Category: General

Social network Zalo on August 3 launched tool Zalo Connect which aims to support its users that are facing difficulties amid complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Accordingly, Zalo users in Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai, Binh Duong, and Long An can easily seek emergency support from the community for foods, medicines, and other essential goods, or quickly connect with doctors and medical experts for remote medical advice.

Through the application, individuals and charitable organisations will quickly detect and support those facing difficulties surrounding their residential areas, but still strictly follow COVID-19 prevention and social distancing regulations.

Users should activate the feature to allow strangers to communicate on Zalo to ensure that the relief force can connect with them quickly.

Zalo Connect was completed in five days with the coordination of the national technology centre for COVID-19 prevention and control.

Users in the four above-mentioned localities can easily access this feature right at the top of Zalo’s browser and select “I need help” or “I want to help”, depending on their need.

Zalo is expected to have more tools that allow donors to update the list of those who have received support, thus properly distributing donations from the community.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Travellers are set to have an opportunity to experience Vietnam’s beauty on trains with steam locomotives.

The Ministry of Transport has approved in principle a project on the renovation and building of such tourist trains on the Hue-Da Nang route, a section of Hanoi- Ho Chi Minh railway route. The Vietnam Railways Corporations (VNR) will collaborate with the Dong Duong Rail Tourist Service Co.Ltd in carrying out the project.

The Ministry of Transport asked the VNR to collaborate with the Indochina Rail Tourist Service Company Limited to allocate funds to invest in the items of the project, ensuring compliance with current standards and technical regulations.

In addition, the VNR should develop a train schedule to ensure the safety for the transportation of passengers and goods.

Units must pay a fee for using railway infrastructure from the project’s revenue as required.

To effectively exploit the steam locomotive, transportation experts said it is necessary to build auxiliary works such as coal and water supply systems and they must be licensed by the competent authority.

A steam locomotive is a rail vehicle that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles utilising the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material – usually coal and oil – to heat water in the locomotive’s boiler to the point when it becomes gaseous and its volume increases 1700 times. Functionally, it is a steam engine on wheels. Fuel and water supplies are usually carried with the locomotive, either on the locomotive itself or in a tender coupled to it.

This type of locomotive was widely used in the world from the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century.

Vietnam’s railway sector gradually replaced steam locomotives with electric and diesel locomotives in the 1990s.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Party Central Committee’s Inspection Commission issued an announcement on its fifth meeting in Hanoi on August 4.

Accordingly, the meeting took place from August 2-4 under the chair of Politburo member, Secretary of the Party Central Committee and head of the Inspection Commission Tran Cam Tu.

At the event, the commission concluded that the Party delegation to the Hanoi municipal People’s Committee, and the Party Committee of the municipal Department of Planning and Investment for the 2016-2019 period violated principles of democratic centralism and working regulations, showed the lack of responsibility and lax leadership and direction, resulting in the municipal People’s Committee, the Department of Planning and Investment, several organisations and individuals who are officials and Party members violating Party regulations and State laws in the management and use of finances and assets, and in bidding. A number of officials and Party members were punished and faced criminal proceedings.

Former member of the Party Central Committee, former Vice Secretary of the municipal Party Committee, former head of the Party delegation to and former Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung, who was expelled from the Party and criminally prosecuted, took the main responsibility for violations and mistakes by the Party delegation to the municipal People’s Committee, and was directly responsible for the above cases.

The commission asked the standing board of the municipal Party Committee to review its responsibility for leading and directing the Party delegation to the municipal People’s Committee, and thoroughly dealing with violations and shortcomings in line with the Party regulations and State laws.

At the meeting, the commission also considered a report suggesting disciplinary measures against Party organisations and members in four cases in Ho Chi Minh City, saying that their violations resulted in serious consequences and losses to the State assets, causing public concern, hurting the prestige of the city’s Party organisations and administration.

They also decided on other important issues.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has proposed President Nguyen Xuan Phuc bestow posthumously a second-class Feat Order on a police officer in Ho Chi Minh City who died while on duty.

Senior Lieutenant Phan Tan Tai, of the drug crime investigation police team under the city’s Department of Public Security, and his colleagues found a man violating COVID-19 prevention and control regulations on August 2 night as he was out on the street unnecessarily.

Suspecting the man had used drugs illegally, Tai and his colleagues asked him to go to the police headquarters for further procedures. But, the man sped on his motorbike to run away.

The officer was killed in an accident on the way to chase the runaway, which has been supposed to be deliberately caused by the man, who was then identified as a drug addict.

The case is under further investigation.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The consequence of bombs, mines and toxic chemicals left by war in Vietnam is an urgent issue that has been threatening people’s lives and causing a serious effect on the country’s sustainable development goals, a senior official has said.

Deputy Minister of National Defence Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien made the remarks at a webinar on “Overcoming the consequences of war, moving forward together” which was organised by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) on August 3.

Chien said he hoped that the US authorities will continue to cooperate more closely with Vietnam in dealing with war aftermaths.

The deputy minister emphasised the need for the two sides to identify new and breakthrough solutions to promote more effective and faster collaboration activities in overcoming the consequences of landmines and toxic chemicals/dioxins.

In the immediate future, it is necessary to continue to mobilise resources to accelerate the detoxification process of the entire Bien Hoa airport area and seek more appropriate methods to provide medical care and employment for victims of Agent Orange/dioxin in Vietnam, he said.

The clearance of unexploded bombs and mines in Vietnam should be sped up, to clean up from 500,000-700,000 ha per year.

Chien affirmed that he would direct Vietnamese relevant agencies to closely coordinate with each other and with US partners to effectively implement important cooperation contents between Vietnam and the US.

Speaking at the webinar, Lise Grande, president of the United States Institute of Peace said the event was an opportunity for US and Vietnamese agencies, managers, scientists and experts to identify future orientations to promote cooperation between the two sides in overcoming the consequences of landmines and toxic chemicals, along with collaboration in searching for soldiers missing in action in Vietnam.

US Senator Patrick Leahy appreciated the cooperation between the two countries in the past time.

He said during the visit to Vietnam by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on July 29, the two sides signed a Memorandum of Understanding on gathering and searching for remains of Vietnamese soldiers missing in the war, adding that it opened up a new chapter in the cooperation in overcoming war aftermaths between the two countries.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Industrial activities have continued bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in mere growth rates of 1.8 percent month on month and 2.2 percent year on year in the July index of industrial production (IIP) – the slowest pace in seven months.

In July, the mining industry contracted 8 percent from a year earlier while processing and manufacturing expanded 2.9 percent; electricity production and distribution up 6.7 percent; water supply, waste and wastewater management and treatment up 4.4 percent, the Ministry of Industry and Trade reported.

Many sectors witnessed declines in their production indexes during the first seven months of 2021, including crude oil and natural gas exploitation down 10.4 percent; hard and lignite coal mining 2.9 percent; and machinery and equipment repair, maintenance, and installation 1.1 percent.

Among the localities imposing social distancing under the Prime Minister’s Directive 16/CT-TTg to curb COVID-19 transmission, seven in the South recorded lower IIPs in July compared to the same period last year: Ho Chi Minh City (down 19.4 percent), Long An (down 14.6 percent), Ca Mau (down 13.7 percent), Dong Thap (down 5.7 percent), Tra Vinh (down 5.3 percent), Ba Ria – Vung Tau (down 1.9 percent), and Ben Tre (down 0.2 percent).

However, thanks to drastic moves to keep supply chains uninterrupted and stay safe from the pandemic, many still enjoyed slight growth in industrial production such as Bac Ninh, Bac Giang, and Hanoi in the northern region, according to the ministry.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai on August 3 emphasised the need to ensure the sufficient supply of essential goods for people, especially those in provinces and cities which are applying social distancing measures.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) is preparing various plans to respond to all situations of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hai said.

Regarding industrial production, he requested the MoIT’s Industry Agency to work with associations and enterprises to promptly address difficulties facing them and maintain production.

To support goods consumption, the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency must take measures to assist the urgent sale of agricultural products which are in harvest time, with the focus on the domestic market.

He also asked the Department of Asian-African Markets and the Department of European-American Markets to strengthen coordination and find solutions to boost the export of commodities, particularly farm produce.

Acknowledging the importance of e-commerce, the Department of E-Commerce and Digital Economy has worked with six major e-commerce platforms to step up the sale of agricultural products.

Ngo Khai Hoan, Deputy Director of the Industry Agency, emphasised that as industrial production was not strongly affected by the fourth wave of COVID-19 in the first six months of 2021, the industrial sector’s added value increased by 11.45 percent, in which manufacturing rose by 11.42 percent.

However, in July, the situation worsened, as the pandemic broke out and spread widely in southern provinces and cities. Therefore, to maintain production in enterprises and avoid production disruption, vaccination is still the fundamental solution and needs to be carried out soon, Hoan added.

During the January-July period, Vietnam earned 185.33 billion USD from exports, up 25.5 percent year-on-year. This showed an optimistic sign amidst the complex developments of the pandemic.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Despite complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, export revenues from agricultural products have increased strongly so far this year, greatly contributing to the country’s economic growth.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), with export revenues of 28.6 billion USD, up 26.7 percent year on year, and import turnover of 24.7 billion USD, the agriculture sector enjoyed a trade surplus of 3.9 billion USD in the first seven months of 2021.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien said that export revenues of major agricultural products hit 12.2 billion USD, a year-on-year rise of 15.1 percent, while earnings from forestry products rose 54 percent to about 10.2 billion USD, seafood up 12 percent to 4.9 billion USD and livestock increased 16 percent to 245 million USD.

Particularly, strong growth was seen in exports of product groups with revenues of over 2 billion USD, including rubber, wooden furniture and aquatic products, he said.

In order to complete the target of about 44 billion USD in exports of farm produce in 2021 in the context of COVID-19, MARD has coordinated closely with ministries, sectors and localities to roll out comprehensive measures to adjust production plans and crop structure to ensure the highest productivity.

At the same time, the sector will strengthen processing of the products and expand export markets, while working to remove trade and technical barriers for Vietnamese farm produce in foreign markets.

The ministry will foster connectivity among businesses, localities and Vietnamese representative offices abroad to increase exports of agricultural products, especially lychee and longan to the EU, UK, China and Japan, while making risk assessments of cassava residue for exporting to China.

Source: Vietnam News Agency