Day: June 14, 2021

Ho Chi Minh City will continue to apply city-wide social distancing in line with the Government’s Directive No. 15 until the end of June amid complicated developments of coronavirus outbreaks in the city, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong said on June 14.

At a meeting with officials of 21 districts and Thu Duc city, Phong said the order, imposed since May 31 following large outbreaks related to a Christian mission church and originally set to expire on June 15, would be extended for another two weeks (until midnight on June 30).

Under the order, non-essential services and businesses in HCM City would continue to be halted, no gatherings of five or more in public outdoor areas are allowed, while people (especially 60 years old and above) are advised to stay home unless for essential purposes and should keep a distance of 2m during contact.

Meanwhile, more restrictive measures – in which people are ordered to not go out unless for essential purposes – in Go Vap district and Thanh Loc Ward of District 12 will be eased from June 15. The measures were imposed on the two areas on May 31.

According to Nguyen Tan Binh, Director of the city Health Department said that, the city detected 821 COVID-19 cases in the community in 22 districts and Thu Duc city between May 18 and June 13, with Go Vap district recording the biggest number of cases at 115./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The National Assembly Standing Committee looked at the proposed law and ordinance building programme for 2022 and adjustments to the 2021 programme during its 57th meeting in Hanoi on June 14.

After discussions, the committee agreed on supplements to the law and ordinance building programme for 2021.

Accordingly, during its first session, the 15th NA is scheduled to approve two resolutions on the law and ordinance building programme for 2022, and adjustments to the 2021 programme, along with a resolution on the financial mechanism for the Nghi Son Oil Refinery and Petrochemical LLC in the central province of Thanh Hoa.

During its second session, the 15th legislature will debate six draft laws in accordance to the 2021 law and ordinance building programme approved by the 14th NA, and added another draft law to the agenda.

The committee also agreed with the proposed law and ordinance building programme for 2022.

Accordingly, during its third session, the legislature will approve six draft laws, a resolution on the law and ordinance building programme for 2023, and adjustments to the 2022 programme, while mulling over three draft laws.

The draft laws that are deliberated at the third session are expected to sail through the legislature in the fourth session. Another draft law will be put on the table for discussion at the fourth session.

Regarding preparations for the first session, NA Secretary General and Chairman of the NA Office Bui Van Cuong said the meeting is set to open on July 20 and close on August 3./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

An online portal has been launched to help farmers in pandemic-hit Bac Giang province sell their lychees.

“Thank God, it’s so effective,” vice director of Bac Giang Enterprise Consulting and Assistance Centre (BECA) Duong Thanh Son said about the portal launched by the centre. Bac Giang has been hit hardest by COVID-19 during its fourth wave in Vietnam, causing difficulties for local farmers.

The portal www.hotrotieuthuvaithieubacgiang.com was launched about three weeks ago and a Facebook page hotrotieuthuvaithieubacgiang was created just a few days later when Bac Giang started entering the lychee harvest season.

Consumers can register to buy a large volume of lychees – a minimum of a tonne – after inputting basic information like name, e-mail, phone number, address and amount of lychee.

Son, who specialises in information technology and communication, said that the portal looked simple but behind it were automatic customer management and customer care programmes that help with online sales.

The portal and the Facebook page have reached hundreds of thousands of users, Son said, adding that he has received positive feedback on social media.

“We connect Bac Giang lychee farmers and co-operatives with buyers. We pledge that our consumers can buy high-quality lychee at very good prices,” Son said.

“If we had thought of the portal earlier and prepared for it about three months ago when lychee was still green, we could have reached more consumers,” Son said.

He said the idea for the portal came up when Bac Giang farmers entered lychee harvest time but the province was struggling to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year, the province has about 28,100 ha of lychee with an estimated production of 180,000 tonnes. The COVID-19 outbreaks caused difficulties for harvesting, transporting, selling and exporting the fruit.

Together with the Government, provincial authorities, organisations and individuals, BECA helped farmers in lychee consumption. All BECA staff, mostly IT and media personnel, have helped with online sales.

