The area of But (Pen) Tower at Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem Lake will be lit up green at 8pm on March 16 in response to Ireland’s “Global Greening” campaign, which aims to observe the Irish national holiday, St Patrick’s Day (March 17).

 Local credit institutions have been praised for combating bad debts last year, challenging other private and state lenders to follow suit.

 To resolve bad debts, Sacombank has just decided to discount two real estate plots it previously put on sale by nearly VND1.812 trillion ($78.78 million).  

 Mobile World’s bachhoaxanh.com food store chain is seeing good prospects thanks to the co-operation with Golden Gate, which owns more than 300,000 restaurants across the country. 

 The decision to use all reserve funds to buy back 600,000 treasury stocks may leave Yeah1 (code: YEG) skint of profit.

 Officials vowed to fight against loan sharks who are wrecking thousands of lives across Vietnam.

Hanoi authorities have proposed to pilot a ban on motorbikes on Nguyen Trai or Le Van Luong street. 

 Several festivals were recently held during the ongoing seventh Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Festival in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak.

 Google has recently announced a programme helping Vietnamese startups go global.

Ambassador Nguyen Thi Bich Hue, Vietnamese Permanent Representative to IFAD, has lauded the fund’s support to Vietnam over the years.

 Vietnamese violin talent, Nguyen Le, has won the first prize at the “12th International Competition Arthur Grumiaux, Belgium-Brussels 2019".

 The Government will soon issue a decision to allow a pilot implementation of peer-to-peer (P2P) lending in the country before officially developing laws for the new form of business, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue said.

 Vietnam collected 1.336 million blood units in 2018, of which 98.3 percent were donated by volunteer donors who account for only 1.68 percent of the nation’s population.

 The Vietnam-Myanmar Joint Committee for Bilateral Cooperation held its ninth meeting in Hanoi on March 12, during which its members shared the view that the countries’ comprehensive cooperative partnership is becoming increasingly substantive.

 The Viet Nam Maritime Administration has requested that associations, seaport companies and shipping companies be exempted or allowed to pay reduced service fees for containers stored at seaports for a long time.

 Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung has recently issued the working regulations of the Steering Committee for Viet Nam’s Industrialisation Strategy within the Viet Nam – Japan co-operation framework until 2020 with a vision to 2030.

 A Vietnamese delegation led by Deputy Auditor General Doan Xuan Tien attended the third joint conference between the ASOSAI and the European Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (EUROSAI) held in Jerusalem, Israel on March 11. 

 The size of Vietnam’s online business market grew by over 30 percent to about 7.8 billion USD in 2018, compared to only 4 billion USD in 2015, according to an official of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

 About 500 children with hydrocephalus will receive free surgery financed by the Hang Huu Charity Fund starting this year, announced Chairwoman of the Hang Huu Heart Programme Nguyen Phuong Hang in Ho Chi Minh City on March 12.

 The first round of the Innovation Partnership Grants, part of the Aus4Innovation programme which aims to help strengthen the Vietnamese innovation system and prepare for Vietnam’s economic and digital future, has been launched.