Day: February 7, 2022

President Nguyen Xuan Phuc joined officials and residents in the northern province of Ha Nam at the traditional Tich Dien (ploughing) festival on February 7, which prays for bumper crops.

The event is held every year on the seventh day of the first lunar month to pray for a year of bumper harvests and prosperity.

According to historical records, the festival dates back to 987 during the Le Dynasty when King Le Dai Hanh decided to plough a field in Doi Son commune, Duy Tien district in now Ha Nam province to encourage rice cultivation. The practice became an annual tradition observed through many dynasties before falling into oblivion under the reign of King Khai Dinh of the Nguyen Dynasty. It was restored in 2009.

Rituals held within the festival include the procession of a huge drum and memorial tablet of King Le Dai Hanh. The procession then proceeds to the field where the king ploughed. This is followed by a ceremony to pay homage to the God of Agriculture to pray for a high-yield season and prosperity.

In his remarks, Phuc stressed that given natural disasters and diseases, particularly COVID-19 last year, the agricultural and rural sector has helped ensure food security, create a foundation for social stability, and contribute to Vietnam’s international integration, export, and prestige promotion.

Hailing the meaningful message of the Tich Dien festival, the President stressed that the Party and State always encourage the development of agriculture in the cause of national construction and protection.

Highlighting significant changes of Vietnam’s rural areas after more than a decade of implementing the new-style rural building programme, Phuc lauded progresses recorded in Ha Nam that have raised the local living standards and ensured social welfare and security.

He requested that the authorities and people press ahead with the transition from agricultural production to agricultural economy, which prioritises value and output of a number of key products.

All resources ought to be mobilised for farming and rural growth, while greater attention should be paid to the application and transfer of scientific and technological advances toward the formation of a smart agricultural sector, the State leader noted.

He recommended all-level administrations and sectors work to capitalise on international markets on the basis of Vietnam’s 15 existing free trade agreements (FTA), including the EU-Vietnam FTA, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

All the 63 cities and provinces in the country have plans to reopen schools within this month after closure for months to help contain COVID-19 spread, the Ministry of Education and Training revealed on February 7 night.

All higher education institutions have developed plans to welcome back their students from February 14.

Previously, all high school students nationwide returned to in-person learning on February 7. Provincial departments of education and training across the country have been assigned to provide guidelines and scenarios for schools to deal with potential COVID-19 outbreaks and support schools and families to devise specific teaching plans suitable for each region and students in need.

Schools, meanwhile, have been asked to provide mental health counselling services for students, strengthen their physical activities and fitness programmes, and help them revise lessons after months of remote learning./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

He required relevant sides to ensure the progress, quality and efficiency of the project.

The leader asked the transport sector to coordinate with other ministries and agencies in mobilising resources, including State capital and investments in the forms of Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) and Public-Private Partnership (PPP), to upgrade seaports and inland waterway ports, and develop urban chains./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The State Bank of Vietnam set the daily reference exchange rate for the US dollar at 23,081 VND/USD on February 7, the first working day after the 9-day Tet holiday, down 18 VND from the day just before the holiday (January 28).

With the current trading band of +/-3 percent, the ceiling rate applicable for commercial banks during the day is 23,773 VND/USD and the floor rate 22,388 VND/USD.

The opening-hour rates at commercial banks fluctuated variably.

At 8:30am, Vietcombank listed the buying rate at 22,480 VND/USD and the selling rate 22,790 VND/USD, both up 10 VND from January 28.

Meanwhile, BIDV reduced both rates by 10 VND to 22,500 VND/USD (buying) and 22,780 VND/USD (selling)./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The recent recovery signs of domestic and international air routes stir hope of the sector for a strong rebound this year following a bad year in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV), domestic airlines operated 126,280 flights in 2021, down 41.7 percent year-on-year, and nearly 60 percent from the pre-pandemic number.

International regular flights had been completely frozen since the first wave of the pandemic, except flights bringing home overseas Vietnamese or those carrying foreign experts.

The General Statistics Office (GSO) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment said Vietnam welcomed only 111,100 international arrivals by air last year, a drop of 96.4 percent from the previous year.

Pham Viet Dung, Chairman of the Vietnam Aviation Business Association (VABA), said Vietnamese airlines experienced decreases of 80-90 percent in revenues.

The national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines reported an accumulative loss of 21.2 trillion VND (934.7 million USD) as of the end of the third quarter last year.

However, a representative from Vietnam Airlines, said the carrier’s market share and revenue from cargo transport still took the lead in Southeast Asia, reaching some 8 trillion VND in the year, up 60 percent from 2020.

The carrier will continue to focus on cargo transport, aiming to establish a cargo carrier in the time ahead, the representative said.

Meanwhile, new-generation airline Vietjet reported a rise of 36.4 percent in revenue despite successive pandemic impacts, becoming a silver lining of the whole sector.

During the Tet (Lunar New Year) festival, passengers going through Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City increased sharply, surpassing 100,000 on February 6 – the sixth day of the Lunar New Year.

On February 3, Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi also served 34,000 passengers.

In December 2021 when international flights were resumed, the number of international visitors to Vietnam expanded by 14.2 percent from the previous month.

Experts said the Vietnamese aviation sector has surmounted the deepest point of the crisis. Domestic transport would recover to some 70-75 percent of pre-pandemic levels, while international transport would reach 25 percent. The figures are expected to rise higher in the last quarter of this year.

Vietnam Airlines General Director Le Hong Ha suggested further upgrading infrastructure and speeding up the implementation of major projects like Long Thanh Airport to ensure sustainable recovery and development of the sector./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The northern province of Nam Dinh has set a target to grow more than 1.2 million trees on the occasion of this year’s tree planting festival, Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Tran Anh Dung said.

Of the figure, more than 200 ha will be newly-planted trees in protection forests and special-use ones in coastal areas.

It is part of activities in the implementation of a project to grow one billion trees in the 2021-25 period approved by the Prime Minister, as well as to raise public awareness of forest planting and protection.

In November 1959, President Ho Chi Minh wrote an article in the Nhan dan (People) newspaper stressing the significance of tree planting for each person, each family, and the entire nation.

Since the first tree planting festival was held in the spring of 1960, following the late leader’s teachings, authorities and sectors from the central to grassroots levels, along with people nationwide, have joined hands in planting trees whenever a new year arrives.

On the occasion of the Lunar New Year Festival this year, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc on February 6 launched a tree planting festival at the Hung Kings Temple relic site in the northern province of Phu Tho./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Authorities have estimated that Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat, the country’s two biggest international airports, served more than 1,000 flights on February 6, the final day of the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday.

The Northern Airports Authority said Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport served over 370 flights, including 18 outbound and 20 inbound international.

Outbound passengers reached up to 56,000 on February 6, higher than the pre-holiday peak of 40,600 recorded on January 29 and almost doubling last year’s holiday peak of 29,000. However, the figure was far from the record of 91,000 in 2020’s Tet holiday.

Though there was a surge in the number of passengers going through Noi Bai, it was yet to reach the airport’s capacity, said Deputy Director of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam Tran Van Hao when checking the airport on February 6 morning.

Airlines and ground services providers had increased supporting staff at check-in counters and security checkpoints to prevent congestion, he said.

The Southern Airports Authority estimated that Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport welcomed over 670 flights with around 101,000 passengers on board, including more than 31,700 outbound and 70,000 inbound.

Hao said domestic carriers are planning to increase flights to meet travel demand post-Tet. More than 100 flights, mostly on the Hanoi – HCM City route, are expected to be added from February 6 – 12.

Trains to Hanoi and HCM City were also full on the last day of the national holiday./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Authority of the capital city of Hanoi has taken measures to fully tap the locality’s advantages of diverse natural ecosystems, rich cultural identity, and favourable geographical position to promote the development of eco-agriculture in combination with tourism.

Located in Hanoi’s outlying district of Thuong Tin, Hong Van commune is an example of success in combining agriculture, traditional craft and tourism.

In recent years, the commune, which is famous for ornamental plants, receives about 70,000 visitors every year, with tourism revenue topping 10 billion VND.

According to Secretary of Hong Van commune’s Party Committee Nguyen Hai Dang, the locality was recognised as a new-style rural area in 2014, and fulfilled all criteria of an advanced new-style rural area in 2019.

To create new breakthroughs for its economic growth, the local authority has focused on agriculture and eco-tourism development, providing new travel services and products.

According to Vice Director of the municipal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Ta Van Tuong, Hanoi has 11 eco-agriculture farms operating under the model of education and experiential tourism, and four involving in agriculture tourism.

Many models of eco-agriculture in combination with tourism have brought high economic efficiency, thus helping improve the living standard and incomes for locals, and give local rural areas a facelift.

Tuong stressed that it is necessary to promote eco-tourism development in connection with rural planning, towards promoting sustainable development of this model in the future.

According to Vice Director of the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences Dao The Anh, Hanoi needs to complete a master plan for rural tourism development, thus creating strong motivations for eco-agriculture tourism development and completing targets in new-style rural area building.

Attention should be also paid to market research, new products and services, promotion activities and technology application, infrastructure development and human resources, he said.

Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Manh Quyen said along with issuing a plan for developing rural and agriculture tourism-based economy in combination with new-style rural area building in 2021, the municipal authority has taken a series of measures to attract investment in this field.

The city will also promote the community’s role towards building modern and friendly agriculture community tourism models./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency