Day: October 29, 2021

Vietnamese Consul General in Luang Prabang province Nguyen Dang Hung on October 29 presented 25 million LAK (2,300 USD) to Secretary of the Party Committee of Luang Prabang city Viengthong Hatsachan in support of the host authorities’ fight against COVID-19.

The sum was raised by the Vietnamese community, association and businesses in the province.

Viengthong Hatsachan thanked the Vietnamese Consulate General, association and businesses in Luang Prabang for the gift, saying that it demonstrates the fraternal solidarity at a time when the city is battling with the most severe outbreak of the pandemic.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Ha Anh Phuong, a high school English teacher from northern Phu Tho province, has been granted Thailand’s 2021 Princess Maha Chakri Award on October 29.

The Muong ethnic teacher has been selected as one of the eleven educators from Southeast Asian countries to receive the award for their outstanding achievements in education.

Ha Anh Phuong is known for her ‘borderless classroom model’, in which she connects her students to their peers around the world via video call. The opportunities to practise English with foreigners from over 50 countries have not only improved their language skills but also boosted their confidence, soft skills, and intercultural awareness that allow them to become global citizens.

This model has also allowed her students, most of whom are of ethnic minorities in Vietnam’s northern mountainous area, to access different cultures and modern education models.

Ha Anh Phuong has been contributing to the local, national and international education community through professional and development activities, as well as supporting the education community during the COVID-19 pandemic.

She was previously named a finalist for the 2020 Global Teacher Prize by Varkey Foundation, a Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Expert, and a recipient of the Certificate of Merit by Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) for outstanding teaching achievement (2016–2020 period), among numerous other accolades for her work as an educator.

“I’m humbled and treasure this merit, thank you so much for giving me such a great honour. I will take this opportunity to build up the teaching quality and open up relationships with other teachers in the world and the PMCA recipients to bring more value to the community.”

The Award Ceremony, held in a hybrid format simultaneously at Royal Thai Embassies across Southeast Asia, was presided over by Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn from Bangkok, Thailand.

The event also saw the participation of Nikorndej Balankura, Thai Ambassador to Vietnam, and Pham Quang Hung, Director-General of International Cooperation Department of Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training.

The Princess Maha Chakri Award (PMCA) is an international biennial award established in 2015 to commemorate Thailand’s Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn’s 60th birthday, to honour highly dedicated teachers in Southeast Asia whose significant contributions to education and human development deserve international recognition.

Each PMCA recipient will receive an award package which includes the PMCA brooch, plaque, medal, and certificate of honour, as well as the prize money of 10,000 USD.

A year after receiving the Award, all PMCA recipients will participate in the PMCA Forum to share their experiences and best practices in improving themselves, the lives of their students, as well as in serving as examples for other teachers in their respective countries and beyond.

Prior to Ha Anh Phuong, other Vietnamese teachers who received this award are Tran Thi Thuy Dung from northern Lao Cai province (2015), Phan Thi Nu from central Da Nang city (2017), and Le Thanh Liem from southern Hau Giang province (2019).

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The draft Law on Insurance Business (amended) is the focus of the National Assembly session on October 29 morning, as part of the ongoing second session of the 15th legislature.

The bill is set to consolidate legal regulations on insurance business and handle contentious, overlapping contents in the current law, thus ensuring the synchronicity of the legal system.

With eight chapters and 156 articles, the revised law is expected to contribute to reforming administrative procedures in insurance business as well as the management, supervision and inspection in this field.

The Minister of Finance will clarify a number of issues regarding the draft law to be raised by the deputies.

In the afternoon, the lawmakers will look into the draft plan on economic restructuring for 2021-2025, the draft national land use planning scheme for 2021-2030 with a vision towards 2050, and the 2021-2025 land use plan.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Women should be placed at the centre of every post-pandemic recovery and development effort, Vietnamese Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan told the 2021 Global Summit of Women in Lisbon, Portugal, on October 28.

Addressing the summit’s opening ceremony, Vice President Xuan underlined women’s comprehensive role in and enormous contributions to common efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and respond to its negative impacts.

However, she noted, women and girls are also the ones suffering the most from the pandemic and facing the risk of lagging behind after the pandemic.

To achieve a peaceful, prosperous, humane, and sustainable world, the Vice President underlined the need to promote women’s role and full and equal participation in keeping national and international peace and security, especially in preventing conflicts and resolving non-traditional challenges, thus creating a solid foundation for transforming economies.

