Day: November 16, 2021

The Party Central Committee’s Commission for Information and Education and the Truth National Political Publishing House on November 16 introduced a book featuring Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s article on several theoretical and practical issues on socialism and the path towards socialism in Vietnam.

The book also highlights domestic and international public opinions on the Party chief’s article that was written on the occasion of the 131st birthday of President Ho Chi Minh (May 19) and the elections of deputies to the 15th National Assembly and all-level People’s Councils 2021-2026 (May 23).

According to Phan Xuan Thuy, Vice Chairman of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Information and Education, the Party leader’s article has drawn the attention and response from and been welcomed by people from all walks of life at home as well as international friends, political parties, politicians, scientists and researchers, with thousands of articles and comments.

They have expressed their belief that Vietnam will gain successes on the path towards socialism thanks to the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), despite a range of difficulties and challenges ahead, he said.

The commission in coordination with the Central Theoretical Council, Party Central Committee’s Commission for External Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Party Central Committee’s Office, Nhan dan (People) Newspaper, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) and Truth National Political Publishing House to select these high-quality articles to publish the book.

The book is also set to serve theoretical and practical review, research, study and communication work regarding socialism and Vietnam’s path towards socialism.

Associate Prof. Dr. Pham Minh Tuan, Director and Editor-in-Chief of the Truth National Political Publishing House, said the 824-page book comprises the entire article by the Party chief, and 112 others written by and 50 interviews with foreign scholars, researchers, friends and political parties about his article.

First Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union (HCYU) Central Committee Nguyen Anh Tuan said the Party chief’s article is meaningful to youths in the new period.

The article has been introduced to young people through technological platforms, he added.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Vietnamese Ambassador to Brazil and Suriname Pham Thi Kim Hoa has vowed to do her utmost to develop good friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and Suriname at a meeting with President of Suriname Chandrikapersad Santokhi following the ambassador’s presentation of credentials.

Ambassador Hoa congratulated the Surinamese people on the economic achievements they have made under the leadership of President Santokhi.

She emphasized the necessity to expand the bilateral economic partnership as it is yet to match both sides’ potentials.

Welcoming the ambassador to his country, President Santokhi expressed his respect for Vietnamese people, vowing that he will provide the best conditions for Vietnamese living in Suriname.

On November 12, the Vietnamese Ambassador held a meeting with Surinamese Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Business and International Cooperation Albert Ramdi, during which Ramdin highly spoke of Vietnam’s role in the international community.

He said Suriname will support Vietnam at multilateral forums and step up the exchange of all-level delegations in the coming time, adding that the country wants to learn from Vietnam’s experience in post-harvest processing, particularly of rice and fisheries.

The Vietnamese diplomat also met with President of the Suriname Chamber of Commerce and Industry Jaynath Padarath to discuss ways to accelerate trade and expand cooperation in agriculture, fisheries and wood, as well as in the organisation of training courses and exchange programmes in agriculture.

Ambassador Hoa also took the occasion to talk with the Vietnamese community in the South American country, most of whom used to work as sailors on fishing boats of Suriname, the Republic of Korea and India.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Chairman of the National Assembly (NA) Vuong Dinh Hue joined residents of northern Thai Nguyen province in the great national solidarity festival on November 16.

The event, held in Quyet Tam hamlet of Dinh Hoa district’s Trung Luong commune, took place in celebration of the 91st founding anniversary of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (November 18, 1930 – 2021).

Quyet Tam hamlet is home to 193 households with 680 residents belonging to six ethnic groups, namely Kinh, Tay, Nung, Dao, San Chi, and Hoa. About 80 percent of the population works in agriculture.

Expressing his delight at local development, Chairman Hue congratulated Trung Luong commune on meeting all the 19 criteria for a new-style rural area. Meanwhile, Dinh Hoa district is also striving to become a new-style rural district in 2022.

He noted despite enormous difficulties and challenges to national development amid the fourth wave of COVID-19, Vietnam has still managed to sustain positive growth in the first nine months of this year, and the economy has begun bouncing back since October.

He attributed the achievement to the regime’s superiority and the strength of the great national solidarity, especially efforts by frontline forces and the people’s consensus, which have helped Vietnam surmount all difficulties and challenges.

The more difficult it is, the more strongly the great national solidarity is brought into play, he emphasised.

Agencies of the NA and the Government are preparing for an additional parliamentary session in late December or early January 2022, which is an unprecedented move, so as to soon identify overall financial and monetary solutions for supporting socio-economic recovery and social security, according to Chairman Hue.

On this occasion, the NA leader, President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee Do Van Chien, and other officials presented 2.5 billion VND (109,600 USD) sourced from the Fund for the Poor to Trung Luong commune to build houses for low-income earners.

The same day, NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue paid a working visit to the Thai Nguyen General Hospital.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien has hailed Israel as a promising market of Vietnam in West Asia.

During a working session with Israeli Ambassador to Vietnam Nadav Eshcar in Hanoi on November 16, Dien said Israel is now the fifth largest trade partner of Vietnam. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic last year, two-way trade still hit 1.6 billion USD, up 36.4 percent annually. The figure went up 14.3 percent year-on-year to 1.3 billion USD in nine months of this year.

Vietnam’s major exports to Israel include mobile phones, computers and accessories, aquatic products, cashew nuts, apparel, footwear, coffee, pepper, machinery and equipment, natural rubber, beverages, plastic and wooden products, chemicals, handicrafts and ceramics.

Dien suggested the ambassador offer support to the country in trade promotion, both directly and indirectly, to bring more Vietnamese goods such as pepper, cashew nuts, coffee, fruits and vegetables, leather and footwear to Israel.

