Day: October 22, 2021

Vietnam Airlines on October 22 morning launched its first flight to Con Dao island offshore Ba Ria-Vung Tau southern province after a social distancing period to curb the spread of COVID-19.

The flight departing from Ho Chi Minh City was operated by its affiliate Vasco.

Meanwhile, the first flight from Con Dao to HCM City was set to take off later the same day with nearly full seat occupancy. Stringent COVID-19 prevention measures were strictly carried out during the flight.

At present, Vasco is carrying out two roundtrips per day on the HCM City-Con Dao air route and one per day on the Can Tho-Con Dao route, meeting people’s travel demand and fostering tourism, trade and socio-economic development of the island in particular and Ba Ria-Vung Tau at large.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Algerian Ambassador to Vietnam Mohamed Berrah has been honoured with the “For peace and friendship among nations” insignia for his contribution to promoting the friendship between people of Vietnam and Algeria.

At a ceremony held in Hanoi on October 21, President of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations (VUFO) Ambassador Nguyen Phuong Nga said the Vietnam-Algeria friendship and cooperation have flourished during Berrah’s six-year term.

The two sides successfully held the 11th meeting of the InterGovernmental Committee which provides the basis to effectively implement joint activities and cooperation projects.

Bilateral economic and trade relations remain stable despite the difficulties triggered by COVID-19 for the global economy.

Nga spoke highly of the Algerian diplomat’s contributions to enhancing solidarity and people-to-people exchange between the two countries, as he had regularly worked with the Vietnam-Algeria Friendship Association to discuss measures to bolster cooperation, and met with Vietnamese experts who used to work in the African nation.

Of note, he has been working with relevant agencies in Vietnam since early this year to adapt a famous Algerian author’s work on President Ho Chi Minh into a play, in a hope of bringing the warm feeling of Algerian people for their Vietnamese counterparts and for the late President of Vietnam to the Vietnamese audience on the occasion of the 60th founding anniversary of the diplomatic ties in 2022.

For his part, the Algerian Ambassador pledged that in any future position, he will continue to contribute to the friendship and cooperation between people of Algeria and Vietnam.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi will be open at 30 percent of its capacity when Vietnam host Japan and Saudi Arabia in the final round of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Asian qualifiers.

The People’s Committee of Hanoi has approved a plan on the organisation of the matches, announced the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) on October 21.

The two games will take place on November 11 and five days later, respectively.

To be eligible for entering the stadium, spectators must be fully vaccinated with the second shot being injected at least 14 days or recover from COVID-19 within six months; test negative for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 within 72 hours before kick-off; and follow the Ministry of Health’s 5K message.

Vietnam have yet to collect any points after four matches and are at the bottom of Group B of the final qualifying round, which they played for the first time ever.

Vietnam are of the same group with Japan, Australia, Saudi Arabia, China and Oman.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Vietnam launched a news portal on climate change for young people at a discussion held virtually on October 22.

Organised in collaboration with the Italian and British embassies in Vietnam, the event took place on the threshold of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) and gathered more than 2,400 Vietnamese youths from different regions.

In his opening speech, UNDP Resident Representative a.i. in Vietnam, Terence D. Jones, highlighted that through the portal, the UNDP will support youth capacity development, empower youth-led climate initiatives, and create an favourable environment for young people to access green job opportunities and adopt sustainable lifestyles.

Jones said that the UNDP will continue to prioritise supporting and strengthening the climate action of Vietnamese youth in the coming years by establishing a Training of Trainers (TOT) network on different climate topics and foster knowledge for 100 excellent young people to expand the climate learning society in the nation.

The portal provides a learning space for young people to access reliable, accurate and contextual information in Vietnam on climate science, agriculture and forestry, energy, waste, circular economy and climate policy. It reshapes and updates climate science and policy into youth-friendly learning themes.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung on October 21 decided to establish 12 teams to inspect the provision of assistance for employers and employees hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the decision, they will inspect the implementation of the Government’s resolutions and Prime Minister’s decisions on social welfare policies and assistance for affected employers and workers.

They were also assigned to check the shortages of workers in economic sectors, domestic and foreign-invested firms, industrial and processing zones, and suggest measures to recover the labour market.

The teams will report results to the steering committee in charge of assistance to affected employers and employees.

The inspection duration will last from October 21 to November 3.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Ho Chi Minh Trail at Sea will forever remain the pride of the army and people of Vietnam, Deputy Minister of National Defence Sen. Lt. Gen. Le Huy Vinh said at a ceremony marking the 60th year since the opening of the secret shipping route.

The ceremony was held in the northern port city of Hai Phong by the Central Military Commission, the Ministry of National Defence and the municipal People’s Committee on October 22.

Vinh said since it was launched in 1961, Ho Chi Minh Trail at Sea had become a new and important channel for transporting weapons and supplies all the way from the North to the southern front during the resistance war against the US. The Vietnamese army had taken nearly 2,000 boat trips on the route, carrying about 80,000 personnel, over 150,000 tonnes of weapons and ammunition, and tens of thousands of tonnes of goods to support its troops on major battlefields in the South, that could not be done by road, he noted.

He described it as a shining symbol of the revolutionary heroism and the Vietnamese army’s intelligence, braveness, and determination to liberate and unite the nation. It is such an innovative and strategic initiative of President Ho Chi Minh and the Communist Party of Vietnam, he stressed.

The deputy minister went on to say that to fulfill today’s missions, forces on duty at sea and on islands, particularly the Vietnam People’s Navy, must successfully implement the Party’s policies and the State’s laws relating sea and islands, thus turning Vietnam into a strong and rich country based on the sea-borne economy.

He also urged the forces to safeguard the country’s security, independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity and strengthen international marine cooperation to maintain a peaceful and stable environment for national development.

Ho Chi Minh Trail at Sea remains pride of Vietnam’s army and people: Deputy Minister hinh anh 3

Missile ship HQ-378 of the Naval Region 2’s Brigade 167 conducts live-fire drills. (Photo: VNA)

During the anti-US war, the Ho Chi Minh Trail was deemed a “strategic road through jungles” while the Ho Chi Minh Trail at Sea was associated with the secret transport ships without numbers.

The existence of these two mysterious routes caused extreme difficulties for the US military and the South Vietnam government, who made many attempts to prevent the northern army from supporting the southern battles.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) signed an agreement in Hanoi on October 22 on the Swiss Government’s commitment of non-refundable aid worth 5 million CHF for a project on improving Vietnam’s trade and export promotion policy.

The project, implemented from 2021-2024, aims to improve the efficiency of trade activities and global competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) via enhancing framework conditions for trade, improving public-private dialogue mechanism and building an ecological system for trade promotion.

It has a budget of 5.672 million CHF, 5 million CFH of which will be provided by the Swiss Government and the remainder from the Vietnamese Government and policy beneficiaries.

The project will provide technical assistance to the MoIT to help deal with challenges such as shaping Vietnam’s export-import development strategy for the next decade and promoting digitalisation for SMEs.

Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Sinh Nhat Tan said the project marks an important milestone in celebrating the 50th anniversary of Vietnam – Switzerland ties and 30 years of bilateral economic and technical cooperation, contributing to their commitments to Vietnam’s sustainable socio-economic development.

Carried out by the MoIT with technical support of the International Trade Centre, it is one of the most important projects under the 2021-2024 cooperation programme conducted by the SECO.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Directorate of Fisheries (DoF) is striving to complete institutions for sustainable and responsible fishery management in the fourth quarter of 2021, and quickly address the European Commission (EC)’s recommendations related to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

The information was unveiled by DoF Deputy General Director Nguyen Quang Hung on the sidelines of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Develop’s online conference with coastal localities on October 22.

Hung said that the EC assessed that Vietnam is on the right track and seeing positive results in the fight against IUU fishing.

According to the official, the EC is likely not to impose a “red card” but will maintain its “yellow card” warning until there is no Vietnamese fishing vessel violating foreign waters and overcome the EC’s four groups of recommendations.

The Directorate of Fisheries said that localities have actively installed vessel monitoring devices on fishing vessels and marked them in accordance with the provisions of the Fisheries Law.

Up to now, 27,716 vessels, or 90.5 percent of the targeted boats, have installed vessel monitoring systems (VMS), and 90.53 percent of fishing vessels have been marked. Quang Ninh, Quang Tri and Tra Vinh provinces have less than 75 percent of their fishing vessels installing these devices.

Authorised forces from central to local levels have implemented many measures to prevent and stop Vietnamese fishing vessels from violating foreign waters. The situation tends to decrease gradually, but is still developing complicatedly. Ca Mau, Binh Dinh, Ba Ria – Vung Tau, Ben Tre, and Kien Giang provinces have still seen fishing vessels violating the regulations.

Administrative sanctions against violations related to IUU fishing have led to positive changes in some localities. However, the sanctions are not really strict and inconsistent among localities, and the rate of penalties imposed on violations in foreign waters are still low compared to the reality.

Source: Vietnam News Agency