Day: April 18, 2022

Vietnam has made great efforts to care for about 700,000 children with disabilities, including measures to enhance the efficiency of policies supporting them.

Vietnam was the first country in Asia and the second in the world to ratify the International Convention on the Right of the Child in 1989, and the 118th signature members of the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2007.

Since then, the position and role of persons with disabilities, especially children, have been improved, while the country’s legal system in the field has also become closer to the common norms of international law regarding children with disabilities with the promulgation of many policies, projects and programmes.

The Constitution 2013 devotes one chapter to human rights with special regulations on the rights of children, including those with disability. Meanwhile, the Children Law 2016 has also created a fundamental legal framework to ensure the full observance of rights for all children, with stipulations more aligned with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Other laws have also been reviewed and updated to better meet the requirements of international practices and norms related to rights of children and children with disability in particular.

Notably, the Law on Persons with Disabilities, which was adopted in 2010, marked an important milestone regarding the position of disabled children in society, showing the efforts and determination of the Party and State to support them in integrating into the society. Supportive policies in social welfare, health care, education, vocational training, employment and culture-sport activities have also been promulgated to ensure that they have good access to caring, protection and education services in the community.

Ministries, sectors and localities have also joined hands in caring for children with disabilities by effectively implementing the policies and reporting feedback for the completion of the policies.

In order to improve the efficiency of the policies, especially in remote and mountainous areas, on October 29, 2018, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 1438/QD-TTg approving a project to assist children with disabilities in accessing caring, protection and education services in the community in the 2018-2025 period.

The project set a target that in 2025, all children with disabilities access the necessary services and opportunities to practice their full rights. The project is entering the second phase with many specific goals.

However, so far, the public awareness of the rights of children with disability remains modest, while there is a lack of special schools giving caring and education services for children with disabilities, and nursing and vocational training centres for them have faced many difficulties in infrastructure and personnel.

In the time to come, in order to give better care for children with disabilities, it is necessary to strengthen communications on the policies and laws regarding the rights of the children and raise public awareness of the responsibilities of families and society in ensuring children’s access to caring, protection and education services in the community.

Further efforts should be made to complete the system of laws and policies to assist children with disability and enhance the capacity of officials and suppliers of services for the children, and expand the network of supporting service suppliers for them.

State management on the work should also be strengthened, along with stricter inspection and monitoring over the implementation of the policies and laws.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Indonesian Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif has announced that his government plans to raise prices on subsidised fuels to reduce fiscal tensions.

The increase will impact the price of Pertalite gasoline, Solar diesel and 3-kg liquefied petroleum gas canisters. The subsidised fuels are being widely used in lower income households and businesses.

Arifin said that the ministry will keep a close watch on the conflict in Ukraine, as its prolongation can lead to a rise in oil prices, thus imposing a pressure on the State budget.

In addition, the Indonesia Government also announced its plan to raise the price of electricity.

According to Arifin, in the short term, the electricity tariff adjustment plan could help the state budget save from 7 trillion rupiah (487.75 million USD) to 16 trillion rupiah in 2022 alone.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Men golfers of Singapore have prepared for best performance at the upcoming 31st Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games 31) despite the absence of their ace player, defending champion James Leow.

James Leow, currently a senior at Arizona State University in the US, has informed the Singapore Golf Association that he is not available for SEA Games 31 that will be held in Vietnam next month, as he will join a tournament in the US.

In the 30th SEA Games, Leow beat his Thai rival Tanapat Pichaikool to bag gold medal, which was a historical victory of Singaporean golf after 30 years since the gold medal brought home by Samson Gimson from SEA Games in 1989 in Malaysia.

Despite Leow’s absence, head coach of the Singapore’s national men golf team Matt Ballard is still optimistic about the team’s success at SEA Games as he has made careful preparation for other potential golfers such as Ryan Ang, Justin Kuk, Hiroshi Tai and Wong Qi Wen.

He said that the Heron Lake golf course and resort – the venue for the golf tournament at the SEA Games 31 – is familiar for Singaporean golfers, where the team won the individual and team championships at Putra Cup 2019.

Ballard said the Singaporean golf team is determined to defend the individual gold medal and aims for the team gold medal at the SEA Games 31

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Prime Minister has approved the restructuring of Vietnam Railways (VNR) to reduce the number of its subsidiaries.

According to Official Letter 303/TTg-DMDN issued by the Prime Minister on April 7 to approve this restructuring plan, branches of VNR’s locomotive enterprise will reduce from five to three units.

Meanwhile, the railway project management boards of Regions 1, 2, and 3 will carry out a merger to become the sole railway project management board with the role of representing VNR as the investor in projects for VNR.

“We will immediately carry out this enterprise restructuring plan,” VNR Chairman Vu Anh Minh told Dau tu (Investment) newspaper.

Also according to this official letter, the Prime Minister agreed to let VNR merge the Hanoi Railway Transport Joint Stock Company (Haraco) and the Saigon Railway Transport Joint Stock Company (Saratrans) into one joint stock company.

The Commission for the Management of State Capital at Enterprises (CMSC) has directed VNR to restructure Haraco and Saratrans in accordance with existing regulations and will not lose capital and assets, according to Dispatch 303.

VNR must also finalise the VNR Restructuring Project for 2021-2025 to submit to the Prime Minister for approval.

Minh said VNR will start the reduction of the Locomotive Enterprise’s branches and the merger of the railway project management boards from this month. VNR will urgently complete the plan for the merger of Haraco and Saratrans to submit to the CMSC for approval.

“This work is complicated, but VNR will try to complete the merger in the third quarter of 2022,” Minh said.

According to VNR, Haraco and Saratrans operate freight and passenger transport services on the same railway line, leading to unfair competition. At the same station, both companies have arranged labour, and rented headquarters and warehouses, causing a decline in business efficiency.

VNR has admitted failure in transferring Haraco with a charter capital of 800 billion VND and Saratrans with a charter capital of 503 billion VND into joint stock companies.

VNR holds 91.62 percent of Haraco’s capital and 78.46 percent of Saratrans’ capital. After becoming the joint stock company in 2016, the business results of Haraco and Saratrans both plunged in terms of capacity, revenue and profit.

“If VNR does not boldly stop inefficient businesses, carry out apparatus reform, and cut unreasonable costs, the brand name of Vietnam Railways will not be able to exist in the future,” Minh said.

Besides the approved issues, at the VNR Restructuring Project for 2021-2025 submitted to the Prime Minister in March 2022, VNR has proposed to maintain the holding ratio at 51 percent of charter capital at 15 bridge and railway maintenance joint stock companies.

VNR will continue to hold over 51 percent of the capital at five railway signal and information joint stock companies and gradually increase this ratio to 75 percent or 100 percent.

It has also suggested continuously holding controlling shares in Di An Railway Joint Stock Company and Gia Lam Railway Joint Stock Company to develop the railway mechanical industry.

For selecting a strategic investor, VNR will develop a roadmap to reduce its capital at these two companies to 51 percent and submit it to the Prime Minister for approval.

The VNR restructuring project was submitted to the Government in 2016. This project was expected to be implemented in 2017-2020, with the goal of restructuring and divesting capital at its subsidiaries nationwide.

Accordingly, the corporation will have a more reasonable production and business model focusing on three core industries of railway transport, railway infrastructure and railway mechanical engineering.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The music video of the official song for the 31st Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games 31), “Let’s Shine”, will officially make debut at 8pm on April 18, according to the regional sports event’s organising committee.

The song by composer Huy Tuan is about the people born with a mission to strive for new summits and leave behind difficulties on their journeys by passion and extraordinary efforts, and with support from friends. They together shine in the welcoming and hospitable atmosphere of host Vietnam.

Since the official song was launched, its audio record, sung in Vietnamese and English by well-known artists like Tung Duong, Van Mai Huong, Ho Ngoc Ha, Isaac, and Den Vau, has attracted a large number of listeners on digital platforms, the organising committee said.

Inspired by memorial moments of the 22nd SEA Games in 2003 – the first of its kind to be held in Vietnam, the MV recounts the feeling of pride at that time and then gradually rolls out a picture of Vietnam on the thresholds of the 31st SEA Games.

It arouses the national pride, the lofty spirit of sport, and the youth’s endeavour to move forwards so as to shine together “for a stronger Southeast Asia” – the theme of the 31st SEA Games.

The Games is scheduled to take place in Hanoi and 11 nearby localities from May 12 to 23. It features 40 sports and 526 sets of medals and is expected to welcome 10,000 participants from 11 Southeast Asian countries.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Regulations and standards regarding export of processed products to Switzerland will be introduced at a consultation to be held by the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) at the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) on April 20.

Vietnam’s Trade Counsellor in Switzerland Nguyen Duc Thuong will also brief participants on the local market.

Nguyen Thi Thuc, Founder and President of Swiss-Vietnamese Business Gateway (SVBG), is expected to give consultations to Vietnamese farm produce and food exporters regarding ways to access the Swiss market.

Swiss customs data shows that trade between the two countries increased from 1.53 billion USD in 2015 to 2.4 billion USD last year, with Vietnam consistently running a trade surplus.

In 2021, Vietnam shipped some 1.87 billion USD worth of goods to Switzerland, mainly machinery, mobile phones, footwear, garments-textiles and agricultural products.

Meanwhile, more than 100 Swiss companies are operating in the Southeast Asian nation, including major brands like Nestle, ABB, Novatis, Roche and Holcim, while many are interested in expanding their businesses in Vietnam.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Criminal Investigation Agency under the Ministry of National Defence has launched criminal proceedings against and detained some officials of the Vietnam Coast Guard (VCG) High Command for embezzlement charges.

They included Major General Pham Kim Hau, former Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of the VCG; Major General Bui Trung Dung, former Deputy Commander; Major General Doan Bao Quyet, former Deputy Political Commissar of the VCG; Colonel Nguyen Van Hung, Deputy Commander; and Senior Lieutenant Colonel Bui Van Hoe, deputy head of the Finance Department of the VCG High Command.

Documents and evidence collected in a probe into the corruption case related to violations at the VCG showed they were accomplices of Lieutenant General Nguyen Van Son, former Commander; and Lieutenant General Hoang Van Dong, former Political Commissar.

Son and Dong were also detained on the same day.

The 13th Party Central Committee’s Inspection Commission in October last year decided to strip Son, Dong, Hau, Dung and Quyet of their Party posts, and relieve Col. Nguyen Van Hung, member of the Party Committee and Deputy Commander of the VCG from all Party positions.

The commission said the Standing Board of the VCG Party Committee in the 2015-2020 tenure violated working principles and regulations, showed a lack of responsibility and supervision, loosened leadership and directions, violated the Party’s regulations, the State’s laws and the Defence Ministry’s regulations on the use and management of finance, implementation of construction, purchase of technical materials and equipment, smuggling prevention and control, and maintenance of security, safety and order at sea.

The above violations caused serious consequences and significant losses of money and assets to the State and affected the performance of political tasks and prestige of the Party organisation and army, thus causing concern among officers and soldiers.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The first Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day will take place until the end of this month with various activities, heard a press conference in Ho Chi Minh City on April 18.

An opening ceremony is slated for April 19 on Nguyen Hue street of HCM City, said Nguyen Nguyen, Director of the Authority of Publication, Printing and Distribution under the Ministry of Information and Communications.

This is the first time a national book and reading event has been held in HCM City with the participation of more than 20 publishing houses, he said, noting the introduction of smart library models.

An online book festival will be held at book365.vn from April 19 to May 20, attracting nearly 100 publishing houses with over 40,000 titles.

The HCM City People’s Committee will host a book fair on Nguyen Hue street from April 19 to 24. There will also be seminars on reading culture during the month.

Hanoi will also organise an array of activities in response to the Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day 2022 from April 21 to May 1 at the Hanoi Book Street and the National Library of Vietnam.

Last year, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam signed Decision No.1862/QD-TTg to hold the Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day annually on a national scale on April 21.

The day is expected to encourage and develop the reading movement among the community, contributing to building a learning society. In addition, it aims to honour readers, authors, publishers, printers and libraries that make efforts to preserve, collect and promote books.

Source: Vietnam News Agency