Day: February 27, 2022

Foreign ministers of the 10 ASEAN countries on February 27 issued a statement calling for dialogues among the parties concerned in the Ukraine crisis.

The statement reads: “We call on all relevant parties to exercise maximum restraint and make utmost efforts to pursue dialogues through all channels, including diplomatic means to contain the situation, to de-escalate tensions, and to seek peaceful resolution in accordance with international law, the principles of the United Nations Charter and the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia.

“We believe that there is still room for a peaceful dialogue to prevent the situation from getting out of control.”

The statement was released amid growing tensions in Ukraine since Russia recognised the independence of the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk and launched a special military operation in Donbass region, eastern Ukraine./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Clinics in the island district of Truong Sa, the central province of Khanh Hoa, recently saved two fishermen encountering health problems while working at sea.

On February 26 afternoon, a 61-year-old fisherman from Binh Thuan province suffered from a headache, tinnitus, paralysis of his body’s left half, and high blood pressure. Military doctors on Tien Nu Island provided emergency aid and reffered him to the clinic on Truong Sa Island for further treatment.

At the health centre of the district’s Truong Sa township, medical workers consulted with Military Hospital 175 based in Ho Chi Minh City about treatment for him. The patient is currently in stable condition and under ongoing care.

On February 24, the clinic on Song Tu Tay Island received and gave timely emergency aid to a 52-year-old fisherman from Quang Ngai province with paralysis of both legs and muscle weakness after nearly 30 minutes diving for seafood at about 45 metres underwater./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Winners of the 2021 National Film Festival on Traffic Safety were announced at a ceremony on February 27 in Hanoi.

The organising board presented two first, four second, six third prizes as well as ten consolidation prizes to outstanding works chosen from 210 entries.

The first prize went to “Nhanh hay cham” (Quickly or slowly” reportage video by journalists from Dong Thap Radio and Television Station and “Nga ba duong” (T-junction) by some authors from Cam Le District’s Youth Union (Da Nang City).

Five most favourite works voted by the audiences were also presented at the ceremony.

Addressing the event, Khuat Viet Hung, Permanent Vice Chairman of the National Traffic Safety Committee (NTSC), said promoting the dissemination on traffic safety and building a traffic culture are the key solutions that should be carried out regularly and persistently by every organisation and individual.

Despite facing challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 National Film Festival on Traffic Safety attracted the participation of professional authors as well as people with high quality works, he said.

The entries reflected pressing and emerging issues related to the traffic sector given the fact that the country has to ensure traffic order and safety while combatting the pandemic at the same time, he said, adding that many problems raised by the authors can serve as a basis for adjusting the regulations by state management agencies to improve the traffic safety work.

On this occasion, the NTSC also officially launched the 2023 National Film Festival on Traffic Safety.

The biennial film festival was launched in 1996, attracting many individuals and organisations nationwide. It aims to promote government policies on traffic order and safety and improve people’s knowledge of road traffic laws./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Vietnam Social Security (VSS) has exerted extra efforts in simplifying public administrative procedures and cutting time and costs for social and health insurance card holders and businesses.

The VSS is currently serving over 16.5 million social and unemployment insurance card holders and nearly 88.8 million health insurance card holders.

It has provided eight more online public services on its portal which have also been incorporated into the national public service portal to offer more support channels for employers and employees affected by COVID-19.

Nearly 78,450 applications from employees and employers had been lodged in the national public service portal to claim unemployment insurance benefits by the end of 2021. Over 12.93 million workers had received benefit payments in accordance with legal documents on the matter. Director of the VSS’s centre for information technology Le Nguyen Bong said to keep up with the global trend and the national digital transformation strategy, the VSS has been developing an IT system that reaches international standards, aiming to better serve people and businesses.

The agency has completed the issuance of social security numbers to about 97 million people, including close to 86 million health insurance card holders. The VSS’s health insurance database system has connected its chapters with over 12,600 health service providers and more than half a million organisations and enterprises nationwide.

The launch of a mobile app “VssID – Bao hiem xa hoi so” (Digital social security) last year marks another step forward by the VSS to boost public administrative reforms and use of information technology, contributing to building e-Government.

The mobile app has been installed by nearly 30 million users after a year, allowing them to not only manage and track records of insurance schemes they participate in but also make online inquiries.

The VSS has been viewed as one of the best performers in e-Government building. Last year, it ranked fourth in the Vietnam ICT Index for ministries and ministerial-level agencies that provide public services.

It has also received awards from the International Social Security Association (ISSA) and ASEAN Social Security Association (ASSA) for its outstanding efforts in applying information technology./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Loans of pandemic-hit enterprises will enjoy an interest rate cut of 2 per cent under a government support package to remove difficulties for the businesses.

The total preferential interest rate package is worth 40 trillion VND (1.75 billion USD), which comes from the State budget.

The proposal was drafted in the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV)’s decree on interest rate support from the State budget for loans of enterprises, cooperatives and business households, which has been made public for comment.

According to the draft, beneficiaries of the preferential interest rate credit package are enterprises, cooperatives and business households in aviation, transportation, warehousing, tourism, accommodation-food services, education-training, agriculture, forestry, fishery, industry, manufacturing, processing, software, computer programming and IT industries.

Besides, businesses, whose loans are used for the purpose of building houses to sell or rent to workers, social houses, and renovating old apartment buildings on the list of projects announced by the Ministry of Construction, will also be beneficiaries.

Under the draft, loans of the borrowers, which have been disbursed from January 11, 2022 to December 31, 2023, will enjoy the interest rate cut. However, the borrowers will not be supported with the interest rate cut if their loans have overdue principal balances or late payment interest.

SBV Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu said the Government assigned the SBV, in coordination with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Planning and Investment, to draft the decree according to Resolution No. 43/2022/QH15 on fiscal and monetary policies and Resolution No. /NQ-CP on the socio-economic recovery and development programme of the National Assembly.

According to the draft, commercial banks will get the interest rate aid package totalling 40 trillion VND from the Ministry of Finance to provide the loans to the borrowers.

To prevent frauds, the draft stipulates if the borrowers use the loans for improper purposes according to the conclusions of the competent authorities, they will have to repay the interest rate cut amount for the State budget.

According to SBV Governor Nguyen Thi Hong, the banking industry cut lending interest rates three times totalling 1.8 percentage points in the past two years.

From July 15 to December 31, 2021, 16 commercial banks cut over 21.24 trillion VND (936 million USD) of loan interest for COVID-19-hit customers. Of which, Agribank made the sharpest reduction with more than 5.51 trillion VND for more than 3.5 million customers. It was followed by Vietcombank with 4.63 trillion VND for 269,644 customers and BIDV with more than 4.12 trillion VND for 452,746 customers.

Besides the Government’s preferential interest rate package, the banking industry will strive to continually reduce the lending rate by 0.5-1 percentage points in 2022 and 2023./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Over 100 relief packages were delivered to disadvantaged Vietnamese Cham people in Charating, the Malaysian state of Pahang, on February 26 as part of a series of charitable events co-held by the Embassy of Vietnam and Thuong Le charity group.

It was the third time the office has teamed up with the group to offer relief to Cham people in Malaysia.

Following the distribution, Nguyen Hong Son, Counsellor at the Vietnamese Embassy in Malaysia, said he feels warmly touched by the grateful smiles and hugs of Cham people here.

The embassy always stands by the side of Vietnamese people, no matter where they are, to together light up the flame of kindness and remember the shared roots, he said.

The embassy staff also took the occasion to help the people resolve consular issues in an attempt to allow them to better integrate into the local community.

There are about 2,000 Vietnamese Cham people living in Malaysia, many of whom moved here before 1980 while the others about a decade ago./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Ho Chi Minh City plans to speed up digital transformation to achieve its goals of becoming a digital administration and smart city this year.

The city’s leaders have pointed out three major areas of focus: governing the city in the new situation (after the pandemic), building databases and linking all databases related to governance and reforming governance and finding new driving forces for future growth.

According to the Department of Information and Communications, the city will implement comprehensive technology solutions and exploit shared data for the prevention and control of COVID-19 and hastening economic recovery.

The databases contain information about the public, enterprises and land.

The department’s director, Lam Dinh Thang, said the city would speed up digital transformation at governmental organisations and promote e-government to improve the efficiency and quality of public services.

At the same time the city is also deploying applications to enhance interaction between the governmental agencies and residents, help enterprises speed up digital transformation, build a digital economy and society, and quickly achieve digital transformation in priority areas such as healthcare and education.

Over 900 State agencies, corporations and non-business establishments are already using some features of an integrated data-sharing platform.

Transportation, health, education and training, environment, urban planning, and security agencies use a number of applications to better serve the public and businesses.

In addition, HCM City will establish at least two technology innovation centres from now through 2025 to help businesses achieve digital transformation, according to the municipal People’s Committee.

They will strengthen supply chains, transfer technologies and innovations, carry out research into digital products, increase awareness of digital transformation, promote an innovation eco-system for start-ups, and help businesses develop digital products.

They will also tie up with prominent global partners for digital transformation and seek funding, evaluate the effectiveness of digital products and support research and development of digital products and solutions.

Assessing the city’s digitisation efforts, Tran Thi Lan Huong, senior public sector specialist at the World Bank in Vietnam, said the city would need to carry out specific transformations to boost the value of its digital economy since it has great competitiveness and better resilience after the pandemic.

It ranks fifth out of 63 provinces and cities in the index for information technology application and development.

It contributes a third of the country’s GDP, and so would need to be a pioneer in digital transformation, she added./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency