 890 million USD in the coming years to replace all petrol- and diesel-powered public buses with electric alternatives.

The estimated cost is calculated by Hanoi Transport Corporation- Hanoi's major bus lines operator, which is operating nearly 1,100 buses on 83 normal and one BRT routes in the city.  

The number of vehicles eligible to be replaced by electric buses by 2025 is 225, accounting for over 21% of the total, the company said.

Currently, there are nine electric bus lines in Hanoi operated by Vinbus Ecology Transport Services Limited Liability Company (VinBus), a member of Vietnam’s largest conglomerate Vingroup. The first electric buses were put into operation in Hanoi in December 2021.

Under the Government action programme on green energy transition, and carbon and methane emission reduction, Vietnam aims to have 100% of new buses use electricity or green energy from 2025.

It also targets that from 2030, at least half of all vehicles and all new taxis will be powered by electricity or green energy. By 2050, 100% of buses and taxis will use these types of energy.

HCM City to accelerate housing development

HCM City continues to accelerate the implementation of related procedures for the city’s housing development programme by 2030, including social housing, affordable accommodations for workers, and relocating houses in slums along canals and rivers.

This was announced at a press conference held on September 29 by the municipal People's Committee to provide a review of socio-economic development in the first nine months of the year, the outlook for the entire year, and COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control work.

Phạm Đức Hải, deputy head of Propaganda Department of the city Party Committee, chaired the press conference and said the city’s economy saw a strong continued recovery in the first nine months of the year.

The city’s gross domestic product in the first nine months of the year grew by 9.7 per cent compared to the same period last year.

The total state budget revenue was estimated at nearly VNĐ350 trillion (US$14.6 billion), up 27.7 per cent year-on-year, reaching 90.5 per cent of the whole year's plan.

In the first nine months of the year, total import-export revenue was VNĐ104.7 trillion ($4.4 billion), up 19.7 per cent year-on-year, reaching 89.9 per cent of the year’s estimate.

The city welcomed 20.6 million domestic tourists, a 66.1 per cent year-on year increase, and 2.1 million international tourists, up 10 per cent year-on year.

In the last months of the year, the city strives to safely, flexibly and effectively control and adapt to the pandemic, improve the quality of infrastructure, urban development and management, and accompany businesses to build a favourable investment environment.

Celebrating the art of late poet Xuân Quỳnh

A poetry, music, and theatre evening titled Hoa Cúc Xanh (Green Daisy) will be staged to honour the late poet Xuân Quỳnh (1942-1988) on the occasion of the anniversary of her 80th birthday.

It will be divided into four parts, each titled after one of Xuân Quỳnh's classic poems, including Bầu Trời Trong Quả Trứng (Sky viewed from the Eggshell), Tự Hát (Self singing), Sóng (Wave), and Hoa Cúc Xanh (Green Daisy).

The centrepiece of the show, according to the organisers, is Hoa Cúc Xanh (Green Daisy), a play written by director Nguyễn Hoàng Điệp and staged by Meritorious Artist Trần Lực.

The play connects concepts from the poem of the same name by poet Xuân Quỳnh and the well-known play Green Daisy On The Swamp by her spouse and playwright Lưu Quang Vũ, such that the two works appear to be linked in unique ways.

Another notable aspect of the event is the poetic performance of artists Lê Khanh, Chiều Xuân, Minh Trang, Lan Hương, and Đỗ Kỷ, which will provide a truer perspective of Quỳnh and Vũ's love as well as their artistic soul.

Several of the performances in the night will be making their stage debuts, featuring songs that musicians Nguyễn Vĩnh Tiến, Giáng Son, Lưu Quang Minh, and vocalist Bùi Lan Hương composed especially for the show.

Xuân Quỳnh is widely regarded as one of the century's finest poetic voices.

Her poems, which are often about motherhood and romance, are full of the raw passion of a woman with a lot of experience with both.

On August 29, 1988, Quỳnh, her husband, Lưu Quang Vũ, and their 12-year-old son, Lưu Quỳnh Thơ, were killed in a vehicle crash in the city of Hải Dương, leaving a legacy of unending sadness for those who admired their works.

After her death, she was awarded the prestigious Hồ Chí Minh Prize for Literature and the Arts in 2017. 

New Year calendar honours Vietnam's national treasures

National Political Publishing House has launched a daily wall calendar for 2023 featuring images of hundreds of national treasures.

The 356-page tear-off calendar is among three special calendars which the house is printing for the coming year.

Each page includes images and information of the national treasures to introduce an overview of the history, culture and daily life of Vietnamese over the last thousands of years.

The calendar is designed with the two favourite colours of red and yellow which symbolise luck and prosperity in the new year.

National treasures include the Ngọc Lũ bronze drum, artefacts from the 11th to 15th centuries, 82 stone steles at Văn Miếu Quốc Tử Giám (Literature Temple), 24 paintings and others.

The calendar also highlights paintings. One of them is Em Thúy (Little Thúy) by Trần Văn Cẩn in 1943. Little Thúy stands out among many oil paintings by the graduates of the French Indochina Fine Arts College and is the best of Trần Văn Cẩn, who graduated top of his 1937 class.

The calendar makers aim to honour Vietnamese national treasures and encourage people to keep the habit of hanging wall calendars in their home as a feature of Vietnamese traditional culture.

Historian Dương Trung Quốc said that the calendar is an "encyclopedia of national treasures” that will help Vietnamese people understand the national treasures better and be more conscious of preserving them.

The calendar will be displayed at book fairs in Germany and the US.

The publishing house will publish two other calendars with the themes of national islands and seas, and the great solidarity of Vietnamese 54 ethnic groups.

Painting exhibition on Vietnam held in France

Vietnam’s strong developments as well as its aspiration for sustainable environment have been captured in paintings displayed in Paris’s outskirts city of Accueil.

The exhibition that opened on October 1 is the initiative of Aurore - a non-profit organisation based in France, and the Vietnamese-origin French people's movement (MCFV), aiming to enhance cultural exchange between the two countries.

Aurore Chairwoman Tran Thu Dung said the four-day event features nearly 30 works by eight painters of different ages, which carry the message of environmental protection.

The paintings are in different materials like lacquer, oil, watercolour or acrylic.

Within the framework of the exhibition, there were a martial arts performance and other art performances, helping French friends and overseas Vietnamese understand more about Vietnam’s culture.

Festivals highlight traditional rituals and costumes of ethnic minorities

The second national cultural festival of the Dao ethnic people will take place in the northern province of Thái Nguyên from October 6-8, featuring many art programmes that showcase the spiritual and cultural life of the Dao people.

The festival will gather nearly 2,000 Dao artisans, artists, actors and athletes from 14 provinces, including Thái Nguyên, Bắc Giang, Bắc Kạn and Cao Bằng. They will jointly re-enact many traditional rituals of the Dao, such as the sacred forest worship ceremony, cấp sắc ritual (a rite of passage declaring the coming-of-age of Dao men within the community), wedding ceremonies and dancing festivals.

The opening ceremony will take place in Võ Nguyên Giáp Square in Thái Nguyên City on October 6 and will be aired live on various TV and radio channels.

Many other activities that will be held at the festival include a photo exhibition showcasing Dao culture, performances of traditional national costumes, and an introduction to Dao cuisine and sports competitions.

Another festival that spotlights traditional costumes of Việt Nam’s ethnic minorities in the north will be held at the Vietnam National Village for Ethnic Culture and Tourism in Sơn Tây Town on the outskirts of Hà Nội.

NA chairman: Long Thanh airport must be ready by National Day 2025

National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue has told the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) to speed up work on the Long Thanh International Airport in Dong Nai Province so that the first phase of the multi-billion-dollar project can be ready by National Day (September 2) in 2025.

On Sunday, October 2, Hue, also a Politburo member, paid a working visit to the southern province where he met with provincial leaders over the progress of this megaproject in Long Thanh District, reported the Giao Thong news site (baogiaothong.vn). At the meeting, he underlined the importance of the project, saying Long Thanh would become a leading aviation hub in Southeast Asia.

He praised the central Government’s determination to inaugurate the first phase of the airport on September 2, 2025, instead of the end of that year. Therefore, the deadline cannot be met if there is no sense of responsibility and urgency, he stressed.

ACV said at the meeting that the runway, taxiway, apron and other components are on schedule and that construction work on key items would begin in the fourth quarter of this year.

Pile driving at the passenger terminal construction site has been completed earlier than planned, with all the 1,545 piles driven into the ground, said Lai Xuan Thanh, chairman of ACV.

He added the building of the terminal will start construction in the coming months.

However, thousands of families have yet to move out of the 5,000-hectare project location, with a 1,810-hectare area still home to around 100 families that have not agreed to relocate.

This situation has to some extent affected the progress of the project.

Cao Tien Dung, chairman of Dong Nai Province, said about 96% of land needed for the airport project had been handed over to the investor and that Long Thanh District would soon complete land clearance and handover.

The local authorities have had a tough time dealing with land clearance because many families do not have legitimate land documentation, making it difficult to compensate, Dung noted.

In the first phase with a total cost of US$4.6 billion, the Long Thanh airport will have a 4,000-meter-long runway, taxiways and aprons and be able to serve 25 million passengers per year.

The airport will be able to handle up to 100 million passengers and five million tons of cargo a year when it is fully finished.

US$164 mln proposed for construction of Ho Chi Minh Highway in Mekong Delta

The Ministry of Transport has just submitted to the Vietnamese Prime Minister a pre-feasibility study report on the implementation of the Rach Soi - Ben Nhat, Go Quao - Vinh Thuan sections through the two Mekong Delta provinces of Kien Giang and Bac Lieu under Ho Chi Minh Highway construction and investment project.

Accordingly, the nearly 52-kilometer-long project is divided into two sections, comprising a length of around 11.2-kilometer section of Rach Soi- Ben Nhat and around 40.62-kilometer long section of Go Quao- Vinh Thuan.

Under the Vietnam road network plan for the period 2021 - 2030, with a vision for 2050, these sections have a scale of three to four lanes.

However, based on the transport demand on the route and the allocation of capital in the medium-term public investment plan for the 2021-2025 period, the Ministry of Transport proposed to build the two sections of the highway under level-3 plain road model with a maximum speed of 80 kilometers an hour, total project investment of about VND3.9 trillion (US$164 million) from the state budget.

The site clearance and resettlement for the project are expected to be implemented in 2022-2023, and the project will begin construction in 2023 and finish in 2025.

Vietnam needs national start-up initiative: WB

The World Bank advised that Vietnam needs national start-up initiatives as well as developing a law on start-ups with a clearer message.

Some 550 delegates attended the National Youth Entrepreneurship Forum 2022 which was organized by the Central Youth Union and the Central Vietnam Youth Union in Hanoi yesterday.

With the theme ‘Youth start-ups and the country recover and develop after the pandemic’, this year's forum aimed to promote entrepreneurship and develop the country, creating an environment for Vietnamese youth to participate in the post-Covid-19 economic recovery and development. In addition to the efforts to create a breakthrough over the past time, the delegates raised many challenges for start-up activities.

Attending the forum, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam expressed his wish that the spirit of entrepreneurship should spread amongst young people. The State and ministries must create more favorable conditions for young people to start up so that Vietnam will have 1.3-1.5 million enterprises by 2025.

According to Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Duy Dong, those wanting to start their own business are facing several difficulties including slowly promulgated legal provisions creating a legal corridor for start-up activities. The Decree 38/2018/ND-CP detailing investment for creative small and medium-sized enterprises (Decree 38) still has problems and has not been updated.

Vietnam currently has about 20 innovative start-up investment funds, but most of them are small in scale, with a total capital of about VND100 billion, so they need to expand and attract more foreign capital flows. Worse, research and development expenditures are still small in comparison to other countries, accounting for only 0.37 percent of the country’s GDP.

From an objective perspective, the World Bank supposed that the Vietnamese government should remove some problems with many problems at the macro level regarding the innovative start-up environment.

According to WB, the first challenge is related to the vision and role of leaders at all levels. Despite the remarkable growth in the number of businesses participating in the startup ecosystem, Vietnam still lacks a consistent approach to creating a common brand for startups. The Government needs to train civil servants so that civil servants can have a better service attitude toward entrepreneurs.

Many startup business representatives recommended that relevant ministries and sectors should have more practical support, from creating an open legal corridor to building an open mechanism to create more favorable conditions for businesses, especially in the first few years of starting a business.

Regarding proposals of facilitation for foreign capital, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Duy Dong said that he would advise the Government to amend Decree 38 in the direction of creating a legal corridor for investment activities. Regarding the attraction of high-quality human resources to work legally in Vietnam, Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Le Tan Dung said that there are currently nearly 100,000 foreigners working in Vietnam as managers, executives, experts, and high-tech workers.

