Day: October 23, 2021

Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh has recently signed a decision approving the national target programme on socio-economic development in ethnic minority-inhabited and mountainous areas, with the first phase from now to 2025.

As part of the programme, ethnic minorities’ income is expected to double that of 2020.

The overall objective is to exploit the potential and advantages of ethnic minority and mountainous areas, promote economic development, ensure social security, and put in place rapid and sustainable poverty reduction.

It hopes to gradually narrow the gap between the areas’ living standards and average income and the national average income, reduce the number of communes and villages with special difficulties and set up an inter-regional socio-economic infrastructure system.

The areas will receive better education, training and healthcare, markedly improving people’s lives, raising the quantity and quality of State employees who are ethnic minorities, preserving and promoting ethnic minorities’ culture.

Gender equality and urgent issues facing women and children will be resolved as well as maintaining social order and safety, ensuring national border security, consolidating and strengthening the great national unity. The programme aims to reduce the rate of poor households by more than three percent per year, and all roads will be paved with asphalt or concrete. All schools and medical stations will be upgraded, and 99 percent of households will have access to electricity.

Up to 90 percent of ethnic minorities will have access to clean water and all have television or radio to receive information.

The programme hopes to move 60 percent of ethnic minority households living in remote and isolated areas at risk of flash floods and landslides. Land shortages will also be resolved.

More than 98 percent of five-year-old children will attend school. The rate of students at primary schools, junior secondary schools and high schools will be 97, 95 and 60 percent, respectively.

As many as 98 percent of ethnic minorities will be covered by health insurance and more than 80 percent of pregnant women will receive periodic examinations. The rate of malnourished children will be under 15 percent.

Under the programme, 50 percent of ethnic minorities of working age will receive proper vocational training that is suitable to their aspirations and living conditions.

At least 3,250km of rural roads will be paved with asphalt or concrete. More than 268,860 households will get access to clean water.

More than 320 boarding schools, more than 1,100 day-boarding schools, seven reserve universities and three boarding high schools will get more teaching materials and equipment.

More than 17,400 households will receive land and more than 18,300 others receive houses.

The programme will offer vocational training to about 2.25 million people.

About 320 training courses on intangible culture will be organised and 200 projects on traditional culture, which are at risk of disappearing, will be supported.

More than 5,000 poor students will get help to continue their studies every year.

Eighty villages will be used to promote tourism and 800 clubs for traditional culture will be founded.

More than 224,900 prestigious people in the community will be educated about necessary work related to ethnic minority affairs and 30,000 workers at the grassroots level will be taught IT skills.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Real estate businesses in Ho Chi Minh City are gingerly reopening, mostly consulting and carrying out transactions online due to the COVID-19 prevention and control regulations still in force.

Tran Trong Tien, general director of a real estate brokerage in Binh Thanh district, said his company resumed operations at the beginning of October but is only allowed to have 30 percent of employees in office.

“Our main projects are in Phu Quoc Island and some other localities, but … we cannot take visitors to show them the projects, and most consultations are online.”

Pham Lam, chairman of real estate services firm DKRA Vietnam, said most businesses in the industry had resumed operations, but were effecting few transactions since customers were hesitant to buy when they could not personally see the products. Most were opting to wait until they see them.

Nguyen Huong, General Director of Dai Phuc Land Real Estate Joint Stock Company, said the COVID-19 pandemic caused great difficulties for real estate businesses: all their previous plans had been binned and most faced cash flow pressures.

Banks cut lending to real estate business in the first half of this year, and this is likely to continue.

LienVietPostBank’s financial statements show that loans outstanding to the real estate sector fell in the first 6 months of this year by 52 percent to 1.67 trillion VND (72.6 million USD), or only 0.87 percent of total loans.

At VPBank, the figure fell by 12 percent to 32.4 trillion VND.

Chairman of the HCM City Real Estate Association Le Hoang Chau wants the central bank to instruct lenders to reduce loan interest rates by 2 percentage points, extend payment terms and roll over loans and not turn them into bad debts to enable the industry to recover.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The performance of ao dai (long dress) and display of special Vietnamese products, such as silk, handicrafts and souvenirs, have left a deep impression on visitors at Flavours of Asia festival which was recently held at the headquarters of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in Geneva, Switzerland.

It was jointly organised by the Ambassadors’ Spouses Association in Geneva in coordination with the Delegation of Asian countries.

The cultural diversity and richness of the Asian region have been vividly and colorfully reflected at the festival through performances of their national costumes, music and arts, and introduction of garment products, souvenirs and cusine.

The Vietnamese delegation in Geneva brought to the festival typical silk and fine art products such as embroidery and lacquer paintings and souvenirs including bronze drums, paper fans, and lanterns as well as the performance of ao dai.

It is noteworthy that the festival was held on the occasion of Vietnamese Women’s Day which falls on October 20 so it has become an opportunity for promoting Vietnam’s culture and people to international friends.

According to the organisers, nearly 1,000 people took part in the festival. All proceeds from the sale of tickets and products will be donated to the Afghanistan Charity Foundation to support the country’s women and children.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

A safety tour with a combination of automatic audio guides and traditional sightseeing was launched on October 23 at the Vietnam National Museum of History.

The event was organised by the museum in collaboration with the Hanoitourist Corporation (Hanoitourist) to adapt to the current COVID-19 pandemic and adjust the museum’s operations in the new normal.

Speaking at the launching ceremony, Nguyen Thi Thu Hoan, deputy director of the museum, said the “French architecture in the heart of Hanoi” tour is a product that makes a difference for visitors to the capital due to a connection between the museum with related monuments in Hanoi as well as a connection in terms of architecture and history.

This tour combines traditional sightseeing with the application of automatic narration technology through scanning a QR code to ensure the safety of visitors in the new normal, she said.

In particular, visitors can also admire and learn about three among many rare and precious treasures only at the Vietnam National Museum of History. They are “Ngoc Lu bronze drum” and the golden books and seals – the treasures symbolising the supreme power of the kings of the Nguyen Dynasty, the last feudal dynasty of Vietnam, Hoan said.

Phung Quang Thang, Director of Hanoitourist, said that after the fourth wave of COVID-19 infections, all tourism activities have changed to a new form, operating in the context of living with COVID-19, flexible and safety adaptation which required travel firms to have safe tourism programmes and activities. Therefore, Hanoitourist and the Vietnam National Museum of History collaborated to set up a safe tour that last about one hour and a half, he said.

The unique feature of the tour is the connection of three attractions, helping visitors to have an overview, identification and comparison to see the outstanding value of architectural works and styles, and interactions between Vietnamese culture with Western culture in the early 20th century.

It connects events and artifacts displayed in the Vietnam National Museum of History with the Hanoi Opera House and the historical relic of the Bac Bo Phu (now became the Government Guest House) from the perspective of architecture and historical events, thereby helping visitors understand more deeply as well as having new experiences in the tour.

To ensure safety, each tour group will have no more than 10 members and they have to keep a distance and do not contact with each other.

The “French architecture in the heart of Hanoi” tour will be held every Saturday and Sunday, starting on October 23.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Political parties have lauded Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s message of international solidarity sent to the annual international workshop entitled “Political parties and a new society” held recently in Mexico.

They described the message as a great source of encouragement for political parties, and left-wing and progressive organisations in Mexico, Latin America and the world at large.

In his message, Trong thanked the Mexican Labour Party (PT), left-wing political and progressive parties in Latin America and the Caribbean region, and other political parties worldwide for their support to the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) during the past struggle for national liberation, as well as the present cause of national construction and defence.

The leader also expressed his wish to deepen the friendship, solidarity and cooperation between the CPV and political parties in the world.

He said the workshop has contributed to the common struggle for peace, national independence, democracy, cooperation and social development and progress.

The event that took place from October 21-23 brought together more than 200 international delegates from 32 countries worldwide.

PT General Secretary Alberto Anaya Gutiérrez told the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) that he spoke highly of Trong’s message, saying it is a great source of encouragement for all progressive political parties attending the workshop.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Legislators looked into the Law on Cinematography (amended) and the Law on Emulation and Reward (amended) during the second session of the 15th National Assembly in Hanoi on October 23.

The amendment of the Law on Cinematography is expected to create a legal corridor and breakthrough policies, with a long-term vision, to facilitate the development of the cinematography sector.

Meanwhile, the revision of the Law on Emulation and Reward aims to institutionalise and concretize the Party’s viewpoints and guidelines on the emulation and reward work.

In the afternoon, the legislators scrutinised reports on fighting crimes, law violations and anti-corruption, along with a number of working reports by Prosecutor General of the Supreme People’s Procuracy Le Minh Tri and Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court Nguyen Hoa Binh.

They also discussed the judgement enforcement and the organisation of online trials.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Vietnamese Ambassador to Austria Nguyen Trung Kien has recently visited Styria, the second largest state of the European nation, to seek new cooperation opportunities between localities of the two countries.

Within the visit, he met with Elke Kahr, leader of the Austrian Communist Party (KPO) in Styria that won a victory in local elections in Graz city on September 26. With this result, Kahr will become a new Mayor of Graz city later this year.

The two sides discussed cooperation between Vietnam and Graz city over the past time, and agreed to boost the bilateral collaboration in economy, industry, research – training, tourism – culture and experience sharing.

Kahr said she is willing to coordinate with the Vietnamese Embassy in Austria to organise activities in Graz on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Vietnam and Austria in 2022.

Kien made field trips to two local firms, Christof Industries and AVL, to explore economic models of the Austrian state.

Christof Industries is specialised in mechanical and electrical assembly, I & C engineering, power plant engineering, mill installation and maintenance as well as the maintenance and repair of industrial machinery and plants.

Meanwhile, AVL is the world’s largest independent company for the development, simulation and testing of powertrain systems.

Both enterprises expressed their hope for cooperation with Vietnam.

At a seminar held by the Vietnamese Embassy in Austria, local businesses suggested that restrictions on movement, entry, exit and quarantine amid the COVID-19 pandemic should be removed or imposed in a flexible manner to create optimal conditions for Austrian firms to soon return to Vietnam.

Source: Vietnam News Agency