Day: March 13, 2022

The Ministry of Health is urging local administrations to speed up the inoculation of third doses of COVD-19 vaccine for the population aged 18 and above to make sure all those eligible will receive the third dose within the first quarter of 2022.

As of March 12 afternoon, Vietnam had administered nearly 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, with most of cities and provinces have substantially completed two primary doses for people aged 12 and above.

The Health Ministry has requested cities and provinces nationwide to continue screening people aged 12 and above to ensure no eligible people do not receive full vaccination.

As a result of Vietnam’s relatively high vaccine coverage and improved care for high-risk people, the COVID-19 fatality rate has dropped significantly./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

A total 166,968 cases of COVID-19 were recorded in the past 24 hours from 4pm March 12 to 4pm March 13, including 15 imported cases, according to the Ministry of Health.

Hanoi continued to report the highest number of infections on the day with 29,269 cases, followed by Nghe An with 10,243 and Dak Lak with 7,569.

Besides, the northern province of Bac Giang supplemented 42,533 cases after verifying information.

The national tally reached 6,112,648.

There are 4,107 patients in critical conditions, while an additional 95 deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours, taking the total fatalities to 41,385, equal to 0.7 percent of the total caseload.

A total 95,538 patients were given the all-clear, taking the total number of recoveries to 3,163,571.

By March 12, the country had injected over 200.17 million doses of vaccines./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Government has set out five key tasks to help boost socio-economic development in land border areas.

Recently issued Resolution No. 23/NQ-CP on economic development in land border areas covers mechanisms and policies, mobilising and using resources and promoting infrastructure development to boost development.

Other tasks are enhancing production, effective national defence and security missions as well as ensuring social security and improving social welfare and sustainable poverty reduction in land border areas.

Vietnam has more than 5,000 kilometres of land border, with many operational border gates. However, many border areas remain poor compared to other parts of the nation.

Accordingly, promoting socio-economic development and social security in these areas is of significant importance to narrow the development gap and strengthen the effectiveness of trade and investment ties with neighbouring countries.

The Government tasked the Ministry of Planning and Investment to take prime responsibility and work with other agencies to step up international cooperation and attract domestic and foreign investment capital, including aid and concessional credits, to infrastructure projects in these areas.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development was asked to coordinate with relevant localities in designing agriculture, forestry and fisheries development plans.

Relevant ministries, agencies and localities with land borders are required to prioritise border areas when allocating capital from the State budget and effectively use other sources of capital to invest in infrastructure, particularly developing the transport infrastructure system to connect disadvantaged areas with developed economic zones.

They must also review and restructure land use and complete the allocation of land and forest to residents in border areas, particularly ethnic minorities, to improve their living conditions.

It is important to deal with the shortage of land, houses and safe water and environmental pollution for mountainous and border areas, the resolution says./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The commemoration of the Gac Ma Battle in March is an occasion to honour officers and soldiers who live and work on the DK platforms amid the vast sea, many of whom sacrificed their lives to safeguard the national sovereignty at sea.

90-year-old Colonel Nguyen Quy, who used to be director of the Technical Department of the High Command of the Sapper Arm (Ministry of National Defence), is one of the first people to participate in the construction of works on Truong Sa Island and the DK platforms, from the 1/1 to the 1/16 platforms during the period from 1988 to 1996.

Quy said the Defence Ministry was determined to build the cluster of DK platforms to protect the national sovereignty in the 80,000 sq.km waters, which has a special importance in terms of security-defence. The waters, which is on the international maritime routes across the East Sea, is also rich in marine resources and minerals.

The veteran colonel recalled that at the proposal of the Naval Command and the Defence Ministry on October 17, 1988, then Party General Secretary Nguyen Van Linh signed a decision on the construction of economic, scientific – technological services platforms on six submerged reefs in the country’s continental shelf in southern East Sea. Later, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers issued an instruction on the establishment of a so-called DK1 steering committee headed by Vice President Tran Duc Luong.

The first three DK platforms were installed in June and July 1989, which were DK1/1 on Tu Chinh (Vanguard) Bank on July 4, 1989, and DK1/3 on Phuc Tan Bank and DK1/4 on Ba Ke Bank on June 14.

According to Quy, the design and structure of DK platforms have been improved many times, with the current structures being the third generation. Some of them even have a helicopter pad on top.

The DK platforms not only serve the collection of scientific information on the ocean and sea economy but also are sovereignty marks in Vietnam’s continental shelf, said the old colonel./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The city of Phu Quoc is doing everything possible to unleash its potential and boost socio-economic recovery this year despite lingering COVID-19 impacts.

Phu Quoc, the resort island of the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang, aims for over 22 trillion VND (around 960 million USD) in production value of its key sectors in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 8.4 percent. It expects to mobilise some 24 trillion VND in total social investment and collect 5.4 trillion VND for the State budget, up 8.3 percent and 26.7 percent, respectively, from 2021.

The city will strive to attract 2 million tourists, a surge of 215.4 percent, including half a million foreigners.

Additionally, output of fishery will be raised to 201,000 tonnes, pepper to 252 tonnes and fish sauce to 12 million litres. To achieve those targets, Phu Quoc plans to further accelerate the progress of public projects and develop commodity agriculture and eco-agriculture with the use of smart and advanced technology and increased adaption to climate change.

It will also stimulate the development of fishery industries, particularly cage farming of high-value fish, crab and pearl, with the help of high technology while enhancing conservation of marine environment.

The island’s authorities intend to strengthen protection of marine resources at the same time, provide local fishermen with training on good fishing practices and upgrade fishing ports and wharves.

Local authorities will step up awareness campaigns to prevent local fishermen from entering foreign waters as part of efforts to put an end to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and help remove the European Commission (EC)’s “yellow card” warning on Vietnamese seafood. Tourism industry in the island has bounced back strongly with a high increase in visitor arrivals reported in the first two months of this year, despite the continuing COVID-19 risks.

Local hotels, resorts and tourist complexes have received training and been under close monitoring on how they observe COVID-19 preventive rules in a bid to ensure the safety and well-being of tourists.

The city is also strengthening linkages with tourism enterprises to help them recover faster and attracting investment to develop transport infrastructure connecting tourist spots and complexes city-wide./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency