Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has proposed the Lao National Mekong Committee continue working with Vietnam to monitor and examine practical impacts of hydropower plants on the trans-boundary river and protect its environment.

 Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc called for the thorough verification of draft laws and preventing vested interest in law building during a national teleconference of the Justice Ministry in Hanoi on December 23. 

The Communist Party of Vietnam and the Communist Party of China exchanged experience in Party building work in the context of international integration during the 12th theoretical seminar which opened in Hanoi on December 23. 

 China’s launch of a regular air route to the airport on Phu Lam in Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago seriously violates Vietnam’s sovereignty over the archipelago, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Le Hai Binh said on December 23. 

 VietNamNet Bridge – Making handmade goods like unique jewelry from UV resin is popular in Japan. Vietnamese can now share the experience by attending a do-it-yourself workshop in HCM City.

VietNamNet Bridge – Twenty-eight-year-old backpacker Hoang Le Giang will be the first Vietnamese to join a 300km winter adventure to the Artic circle next April hosted by the Fjällräven Polar website. 

 VietNamNet Bridge – Fifty-year-old Le Thi Lanh gets up at 5.30am everyday to prepare sticky rice to sell on the pavement of Ha Noi’s Trung Liet Street.

VietNamNet Bridge - Economists say that 2017 is expected to be an auspicious year for Vietnam’s economy, with few signs of uncertainties.   

 VietNamNet Bridge – Despite the lack of parity in the film industry, more and more female directors are making their mark and leading a new generation of filmmakers who are inspiring audiences.

 Many transgender people in HCM City are risking their lives using hormones sold illegally at local shops.

 An apartment block in Hanoi has applied very high parking fees for cars, sparking angry protests from drivers.

 Thailand’s foreign direct investment into Vietnam has been increasing sharply in recent years, according to a survey report by researcher Pittaya Suvakunta from Thailand’s Thammasat University.

 The People’s Supreme Procuracy (PSP) today decided to suspend the case of the former editor-in-chief of the The Elderly newspaper.

Vice Chairman of Hanoi Department of Planning and Architecture said that it will be impossible for Hanoi to ease traffic congestion without developing public transport. Meanwhile, land allocated to transport infrastructure remains far too modest.

Nguyen Hue Flower Street 2017, an annual biggest and most anticipated event welcoming the lunar New Year will be opened to the public at 7 p.m. on January 25 and run until the evening of January 31.

 Vietnam has signed and will sign 16 free trade agreements (FTA), the Government said in a report sent to the National Assembly Standing Committee.

VietNamNet Bridge - The Ministry of Finance (MOF) has opened a draft decree on the management of transfer prices in related transactions and anti-transfer pricing. 

 VietNamNet Bridge – A highly prized Vietnamese species, indigenous to the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum, is threatened with extinction, and the Government is gearing up to reverse its decline.

 There has been a strong wave of migration within Vietnam over the last three decades, a recent workshop held by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the General Statistics Office (GSO) heard.

 Eleven seafood processing companies in the southern city of Vung Tau went on trial on December 22 when the city People’s Court returned a verdict forcing them to compensate VND13.2 billion (US$580,000) for discharging wastewater into Cha Va river.