On the first day of launching the portal, Son said they received hundreds of messages asking to buy lychees. Orders for small amounts, for example a few kilos, were transferred to local retailers while BECA would concentrate on large orders, especially those from enterprises, which as Son said, had financial ability and willingness to buy large amounts.

Within the first week, BECA helped to sell nearly 140 tonnes of lychee.

“We have a goal to help farmers sell 1,000-1,800 tonnes of lychee. It’s a big goal, so we need help from associations, enterprises and businesses,” Son said.

Son is also looking for other potential consumers – community groups. He said, for example, the Duong community – sharing the family name Duong in Vietnam – was very large. Son received an order of 17 tonnes from the Duong community in HCM City, and they were set to order two more containers. The Duong communities in Binh Thuan and Binh Duong ordered two containers each.

Dinh Thi Anh from the northern province of Nam Dinh said that on seeing news about COVID-19 hotspots in Bac Giang province, she wanted to do something for people there, especially farmers who faced difficulties in selling lychee.

She said that she was very happy to find a reliable source that supplies Bac Giang lychees and she asked her friends to add their orders on hotrotieuthuvaithieubacgiang.com and then sell the fruit to people in Nam Dinh city.

All the funds raised would be donated to the national COVID-19 vaccine fund, Anh said.

Anh and dozens of volunteers on June 7 received the first shipment of lychee from Bac Giang and by the afternoon of the same day, they sold nearly a tonne of lychee at two stalls located at 757 Vu Huu Loi and 440 Tran Hung Dao in Nam Dinh city.

“We unloaded the lychees, weighed and divided them into bags of 2kg, received orders and then delivered them to consumers or sold them at the stalls,” Anh said, adding that people not only bought lychee but also donated to the fund.

“We will be with Bac Giang! We can not do big things, so we offer a little help,” Anh said.

Support, not rescue

Son said that he deeply understood the hardships that local farmers faced as well as the importance of lychee fruit – a source of pride for people in Bac Giang.

They are more proud of the fruit, as now, lychee is grown with VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards. The farming products are not only tasty but also safe. For years, Bac Giang lychee has been exported to 30 countries all over the world including demanding markets like the US, EU and Japan. In the domestic market, the fruit is sold in major supermarket chains.

Son said that since the beginning of harvest time, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Bac Giang lychee could reach consumers both in and outside of the country.

Bac Giang authorities were determined to minimise the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on lychee harvesting and consumption.

Particularly, the authorities set up COVID-19-free lychee growing areas, meaning that in lychee growing areas, all people suspected to have close contact with confirmed COVID-19 cases are taken to concentrated quarantine areas and none of such areas are located in lychee growing areas.

Checkpoints have been set up to strictly control and monitor people and vehicles entering the lychee growing areas. All drivers, workers and traders arriving in lychee growing areas must take quick COVID-19 tests.

All vehicles carrying lychee must be disinfected.

Tran Quang Tan, director of the province’s Trade and Industry Department, said that lychee farmers would feel hurt if they hear their fruit needed rescuing.

The province’s authorities called for support, not rescue. To some extent, when it comes to “farming product rescue campaigns”, people tend to think about abundant, cheap, low-quality products.

“Bac Giang lychee does not need rescuing,” Son said, adding that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, since the beginning of harvest time, the lychee consumption was still going on.

“Difficulties? Yes, we face a lot of difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic and we need your support to overcome them. Bac Giang will overcome all such difficulties,” Son said.

“Bac Giang people are now proud to offer tasty lychee at reasonable prices. As the consumption goes smoothly, both farmers and consumers are happy for the benefits they get,” Son said.

The lychee harvest time in Bac Giang province will last about one and a half months. The province reported more than 70,000 tonnes were sold, meaning that more than 100,000 tonnes of Bac Giang lychee still needs to be sold. This year, lychee prices are similar to those of last year, ranging from 13,000 VND to 30,000 VND per kilo ($0.5-1.3)./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee on June 14 morning convened its 57th meeting under the chair of NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue.

The meeting is slated to review the National Election Council (NEC)’s preliminary report on the outcomes of the elections of deputies to the 15th NA and all-level People’s Councils for the 2021-2026 tenure and discussed the preparations for the first sitting of the 15th NA slated for July 20.

