Day: July 10, 2021

The nationwide COVID-19 vaccination campaign, the largest-ever immunisation drive in Vietnam, kicked off with a ceremony held on July 10.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said the campaign, to be conducted from July 2021 to April 2022, targeting people aged 18 and above, is the largest of its kind in the country, with the ultimate goal of protecting people’s health and lives and bring life back to normal early.

Under the Government and the Prime Minister’s directions, the Ministry of Health and relevant ministries and sectors have exerted every effort to acquire COVID-19 vaccines amid a global vaccine shortage.

So far, Vietnam has secured 105 million vaccine doses for this year and is working to get 150 million doses so as to achieve herd immunity in late 2021 or early 2022.

This July, more than 8 million doses are set to be delivered to Vietnam, which is on time for the pandemic’s complex developments in Ho Chi Minh City and some other southern localities, Long added.

Addressing the launch, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said to help the country eliminate the pandemic, the Party and State are determined to carry out the vaccine strategy.

Particularly, the COVID-19 vaccine fund has attracted great support from people both at home and abroad and enterprises. It has so far received donations worth more than 8 trillion VND (348 million USD), which is being spent on purchasing vaccines for people, he noted.

The first vaccine doses arriving in Vietnam have been prioritised for frontline forces, and they have been distributed in a fair, equal, open, transparent, flexible, and effective manner, he remarked, elaborating that the previous vaccine batches were provided for workers and residents in Bac Ninh and Bac Giang, which were being hit hard by COVID-19 in the past few months, but vaccines are now prioritised for HCM City and nearby provinces where the pandemic situation is developing complicatedly.

Stressing the need for good coordination in vaccine distribution, PM Chinh said to implement the vaccine strategy, the Party and State will also step up domestic production and import of vaccines so as to secure vaccine supply for every year.

He took this occasion to call for the entire people’s unanimity, solidarity, support, and sense of community responsibility to defeat the pandemic while also asking people to stay vigilant, even after getting inoculated, and seriously comply with the Health Ministry’s guidelines.

In his speech, the Government leader lauded efforts by frontline forces such as healthcare, military, and public security personnel, along with people’s support for the COVID-19 combat and the vaccination campaign.

Prior to the launch, PM Chinh visited the operation centre of the national COVID-19 vaccination campaign, based at the headquarters of the Ministry of National Defence.

This centre works around the clock and is connected with the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, the 63 provinces and cities, along with military regions across Vietnam./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The number of new COVID-19 cases in Ho Chi Minh City is forecast to keep growing on the coming days, but with the serious implementation of the Prime Minister’s Directive 16/CT-TTg and adjustments to the contact tracing, sample collection, and testing strategies, the city will manage to contain the outbreak.

So said Deputy PM Vu Duc Dam, head of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, at a teleconference with the southern metropolis on July 10.

Social distancing measures under Directive 16/CT-TTg have been imposed across HCM City since July 9.

Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong said the city has appealed to the entire political system and people to engage in the efforts, with a view to expanding the “green zone” in its COVID-19 map.

He noted that HCM City is conducting regular tests in locked-down and high-risk areas, increasing patient beds, and gearing up medical equipment and supplies for testing and contact tracing. It is also stepping up sample collection and enhancing the testing capacity so as to find and isolate infection cases from the community early.

Efforts are being made to firmly maintain “green zones” and gradually turn “red zones” into “orange” and then “yellow” zones and return to the “safe” status, Phong added.

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son said given the prediction of an increase in COVID-19 infections (over 1,000 cases each day), the ministry’s special standing division in HCM City has prepared for the scenario of 1,600 new cases recorded daily.

As the number of COVID-19 cases in HCM City may reach 10,000 in the next five days, the city should strive to immediately isolate infection cases from the community, he recommended.

Son added that the Health Ministry has readied four plans to provide personnel for the city. Twenty-five senior officials of the ministry have also been deployed to directly participate in the pandemic prevention and control in the districts of HCM City.

At the meeting, Deputy PM Dam asked the city to tighten the enforcement of social distancing measures under Directive 16/CT-TTg, keep the “green zones” safe and narrow down high-risk sites.

He expressed his belief that the city will succeed in curbing the outbreak thanks to the serious directive implementation and adjustments to the contact tracing, sample collection, and testing strategies./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Central Advisory Council on Amnesty (CACA) convened a meeting in Hanoi on July 10 under the chair of Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh to discuss the national amnesty plan on the occasion of the upcoming National Day (September 2).

State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc on June 30 issued a decision on amnesty for prisoners in 2021, on the occasion of the National Day, and the establishment of the CACA with Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh as its head.

At the meeting, the Ministry of Public Security delivered a report specifying this year’s plan and guidelines on the implementation of the amnesty, which targets inmates serving definite terms, those with reduced life sentences and those with suspended sentences.

In his remarks, Deputy PM Binh stressed that the amnesty work must ensure transparency, fairness and particularly safety against the backdrop of the rapidly evolving COVID-19 outbreak.

He also requested local authorities to offer assistance to those released from prisons to enable them to reintegrate into the community.

The Ministry of Public Security should coordinate with local authorities and agencies to well manage freed prisoners and help them return to normal life, particularly at such a difficult time caused by COVID-19, the Deputy PM said.

Statistics show that the State has granted seven amnesties from 2009 to 2016, beneficial a total of 87,111 inmates. The rate of relapse among amnesty beneficiaries was reportedly at 1.18 percent during the period./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh engaged in a phone talk with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on July 10, during which the two Government leaders discussed measures to further the two countries’ comprehensive strategic partnership.

PM Modi congratulated Vietnam over its achievement in fighting COVID-19 and socio-economic development. He affirmed that India wants to promote ties with Vietnam across the fields from politics, economy, defence-security to cultural exchange.

The two sides agreed to maintain contacts at both high level and other levels in flexible forms such as online or in-person when conditions permit. They also vowed to coordinate to organize activities to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Vietnam-India bilateral diplomatic relationship in 2022 (January 7, 1972-2022).

The two leaders affirmed that the two countries will work together and support each other to early drive back the COVID-19 pandemic.

PM Chinh asked India to help Vietnam access vaccine supply as soon and as much as possible, and transfer vaccine production technology for Vietnam. The Indian PM said he is ready to cooperate closely with Vietnam in this regard.

The two PMs also agreed to continue making the best use of consultation and dialogue mechanisms, and expand bilateral cooperation in defence industry and coordination in UN peacekeeping activities. They promised to intensify joint work in responding to both conventional and non-conventional security challenges.

The two leaders agreed to work for the goal of 15 billion USD in annual bilateral trade through promoting trade, cutting technical barriers, and limiting trade protection measures against each other’s exports, especially Vietnam’s farm produce.

PM Chinh called on Indian businesses to invest in Vietnam in such fields as processing and manufacturing, automobile supporting industry, information and communication technology, and renewable energy.

The two sides reached consensus on supporting each other and closer coordinating at regional and international forums, particularly in the UN when both countries are serving as non-permanent members in the UN Security Council this year.

The two PMs affirmed the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security, safety and freedom of navigation and aviation, as well as settling disputes peacefully based on international law, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982)./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Vietnam’s economy is expected to grow by between 6-6.5 percent over the next decade, and at this pace, it will surpass Singapore by 2030, DBS Bank experts have said.

Last year, Vietnam’s economy was worth 343 billion USD while Singapore’s was 337.5 billion USD, and Malaysia’s hit 336.3 billion USD. This ranks Vietnam the 40th largest economy globally and fourth in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

In their latest forecast, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Vietnam is on track to outpace both Malaysia and Singapore this year.

Despite two waves of COVID-19 in the first half of this year heavily impacting industrial hubs, Vietnam still posted gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 5.64 percent. Its export revenue rose 28.4 percent compared to the same period last year.

Although GDP expanded slower than expected, it was still much higher than the 1.82 percent recorded in the same period last year.

This suggests that policies, strategies and directives aimed at both controlling the pandemic and ensuring socio-economic development have been effective./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Dao Minh Tu has asked the Vietnam Banks Association (VNBA) to campaign lenders to slash interest rates immediately this month.

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a heavy toll on the economy and banks’ operation over the last 18 months and it is likely to evolve complicatedly, making it important for the country to fight COVID-19 and boost economic recovery at the same time, Tu said.

As the pandemic lingers on, more and more enterprises are in trouble with declining resilience, he said, noting that it necessitates stronger and more active aid from all banks for the affected through debt restructuring and interest rate reduction.

The official emphasised that the banking system should continue providing active and substantive support to businesses and at the same time, maintain its financial capacity and security of the national finance.

The SBV will maintain flexible monetary policies and incorporate them with other fiscal and macro-economic policies to keep inflation under control, and stabilise the economy and support economic recovery, he added./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The 2021 Thieu lychee crop has generated over 6.8 trillion VND (over 296 million USD) in revenues from fruit sales and related services for the northern province of Bac Giang, according to the provincial People’s Committee.

Farmers in the province sold more than 215,000 tonnes of Thieu lychee this year, up over 50,000 tonnes from the 2020 crop, for an average price of 19,800 VND (0.86 USD) per kg.

Of the amount, 126,000 tonnes (58.6 percent) were sold on the domestic market and more than 89,000 tonnes (41.4 percent) were export. Besides the traditional market of China, Bac Giang’s Thieu lychees have also found their way into many other countries such as Japan, the US, Australia, and those in Southeast Asia, the EU and the Middle East.

Bac Giang plans to keep the area under Thieu lychee stable at 28,100 ha in the 2022 crop while expanding the acreage of lychee cultivated under VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards as well as the areas with cultivation area codes for export to the US, Japan and China.

The province will continue to encourage the application of advanced cultivation techniques for better fruit quality and higher value, towards increasing export of the local specialty fruit./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Honda Vietnam posted an 8.9-percent increase in retail sales of automobiles but a 16.9-percent drop in that of motorbikes in June, the firm announced on July 10.

It sold 1,550 automobile units last month, up 8.9 percent month on month but down 51.4 percent year on year

Honda City remained the most sought-after model, with 802 vehicles delivered to customers, accounting for 51.7 percent of the total sales.

Meanwhile, 149,853 motorbikes were sold during the month, down 16.9 percent month on month and 14.2 percent year on year

Wave Alpha was the bestseller, with 32,578 units, or 21.7 percent of the total, while Vision was the most popular scooter, with 38,542 units delivered, or 25.7 percent.

Honda Vietnam also exported 17,151 motorbikes to foreign markets./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency