Day: September 29, 2021

General Director of the Vietnam Meteorological and Hydrological Administration Tran Hong Thai, who is Vice President of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO)’s Regional Association II (Asia), chaired a virtual technical meeting on infrastructure during the 17th session of the Regional Association II (Asia) – Phase 2 on September 28-29.

International and regional experts and scientists discussed issues related to the development of websites serving the community in terms of information and data, the overview of the WMO’s service activities, common alerting protocol, multi-hazard warning system, and multi-hazard early warning consulting system.

The WMO, formally designated as a specialised agency of the United Nations in 1951, has 193 member states and territories.

The 35-member Region II covers a vast expanse of the Indian Ocean and part of the Pacific Ocean. It is home to a large and diverse range of ecosystems, including deserts, forests, rivers, lakes and seas. Vietnam has to date held the membership to the regional association for over four decades.

Since 2010, Vietnam’s hydro-meteorological sector has continuously expanded international cooperation, significantly contributing to increasing technical and financial capacity, information exchange and staff training, and safeguarding national sovereignty.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Trade office issues warning over fraud in transactions with Benin businesses

The Vietnam Trade Office in Morocco, also in charge of Benin, has warned Vietnamese exporters in general and those engaged in beverage export in particular, to seek full information about importers before conducting transactions with partners from Benin to avoid being a victim of fraud.

It cited the case related to Hi-Profile International General Trading Company, which is headquartered in Dubai, as an example. Hassabel E.Musa-Chairman, known as Khalifa, the company’s director, showed signs of disrepute in import transactions, evading payment responsibility under the signed contract.

According to the trade office, a Vietnamese company had sold two containers of Buffalo Jungle energy drink to the company. The shipment arrived at the port for many days, but Khalifa neither received the goods nor paid the money.

As soon as the Vietnamese enterprise changed the original bill of lading, he colluded with Benin partners to make the customs declaration but did not make the payment.

Upon receiving a request for support from the Vietnamese company, the office has contacted the Benin authorities, including the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and coordinated with the Vietnam Trade Office in Dubai, especially the Port Authority and Customs Agency of the Cotonou Port in Benin in handling the incident.

A reputable partner at the Cotonou Port has been introduced to the Vietnamese company to provide assistance on procedures for selling the goods to other customers. However, local regulations that require the opinion of the importer before carrying out procedures to return goods to Vietnam or sell to a third party made it difficult to settle the case.

The office also managed to persuade the Benin company to cooperate but failed.

To reduce risks when exporting goods to Benin and some North and West African areas, Vietnamese enterprises should be cautious in conducting transactions such as delivery at the port (CIF), payment method, delivery contract and signing contracts through intermediaries, it said.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The National Assembly (NA)’s Committee for Legal Affairs on September 29 reviewed the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Intellectual Property (IP) Law, under the chair of its Chairman Hoang Thanh Tung.

At the meeting, Minister of Science and Technology Huynh Thanh Dat stated that amending and supplementing a number of articles of the IP Law is vital to the country’s socio-economic development.

Vietnam has joined international commitments towards the improvement of protection and enforcement of IP rights during global economic integration. Such commitments require amendments and supplements to the country’s IP Law.

Legislators believed that the draft law has basically met international commitments to which Vietnam is a member, especially the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).

Concluding the meeting, Tung asked drafting agencies to gather opinions and clarify theoretical and practical foundations in a bid to ensure consistency in the legal system, as well as the bill’s compatibility with international commitments that Vietnam has participated in.

He added that based on opinions by the NA Standing Committee and contents of this meeting, the Committee for Legal Affairs will further complete an official verification report for consideration at the second session of the 15th NA.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong on September 29 sent a message of congratulations to Kishida Fumio on his election as President of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Japan.

After Vietnam and Japan established diplomatic ties on September 21, 1973, the bilateral relationship has experienced rapid development over the past years.

The Vietnam-Japan relationship is now at its best since the establishment of the diplomatic ties, with high mutual trust.

Japan is Vietnam’s leading important economic partner, the largest official development assistance (ODA) provider, second biggest investor, third largest tourism partner and fourth largest trade partner.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

President Nguyen Xuan Phuc hailed efforts made by the Ministry of Public Security’s undercover police force to fight crimes while attending a ceremony to mark the force’s 60th founding anniversary on September 29.

Over the past six decades, the force has participated in many major projects contributing to fighting kinds of crimes, absolutetly protecting security and safety for activities of Party and State leaders, as well as key works and important national and international events held in Vietnam.

The force’s outstanding feats and contributions of generations of officers and soldiers over the past 60 years have further enhanced the glorious heroic tradition of the People’s Public Security force, the State leader affirmed.

He expressed his belief that undercover policemen will exert efforts to fulfil all assigned tasks.

On this occasion, President Phuc granted the Fatherland Defence Order, second class, to the undercover police department, and the Feat Order, second class, to Major General Doan Hung Son, director of the department.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The RMIT Amazing Vietnam Student Competition (AVSC) 2021 has been launched on the occasion of the World Tourism Day (September 27), aiming to encourage students to seek sustainable tourism ideas and develop their problem-solving skills.

Tenth to twelfth graders across the country can make groups of five at maximum to join the competition, through which they will have chances to explore Vietnamese historical relics and share their Vietnamese tourism experiences with foreign visitors.

From now until November 7, they can submit a video with a maximum length of two minutes on ideas for sustainable tourism development in Vietnam. The six most outstanding teams will compete in the final round slated for December 5, during which they will make presentations on their projects before the jury that includes representatives from the Vietnam Tourism Administration, Grant Thornton, InterContinental Saigon, and RMIT University.

Total award value is 100 million VND (4,400 USD).

Dr. Jackie Ong, head of the Tourism and Hospitality Management Faculty at RMIT Vietnam said that this year, the World Tourism Day is themed “Tourism for Inclusive Growth”.

She underlined the need to foster local communities’ connectivity and encourage the engagement of the society in implementing the inclusive growth plan to improve service quality and boost sustainable development of the tourism sector.

Ong also stressed the significance of youngsters’ involvement in turning Vietnam into an attractive tourist destination.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam on September 28 held an online working session with leaders of Ho Chi Minh City, Mekong Delta and Central Highlands provinces and cities to prepare for loosening social distancing after September 30.

At the event, participants basically agreed with the need to relax social distancing measures in Ho Chi Minh City and southern localities to recover socio-economic development, saying that they basically put the pandemic under control.

Several of them suggested the Prime Minister allow continuing to control travelling from/to Ho Chi Minh City and between southern localities like at present as the rate of vaccinations in these provinces remains low, thus posing risk of infections.

Leaders of HCM City wanted that residents coming from other provinces and cities would continue staying in the city to soon bring it to new normalDam asked HCM City to offer support in terms of employment, vaccines and accommodation for workers, outline plans to welcome back workers from localities and create the best conditions for them to be vaccinated.

The Ministry of Health was assigned to consult with the Government about the allocation of vaccines to HCM City and nearby provinces to achieve herd immunity, as well as prevent residents from travelling to other localities freely.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

A draw against Tajikistan will be enough for Vietnam to secure a place in the 2022 AFC Women’s Asian Cup finals, but the Southeast Asian champions want more than that in the last match of the qualification’s Group B on September 29.

Vietnam are top of the three-team group after beating Maldives 16-0 last week. Tajikistan are in second place after they beat Maldives 4-0 on September 27.

“Tajikistan players are taller and bigger, especially the defenders, than Vietnamese but their technique is not really impressive, just in middle level,” said coach Mai Duc Chung of Vietnam after he witnessed the match between Tajikistan and Maldives.

“They play long ball well. They used 4-4-2 formation with two strikers who have good speed to vie for ball against Maldives.”

Chung still wants his team, currently ranked 32nd in the world, to be relaxed but not complacent against Tajikistan, who sit in 135th position globally.

Although they scored 16 goals in their first match, Chung was not satisfied with his team’s performance. He said the result did not tell the whole story. Vietnam could score many goals because Maldives were too weak, not because his players were strong.

He said scoring was still a problem and must be improved for the next match.

“We have built up a suitable plan to face them and my players are ready for a win,” Chung said.

The match will be held at 8pm local time at the Republican Central Stadium in Dushanbe City.

Following the tournament rules, only the top team of eight groups will join four squads who have taken automatic slots in the finals which will take place in India from January 20 to February 6, 2020.

For the first time in history, the finals is expanded from eight teams to twelve. Japan are the defending champions while Australia and China were second and third runners-up.

The Asian Cup will serve as the continental qualification for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

Australia have already qualified automatically as co-host. Five teams will qualify directly for the World Cup via the knockout stage (including play-offs for fifth place) and two more teams will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs.

Vietnam who missed their chances twice in play-offs for fifth place are tipped to win their first ever World Cup slot this time as it has expanded from 24 to 32 teams.

Source: Vietnam News Agency