The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs is reviewing regulations and studying to propose amendments to Decree 152 on the management of foreign workers to facilitate the provision of visas and work permits for high-quality human resources to work in Vietnam. The representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also said that it will coordinate with the Ministry of Public Security and ministries to facilitate the procedures for applying for a permit for foreigners to work for more than one month in Vietnam.

Southeast Asia’s information platform for energy transition debuts

A regional information platform for energy transition SIPET, targeted at professionals, has been launched by the Clean, Affordable, and Secure Energy for Southeast Asia (CASE) to facilitate dialogue and promote coordination in the region’s power sector to support the acceleration of the energy transition in the region.

Energy demand is projected to grow by 80% by 2050. Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam represent nearly three-quarters of total power generation in Southeast Asia; therefore, the ability of the region to meet its development goals largely depends on the countries’ current and future energy choices.

Yet, energy transition stakeholders in Southeast Asia have highlighted in a survey a series of common challenges: a lack of institutional capacity; a lack of platforms for timely information and intelligence sharing; excessive time spent in coordination; and duplication of work because stakeholders are not aware of others’ activities.

SIPET will tackle these challenges with four key functions: a suite of Power Sector Resources, a Project Database and Mapping Tool, a Knowledge-Sharing Hub, and a Community Forum for energy transition professionals.

The CASE project, commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action of Germany (BMWK), aims to support Southeast Asian partner countries in the transition to a future energy system that provides reliable and affordable energy to the people while increasing political ambition to comply with the Paris Agreement. CASE contributes to shifting the narrative of the energy sector in Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam towards an evidence-based energy transition.

The Travel: Vietnam named among leading budget destinations

The nation has been listed among the world's top five budget destinations, as compiled by Canadian travel magazine The Travel.

The Travel’s article notes that if visitors are up for a true adventure, then Vietnam is the destination for them.

“Due to its long stretch of land across the South China Sea, Vietnam offers up fun bustling cities, pristine green landscapes, and even surfer-vibe beach towns,” says the magazine.

It suggests that tourists enjoy a stroll down the lantern-lined streets of UNESCO World Heritage Site Hoi An, with guests able to purchase custom-made outfits for just under US$30.

The Travel also recommends that visitors go and explore Ha Long Bay, one of the world's natural wonders. Indeed, for just a little bit of money, travelers can sleep overnight on a boat on the bay itself for US$125, including round-trip transportation both to and from Hanoi, with all meals included.

“If you spend time directly in Hanoi, you'll be rewarded with meals such as fresh Banh mi, bun cha, and pho for breakfast (a lesson that should be taken by the rest of the world), all for less than US$2 a pop,” The Travel revealed.

It added that visitors should not miss out on the chance to sample the famous Vietnamese egg coffee or treat themselves to a spa or a salon in Hanoi which offers gel manicures for only US$4.

For those who are keen to join the chaotic lifestyle of local people, then The Travel suggests that they rent a motorbike for US$4 per day or take a 12-hour sleeper bus down the coast from Hanoi to Da Nang for between US$15 and US$17 a ticket.

Rounding off the top five are Malaysia, India, the Philippines, and Bulgaria.

HCMC's public hospitals face risk of shortage of nurses

The Department of Health of Ho Chi Minh City, on September 30, said that shortly, the shortage of nurses at hospitals is forecasted to be more serious when the number of newly recruited nurses is not sufficient in both quantity and quality to make up for the number of those who quitted their jobs.

Specifically, according to the HCMC Department of Health, 2,300 students signed up for nursing school in 2021. In 2022, only 781 students enrolled in nursing school at the Pham Ngoc Thach Medical University, down 66 percent. This situation has become common in schools with nursing majors.

The shortage of human resources in nursing is a worrying situation, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic. The nursing job is low-paid despite its hard work, increasing work pressure, and working environment with high risks of infection. As a result, many nurses have quitted or changed their jobs. Meanwhile, a few nurses are recruited by private hospitals with higher salaries.

In addition, intermediate nurses face difficulties in studying to upgrade their qualifications to college and university levels according to the regulations of the Ministry of Health.

On the other hand, the training cost for bachelor's and college nursing programs is relatively high. It costs from VND35-40 million for each school year, but when nursing students graduate, the work is hard, the salary is low, and there is no compensation policy. Therefore, the number of students applying to nursing schools has been decreasing day by day.