Women should be placed at the centre of every socio-economic recovery and development effort in the post-pandemic period. They need to be given all possible conditions to access resources and knowledge, apply science and technology, and acquire skills for starting business and developing a digital economy, according to Xuan.

She held that it is necessary to improve women’s digital access and application, bring into play their role in building a digital economy with green, inclusive, and sustainable growth, in tandem with the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

She suggested the summit establish a fund or annual awards for honouring excellent initiatives to ensure gender diversity in business leadership, and for women who run micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises or greatly contribute to society, the pandemic fight, and environmental protection.

The Vice President also called for enhancing the role and improving operations of women’s networks in various areas and at all levels so that women can connect, share experience, seek partners, and assist one another more easily.

Highlighting Vietnamese women’s significant role and major contributions to the country throughout history, she noted women are accounting for 30.26 percent of deputies to the country’s incumbent National Assembly (the highest percentage over the last 45 years), 50 percent of the key positions in ministries and ministry-level agencies, and 26.5 percent of the business owners (ranking sixth in the world in terms of the rate of women entrepreneurs). They have also been actively engaging in the COVID-19 combat, especially in the frontline.

Promoting gender equality and women empowerment is a consistent policy and also one of the top priorities of Vietnam in regional and international cooperation frameworks, the Vice President affirmed.

During the summit, the Vietnamese delegation actively took part in nearly 20 plenary and panel discussions on different issues.

International delegates spoke highly of Vietnam’s achievements in gender equality promotion and women empowerment, noting that they are impressed with the dynamism of Vietnamese businesswomen.

Themed “Women Transforming Economies”, the summit attracted more than 500 delegates from 45 countries and territories, including officials, female business leaders, and representatives of women’s organisations.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Chernyshenko co-chaired the annual 23rd meeting of the Vietnam – Russia Inter-Governmental Committee on Economic, Trade and Scientific-Technological Cooperation via videoconference on October 29.

Both sides reviewed the implementation of the 22nd meeting’s minutes and discussed orientations and measures to further improve the efficiency of bilateral cooperation, towards the 10th anniversary of bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership (2012-2022).

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, bilateral political exchanges, especially those at high level, have been maintained via videoconference. Trade between the two sides still grew at an encouraging pace while joint works across energy, oil and gas, industry and agriculture remained effective.

The two leaders suggested expanding cooperation into promising fields such as anti-pandemic, banking or renewable energy.

Thanh affirmed that Vietnam wishes to further enhance cooperation with Russia and stays ready to offer all possible support to the two countries’ energy, oil and gas firms. He agreed to step up a project on nuclear science and technology research centre, and other cooperation fields.

Chernyshenko, for his part, described Vietnam as a top significant partner of Russia in Asia-Pacific, especially in Southeast Asia.

He stressed that Russia wishes to further deepen ties in fields of potential and demand. He also pledged to further promote the efficiency of free trade agreement between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union.

Concluding the meeting, the two deputy PMs signed the minutes of the meeting and agreed that the next meeting will be held in Vietnam next year.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Employment Service Centre of Can Tho in coordination with Mekong Delta provinces, Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong province held a virtual job fair on October 29 to support enterprises in restoring operations and help workers who returned to their hometowns in the Mekong Delta to escape the COVID-19 outbreak with employment opportunities.

Following the COVID-19 resurgence that resulted in prolonged lockdown in Ho Chi Minh City and several southeastern localities, around 100,000 workers in these industrial hubs have returned to their hometown in the Mekong Delta, causing a serious shortage of labour for firms in the southeast region.

The fair saw the participation of 114 enterprises with 31,000 vacancies. About 600 labourers from Mekong Delta, HCM City and Binh Duong also attended the event in person.

Nguyen Ngoc Quyen, from Hau Giang province, said she hopes to find a job after staying at home over the past three months.

According to Le Thi Thu Ngan, a personnel staff from TaekWang Can Tho Ltd.Co, due to the COVID-19 pandemic there was a shortage of labourers. She said the company requires applicants to have received at least one shot of COVID-19 vaccine for at least 14 days before the date of starting work. However, a survey conducted by the company showed many job seekers have not been vaccinated or vaccinated but yet for 14 days.

Le Ngoc Truong Giang from MK JSC’s recruitment division said the company attended the virtual job fair in the hope of reaching those who do not reside in Can Tho city.