The NA Standing Committee members are also scheduled to contribute opinions for the finalization of reports on the implementation of socio-economic, financial and State budget goals in the first half of 2021 and measures for the accomplishments of the goals in the remaining months.

Following a report delivered by the NA General Secretary and chief of the NEC Office summing up the outcomes of the elections, Chairman of the NA’s Committee for Ethnic Affairs Ha Ngoc Chien welcomed the results of the elections which saw a high rate of elected ethnic minority deputies. Notably, for the first time the 15th NA has representatives from Lu and Brau ethnic minority groups, which have very small populations, Chien said.

Chairwoman Nguyen Thuy Anh of the NA’s Committee for Social Affairs, meanwhile, took note of the record ratio of women in the 15th NA, which exceeds 30 percent of the total. This enables Vietnam to climb 20 places to rank 51st globally in the proportion of women parliamentarians, she said.

The country also rose to the fourth place from the ninth in Asia, and the first from the fourth among the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly member states in the relevant rankings, she noted, adding that it is such a considerable improvement which should be added to the report.

During the two-day meeting, the NA Standing Committee will also ratify the appointment of a new ambassador to Cambodia./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The central region is racing to upgrade their seaports to meet high demand on transporting goods, especially to serve container ships, reported Dau Tu (Investment) newspaper.

In its adjusted planning to 2020 with a vision to 2030, the Dung Quat Port Complex in the central province of Quang Ngai has been designed with 14 ports to become a modern and large-scale one that can serve both large barges and container ships.

However, after more than ten years, it currently has only eight ports in operation, three general ports and five specialised ports.

Of these, only the Hoa Phat Dung Quat port can receive vessels with a capacity of 150,000 – 200,000 tonnes and the rest can only handle those with a capacity of 50,000 – 70,000 tonnes.

Quang Ngai province currently has more than 20 enterprises involved in importing and exporting goods using container ships with around 6,500 containers per year. However, Dung Quat has no container port, forcing local exporters to transport their containers of export goods to Da Nang or neighbouring seaports in the central region.

Dang Van Minh, chairman of Quang Ngai Province’s People’s Committee, said most of the ports at Dung Quat Port Complex have operated at their full capacity, so they will not be able to meet the import and export needs of businesses in the long term. Therefore, fresh investment in ports is very necessary.

In nearby Binh Dinh province, the cargo throughput of Quy Nhon port skyrocketed from 4.5 million tonnes in 2010 to 9.1 million tonnes in 2019 and more than 12 million tonnes in 2020.

The port now handles 2,500 tonnes of goods per berth metre, more than five times higher than the designed capacity. Therefore, the upgrading of Quy Nhon port is extremely essential.

The Quy Nhon Port Joint Stock Company will start upgrading Quy Nhon Port’s wharf No 1 in August to ease the overloading at the port. The project will help to increase the port’s capacity in receiving ships up to 30,000 DWT ships.

In a recent document sent to the Ministry of Transport, voters in Phu Yen province proposed to invest in Bai Goc deep-water port and seaport logistics area in order to tap the local advantages to enhance the competitiveness and promote regional linkages, creating a driving force to attract large industrial and service projects to the Nam Phu Yen Economic Zone.

The Ministry of Transport has expressed its backing of the proposal.

Meanwhile, the Cam Ranh Port Joint Stock Company which operates Ba Ngoi port in Khanh Hoa province also suggested the port be upgraded in order to receive ships of up to 70,000 dead weight tonnes (DWT), according to provincial Department of Transport and Communications.

Nguyen Tan Tuan, Chairman of Khanh Hoa Provincial People’s Committee said that the province has approved the proposal and is consulting the Ministry of Defence before submitting to the Prime Minister for approval./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Online advertising, as the first choice of firms and brands amid the pandemic, is thriving in Vietnam and could reach the milestone of 1 billion USD in revenue this year.

According to the Vietnam Digital Marketing Trends 2021 report by Novaon, Vietnam’s online ad market will continue growing during the 2020-2025 period, with a compound annual growth rate of 21.5 percent. Despite the pandemic last year, online ad revenue still reached 820 million USD, which is forecast to rise to 955.7 million USD this year.

Chairman of the Clever Group Nguyen Khanh Trinh expressed his optimism about the annual growth of 10-20 percent in the sector.

Last year, Vietnam’s digital economy was worth 14 billion USD, which is forecast to reach 52 billion USD by 2025. In particular, e-commerce expanded by 46 percent as Vietnamese spend 3.5 – 4.2 hours per day on the internet, which gives an edge for the online advertising sector to earn 1 billion USD this year.

However, the sector also faces unfair competition with cross-border platforms like Facebook and Google accounting for over 80 percent of online ads revenue in Vietnam.

At present, Facebook, Google Ads, YouTube and channels of key opinion leaders are the first choices of domestic firms for online ads, which spent an average 17 percent of their revenue on digital marketing in 2020.

Statistics showed that only about 5 percent of firms do not or have yet to use Facebook for their marketing campaigns. Many others spent more than 50 percent of their online ads budget on Facebook instead of other channels.

Nguyen Dang Ngoc, Deputy Director of the VCCorp, said customers prefer using ad services by cross-border platforms because they do not have to fulfill taxation and fee obligations.

The Decree No.38//2021/ND-CP regulating administrative fines in culture and ads, which took effect on June 1, 2021, is expected to fill gaps to promote fair competition in the field, making it easier for domestic firms to win market share from foreign giants./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

A host of events and activities will be held virtually on Cashless Day 2021 (June 16) to raise public awareness of non-cash payment and contribute to achieving goals set by the national financial inclusion strategy by 2025, with a vision towards 2030.

They include a rap competition, an online game entitled “Dau truong khong tien mat” (Cashless battle), and webinars on personal financial management tools for students and Vietnam striving to become a cashless nation.

Various special deals are being offered to non-cash shoppers by a number of lenders, payment intermediaries, online marketplaces, service providers and retailers throughout this month.

In July, the Saigon Union of Trading Co-operatives (Saigon Co.op) and partners will launch a programme in which necessities will be delivered to workers and people in pandemic-hit areas by e-commerce platforms Shopee and Now. The programme is expected to provide a chance for the public, particularly young people, workers and low-income earners, to experience and understand the benefits of digital payment tools amid COVID-19.

Data from the State Bank of Vietnam shows that the number of non-cash transactions has been on a rise in Vietnam during the pandemic. Internet payment has increased 65.9 percent in volume and 31.2 percent in value year-on-year in the first four months of 2021.

Mobile and QR Code payments have been even seeing much higher year-on-year growth, 86.3 percent in volume and 123.1 percent in value, and 95.7 percent in volume and 181.5 percent in value, respectively.

A study by Visa found a surge in the use of mobile wallets and payment apps in Vietnam over recent years, with over 85 percent of consumers having at least one of them and over 42 percent using mobile contactless payments.

Some 71 percent of shoppers use e-wallets or payment apps at least once a week.

By the end of 2020, Vietnam, which has a population of about 100 million, was estimated to have 132.5 million active mobile subscribers accounts./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The slogan “Give blood and keep the world beating” has been chosen for World Blood Donor Day 2021 (June 14), said the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion.

The day aims to honour blood donors and encourage more people to voluntarily give blood, as well as raise public awareness of the necessity of safe blood products.

It is also meant to commemorate World Health Organisation for his discovery of major blood groups A,B,O.

On the occasion, the World Health Organisation (WHO) called on countries’ governments, medical sectors and blood transfusion services to ensure resources and infrastructure to receive quality blood.

According to the WHO, one in every 10 patients needs blood transfusion. In Vietnam, it is estimated that 5,200 units of blood are needed everyday for emergency and treatment. The shortage of blood remains prevalent in developing countries, especially during disasters and epidemics.

With the slogan, WHO wants to convey a message that blood is the life of every person, healthy or ill. For a patient, blood is not only the help from the community but also a source of life for them to survive.

Besides, blood donors also have a chance to have their health checked.

Last year, Vietnam received over 1.4 million units of blood, 99 percent of them came from voluntary blood donors, who accounted for about 1.5 percent of the total population./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency