Category: General

The Vietnam Football Federation has agreed to delay the national football tournament V.League 2021 till February 12, 2022.

 

Under its recently-adopted Resolution No.228/NQ-BCHLDBDVN on the organisation of national professional football tournaments 2021, the first stage of the V.League 2021 will resume on February 12, 2022. The second stage will take place from February 16 to March 12, 2022.

 

The Bamboo Airways National Cup 2021 will start on January 17, 2022. The quarter-final round is scheduled for February 8, 2022 while the semi-final and final will be from March 15-18, 2022.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 

 

 

The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) and the Communist Party of Chile exchanged information and experience in different spheres at an online workshop on August 6.

Head of the CPV Central Committee’s Commission for External Relations Le Hoai Trung briefed the Chilean side on the outcome of the 13th National Party Congress and the country’s development targets by 2030 with a vision towards 2045.

He affirmed Vietnam’s consistent policy of independence, self-reliance, peace, friendship, cooperation and development, and the diversification and multilateralisation of foreign relations.

Vietnamese, Chilean Parties beef up cooperation hinh anh 2

At the workshop (Photo: VNA)

The CPV always wishes to boost and deepen the solidarity and traditional friendship with the Communist Party of Chile as well as other political Parties in the country, Trung said.

Claudio de Negri, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Chile and head of the committee’s Commission for External Relations, expressed his hope that under the sound leadership of the CPV, headed by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, Vietnamese people will successfully implement the Resolution adopted at the 13th National Party Congress.

The Communist Party of Chile, progressive forces and people in the Latin American country always attach importance and wish to enhance the traditional friendship and cooperation with the Vietnamese Party and people, he said.

The two sides shared experience in Party building, democracy practice, socio-economic development and international integration, and proposed specific measures to foster their ties in the time to come.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his Thai counterpart Prayut Chan-o-cha, on August 6, exchanged congratulatory messages on the occasion of the 45th founding anniversary of the Vietnam – Thailand diplomatic relations (August 6, 1976 – 2021).

Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son and Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Don Pramudwinai also sent to each other similar messages on the same day.

In their messages, the Vietnamese and Thai leaders spoke highly of significant achievements obtained by the two nations over the past 45 years.

They said they believe that with high solidarity and consensus, leaders and people of Vietnam and Thailand will soon overcome challenges, jointly develop the countries, and foster a stronger enhanced strategic partnership between their nations in contribution to peace, cooperation and development in the region and the world.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ca Mau province will popularise Vietnamese good agricultural practices (VietGAP) and organic standards in order to increase the value and yield of its bananas.

The southernmost province will also combine the banana orchards with eco-tourism services to add to farmers’ incomes.

It will encourage farmers to turn mixed orchards, areas around fields growing other crops and near forests and unproductive rice fields into banana plantations.

Banana farmers will use intensive farming to increase yields, tissue culture and high-quality varieties. In the plantations, farmers will be encouraged to breed fish and livestock.

Besides, the province will strive to strengthen linkages between farmers and processors to increase the output of various products made from the fruit and its by-products.

Ca Mau, one of the largest banana growing provinces in the Mekong Delta, has 5,400ha under various varieties of the fruit, including 4,800ha of xiem, with an annual output of 60,000 tonnes.

The banana growing areas are located mostly in U Minh and Tran Van Thoi districts.

Nguyen Tran Thuc, head of the department’s Plant Protection and Cultivation Sub-department, said demand for xiem bananas remains steady despite the COVID-19 pandemic, and it fetches farmers a price of 3,500 VND a kilogramme, the same as before the outbreak.

The province’s bananas are sold in the delta and Ho Chi Minh City and exported to Cambodia through local traders.

Most are sold for eating fresh, with a quantity meant for processing into products like dried banana and banana cake.

Ca Mau plans to expand its area under banana to 6,000ha and annual output to 120,000 tonnes by 2025.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Young artists will have an opportunity to show their talents and creativity through a drawing contest about Hanoi.

The contest will last from August 6 to September 9, aiming to promote the title “Hanoi – Creative City” awarded by UNESCO in 2019.

It is organised by United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the United Nations Human Settlement Program (UN-Habitat), and the Vietnam Institute of Culture and Arts Studies (VICAS) with the companionship of the Vietnam Local Artist Group (VLAG).

The contest is part of the Hanoi Rethink project initiated by UNESCO, UN-Habitat, and the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), with the support of SOVICO Group, to realise the city’s commitments when joining the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.

According to UNESCO, the COVID-19 pandemic may limit the movement of people, but it cannot stop the flow of creativity. The drawing contest about Hanoi welcomes unique ideas from different visual arts forms such as painting, drawing and design. Entrants can freely express a Hanoi behind their artistic lens and emotions.

The winner will be awarded a cash prize of 10 million VND (438 USD). There will be four co-winners for second place, one voting prize and 24 prizes for outstanding works.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Ho Chi Minh City’s Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs on August 6 announced that the city has basically completed the disbursement of the first support package for COVID-19-hit people, with over 611 billion VND (26.56 million USD) given to more than 391,020 local residents.

Of the total, nearly 500 billion VND was used to assist 311,619 workers without labour contracts (freelancers) who lost their jobs, reaching 100 percent, while over 11.2 billion VND was offered to 5,603 business households whose operations have been suspended (100 percent), and over 17.1 billion VND was provided to more than 11,400 traders in traditional markets (more than 88.6 percent).

Localities across the city has supported 44,244 labourers having their contracts temporary suspended or on unpaid leave with nearly 84 billion VND, while giving nearly 400 million VND to labourers with terminated contracts but are not eligible for unemployment benefits, reaching 15.7 percent.

Explaining the low rate of support disbursement to some groups, a representative from the department said that many people are undertaking quarantine or left the city, making it impossible to deliver the aid to them.

According to Vice Chairman of them municipal People’s Committee Duong Ang Duc, the city has approved a second support package worth more than 900 billion VND, with each freelancer and poor household receiving 1.5 million VND in cash.

The second package targets 604,500 people in three groups, with 501 billion VND expected to be provided for freelancers losing jobs.

Duc added that in reality, the number of poor and near-poor households living in the city may be higher than statistics, but all these families will receive support.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Head of the National Assembly (NA) Committee for External Relations Vu Hai Ha had an online meeting with United Nations (UN) Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Armida Salsiah Alisjabana on August 5 to discuss measures to bolster cooperation in implementing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Vietnam.

At the meeting, Ha said that the NA has played an important role in promoting the implementation of the SDGs by adopting laws and national strategies as well as budget allocation for development programmes related to the SDGs, while verifying and ratifying international conventions on human rights and socio-economic matters.

He underscored that Vietnam coordinated with the International Parliamentary Union (IPU) to adopt the Hanoi Declaration 2015 with the theme “The Sustainable Development Goals: Turning Words into Action,” and organise many meetings and conferences on sustainable development.

Briefing the UN official on Vietnam’s situation and progress of SDGs, Ha said that despite adverse impacts of COVID-19, Vietnam has successfully organised a number of important political events to complete its leadership structure and sketch out future development orientations. Vietnam has completed 16 out of 17 general targets and 115 out of 169 detail goals, he said, adding that Vietnam has issued a roadmap for the implementation of the SDGs to 2030.

Currently, the country is implementing the “twin targets” of preventing and controlling COVID-19 and boosting economic recovery and development at the same time, ensuring people’s livelihood and social security, he said.

He noted that last year, Vietnam was among a few countries with positive growth and is forecast to continue to enjoy 6-6.5 percent of expansion in 2021. However, since late April, the country has been hit hard by the fourth COVID-19 wave of outbreaks due to the fast spreading of Delta variant, he added.

Ha said that the Prime Minister has issued a national Action Plan to realise the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with specific targets and tasks as well as responsibility for particular ministries, sectors, agencies and localities.

He proposed that the UN and the UNESCAP give more support to Vietnam in holding meetings, conferences as well as personnel training to enhance the capacity of lawmakers and NA agencies in law-making and supervision over the implementation of SDGs, thus optimising the NA role in the process.

For her part, Armida Salsiah Alisjabana lauded the role and efforts of the Vietnamese NA in promoting the implementation of SDGs, affirming the UNESCAP’s commitments to assisting Vietnam and the NA in realising the goals.

Underscoring that COVID-19 is threatening the completion of the SDGs in Asia-Pacific region, she asked the Vietnamese NA to promote its role as an active member of the IPU bodies and the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA), thus connecting parliaments in hastening and supervising the process, ensuring the effective implementation of policies regarding SDGs.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Saigon-Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB) has been named winner of the Asian Banking and Finance (ABF) awards for the seventh consecutive years.

The SHB was honoured as Vietnam Domestic COVID Management Initiative of the Year in the ABF Wholesale Banking Awards 2021. In the ABF Retail Banking Awards 2021, the Vietnamese bank received the Bronze prize for Corporate Social Responsibility and Green Programme of the Year and earned the title of Banking for Women Initiative of the Year in Vietnam.

Since the outset of COVID-19, SHB has introduced various solutions to supported affected businesses. The bank, for example, has launched a number of soft credit packages, worth a total of nearly 33 trillion VND, slashed service fees and interest rates, and delayed loan payments for borrowers troubled by the pandemic.

It has also accelerated digital banking services and encouraged its customers to conduct online transactions by a variety of promotional programmes.

Last year, the bank provided over 9.76 trillion VND worth of loans for green projects. In July 2020, a credit product was introduced, enabling it to fully finance solar power projects with interest rates 1 – 1.5 percent lower than the normal level.

The move was part of its efforts to maintain the top position among Vietnamese commercial joint stock banks in green credit, contributing to the implementation of the national action plan on green growth.

SHB has also been highly regarded for its support for women-led small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in accessing preferential loans. It was among five lenders volunteering to join a project funded by the Asian Development Bank granting 5 million USD to support women-led SMEs hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: Vietnam News Agency