Day: July 29, 2022

 The 27th ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) Council Meeting was held virtually on March 30. This was an important event and the first meeting of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community this year.

The meeting was attended by 10 ministers/heads of delegations from ASEAN countries in charge of the Socio-Cultural Community, the ASEAN Secretary-General, the delegations of ASEAN member countries and the ASEAN Secretariat.

Participants expressed their strong support for the meeting’s theme “ASEAN Action: Tackling Challenges Together” and a series of initiatives launched by Cambodia, especially in the fields of youth, sports, labour and enhancement of entrepreneurship for women.

Speaking at the event, Vietnamese Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung voiced support for Cambodia’s initiatives on building a declaration on insurance linkage within ASEAN, and promoting the potential of women in business, peace and security.

Dung stressed that efforts of the ASCC are testament to the protection of factors that promote economic and social development; and ensure the rights of workers in general and migrant workers in particular, thus building an open, adaptive society and eliminating existing inequalities in society.

He expressed his belief that ASEAN’s recent initiatives to promote the role of regional young people will contribute to building a cohesive and sustainable ASEAN Community.

The minister also shared Vietnam’s efforts to promote post-pandemic recovery, saying that the Vietnamese government has issued policies to help workers and businesses overcome difficulties.

Vietnam has successfully implemented its vaccine strategy through the largest vaccination campaign ever, becoming one of the countries with the highest COVID-19 vaccine coverage rate in the world, he noted. By the end of March 11, 2022, Vietnam had injected nearly 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, with 81.14% of the population getting at least one dose. Currently, Vietnam is also preparing to inoculate children aged 5-11 years old. These efforts of the Government have helped Vietnamese people quickly return to normal life, focusing on economic development and reopening tourism and schools.

Participants spoke highly of the ASCC’s priorities and efforts in connecting people with people, putting people at the centre of sustainable development and leaving no one behind, saying that activities of the community are increasingly substantive, and closely following international, regional and national priorities.

They also applauded the education sectors of ASEAN member countries for promoting digital transformation in education activities and re-opening schools in the new normal.

The meeting noted with satisfaction the progress of the continued implementation of the ASCC Blueprint 2025 in building a community that engages and benefits the people, and is inclusive, sustainable, resilient, and dynamic. It also commended ASCC Pillar’s endeavour to continue to enhance the quality of life of ASEAN peoples amidst the COVID-19 outbreak. This is being done through incorporating and aligning the Blueprint’s implementation into the respective post-2020 ASCC Sectoral Work Plans and the ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework and its Implementation Plan (ACRF) as recommended in the Mid-Term Review of the ASCC Blueprint 2025. The meeting notes the updates given at the 5th Meeting of the ASEAN Working Group on the Culture of Prevention for a Peaceful, Inclusive, Resilient, Healthy and Harmonious Society; the Report of the 17th Coordinating Conference on the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (SOC-COM); and updates on the Consolidated Strategy on the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The meeting also emphasised the significant role of sports in ASEAN community building. Sport was recognized as assisting in the development of the ASEAN Declaration on Leveraging the Role of Sports in ASEAN Community-Building and Achieving the SDGs and the ASEAN Declaration on Fostering ASEAN Identity Through the Safeguarding of Traditional Sports and Games in the Modern World.

The ministers agreed on the content of the 27th ASCC Meeting Report to submit to the upcoming 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits, scheduled for November 2022.

The ASCC Meeting is a meeting of ministers in charge of relevant areas in the ASCC held twice a year. It takes place right before ASEAN Summit to review the implementation of activities and prepare the ASCC’s documents on related cooperation areas for submission to the ASEAN Summit for approval./

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 The State Bank of Vietnam set the daily reference exchange rate for the US dollar at 23,176 VND/USD on July 29, down 25 VND from the previous day.

With the current trading band of +/-3 percent, the ceiling rate applicable to commercial banks during the day is 23,871 VND/USD and the floor rate 22,480 VND/USD.

The opening-hour rates at many commercial banks also went down.

At 8:25 am, Vietcombank listed the buying rate at 23,200 VND/USD and the selling rate at 23,510 VND/USD, both down 10 VND from July 28.

Meanwhile, BIDV kept both rates unchanged at 23,230 VND/USD (buying) and 23,510 VND/USD (selling).

During the week from July 25-29, the daily reference exchange rate for the US dollars followed a downward trend for most of the week except for Thursday. It ended the week down 31 VND./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 As cashew exports in the first half of 2022 fell by 9.2% against the same period last year to over 1.5 billion USD, the Vietnam Cashew Association has to adjust down its annual export target to 3.2 billion USD.

Tran Van Hiep, Vice Chairman of VCA, said the Russia-Ukraine conflict is a major cause for the falling exports, as Russia was the 14th largest importer of Vietnamese cashews and the conflict had the country cut off from the SWIFT system, causing payment difficulties for Vietnamese exporters.

Another cause is the mounting inflation in the US and EU. Higher inflation leads to higher prices for essential items, leaving consumers with no choice but to cut back on non-essential items, such as cashew nuts. The demand for Vietnamese cashew fell accordingly.

In addition, China is sticking to its zero-COVID policy, holding back the importation of the Vietnamese nuts, he added.

Amid contracting demand from abroad, VCA has to lower its export target to 3.2 billion USD for 2022, 600 million less than the target set at the beginning of the year.

Cashew exports earned Vietnam over 3.6 billion USD in 2021. In the first five months of 2022, Vietnam shipped abroad over 206,000 tonnes of the nuts worth 1.19 billion USD, down 7.81% in volume and 6.81% in value, the Vietnam Cashew Association reported.

Although the turnover decreased, the average export price increased by 1.45% compared to the same period in 2021, reaching about 5,792 USD per tonne./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 A delegation of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) led by Le Hoai Trung, member of the CPV Central Committee and head of its Commission for External Relations, attended the Communist Party of China (CPC) and World Marxist Political Parties Forum held virtually on July 28.

Trung read a letter of congratulations by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to the forum, in which the Vietnamese Party leader spoke highly of the CPC’s organisation of the event, regarding this as an opportunity to pay tribute to Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin – great thinkers and eminent revolutionaries of international communist and workers’ movements.

The forum also highlights the great contributions and enduring values of Marxism-Leninism and serves as a platform for the delegates to share experience in applying Marxism-Leninism in each Party and country, the Vietnamese Party leader added.

He used the occasion to congratulate the CPC and China on noted achievements they have recorded in socialism building, including their innovative application of Marxism-Leninism.

In Vietnam, President Ho Chi Minh’s Thought was also formed as a result of the innovative application of Marxism-Leninism, lessons drawn from international communist and workers’ movements, the upholding and development of national traditional values and the absorption of the quintessence of human culture, Trong noted.

Over the past more than 90 years, Marxism-Leninism and the Ho Chi Minh Thought have been the ideological foundation and the lodestar for the CPV, he said, stressing that Marxism-Leninism will continue to be a torch that lights up the path for Vietnam’s revolution in the new era.

On behalf of the Vietnamese Party, State and people, Trong thanked Marxist political parties and progressive forces in the world, including the Chinese Party and people, for their support for Vietnam through different periods.

The CPV always attaches importance to and stands ready to expand cooperation with the Marxist parties and progressive forces during struggles for common peace, friendship, democracy and prosperity, and the constant development of Marxism-Leninism, he affirmed.

Within the framework of the forum, Nguyen Van Thanh, Vice Chairman of the Central Theory Council, delivered a speech highlighting the significance of Marxism-Leninism and Vietnam’s innovative application and development of Marxism-Leninism.

Party General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping also sent a congratulatory message to the forum, saying that the CPC is willing to step up exchanges with the Marxist political parties and work together to diversify and promote Marxism-Leninism.

The participants exchanged views on regional and international issues of shared concern, and agreed to strengthen solidarity, intensify experience sharing and enhance cooperation to deal with the existing difficulties, maintain social stability, recover economies and improve people’s living standards, contributing to ensuring global security and human development.

The forum brought together about 300 representatives from 100 Marxist political parties of 70 countries worldwide./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 The VETC Electronic Toll Collection Co., Ltd (VETC) has announced that it extends a free programme to attach electronic toll collection (ETC) tags for vehicles until August 5 with various forms.

The programme will last until 0:00 pm on August 5. The fee for tag attachment will be 12,000 VND/time from August 6.

According to the firm, from July 19 – 28, it has attached ETC tags on more than 125,000 vehicles with an average of 12,500 tags per day, up 6 times compared to the average rate of the first 6 months.

The total number of ETC cards attached on vehicles has so far reached 1.9 million.

VETC has spent over 100 billion VND (4.28 million USD) on implementing the free programme to attach ETC tags for customers in 2022./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 Vietnam and the US discussed in detail clean energy technologies such as hydrogen and nuclear energy as well as plans to accelerate the energy transition to achieve net zero emissions targets by 2050, during their fourth energy security dialogue in Washington DC on July 27-28.

Representatives of the two sides presented key issues in bilateral energy cooperation including clean electricity production, electricity market development, energy saving and efficiency, transmission and energy storage.

At the dialogue, AES Corporation of the US handed a letter of intent to the Vietnamese delegation, hoping to deploy an offshore wind power project in Binh Thuan province with a total cost of 13 billion USD and an expected capacity of 4,000 MW. The implementation of this project will contribute to Vietnam’s carbon emission reduction plan and help achieve the target committed at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), it said.

The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) announced technical assistance to the National Power Transmission Corporation of Vietnam (NPT) to accelerate the deployment of smart grid technologies under the 2.0 Information Technology Roadmap of Vietnam Electricity (EVN).

The Bureau of Energy Resources under the US Department of State extended an invitation to the Vietnamese delegation to visit the country’s electricity and renewable energy markets which are expected to take place at the end of this year./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) has created a strong impulse for export and import, but there remain certain obstacles to the shipments of Vietnamese goods to the deal’s American member markets, heard a seminar held in Hanoi on July 28.

Tran Thanh Hai, Deputy Director of the Foreign Trade Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), said the CPTPP has created great momentum for foreign trade.

Statistics show that in 2021, trade turnover totalled 680 billion USD, up 19% – an impressive growth rate amid the COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts on the global economy.

Exports to American markets reached 113.6 billion USD while imports from those markets stood at 24.9 billion USD, respectively rising 26.7% and 14.1%.

Mobile phones, computers, machinery and electronic equipment made up the biggest part of Vietnam’s shipments to the Americas (43.3%), followed by textile – garment and leather – footwear (25%), timber and wood products (8%), and agricultural and fishery products (4%).

Vo Hong Anh, Deputy Director of the MoIT’s European – American Market Department, said American countries, especially members of the CPTPP, have great demand for apparel, footwear, wood items, and agricultural and fishery products.

Since the CPTPP took effect, the Vietnamese goods benefiting from preferential tariffs under the deal have posted soaring exports to the deal’s member markets, she noted. However, she also pointed out several obstacles such as geographical distance, high transportation expenses, long shipping time, and high quality standards, not to mention foreign importers’ modest knowledge about product quality and production capacity of Vietnam.

Anh recommended businesses raise the rate of locally made components and added value of their products, produce environmentally friendly products, and learn about markets’ demand. They should also improve production technology, diversify product designs and packaging so that products can not only suit buyers’ taste but also meet technical standards of foreign markets.

Hai noted the MoIT has issued an action plan to help enterprises capitalise on benefits generated by free trade agreements (FTAs), including the CPTPP. It is also stepping up business matching and trade promotion on digital platforms to help firms address the disadvantage of geographical distance.

According to Anh, the four American members of the CPTPP have highly open economies as Canada has 15 FTAs, Mexico 13, Chile 29, and Peru 22. Vietnam can make use of these connections to access the markets these countries have had FTAs with though this work is not easy since each FTA has different rules of origin.

She suggested enterprises consider cooperating with partners in other CPTPP countries to export materials or semi-finished products and then make final touches in those countries to meet the agreement’s rules of origin.

The CPTPP consists of 11 members, namely Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. It officially came into force on December 30, 2018./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 Vietnamese are the fourth tallest people in Southeast Asia, only after Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, thanks to improvements in maternal and child nutrition, heard a workshop held by the Ministry of Health in Hanoi on July 28.

Dr. Tran Dang Khoa, Deputy Director of the ministry’s Department of Maternal and Child Health, said the average height for women and men rose by 3.3 and 5.8 centimeters during the 2000-2020 period to reach 155.6 centimeters and 168.1 centimeters, respectively.

Vietnamese are still getting taller over the past two decades but not as fast as others in Asia, he noted.

According to the official, maternal and child health care in Vietnam has seen many positive changes, but there remains a disparity between regions and among ethnic groups.

He noted that the rate of pregnant women receiving antenatal care at least four times during pregnancy surpassed 80%. The rate of women giving birth supported by medical staff stood at 95 – 97%, and around 80% receive postpartum care in the first week.

However, the maternal mortality rate in the Mong ethnic group is 7-8 times higher than that of theỉr Kinh and Tay sisters, and the mortality rate of infants aged under 1 in rural areas is twice as high as in urban areas.

In addition, neonatal mortality is still high, accounting for 70-80% of deaths among under-1-year-old infants.

The rate of stunting among ethnic minority children (31.4%) is two times higher than that of children of the Kinh ethnic group (15%).

Explaining reasons for these problems, Khoa said that the first is the lack of human resources, especially specialists in obstetrics, paediatrics, anesthesiology and resuscitation.

The second is the lack of medical facilities and equipment, he stated, adding that in disadvantaged areas, the capacity of medical staff in obstetric and neonatal emergencies, in stages such as screening, diagnosis, and prognosis and treatment, is limited./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency