Mineral exploitation may have contributed to economic development of northern mountainous Ha Giang Province over the past years but it has also caused serious problems to the environment and social life of local people, 

 Trung Nam BT 1547 Co Ltd, which has been carrying out a major flood tide control project worth nearly VND10 trillion in southern HCMC, has informed city authorities of a suspension of construction work.

March 2018 was a big month for LGBTQ visibility in Vietnam. Singer Nguyen Huong Giang was crowned Miss International Queen at the world’s largest and most prestigious pageant for transgender women. 

 VietNamNet Bridge – The heavily polluted Dong Thanh rubbish dump in HCM City has been converted into an orchard, drastically improving the environment in the surrounding neighbourhood.

Manufacturing and processing continues to outpace other sectors in attracting foreign investment.

 The rainy season in the southern region this year is expected to have temperatures 0.4 to 0.8 degrees Celsius above average, according to the Southern Hydro-Meteorological Station.

 Financial and managerial autonomy for public hospitals has yielded positive changes, but district hospitals have seen limited benefits and face new challenges.

 Director of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department in central Quang Nam province dismissed some local forest rangers for their failure to prevent deforestation, which came to light recently.

 Leading business groups in the Asia Pacific region recently set up a comprehensive cooperation programme called M2030 that aims to raise awareness about and funds to combat malaria in the region.

 A special task force has been set up to strengthen social order and security at transit points and in buses during peak hours in the capital city of Hanoi.

 The northern localities have so far this year planted 40,720 hectares of forest, declining 6.1 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

More than 5 billion USD is needed to build a railway linking the Lao capital of Vientiane with Vung Ang seaport in Vietnam, according to research conducted under a technical support project for the railway’s feasibility study.

 Wholesale petrol traders should make more efforts to raise the market share of bio-fuel E5 in the country, said Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade (MoIT) Do Thang Hai.

 Vietnam’s first field hospital has been all set for the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission in South Sudan in a couple of months, said Deputy Minister of National Defence Sen. Lieut. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinh on May 4.

 The Vietnam-Russia Oil and Gas Joint Venture, Vietsovpetro, set a goal to reduce more than 2,200 workers in Block 09-1 from 2016-2020 as an effort to step up its restructuring.

 The Secretariat of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee has decided to dismiss Phan Thi My Thanh, Deputy Secretary of the provincial Dong Nai Party Committee, from all of her Party positions.

 The Committee on Foreign Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) held a conference in Hanoi on May 4 to inform these organisations on Vietnam’s policies and affairs related to them.

 The sixth edition of the National Festival of Traditional Then singing will take place on May 12-14 in the northern mountainous province of Ha Giang, with the participation of artists from 14 provinces and cities nationwide.

The EU Ambassador to Viet Nam has praised the government initiative to keep cars off the roads around Hoan Kiem Lake, saying it brings communities together and gives Hanoi a European feel. 

 The Court on May 4 gave punishments from three-year suspended prison sentences to seven-year imprisonment to the defendants charged with “violating regulations on lending in activities of credit institutions” at Trust Bank.