VietNamNet Bridge – This year has been a particularly sad year for artist circles in Viet Nam.

 Fifty percent of upper middle and high ranking real estate purchase volume in Ho Chi Minh City is for speculation, according to the city Real Estate Association (Horea).

 Vietnam’s top 50 IT companies generated a total revenue of nearly VND28 trillion (US$1.25 billion) last year, according to Nguyen Thi Thu Giang, General Secretary of the Vietnam Software and IT Services Association.

 Audiences will have a chance to enjoy many art performances during the year-end months.

 The HCMC Department of Science and Technology is expected to announce a startup supportive program at the end of November in which VND1 trillion (US$44.7 million) would be lent to young local businesses.

The minister of industry and trade has ordered the Vietnam Competition Authority to set up an interdisciplinary team to check whether Vinastas has complied with law after its release of misleading information about fish sauce.

  The Lotte Group revealed that its e-commerce website, lotte.vn, would be officially launched this Friday.

 CMC Telecom is the only Vietnamese information, communication and technology (ICT) firm voted among the top 25 most promising telecom solution providers in the Asia Pacific (APAC) market.

  A Dutch business delegation with executives from 34 companies and knowledge institutions led by Vice Minister for Foreign Trade of the Netherlands' Ministry of Foreign Affairs Marten van den Berg ended a two-day visit to Viet Nam on October 26.

 The government of HCM City has approved a pilot factory project that will treat 200 kilos of rubbish a day for power generation at the Phuoc Hiep Rubbish Dump Area. 

 Residents who live around Hanoi’s Van Quan Lake are complaining that the lake, once a beautiful spot, has become very polluted and is stinking up its surroundings.

 Vietnam’s U19 team will meet Japan in the semi-final of the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) U19 Championship on October 27 in Bahrain.

 Vietnam’s top female swimmer Nguyen Thi Anh Vien earned a slot in the finals of the 200m medley category in the ongoing FINA/airweave Swimming World Cup 2016 in Japan.

A bamboo building inside Muong Museum, 80 kilometres west of Hanoi, has just been awarded a silver prize in the Cultural Architecture category by the organisers of the American Architecture Prize 2016.

 The Supreme People’s Procuracy has decided to prosecute three former officers of Vinashin Ocean Shipping Company Ltd, or Vinashinlines on charges of embezzlement.

 A secondary school teacher in this central province was forced to resign as class teacher today after he admitted to badly beating six of his students with a ruler.

 To ensure traffic order and safety, HCM City’s Department of Transport has decided to ban private buses with more than 25 seats on some streets in District 10 including Le Hong Phong, Vinh Vien and Tran Nhan Ton from 6am to 10pm, starting October 29.

 Tran Ngoc Thanh, who was appointed chairman of Vietnam Railways Corporation (VNR) in April 2015, has submitted his resignation to the Ministry of Transport (MoT).

Three Vietnamese fishermen held hostage by Somali pirates for more than four years returned home to a tumultuous reception in Hanoi yesterday.

 An ASEAN regional business council (RBC) gathering 55 leaders of big enterprises is set to make debut at the World Economic Forum on the Mekong Region (WEF-Mekong) in Hanoi.