Two Chinese nationals were yesterday sentenced to a total of 11 years in prison for using technical devices to steal VNĐ100 million (US$4,440) from multiple banks.

  HCM City hopes to ease traffic jams by efficiently using existing infrastructure, promoting investment in public transport, developing waterway transportation and speeding up transportation projects.

 Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked the Netherlands to continue helping Vietnam cope with climate change, especially the ongoing drought and saline intrusion which is the most severe in the Mekong Delta in the past 100 years.

 Vietnam has urged the Netherlands to collaborate with Vietnam in conducting intensive research into solutions to preserve water in the Mekong Delta, which is facing severe drought and saltwater intrusion.

 The Hung Kings Temple festival will see no visitors being overcharged, nor illegal dishes of endangered wildlife on sale this year , the organising board said at a press conference in Hanoi on March 30.

 The Vietnamese economy will remain stable in 2016 with a growth rate of 6.7 percent, followed by a modest slowing of growth to 6.5 percent in 2017, according to the ADB’s “Asian Development Outlook 2016” report, released on March 30.

VietNamNet Bridge - Input material sources and the encouragement by the state both have encouraged more and more businesses to invest in waste recycling projects.

 The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court sentenced three women to prison for anti-State propaganda at a trial on March 30.

 Defence Minister Phung Quang Thanh and his Chinese counterpart Chang Wanquan hailed the third border defence friendship exchange between the two countries as a success following their meeting to review the event in Guangxi province on March 30.

 The Vietnamese Defence Ministry handed over a defence e-portal to its Lao counterpart during a ceremony in Vientiane on March 30.

 The National Assembly debated the draft Law on Signing, Joining and Implementing International Treaties (revised) and conducted procedures to relieve the NA Chairman and head of the National Election Council on March 30.

 Vietnam and Algeria exchanged practices in judicial reforms and court procedures during a talk between Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court Truong Hoa Binh and his Algerian counterpart Boudi Slimane in Hanoi on March 30.

VietNamNet Bridge - Only 50 percent of Vietnamese population can be listed as ‘middle class’ if considering their real annual incomes. However, 96 percent of Vietnamese think they belong to the middle class.

Head of the Western Border Department under the Foreign Ministry’s National Border Commission Thai Xuan Dung has stressed the need for continued coordination between Vietnamese and Lao border localities.

VietNamNet Bridge - Some mobile network operators have proposed to take back 2G network frequency to pave the way for the development of 4G network. However, some analyst say it is still too early.

Since the development of new schools cannot catch up with the population increase, HCM City is seriously lacking schools. Because of this, parents have to enroll their children in privately run day-boarding classes.

 President Truong Tan Sang asked Samsung Group of the Republic of Korea (RoK) to help Vietnam develop the support industry during a reception for Han Myong Sup, Samsung Vietnam’s General Director, in Hanoi on March 30.

Mobile phones and components remain in the lead amongst the group of ten products that foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) earned from exporting between January 1 and March 15, 2016.

The National Assembly (NA) has agreed to let Nguyen Sinh Hung step down from both positions as Chairman of the NA and the National Election Council (NEC) during a plenary session in Hanoi on March 30.  

VietNamNet Bridge – Cao Van Cuong left his hometown in the northern province of Hung Yen for Hanoi over a decade ago to start everything from scratch.