Day: March 6, 2022

An indispensable dish found at every festive event of the Lu ethnic minority people in the northern province of Lai Chau is five-colour sticky rice. The recipe has been preserved by the Lu people through generations and has become a part of their unique cultural identity.

Wild edible plants are used to colour the rice. The red colour is created from gac fruit, green from leaves of ginger or pineapple, yellow from pounded old turmeric roots and purple from the magenta plant; white is the original colour of the sticky rice.

According to Lo Thi Pau from Tham village, every Lu family grows the plants to make the sticky rice around their houses. Actually cooking the rice is pretty simple and similar to other kinds of sticky rice.

“Before being dyed, the rice must be soaked in cold water for six to eight hours and divided into five equal parts, enough to make each colour.

“The most difficult step is cooking and pounding the leaves and tubers to get the coloured juices. To ensure that the colours are beautiful, the cook must avoid mixing the plants together and must cook them in different pots,” she said.

After that, the sticky rice is steamed. The success of the dish is hinged on this moment and is dictated by the skill and experience of each cook.

“The sticky rice is dyed with colours created from natural plants and steamed with pure spring water. This makes it very fragrant and gives it the typical taste of the mountains where the plants are grown,” Pau said.

To Lu people, each colour, white, purple, blue, yellow and red, has a different meaning. The red sticky rice symbolises the desire to live and dreams of a bright future, purple represents a rich land, yellow represents prosperity and a wish for a peaceful life, green represents the colours of the mountains and forests and white symbolises family loyalty and love for parents.

As well being as an integral part of the ethnic group in every festive and spiritual event, such as weddings or funerals, five-colour sticky rice has also become a treat that impresses visitors, thanks to its deliciousness and eye-catching colours.

“It is very interesting to witness Lu people make five-colour sticky rice. The dish is truly tasty and fragrant, completely different from other dishes I have tried before,” said Ta Ngoc Lam, a tourist from the northern province of Phu Tho./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Owning a coastline of over 105km, beautiful beaches, a diverse marine ecosystem and warm weather all year round, the south-central province of Ninh Thuan has a lot of advantages to develop marine tourism so as to attract more visitors.

The province focuses on planning and pouring capital in expanding marine tourism, eco-tourism and resort tourism. Binh Son – Ninh Chu and Ca Na resorts have been formed while the construction of Binh Son and Vinh Hy tourist sites are underway. It plans to turn Binh Tien beach which is associated with Nui Chua Biosphere Reserve with diverse marine and forest ecosystems into a leading tourist attraction of the country and the region.

Coming to Ninh Thuan, visitors will have a chance to experience a 105km-long coastal road from Binh Tien to Ca Na, one of the most beautiful roads in Vietnam.

Along the way are forests, rocky mountains, streams and bays with dozens of beaches with clear blue water and a long stretch of white sand. There are also large and beautiful sand dunes close to the sea, notably Nam Cuong and Mui Dinh dunes, which are suitable for the development of various types of eco-tourism, adventure sports, motor racing, surfing, hiking and visiting salt fields. The sea does not only provide livelihoods but also a place for the coastal community of Ninh Thuan to build a marine culture with special heritages. It includes a system of historical and cultural relics related to the marine environment, folk festivals, customs, folk performing arts and typical cuisine of coastal residents. This is a rich human resource for the province to develop sustainable marine tourism.

Lured by the province’s advantages, many investors have studied and proposed plans relating to tourist urban areas and large-scale tourism projects. Most recently, Sailing Bay Ninh Chu beach resort complex has collaborated with Mui Dinh Ecopark tourist site in building a high-class beach resort and entertainment area.

The province has set a target of welcoming 3.5 million visitors by 2025, including 455,000 international tourists. The number of visitors to the province will reach 6 million by 2030. Tourism revenue will hit 2.9 trillion VND (126.7 million USD) by 2025 and 5.9 trillion VND by 2030.