According to him, both sides should consider a mechanism on sharing of information regarding technical requirements for exports, contributing to lifting two-way trade.

Eshcar, for his part, said negotiations on a free trade agreement between Vietnam and Israel are in the final stage which will create a new breakthrough for bilateral ties. If the deal is signed, two-way trade could increase to 3-4 billion USD each year quickly.

The Israeli side is urging agencies concerned to complete the talks this year and look to sign the deal next year, he said.

The host wished that the Israeli firms would invest more in support and electronics industries in Vietnam, as well as offer more assistance in investment, digital transformation, and technological infrastructure.

Vietnam is ready to step up negotiations towards reaching a bilateral FTA with balanced interests for both sides, he said.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Seventy-five flood resistant houses were handed over to residents in Vinh Linh district, the central province of Quang Tri, under a project funded by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (ICRC).

Construction of the houses lasted from May to November 2021 in Vinh Khe, Vinh Ha and Vinh O communes, Vinh Linh district.

The project targets households whose houses were damaged by floods last year, with priority given to poor and near-poor households, and other social policy beneficiaries.

Each of the house was built at a cost of 75 million VND (3,300 USD) that came from the ICRC, the Vietnam Red Cross Society, local authorities and people.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Vietnam Institute of Economics (VIE) on November 16 held a webinar named “Blue economy: Opportunities, challenges and solutions for sustainable development”, aiming to seek ways to develop the sea-based economy, build the blue economy, and ensure harmony between socio-economic development and environmental protection.

In his opening remarks, Assoc. Prof., Dr. Bui Quang Tuan, VIE Director, said that Vietnam has a favourable geographical position for the sea-based economy with more than 3,260 km of coastline spanning 28 provinces and cities. Coastal provinces and cities contribute about 47-48 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), of which the marine economic sectors contribute about 20-22 percent of GDP.

However, the country’s sea-based economy still faces major challenges related to marine environment and resources, climate change, sea level rise and livelihoods of local people, stated Tuan.

Assessing the current sustainable development status of Vietnam’s coastal economic zones, Dr. Le Van Hung from the Institute for Regional Sustainable Development said that many coastal economic zones have not been able to create remarkable spillover effects as the quality of investment projects is still low, and investment capital has so far focused on industries that use much resources and energy such as petrochemical, steel, cement, and thermal power.

Talking about the marine environmental security in Vietnam, Dr. Ha Huy Ngoc from the Vietnam Institute of Economics said that the nation’s marine environment is under great pressure from domestic socio-economic development, international trade and cross-border impacts. The main sources of waste causing environmental pollution and directly affecting people’s health are 878 urban areas and 369 industrial zones, about two thirds of which are located in coastal areas.

In order to develop based on the sea and benefit from the sea, Vietnam needs to balance the exploitation and preservation of the values that the sea brings, and promptly address and prevent problems related to marine environment security, Ngoc said.

According to the researcher, priority should be given to expanding the system of marine and island conservation zones to create long-term reserves, as well as promoting international and regional cooperation to peacefully solve the risks of conflicts of interest from the sea.

At the webinar, experts proposed Vietnam develop and issue a governance framework to respond to environmental disasters, and promulgate specific regulations to strengthen control over maritime and island environmental pollution.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The 26-minute documentary ‘The Eternal Springtime’ by Vietnamese director Viet Vu has met the criteria for the 2022 Academy Awards (Oscar) nominations for best documentary (short subject).

The film has freshly won the Grand Prix Documentary Short at the 66th Cork International Film Festival. Winners of the film festival’s Grand Prix Irish Short, Grand Prix International Short and Grand Prix Documentary Short categories immediately qualify for the long list of the Academy Awards for Animated Short Film/Live Action Short Film and Documentary Short categories, from which the final shortlist is formed.

Before the nomination, ‘The Eternal Springtime’ was premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and participated in many film festivals in Ukraine, China, and Azerbaijan.

Viet Vu is the only Vietnamese filmmaker selected for the inaugural Seed Lab, operated by the non-profit Southeast Asia Fiction Film Lab. In 2018, he released his first short Ant-Man. In 2019, he joined the DocNomads programme. His second film, the short documentary An Act of Affection (2020) premiered at Locarno.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Nguyen Thuy Quynh, a Vietnamese lecturer at RMIT University in Australia has been named in The Australian’s 2021 Research magazine as Australia’s top researcher in composite materials for her project on manufacturing fireproof materials to help protect buildings and other constructions from being destroyed by forest fires.

Within the framework of an independent research project, funded by the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science foundation, Quynh has successfully developed a kind of fireproof material that can be used to cover the walls of buildings, filling in any gaps in the building’s envelop.

The coating not only resists fire and helps reduce the heat but it is also sustainable as it is made from industrial and construction waste. The new material is expected to be commercially available on the Australian market within a year.

Talking about the idea behind this research project, Quynh said Australia is greatly affected by climate change.

“The frequency and severity of bushfires have increased with climate change and they have become an increasing threat to lives, the environment and people’s homes. While devastating, bushfires often move quickly, and a rural building may only have to resist the heat and flames for a short time.”

“That’s why I came up with the idea of having an additional coating on top of the existing infrastructure – so that we can buy some more time, extend the time that structure can withstand that fire intensity,” she was quoted by The Australian as saying.

After graduating from Hanoi University of Science and Technology, 38-year-old Quynh came to Australia to work as a PhD student in civil engineering at the University of Melbourne in 2011. Currently, she is the leader of a research group on fireproof materials and advanced construction systems at RMIT University.

The Australian’s 2021 Research magazine names the top researcher and top research institution in each field of research, based on the number of citations for papers published in the top 20 journals in each field over the past five years.

Source: Vietnam News Agency