Day: December 20, 2021

After a long hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam has piloted welcoming foreign visitors back to several key tourist areas. Safety for tourists, travel businesses and destinations has always received top priority, thus helping boost the tourism industry’s recovery and development.

Specifically, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) launched a campaign called “Live fully in Vietnam” in mid-November to popularise the pilot programme, towards the full reopening of the country in 2022.

The five destinations chosen for this scheme are the northern province of Quang Ninh; Quang Nam province, Da Nang city, and Khanh Hoa province’s Nha Trang in the central region; and Phu Quoc Island in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang.

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Da Nang welcomes international tourists back (Photo: VNA)

As of December 6, Kien Giang, Quang Nam and Khanh Hoa had welcomed 1,179 foreign investors, while Quang Ninh and Da Nang plan to welcome foreigners back in January 2022.

Fully vaccinated travellers from 72 countries with vaccination certificates recognised by Vietnam, who hold vaccination certificates or COVID-19 recovery certificates and have negative RT-PCR test results within 72 hours prior to departure, are now welcomed to these destinations. Children under 12 years of age are not required to have certificates of vaccination.

Meanwhile, in November, the number of domestic holidaymakers hit 2.5 million, a threefold increase compared to that of the previous month.

Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Doan Van Viet said 2022 is still a challenging year for the tourism industry, so it is necessary to promote the leverage role in several major tourist centres.

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Mu Cang Chai terraced rice field (Photo: VNA)

Accordingly, in the coming time, the sector will continue to focus on exploiting the domestic tourism market, putting safe tourism on the top, and bringing truly impressive and unforgettable experiences to visitors.

To that end, Viet suggested localities focus on ensuring safety for tourists; stepping up tourism promotion, diversifying products to meet new market trends, speeding up the digital transformation process, and supporting businesses to accelerate the recovery of tourism activities.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Mastering the cyberspace has been considered one of the most urgent and important tasks for Vietnam to protect national sovereignty amid the challenges from cyber security.

Many experts and scientists held that in order to deal with cyber security problems, it is necessary to complete the information infrastructure system and improve information equipment to ensure cyber security and safety for central and local agencies, key infrastructure systems and important economic groups.

Particularly, adequate and continuous protection measures should be applied in all important national information systems from the stage of design, construction to development, operation and use, they stressedSen. Lieut. Col Hoang Minh Hue from the Department of Public Security History, Science and Strategy (DHSS) under Ministry of Public Security said that the ministry should strengthen coordination with the Ministry of Science and Technology to build specific plans and solutions to deal with the issue.

At the same time, the ministry should focus more on developing human resources to play the core role in ensuring security for digital economy by combining training with updating science-technology knowledge, especially digital technology, said Hue.

Speaking at a recent national scientific conference on protection of national sovereignty in cyberspace, Minister of Public Security To Lam said that the issue of developing and mastering cyberspace security has become one of the urgent tasks to which many countries pay special attention. Vietnam has been facing many new challenges as cyber attacks targeted its critical information infrastructure, he noted, adding that websites and portals of state agencies, police forces, organisations and businesses had personal data stolen for property appropriation.

The country has also seen cybercrimes relating to e-commerce, investment, insurance or the trade of gold and cryptocurrency.

Meanwhile, Vietnam has not yet fully mastered technology as many companies that provide user services or operate technology for the country have been managed by foreigners, the official said, warning of potential risks to the country’s information security.

Lam said that to further ensure national sovereignty in cyberspace, the police force should continue synchronously deploying solutions to ensure security of national information systems.

The police must work harder to detect, fight and prevent cyber attacks, cyber espionage, conspiracies, and online sabotage activities of hostile and reactionary forces, he stressed.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Ho Chi Minh City on December 20 received nearly 56 billion VND (2.44 million USD) presented to the city’s ‘For the Poor’ fund.

The fund aims to ease difficulties facing the disadvantaged in the city ahead of the 2022 Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday.

To Thi Bich Chau, Chairwoman of the committee, affirmed that the Party and State always consider poverty reduction as a major, important, and consistent task during the national construction and development.

Donations to the fund reflect national solidarity and joint efforts in improving local people’s lives amid the complexities brought by COVID-19, thereby contributing to the national target programme on sustainable poverty reduction, she added.

This year, the fund has raised more than 156 billion VND. Local authorities have built and repaired houses for the beneficiaries, presented gift packages to 156 Heroic Mothers, wounded soldiers and the poor.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Vietnam Airlines has proposed resuming regular flights to Europe and Australia from January 1, 2022.

The national flag carrier has prepared resources to serve the markets, with the initial weekly frequency of about two flights on each route, according to a representative from Vietnam Airlines.

The restoration would help the corporation bring into full play its aircraft fleet, cut operational costs and consolidate its position, while preventing the risk of domination by international airlines at gateways.

Under a plan mapped out by the Ministry of Transport, regular international flights from/to Vietnam will be resumed in two phases, with air travel with nine foreign destinations to be available again in the first phase and fifteen in the second phase.

Vietnam will restore regular international air routes with Beijing/Guangxi (China), Tokyo (Japan), Seoul (the Republic of Korea), Taipei (Taiwan, China), Bangkok (Thailand), Singapore, Vientiane (Laos), Phnom Penh (Cambodia), and San Francisco/Los Angeles (the US).

During the second phase, flights will be likely to reconnect Vietnam with six more other foreign destinations, including Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Hong Kong (China), Paris (France), Frankfurt (Germany), Sydney (Australia) and Moscow (Russia).

Concerned authorities will evaluate the implementation of the plan before allowing regular international flights to reach the pre-pandemic level.

According to a new guidance issued by the Ministry of Health, fully vaccinated foreign arrivals with negative COVID-19 test results will only need to self-quarantine at home or places of accommodation for three days upon entry into Vietnam by air.

The new regulations will be effective from January 1, 2022, the day Vietnam is set to resume regular international flights on a pilot basis.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Vietnam should improve its legal framework to maintain the attractiveness of the domestic investment environment to foreign firms, Vu Tien Loc, President of the Vietnam International Arbitration Centre (VIAC) has said.

Loc made the suggestion as the extended social distancing due to the COVID-19 has affected the FDI sector in Vietnam.

Investors should be provided with necessary information and guidelines regarding legal regulations, he said, pledging that the VIAC will support FDI firms to remove obstacles and difficulties relating to legal affairs, and address business disputes.

According to Loc, foreign investors are still confident in the long-term prospect of the Vietnamese market, as well as the Vietnamese Government’s capacity to bring the pandemic under control.

Therefore, many associations, enterprises and foreign investors have promised to support the Southeast Asian nation in the pandemic combat.

It is noteworthy that the Danish toy production company LEGO Group on December 8 signed a memorandum of understanding with the Vietnam–Singapore Industrial Park Joint Stock Company (VSIP) on the building of a new plant in southern Binh Duong province.

Addressing the signing ceremony, Danish Ambassador to Vietnam Kim Højlund Christensen said this is the largest investment in Vietnam made by a Danish company, showing the confidence and optimism of Danish investors in the future of the important Denmark-Vietnam partnership.

The LEGO Group will invest more than 1 million USD in the construction of its first ever carbon neutral factory, including investment in solar energy on a 44-ha site in Binh Duong, with a hope to generate 4,000 jobs in the next 15 years.

The construction is scheduled for the second half of 2022 and the plant will go into operation by two years later.

According to LEGO, the factory will be its sixth manufacturing site in the world and the second in Asia.

Statistics show that as of November 2021, foreign investors poured 26.46 billion USD into new projects, existing projects and share purchase, of which newly-registered capital was up 26.7 percent year-on-year.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Institute of Imperial Citadel Studies (IICS) hosted an international seminar named “Imperial Ceramics in Thang Long Royal Palace” on December 20 to shed light on the cultural and social life in the ancient citadel in the past.

The event was to mark the institute’s 10th founding anniversary (2011 – 2021).

In his opening remarks, IICS Director Assoc. Prof., Dr. Bui Minh Tri said his institute has been pursuing a long-term research programme on the history of Vietnamese ceramics, particularly ceramics used by the royals in Thang Long Imperial Citadel.

The discovery of royal porcelain in the Thang Long imperial complex offers not only evidence for the study of ceramics produced in the imperial city but also an insight into those used by royal families in the past, he added.

Speakers discussed a number of new findings on royal ceramic products and provided comparative perspectives between royal ceramics in Vietnam and those from China and Japan.

Source: Vietnam News Agency