To achieve the goals, it will continue to mobilise resources with priority given to infrastructure of key tourist areas and create favourable conditions for economic sectors to take part in marine tourism development, diversify types of eco-tourism and community-based tourism to increase connectivity with localities.

The development and diversification of marine tourism products as well as product chains and brands are carried out on the ground of biodiversity conservation, marine environment protection, and promoting the value of the heritages. There will be a link between local and international tourism routes to turn Ninh Thuan into an attractive destination for both domestic and foreign tourists./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

About 800 Vietnamese people have been safely evacuated to Romania from Ukraine as of March 6 morning, according to incomplete data.

However, the actual number may be higher because many people do not contact the Vietnamese Embassy or Vietnamese associations in Romania.

Earlier on March 3, Vietnamese Ambassador to Romania Dang Tran Phong and Pham Duy Hung, Vice Chairman of the Association of Vietnamese People in Romania, went to Moldova to work with representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the host country to receive 120 Vietnamese people to Romania where they are waiting for a direct flight to Hanoi.

The embassy has helped bring a total of 190 people from Moldova to Romania safely during the first “repatriation” journey.

The embassy and the Association of Vietnamese People in Romania have supported hundreds of Vietnamese nationals from Ukraine to enter Romania to wait for a flight to Vietnam or to go to other countries.

To facilitate entry into Romania, the embassy and Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs have informed those who want to evacuate from Ukraine with necessary information on the media as well as on social networks. The embassy also helped solve all the problems relating to lacking identity papers for them.

In recent days, not only the Vietnamese Embassy in Romania but also those in neighbouring countries, including Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Moldova have been doing their best to assist Vietnamese people to evacuate from fighting zones and provide them with temporary accommodations and necessities.

Two flights repatriating Vietnamese people from Ukraine are expected to depart from Romania and Poland this week. One flight, conducted by national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines, is scheduled to depart from Romania on March 7 transporting 283 Vietnamese citizens. It is expected to arrive at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi at noon on March 8.

The other flight, conducted by Bamboo Airlines, will depart from Poland on March 9 with 270 passengers onboard. It is scheduled to arrive at the Noi Bai airport on March 10 in the morning.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will coordinate with relevant ministries and agencies in continuing to evacuate Vietnamese people and family members from dangerous areas in Ukraine to neighboring countries, and bring those in need back home./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

SaVi Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (SaVipharm) held a ceremony on March 6 to receive the Labour Order, third class, and inaugurate a high-tech Research and Development Centre along with a national modern medicine distribution system.

SaVipharm, established in 2005, has always paid attention to scientific and applied research. It has spent 5 percent of total revenue each year to this purpose.

The company has researched and developed 12 types of medicines and submitted more than 400 sets of generic medicine documents to the Ministry of Health’s Drug Administration of Vietnam. It has also been granted over 300 new registration numbers for licensed manufacturing, which has contributed to increasing the market share of domestically-manufactured medicine to 50 percent and ensuring sufficient medicines for disease prevention and treatment of the people.

SaVipharm is one of the first Vietnamese pharmaceutical companies to be assessed and awarded the Certificate of Science and Technology Company for over 230 products.

With an average production growth of 20 percent a year, SaVipharm turned out 465.6 million and 533.4 million tablets in 2020 and 2021 respectively. Its annual revenue has increased by over 15 percent a year, compared to the pharmaceutical sector’s average growth of 8 – 10 percent.

SaVipharm has been a pioneer in exporting medicines to Japan since 2011. In addition, its medicines have been supplied to ASEAN countries like Malaysia, Cambodia and Laos.

SaVipharm is one of the first Vietnamese pharmaceutical companies to obtain both European and Japanese GMP certificates. The OSD pharmaceutical factory of SaVipharm is equipped with SCADA synchronous and up-to-date manufacturing lines and devices and meets two global standards.

The High-Tech RandD Centre has been invested and operated by SaVipharm with total investment capital of 200 billion VND. All the devices and technologies are imported from G7 countries, including labs, pilot-scale devices and technologies, and equipment for commercial manufacturing. The facility is designed for researching and developing high quality medicine groups (pellet and microgranular technologies), biomedical products, and new generation medicines for cancer treatment.

SaVipharm has invested in one distribution centre in Ho Chi Minh City; four supply centres for other regions and branches using WMS, DMS, Barcode and TMS software; automatic sorting and routing lines; and temperature controlled transport vehicles. Therefore, this system has helped improve the quality and effectiveness of medicine supply throughout the nation and received high appreciation from hospitals, local and foreign partners, and pharmacies.

Responding to the appeal and following the directions of the Prime Minister during his inspection of epidemic prevention and control at SaVipharm on July 11 2021, the company has overcome challenges and achieved great success in developing high quality medicines for healthcare of the people.

SaVipharm has successfully researched and invented a medicine for COVID-19 treatment and is completing necessary procedures and conditions to put it into mass manufacturing. Furthermore, SaVipharm has studied and developed four types of special medicines that contain microgranular ingredients generated by the equipment and technologies of the Hi-tech RandD Centre. The company is initiating investment, business and manufacturing strategies for the period of 2021-2025 with a vision to 2030, and executing the applied research of vital high-tech medicine groups to satisfy the requirements for epidemic prevention and control in Vietnam.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap is stepping up the development of agro-ecotourism, community tourism and other types of eco-tourism, aiming to give new experiences to holidaymakers.

Such models help to protect the environment, promote local culture, lengthen value chains, raise farm produce values and generate jobs for rural residents.

One of the examples is Sa Dec flower village in Sa Dec city, where local residents are encouraged to upgrade infrastructure and offer services to attract visitors.

Covering an area of 313ha, the village is home to more than 2,000 types of flowers, bonsai trees, and ornamental trees from different regions of Vietnam.

The village now has dozens of households offering tourism services and homestays like Happy Land Hung Thy, Bamboo House Homestay, and Ngọc Lan flower observatory tower.

Meanwhile, Lai Vung district is well known for its citrus farms that have helped to double income of local residents as compared with traditional farming models. Currently, nine citrus farms in the district are opening doors to tourists.

Tourists from Ho Chi Minh City and adjacent localities have also flocked to Dong Thap during weekends and holidays for boat trips around immense lotus ponds and special cuisines made from lotus.

Apart from investment in infrastructure, Dong Thap has encouraged local people to engage in tourism startups in combination with digitalisation. It is working to bring into full play advantages in waterway and eco-tourism, while paying attention to natural conservation.

Total revenue from community-based tourism areas between 2016 and 2020 was more than 43 billion VND (1.88 billion USD).

Community-based tourism has also helped Dong Thap rank number three in the number of tourists in the Mekong Delta region./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Kim Jai-min, a retired teacher in the Republic of Korea (RoK), has turned his photos on Vietnam into watercolour paintings, which are displayed at Gallery Yeonjung in the RoK’s Incheon city.

The photos were taken by the retired teacher during his trips to Vietnam over the past 30 years, capturing the beauty of the country and people in Vietnamese localities like My Tho, Vinh Long, Can Tho and Chau Doc (An Giang).

The exhibition takes place at a time when the two countries are preparing for the 30th founding anniversary of diplomatic ties (December 22, 1992-2022).

Kim told the Vietnam News Agency (VNA)’s correspondents that he has made some 30 trips to Vietnam since 1993, expressing his deep sentiments towards the country and people of Vietnam.

Over the past 10 years, he has turned the photos into watercolour paintings, mainly to present Vietnamese in the RoK, helping them to ease their homesick.

Apart from two books on Vietnam written by himself and published in 1994 and 2005, Kim is also the co-author of another published in 2015, helping Koreans understand more about Vietnam.

He also participated in a programme organised by the RoK’s EBS TV to promote the image of Vietnam./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency