Day: September 17, 2021

A teleconference reviewing theoretical exchange and personnel training between the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) and the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) for the 2016-2021 period and discussing collaboration orientations for 2021-2026 was held in Hanoi and Vientiane on September 17.

The event was co-chaired by Director of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics and Chairman of the CPV Central Committee’s Theory Council Nguyen Xuan Thang and head of the LPRP Central Committee’s Commission for Propaganda and Training and Chairman of the LPRP Central Committee’s Theory Council Khamphanh Pheuyavong.

Speaking at the event, Thang affirmed that theoretical exchange and personnel training hold significance to ties between the two Parties and States, as well as promoting the great friendship, comprehensive cooperation and special solidarity between the two countries.

The two Parties’ agencies worked closely together to prepare for seminars’ agenda, administrative procedures and reception. Their topics were chosen thoroughly and held theoretical and practical values to the two Parties and countries.

Opinions at the event affirmed the sound leadership, policies and guidelines of the two Parties and States, contributing to renewing perceptions and thoughts and further clarifying urgent theoretical and practical issues in the two countries’ renovation process.

During the 2016-2021 period, the two Parties successfully held training programmes for leadership and managerial officials in the Lao political system.

Thang also hailed a project to translate the complete works of President Ho Chi Minh from Vietnamese to Lao, contributing to spreading Ho Chi Minh Thought in Laos.

Pheuyavong said the event has become a mechanism in the process of theoretical exchange between the two Parties in the new context, contributing to strengthening the special cooperative ties between the Vietnamese and Lao Parties, States and people.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh on September 19 signed a decision on the general planning tasks regarding Thu Duc city in Ho Chi Minh City until 2040 with the goal to develop Thu Duc into one of the important centres of knowledge economy, science – technology, and finance of HCM City and the country.

According to the decision, the scope of direct study for planning covers the entire area within the administrative boundary of Thu Duc with a total area of about 211.56 km2. Meanwhile, the scope of indirect study also includes districts of HCM City and two neighbouring provinces of Dong Nai and Binh Duong.

The planning aims to propose development orientations suitable to the structure and development orientation of HCM City in order to meet the goal of becoming one of the important economic, scientific – technological and financial centres of the City and country.

The planning is required to meet new requirements in HM City’s socio-economic development strategy and create feasible conditions for implementing synchronously solutions to urban development problems related to population, housing, infrastructure, traffic, environment, adaptation to climate change on the basis of digital infrastructure development and transformation.

The planning, at the same time, will create a legal basis for managing development, investment and construction of urban technical infrastructure systems and areas in Thu Duc city in line with the planning, ensuring urban quality in accordance with meeting grade-1 urban standards.

According to the decision, Thu Duc will be a grade-1 city under the administration of HCM City. It will be developed following an innovative and highly interactive urban model, and will be the eastern centre of Ho Chi Minh City in terms of economy, science and technology, culture, education and training.

Thu Duc city will be an innovation centre, focusing on the fields of advanced education and training, hi-tech research and production, finance and trade – services. It will play a central role in innovation and digital infrastructure development of HCM City and the HCM City region, and a transport hub connecting the current centre of HCM City with Long Thanh international airport and key urban and functional areas in the east of the HCM City region.

It is expected to have a population of 1.5 million by 2030 and 2.2 million by 2040.

The planning work is required to base on the development master plan of HCM City and specialized plans that have been implemented in Thu Duc city, and the forecasts for development demands of HCM City and other southern provinces of Dong Nai, Binh Duong, and Ba Ria – Vung Tau.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The northern province of Quang Ninh is working hard to complete the disbursement of the entire public investment capital which were allocated for projects in the province at the start of 2021.

With regard to key projects, it is striving to disburse at least 80 percent of capital by September 30 and 100 percent by December 30.

The provincial administration has shown its determination to reduce or revoke capital from projects whose investors fail to disburse investment capital as schedule.

To accelerate capital disbursement and project implementation, Quang Ninh has set up special working groups at the provincial and district levels to tighten supervision of investors’ performance.

The provincial People’s Committee has ordered measures to be drastically carried out to speed up the pace of projects financed by the budget and non-budget sources, and promote the disbursement of public funds in both quantity and quality, especially in key projects. Besides, it has also required leaders of departments, sectors, localities, investors, and project management boards be held responsible for the work.

As of August 30, Quang Ninh achieved 52.2 percent of the public investment disbursement target. Excluding the recently allocated capital, the rate reached 67 percent.

The province has cut unnecessary expenses, reduce regular expenditures, increase budget reserves for COVID-19 prevention and control, and prioritise capital for key projects that can help fuel overall development.

Local authorities are stepping up procedures in order to begin four key projects with total investment of over 283.2 trillion VND (12.4 trillion USD) this October, namely the Ha Long urban area complex, the Quang Ninh LNG-fired power plant, Phase 1 of the Van Ninh general port, and the Dong Trieu golf course.

On September 2, Quang Ninh launched a 100-day emulation campaign to speed up three key projects – Cua Luc 1 Bridge, the coastal road linking Ha Long and Cam Pha cities, and Van Don – Mong Cai Expressway – which are currently under construction and scheduled to be put into use by the end of this year.

Once operational, they are hoped to help complete the expressway system in the northern region, serve as a gateway connecting northern localities of Vietnam with ASEAN countries and China, and create an impulse for regional connectivity.

On September 2, Quang Ninh launched a 100-day emulation campaign to speed up three key projects – Cua Luc 1 Bridge, the coastal road linking Ha Long and Cam Pha cities, and Van Don – Mong Cai Expressway – which are currently under construction and scheduled to be put into use by the end of this year.

Once operational, they are hoped to help complete the expressway system in the northern region, serve as a gateway connecting northern localities of Vietnam with ASEAN countries and China, and create an impulse for regional connectivity.

Quang Ninh is striving to achieve the highest possible growth in the fourth quarter and the whole year.

To obtain a double-digit growth rate, the provincial People’s Committee has built three growth scenarios for Q4 and the entire year, with advantages, difficulties, and growth in each sector taken into account.

The Standing Board of the provincial Party Committee agreed that Quang Ninh will exert efforts to achieve this year’s targets, set in the provincial Party Committee’s Resolution 02-NQ/TU, at the highest possible level. Accordingly, the gross regional domestic product (GRDP) growth is expected at over 10 percent and budget revenue to match the economic expansion.

The GRDP growth rate in the first nine months of 2021 is estimated at 8.2 percent.

In particular, the processing and manufacturing industry has increased by 36.2 percent year on year, serving as the main driving force for the industrial sector. It has made up for the pandemic-caused downturn in services, tourism, coal, and electricity sectors.

Meanwhile, nearly 34.38 trillion VND (over 1.5 billion USD) has been collected for the State budget, equivalent to 67 percent of this year’s target. Administrative reforms and the business environment have continued to be improved.

Quang Ninh is one of the three nuclei of the northern key economic region and viewed as a strategic locality in northern Vietnam.

It looks to expand its GRDP by 10 percent on an annual average during 2020 – 2025, and the per capita GRDP to over 10,000 USD by 2025. The urbanisation rate is expected to surpass 75 percent, while the rate of poor households to go down to below 1 percent.

The province plans to complete new-style rural area building by the end of 2030.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Floods, loss of biodiversity and sea level rise are the top three perceived climate change impacts in Southeast Asia, according to a climate survey on regional people’s attitudes and perceptions conducted by the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute (ISEAS).

According to the Southeast Asia Climate Outlook Survey, conducted online from June 11 to August 2, 2021, the issues are most concerned by people in Laos, Malaysia and Thailand.

Compared to 2020, 13 percent more Indonesia respondents and 10 percent more Malaysia respondents are concerned about tropical storms. In Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore, loss of biodiversity is no longer perceived as a top impact and was replaced with floods or rainfall-induced landslides.

The vast majority of respondents recognised the importance of climate change and considered it as a serious and immediate threat.

In the absence of global climate leadership over the last few years, 30.7 percent of ASEAN respondents believe that the EU has demonstrated strongest leadership. Regarding countries that should play a more proactive role in sharing their climate expertise, most respondents chose the EU, Japan and the US.

The report pointed out that the level of confidence in ASEAN renewable energy transition is low. On a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being not confident and 10 being extremely confident, ASEAN respondents only ranked their confidence at 4.6 for ASEAN to achieve its 23 percent target share of renewable energy by 2025. Conversely, they ranked their confidence at 6.6 for economic competitiveness resulting from better and innovative climate change policies.

A majority of respondents disagree (45.6 percent) or are unsure (38.7 percent) that their governments’ COVID-19 stimulus spending contributed to a green recovery.

Choi Shing Kwok, Director and CEO of ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, said that the results showed that Southeast Asians believed that more should be done to address climate change issues, with a majority viewing climate change to be as much of a crisis as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Survey respondents also believed that better and more innovative climate change policies can result in higher economic competitiveness, he said, adding that this will translate into strong support for governments and private companies pursuing climate change initiatives in the region.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Samsung Electronics Co. will begin expanding the production capacity of foldable devices at its plant in Vietnam’s northern province of Bac Ninh within the second half of this year, as reported by The Korean Economics Daily.

Accordingly, Samsung’s display unit Samsung Display Co. will increase its annual production capacity of foldables by 47 percent from the current 17 million to 25 million.

The project targets a full operation by the end of this year or early next year at the latest.

Experts say that once Samsung completes the expansion, the company will be able to produce 10 million units of Z Fold models and 15 million units of Z Flip models a year.

Samsung’s decision to ramp up capacity is mainly driven by soaring market demand. Its third-generation foldable models recorded 920,000 pre-orders in the Republic of Korea, 1.8 times more than its latest smartphone Galaxy S21. The number of pre-orders for the new foldable phones was even higher in China with more than 1 million.

In Vietnam, Samsung is running six plants and building a research and development centre. Investing more than 17.7 billion USD in the country so far, the company is employing 110,000 employees.

It generated an annual export value of over 56 billion USD last year. In the first seven months of 2021, the Samsung Vietnam still grew 10 percent on-year despite COVID-19.

Source: Vietnam News Agency