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Accordingly, foreign NGOs will be granted registration certificates if they have a valid legal entity status in the countries or territories they were founded; have clear statutes, principles, and goals that match Vietnam’s interests and needs; provide details about their planned programmes, projects, and non-project activities to assist development and humanitarian aid in Vietnam in three years; and propose their representatives in the country.
They can submit dossiers applying for registration certificates directly, by post, or online to the Committee for Foreign NGO Affairs.
After receiving applications, the committee will examine the dossiers. If the dossiers are eligible, it will collect opinions from relevant ministries, agencies, as well as administrations of the localities where the foreign NGOs plan to work in, and then send the applications and opinions to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for assessment.
Within 10 working days since the reception of foreign NGOs’ applications and relevant agencies’ opinions, the Foreign Ministry will make assessment, decide whether or not to grant registration certificates, and announce results to the Committee for Foreign NGO Affairs.
Within 30 working days since the reception of eligible dossiers, the committee will send registration certificates directly or by post to foreign NGOs. If applications are rejected, it will send written announcements with reasons included to the organisations. The decree will take effect on November 1 this year.
US congratulates Vietnam on National Day
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on behalf of the US Government, has cabled a message of congratulations to Vietnam on the 77th anniversary of its National Day (September 2).
In his message, Blinken noted that both “the US and Vietnam have achieved so much together to advance our shared priorities on regional security, prosperity, combatting climate change, addressing global health challenges, and strengthening people-to-people ties.”
He affirmed that “Our friendship is grounded in our support for a strong, prosperous, and independent Vietnam and our enduring commitment to addressing war legacies and humanitarian issues.”
The US diplomat expressed his wish to continue to work together with the Government and people of Vietnam “to bring prosperity, peace, and stability to both of our nations and the Indo-Pacific region”.
The two countries held the ninth US - Vietnam Asia-Pacific Dialogue in Washington DC on August 30 co-chaired by Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink and Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Minh Vu.
Both sides discussed issues related to the two countries’ shared interest in promoting peace, stability, and prosperity across the region. They affirmed the importance of continued senior-level engagement between Vietnam and the US and looked forward to celebrating the 10th anniversary of their Comprehensive Partnership in 2023. They agreed to convene their 10th Asia-Pacific Dialogue in Vietnam in 2023.
Ambassadors extend National Day greetings to Vietnamese embassies
The Lao ambassadors to Thailand, Australia, and Germany visited the Vietnamese embassies in the three respective countries on August 31 to offer congratulations on the upcoming 77th National Day of Vietnam on September 2.
Expressing his delight at the enormous achievements Vietnam has obtained over the last 77 years, Lao Ambassador to Thailand Khamphan Anlavan emphasised the traditional relations, comprehensive cooperation, special solidarity, and great friendship between Vietnam and Laos.
He voiced his hope that the two countries’ governments and peoples will maintain their mutual trust and assistance.
Appreciating the greetings, Vietnamese Ambassador to Thailand Phan Chi Thanh stressed that each success of Vietnam or Laos today is attributable to each country’s wholehearted support for the other.
He also affirmed the Vietnamese Party, Government, and people’s willingness to unceasingly nurture the countries’ friendship, not only in 2022 when they are celebrating the 60th anniversary of their diplomatic ties (September 5) and 45 years since the signing of the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation (July 18), but further beyond.
Vietnam will continue standing side by side with Laos to weather every difficulty and challenge and assist each other to develop and bring about wealth and happiness to their people, he added.
The two ambassadors also agreed to keep enhancing ties between their embassies to help intensify the countries’ special friendship.
On this occasion, Lao Ambassador to Australia Sinchai Manivanh and Lao Ambassador to Germany Phomma Boutthavong also came to extend the National Day greetings to the Vietnamese embassies there. They were respectively welcomed by Vietnamese Ambassadors Nguyen Tat Thanh and Vu Quang Minh.
Party, State leaders pay tribute to late President Ho Chi Minh
A delegation of the Party Central Committee, the President, the National Assembly, the Government and the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee laid wreaths and paid tribute to President Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum in Hanoi on September 1 on the occasion of the 77th National Day (September 2, 1945-2022).
The delegation included Politburo member and President Nguyen Xuan Phuc; Standing Member of the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat Vo Van Thuong; and Secretary of the Party Central Committee and President of the VFF Central Committee Do Van Chien.
The delegation paid respect to President Ho Chi Minh, a genius leader and a national hero who has devoted his entire life to the Vietnamese country and people, leading the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Vietnamese people to glorious victories. His ideology and career are invaluable asset and the torch lighting the path to future of the Vietnamese people.
The leaders pledged that the entire Party, people and army will unite and make utmost efforts to seize opportunities and overcome difficulties to continue realizing the noble goals of the August Revolution, building and safeguarding a peaceful, independent and unified Vietnam with territorial integrity, prosperous people and a fair, democratic, civilized society.
Also on Sept. 1 morning, a delegation of the Central Military Commission - Defence Ministry, the Central Public Security Party Committee - Ministry of Public Security, the Foreign Ministry, and the municipal Party Committee, People’s Council, People’s Committee and VFF Committee of Hanoi paid respect to President Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum.
Multi-story smart parking structures to be set up in HCMC
The HCMC government is planning to set up several multi-story smart car-parking structures on a temporary basis to satisfy the parking demands.
The Department of Transport is looking for sites to set up smart parking structures, apart from continuing to collect roadside parking fees, Head of the Roads Management Center Ngo Hai Duong told the media on August 30.
There are several suitable locations for smart parking structures in the city, including 23-9 Park, Le Van Tam Park and Tao Dan Park. If feasible, it won’t take too long to seek approval from the HCMC People’s Committee.
The parking structures won’t take up much space, will have low operating and installation costs and can be easily installed and upgraded.
“We can increase the number of parking spaces by assembling the parking blocks together,” Ngo Hai Duong added.
In 2017, the HCMC People’s Committee rejected proposals on setting up multi-story parking lots in the parks and vacant land in the city. The authority encouraged investors to build parking garages at the city’s gateways.
More than 10 years ago, HCMC planned to build four underground parking lots in Trong Dong Theater area, Le Van Tam Park, Tao Dan Park and Hoa Lu Stadium. However, none of them have been executed due to a lack of investment.
The central area of HCMC has currently suffered a serious lack of parking spaces. The number of parking lots here only meets some 7% of the demand.
Many roads and sidewalks, especially in the city center, have been turned into motorbike and car parking lots, causing problems for traffic safety and urban order.
As Covid cases spike, MOH urges strengthening inspection and treatment
The Ministry of Health yesterday sent a dispatch to the medical authorities and agencies, urging them to strengthen anti-Covid-19 measures.
New Covid-19 hospitalizations plunged early this year but August saw a sudden spike in new cases due to the Omicron subvariants.
The country logged some 2,000 new cases daily, on average, and recorded an increase in severe illness and death.
As of August 25, Vietnam’s Covid-19 infections exceeded 11,300,000, with over 10,000,000 recoveries and 43,000 deaths.
During a meeting on August 19, the ministry urged medical authorities and agencies to speed up the implementation of Covid-19 healthcare measures.
Accordingly, local authorities should carry out Covid-19 treatment plans according to the “four-on-the-spot motto”, comprising leadership on-the-spot, human resources on-the-spot, materials on-the-spot and logistics on-the-spot.
The ministry also asked hospitals to strengthen Covid-19 prevention and control measures, carry out PCR tests to detect Covid-19 carriers and prevent disease transmissions and ramp up clinical consultations with experts from higher-level hospitals.
When treating Covid patients in severe condition, provincial-level hospitals were asked to make clinical evaluations and seek guidance from the ministry.
Figures showed that among the severe Covid cases and deaths, 35% of them had either not received their first or second dose, the ministry reported.
Thus, provincial health departments were tasked with speeding up efforts to monitor Covid-19 cases and vaccinations, especially among the vulnerable groups.
Tickets for trains, short-haul flights sold out before national holiday
Ahead of the four-day break to celebrate Vietnam’s National Day (September 2), tickets for trains and short-haul flights have been almost sold out.
This is one of the busiest times of the year for airlines as travelers spend more on tickets. Online ticket platforms indicated a huge demand for air tickets with departures slated for August 31, September 1 and September 4.
For the Hanoi-Dong hoi (Quang Binh) route, there are three daily flights operated by Vietnam Airlines, Pacific Airlines and Bamboo Airways. However, all the one-way tickets for flights on August 31 have been sold out.
Pacific Airlines and Bamboo Airways have only one ticket left for September 1, which costs VND1.2 million.
There are no more return tickets available for this route on September 4, except two business class tickets from Bamboo Airways.
For the HCMC-Dong Hoi route, return tickets for flights on September 3 and 4 are scarce and expensive.
Cheap tickets for flights from Hanoi to HCMC and Hanoi to Danang on August 31 evening and September 1 morning are no longer available. The only tickets available cost above VND3 million.
However, there are many tickets left for flights at other times on those two days, with each ticket costing above VND1 million.
For the Hanoi-Phu Quoc route on September 1, only single tickets worth above VND3.5 million each are available.
As for train tickets, the Hanoi Railway Transport JSC and Saigon Railway JSC have sold some 44,000 tickets and 38,000 tickets on the national holiday, respectively.
The majority of passengers bought tickets for trains from Hanoi and HCMC on August 31 and September 1 and return tickets on September 3 and 4.
According to the Hanoi Railway Transport JSC, passengers mainly travel a short distance of less than 500 kilometers from Hanoi. Train tickets for the Hanoi-Vinh and Hanoi-Dong Hoi routes, departing on the evening of August 31, are almost sold out.
Workshop calls for actions against plastic waste in Ha Long Bay
A workshop was held in Ha Long city, northern Quang Ninh province, on August 26 with the aim of promoting public awareness of marine plastic waste and actions against single-use plastic products in Ha Long Bay, a world natural heritage site.
An estimate in 2020 by the Ending Plastic Pollution Innovation Challenge (EPPIC) project showed that among over the 28,280 tonnes of plastic waste released in the Ha Long Bay area each year, about 5,272 could be discharged to the sea, and 34 tonnes of waste came from tourism activities every day.
Patrick Haverman, Deputy Resident Representative of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Vietnam, said plastics accounts for an estimated 70 - 80% of marine debris. While many countries have made considerable efforts to fight plastic waste, challenges caused by marine plastics are transboundary.
Under a Norwegian Embassy-funded project on scaling up community-based models of domestic waste and plastics management, the UNDP has developed integrated, green, and equal models for improving the domestic waste management system. It has also worked with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to carry out the EPPIC project in four ASEAN countries, namely Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines, he noted.
Nguyen Van Duong, vice chairman of the Quang Ninh Farmers’ Union, said environmental protection requires the engagement of the entire political system, society, businesses, and the community, adding that each people’s awareness is the most important factor.
Tourism has a great role to play in protecting the marine environment as many of the vessels operating at sea belong to the industry, he went on, holding that a system of all-round solutions is necessary for mitigating adverse impacts of plastic waste.
Duong noted a project has been implemented in the areas bordering Ha Long Bay since 2020 to build a community-based model of waste management, sorting, collection, and treatment. The project, funded by the UNDP, the Global Environment Facility, and the Norwegian Government, has helped improve local authorities, businesses and residents’ awareness and capacity.
At the workshop, participants shared views on marine environmental protection, the role of each organisation in boosting sustainable tourism, and activities carried out in localities to ease impacts of tourism vessels and single-use plastic products on the environment.
On this occasion, the UNDP debuted “Trash Hunt” (http://sanrac.undp.org.vn), a mobile app to report and monitor all indiscriminate dumping sites in Vietnam so that local authorities, related parties, and residents can make timely response.
HCM City to focus on improving traffic at Tân Sơn Nhất Airport
HCM City has called for relevant authorities to focus more on improving traffic order at Tân Sơn Nhất Airport to curb the airport’s chaotic traffic conditions.
Phan Văn Mãi, chairman of HCM City People’s Committee, has instructed the Department of Transport to work with the city’s police, Tân Bình and Phú Nhuận districts, and Tân Sơn Nhất Airport to create traffic plans at the airport.
They are to prioritise and facilitate bus transportation to and from the airport.
The department also has to work with relevant working groups to maintain traffic order at the airport and curb traffic congestion.
If the traffic condition at the airport does not improved, HCM City may have stricter measures to manage the airport, he said.
HCM City has been making an effort to curb long-running congestion problems at Tân Sơn Nhất Airport, one of the city’s most important logistical centres.
On August 22, the Ministry of Transport instructed the city to focus more on traffic planning at the airport and create favourable conditions for passengers visiting and leaving it.
The city is to look into solutions to reduce traffic pressure, such as increasing the number of taxis and bus trips, and opening up new bus routes to pick up more passengers at the airport.
Tân Sơn Nhất Airport has also issued new regulations for passenger transport services, prohibiting drivers from soliciting passengers or refusing to carry passengers on short trips.
Drivers also cannot arbitrarily increase prices or ask for other surcharges.
Nearly 4,300 deaths from traffic incidents in first eight months, up 8.76 per cent
More than 4,270 people died in traffic accidents in the first eight months of 2022 (recorded between December 15, 2021 – August 14, 2022), a rise of 8.67 per cent over the same period last year, according to the National Committee for Traffic Safety.
Trần Hữu Minh, head of the committee’s office, said that 7,488 traffic accidents occurred in the period, injuring 4,957 people, year-on-year decreases of 2.47 per cent and 7.24 per cent, respectively.
From July 15 to August 14, there were 952 accidents which killed 491 people and injured 701 others.
In January-August, 7,390 traffic accidents, claiming 4,178 lives and injuring 4,937 others. Compared to the same period last year, accidents decreased 2.58 per cent, but fatalities rose 8.15 per cent. Meanwhile, the number of injuries was down 7.39 per cent.
The country also reported 70 railway accidents, resulting in 52 fatalities and 17 injuries. These figures represented year-on-year rises of 37.25 per cent in the number of cases, 26.83 per cent in the number of deaths, and 41.67 per cent in the number of injuries.
Accidents on the waterways were down 16.67 per cent to five cases, resulting in three deaths.
Meanwhile, in aviation, only one case was reported during pilot training activities. No incident classified as seriously threatening aviation safety was recorded.
Hà Nội pilots the ‘Fire Safety Group’ model in the Old Quarter
On Thursday, the People’s Committee of Hàng Gai Ward launched a pilot ‘Fire Safety Group’ model for households in the area, in cooperation with the Fire Prevention and Control police of Hoàn Kiếm District.
This pilot model has been introduced after many localities across the country carried out similar programmes since early August, following a spike in fires.
On installing the fire protection equipment under the programme, Nguyễn Mạnh Linh, Chairman of the People’s Committee of Hàng Gai, said: “This ward is the first in Hoàn Kiếm District to pilot this model.
"This is a proper model to implement, especially in one of the oldest areas of the city susceptible to fire because of its many small houses located in deep alleyways. This model will help detect and notify fire incidents as quickly as possible, which will prevent and minimise the risk of an escalating fire.”
The programme has ensured each household has a fire alarm installed on the first floor of its building and two alarm buttons inside and outside in appropriate and accessible locations.
Man flees fatal family stabbing incident
One woman died and three others were injured after a man attacked his wife's family in Hoa Binh Province.
Hundreds of policemen in the northern province are searching for Bui Van Phien, 38, who fled to a local forest after attacking several members of his wife's family on the afternoon of August 25.
The incident occurred at the house of his in-laws where he lived in Phong Phu Commune, Tan Lac District.
He stabbed his wife, parents-in-law, and sister-in-law. His 15-year-old son was also stabbed when trying to stop him.
Phien only stopped and fled when local residents heard the screams and rushed in to restrain him.
Initial investigations showed that Phien had quarrelled with his wife and sister-in-law before attacking them. The wife managed to escape.
The 65-year-old mother-in-law died of serious injuries while the father-in-law and sister-in-law were being treated at the hospital. His child also suffered from slight injuries.
Hoa Binh Provincial Police Department sent hundreds of policemen to search for Phien right after the incident. However, the search is facing difficulties due to heavy rains caused by Storm Maon. Police have informed local residents about the incident and asked for co-operation in helping arrest Phien.
New partnership signed to address population matters in Vietnam
A new partnership between the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Vietnam and the Mitsubishi Research Institute (MRI) has just been signed in Hanoi.
Both the UNFPA and MRI Representatives committed to working closely together in joining hands with the Government of Vietnam and the international community to effectively address population aging and other emerging population issues in Vietnam.
Vietnam has officially entered the "aging phase" since 2011, and is projected to become an “aged” society by 2036. Currently, the number of older persons (60 years or over) is 12.6 million, which is 12.8 percent of the total population, and is expected to increase to 22 million by 2038, accounting for 20 per cent of the total population. Vietnam is one of the most rapidly aging countries in the world.
Addressing the signing ceremony on August 25, MRI President, Kenji Yabuta, stressed that over the past 30 years, MRI has undertaken the trial and error of trying to create a society where everyone can live comfortably through measures to address the ageing population in Japan, such as the introduction of a long-term care insurance system and support for private long-term care providers.
This new partnership will focus on the issues of ageing and other population matters, such as sexual and reproductive health and rights, health care for young people, and gender equality.
Two Lam Dong CDC officials detained in Viet A test kit case
The police of Lam Dong Province have arrested two officials of the provincial Center for Disease Control (CDC) for their alleged irregularities in the procurement of Covid test kits from Viet A Technology Corporation.
Pham Xuan Dat and Nguyen Thi Hoa, both at the medical testing laboratory department of the center, were put under police custody today, August 26, for alleged asset misappropriation, the local media reported.
Apart from inflating the prices of Covid test kits, they also declared group testing samples as single ones and then sold the surplus test kits for private gains.
The two misappropriated some VND600 million in the Viet A test kit case from June to November last year.
The results of a probe into the Viet A test kit case released by Lam Dong investigators in June this year showed Viet A Corporation won 16 bidding packages of test kits and medical equipment worth over VND41.6 billion.
Among them, the Lam Dong CDC bought seven packages worth VND16.6 billion, while the Lam Dong General Hospital procured two packages worth VND4.1 billion, but paid some VND2.6 billion.
The remaining seven packages worth VND13.1 billion were bought by Lam Dong II Hospital, but the hospital has paid only VND6.3 billion.
Source: VNA/SGT/VNS/VOV/Dtinews/SGGP/VGP/Hanoitimes
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