Faced with this situation, the city's health sector has proposed the municipal People's Committee have mechanisms and policies to help increase the salary of the nursing staff. In the meantime, priority is given to increasing income for all nurses currently working at public health facilities in the city, including those under specialized contracts, according to Resolution No.03/2018/NQ-HDND.

The health sector is allowed to add retired professional personnel, such as doctors and nurses with considerable experience and good health, to the grassroots medical system and, at the same time, allowed to supplement additional titles of the security guard and paramedic for medical centers according to Resolution No.01/2022/NQ-HDND dated April 7, 2022, of the People's Council of HCMC.

The city will carry out a pilot program of clinical practice at the General Hospital in association with the Medical Center for newly-graduated medical doctors to issue a practicing certificate with the scope of general medical examination and treatment, ensuring that the medical centers are supplemented with one to two general medical practitioners. Doctors who practice at the medical centers receive financial support from the city budget.

VFF offers condolences over football tragedy in Indonesia

The Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) offered condolences to the Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI) over a tragedy that left hundreds of people dead and injured at Kanjuruhan Stadium on October 1. 

Acting President of VFF Tran Quoc Tuan also extended his condolences to PSSI, top leaders of Indonesian football, as well as families of the victims in the tragic incident. 

This is a great pain for Indonesian football in particular and the world football in general, he said.

The stampede at Kanjuruhan Stadium has killed at least 125 people and injured more than 320 after police used tear gas in an attempt to disperse agitated supporters of the losing team who had invaded the pitch after the final whistle in Malang, East Java.

Nguyen Thuy Linh wins trophy at Vietnam Open badminton tournament

Nguyen Thuy Linh, Vietnam's top female badminton player, has won the women’s singles at Yonex-Sunrise Vietnam Open badminton tournament after beating her Malaysian rival.

Linh beat Goh Jin Wei of Malaysia in the final match in Ho Chi Minh City on October 2, with a close score of 21-15 in the first set, and 21-13 in the second.

This is the first time a host female player has earned the championship title at Vietnam Open.

Last month, Linh, the world No. 58, won the Yonex Belgian International 2022, her first title in two years.

Earlier, she  won twice at the Bangladesh International in 2018 and 2019.

In the men’s singles, Kodai Naraoka of Japan beat China’s Sung Fei Xiang 2-1 to win the tournament.

Indonesia’s Dejan Ferdinansyah and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja won the couple category, while Thailand’s Benyapa Aimsaard and Nuntakarn Aimsaard won the women’s doubles, and China’s Ren Xiang Yu và Tan Qiang won the men’s doubles.

The tournament brought together 221 athletes from 14 countries and territories worldwide.

Painting exhibition on Vietnam held in France

Vietnam’s strong developments as well as its aspiration for sustainable environment have been captured in paintings displayed in Paris’s outskirts city of Accueil.

The exhibition that opened on October 1 is the initiative of Aurore - a non-profit organisation based in France, and the Vietnamese-origin French people's movement (MCFV), aiming to enhance cultural exchange between the two countries.

Aurore Chairwoman Tran Thu Dung said the four-day event features nearly 30 works by eight painters of different ages, which carry the message of environmental protection. The paintings are in different materials like lacquer, oil, watercolour or acrylic.

Central localities continue facing heavy rain

Some localities in Vietnam’s central region are forecasted to continue experiencing heavy rain until Wednesday.

According to the National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting, provinces from Nghe An to Quang Tri would see torrential rain until October 5 with the highest rainfall on October 3-4.

The centre also reported that the Central Highlands, southern central and southern regions would witness rain in some days to come.

Whirlwinds, thunderstorms and landslides have been warned during rain.

On October 2, a severe flash flood swept through Ky Son District in Nghe An Province, killing one child and damaging dozens of houses.

Recent heavy downpours and floods in the north-central region of Vietnam claimed the lives of eight people in Nghe An and Ha Tinh as of late Sunday.

Flooding also damaged 11,435 ha of rice and other crops, more than 3,800 ha of industrial and fruit trees, nearly 135 ha of forest, over 9,000 ha of ponds and lakes, and more than 710 tonnes of salt.

The disaster also killed 155,340 cattle and poultry, affected 127 schools; 9,150 metres of canals and 82 bridges and sewers and eroded 1,550 metres of river bank.

Localities are advised to continue keeping a close watch on weather developments to take appropriate response measures.

Source: VNA/SGT/VNS/VOV/Dtinews/SGGP/VGP/Hanoitimes