Nguyen Thi Bich Van, deputy director of Can Tho Employment Service Centre said through the job fair, employers will have access to experienced workers, thereby helping businesses restore production after being affected by the pandemic. At the same time, the event also creates favorable conditions for out-of-job workers to meet employers and and quickly go back to work.

She said the centre expects to organise another job fair in November or December this year.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Dang Hoang An and Danish Ambassador to Vietnam Kim Højlund Christensen on October 28 signed a new agreement to kick-start the Danish Energy Partnership Programme between Denmark and Vietnam 2021-2025 (DEPP III).

It is the third phase of a long-term energy cooperation programme between the two Governments launched in 2013. The programme will be jointly carried out by the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) and the Danish Energy Agency with a non-refundable aid of 60.3 million DDK (10 million USD) in the form of Denmark’s technical assistance.

At the signing ceremony, An said the Vietnam-Denmark energy cooperation has brought about positive results and benefited both countries.

The implementation of the programme’s third phase will offer chances for Vietnam to learn from Denmark’s experience in strategic energy development policies, thereby playing an important role in the sustainable transition of Vietnam’s energy sector.

For his part, the Danish Ambassador affirmed that Denmark is a long-standing and trustworthy partner of Vietnam in helping the Southeast Asian nation switch to green energy and low-carbon economy.

The DEPP III will inherit the solid foundation of the two Governments’ partnership and continue to strengthen and develop achievements obtained so far, he added.

With more than 50 years of experience in the field, Denmark is willing to share its best solutions, know-hows and experience with Vietnam and help the country realise its enormous potential in energy transition and improve Vietnam’s commitment to climate change adaptation, the Danish diplomat said.

Within the framework of the programme, Vietnamese and Danish partners will continue to collaborate in energy planning, integration of renewable energy into the power grid and economical and effective use of energy in the industrial sector.

Offshore wind energy development will continue to be a key area of the programme.

It also helps the MoIT’s Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Development Department build a mechanism conducive for the application of economical and effective energy solutions in energy-intensive industries of Vietnam.

The DEPP is part of the Danish commitment to fulfil the Paris Agreement by assisting a number of emerging economies, including Vietnam, in their low-carbon transition.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s attendance at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), to be held in Glasgow, the UK, from October 31 to November 3, demonstrates the Vietnamese Government’s determination and efforts in promoting and realising international commitments to climate change response.

Vietnamese Ambassador to the UK Nguyen Hoang Long made the remarks in an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency (VNA), ahead of the government leader’s trip to the UK for the event.

His attendance also proves Vietnam is an active member, and a reliable and responsible partner in this regard, the ambassador said, adding that the trip will offer an opportunity for Vietnam to enhance cooperation with its partners, both bilateral and multilateral, and international organisations in the field.

During his three-day working trip in Scotland, Chinh will also hold high-level bilateral and multilateral meetings, and engage in trade and investment promotion activities between Vietnam and the UK.

He is scheduled to meet with AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot and attend the signing ceremony of cooperation agreements between AstraZeneca and Vietnamese partners to foster cooperation in the transfer of production technologies for vaccine and treatment drug between the two sides. For climate change response, Long affirmed Vietnam’s strong resolve and commitments to the fight, which can be seen in the fact that Vietnam is one of the first 20 countries in the world to submit the updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Vietnam is also among very few nations that have increased their contributions to cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the paper.

Such efforts have been acknowledged at international forums on climate change, the diplomat emphasised.

Asked about cooperation between Vietnam and the UK in this sphere, Ambassador Long said the two countries have implemented many joint relevant programmes and projects.

The UK has pledged to support Vietnam’s low-carbon economic growth strategy adaptable to climate change, shifting towards renewable energy and the transfer of green science-technology and finance. The UK will also help Vietnam access international loans in climate change response.

Apart from bilateral cooperation, the two countries have also coordinated at international forums such as the UNFCCC and the Paris agreement. They have agreed to strengthen cooperation and dialogues in responding to climate change and mitigating its impacts at the technical level, while fostering collaboration in sustainable consumption and the building of the circular economy.

Long stressed that the PM’s trip also aims to deliver Vietnam’s message on its efforts to realize commitments to climate change response and the country’s policy on attracting investments in cooperation areas towards building a green economy.

Source: Vietnam News Agency