Day: August 9, 2022

To achieve the goal of welcoming 5 million foreign tourists this year as set out earlier, Vietnam’s tourism industry needs to make greater efforts in promoting its image and building more tourism products, according to insiders.

Statistics from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) show that in the first seven months of 2022, Vietnam served 954,600 foreign tourists, up nine folds compared to the same period last year. In July alone, the nation welcomed 352,600 foreign visitors, up 49% month-on-month.

Foreign tourists to Vietnam over the recent past mainly came from the Asia-Pacific region, prominently in the top 10 markets being the Republic of Korea with 196,200 arrivals, up 903.7% year-on-year; the US 102,900, up 5,382%; and Japan 46,000, up 794.6%.

The VNAT also pointed out that European markets show impressive increases in the number of visitors to Vietnam and will gradually increase in the near future such as the UK (26,400 arrivals, up 2,958.6%), France (23,400, up 2,963.7%), and Germany (23,600, up 3,897.1%).

The sector expects that the number of foreign visitors will surge when the peak inbound tourism season starts from September. To attract more foreigners, Pham Ha, CEO of Lux Group – Asia’s leading luxury travel and tourism company, said that Vietnam’s visa policy needs to be more open to remarkably growing markets such as the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or East European countries.

Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa, Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism, highlighted the need for the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to propose to the Government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to consider and expand the list of countries subject to visa exemption and lengthen the temporary stay for international visitors to Vietnam from 15 days to 30 days from the date of entry.

Insiders also suggested strengthening connectivity between localities in tourism promotion to further develop the industry./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Vietnam recorded 2,340 COVID-19 cases on August 9, raising the national caseload to 11,351,563, according to the Ministry of Health.

With 9,520 patients given the all clear during the day, the number of recoveries rose to 9,991,865. Meanwhile, there are 103 patients in serious conditions needing breathing support.

No death from COVID-19 was recorded in the past 24 hours. The total fatalities stood at 43,094.

On August 8, an additional 57,289 doses of vaccines were administered, raising the total number of doses of COVID-19 vaccines injected to 248,850,332./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Ministry of Transport has approved the Vinh-Nha Trang railway renovation and upgrade project under the North-South railway with a total investment of over 1.2 trillion VND (51.3 million USD) from 2022 to 2025.

The Railway Project Management Board under the Ministry of Transport was assigned to be investors in upgrading projects of roads, bridges and stations with a total length of nearly 1,000km.

The project aimed at ensuring traffic safety, improving the quality of railway connectivity, enhancing the capacity of transport, creating favourable conditions for luring customers and cargo, and effectively exploiting railway infrastructure in the section of Vinh-Nha Trang.

According to the Ministry of Transport’s investment decision, the project capital is from the State budget in the medium-term public investment plan for the period 2021-2025.

The provinces and cities of Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue, Da Nang, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen and Khanh Hoa will carry out the project.

Compensation, site clearance and resettlement support of the project will cost 27.6 billion VND, which will be divided into sub-projects carried out by the Provincial People’s Committees of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Da Nang, Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh.

Work on the project will take place during train operation so the Ministry of Transport requires relevant units to ensure absolute safety./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Vietnam will need a skilled workforce to transform itself into an upper-middle-income economy by 2035, the World Bank has suggested in its recently-released report named “Taking Stock: Educate to Grow”.

In its bi-annual report, the lender said: “Vietnam needs a workforce with 21st century skills to grow. As the economy moves from being driven by low skill and low wage jobs in manufacturing and services towards a more innovation driven growth model built on higher value-added industries and services, Vietnam’s workforce will need to attain higher level and more relevant skills.”

The Vietnamese Government’s Socio-economic Development Strategy for 2021-2030 says as much, aiming to use scientific, technological, innovative, and digitally transformative knowledge and build quality human resources as key drivers of higher productivity and future economic growth. To achieve these goals, Vietnam needs to reform its education system to improve quality and access, and thus provide the necessary skills to the population, it affirmed.

This edition also underlines transforming the higher education system as the key to boosting the country’s productivity and achieving its development goals, in the context where the country re-emerges from the pandemic and into a challenging global environment.

The report’s co-author Dorsati Madani said that while Vietnam’s economic recovery had been relatively stable, not all sectors witnessed the same situation.

The impact on workers and households during the crisis was serious and lasting, with about 45% claiming lower incomes in December 2021 than the previous year.

The impact of the pandemic is still present with businesses reporting broad-based labour shortages as of March 2022, which were felt more acutely in services and manufacturing, and in the Ho Chi Minh City area.

This, in addition to growth slowdown or stagflation in main export markets, further commodity price shocks, continued disruption of global supply chains, or the emergence of new COVID-19 variants, are hindering Vietnam’s full recovery. Statistics revealed that Vietnam’s population has an average 10.2 years of schooling, second only to Singapore among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries.

Vietnam’s human capital index is 0.69 out of a maximum of 1, the highest among the lower middle-income economies.

However, low skills relevance of the university graduates put the country in the bottom third of the 140 countries listed in the 2018 Competitiveness Index on skills relevance of university graduates.

A WB skills and enterprise survey published in 2019 also said that 73% of sampled Vietnamese firms report difficulties in recruiting employees with leadership and managerial skills, 54% with socio-emotional skills, and 68% with job-specific technical skills.

Focusing on tertiary and higher education, the WB’s report recommends reforming the education system to improve quality and access, and thus provide the necessary skills to the population.

Reforms to Vietnam’s higher education system could help support development objectives, the report says.

The increasing financial costs of pursuing higher education and the perception of diminishing economic returns from pursuing higher education have weakened demand.

While efforts to enhance the business environment are crucial to enabling job creation, policymakers should also take steps to reduce skill-mismatches and improve the quality of Vietnam’s labour force.

Carolyn Turk, WB Country Director for Vietnam, said: “To sustain economic growth at the desired rate, Vietnam needs to increase productivity by 2-3% every year.

“International experiences have shown that higher worker productivity can be achieved by investing in the education system, as an important part of a basket of investments and reforms. A competitive workforce will generate much-needed efficiency for Vietnam in the long term.”

In its report, the World Bank forecast Vietnam’s GDP growth to expand 7.5% in 2022 and 6.7% in 2023, with resilient manufacturing and a robust rebound in services serving as the driving forces for economic recovery./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

About 6,500 organ transplants have been carried out in Vietnam since the first in 1992, showing great efforts by the entire health sector but still modest compared to other countries, an official has said.

At present, 95% of the transplants in the country use organs from living donors and only 5% from brain-dead donors, which completely runs counter to the global trend, in which the majority is transplants from brain-dead donors, Assoc. Prof. Dong Van He, Deputy Director of the Viet Duc (Vietnam – Germany) Friendship Hospital and Director of the National Coordinating Centre for Human Organ Transplants, told a ceremony announcing the decision on the centre director appointment on August 8.

In Vietnam, an estimated 10 people die each day while waiting for organ transplants. Meanwhile, it is worrying that less than 30% of doctors and 20% of nurses have gained sufficient understanding of brain death, and many do not have any knowledge about this.

These are challenges that must be addressed in the time ahead, and the system of 22 organ transplant centres along with hospitals nationwide need to make changes to encourage brain-dead organ donations, He said.

The National Coordinating Centre for Human Organ Transplants is the first unit in the country to form a list of patients waiting for transplants, and nearly 50,000 people have registered for organ donation after death or brain death./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The embassies of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries in Argentina, including Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia, in coordination with the Foreign Ministry of the host country, held a ceremony to mark the 55th founding anniversary of ASEAN on August 8.

Addressing the event, Vietnamese Ambassador Duong Quoc Thanh, rotating Chair of the ASEAN Committee in Buenos Aires, reviewed the foundation and development of the ASEAN since 1967, highlighting the association’s success in maintaining peace and stability in the region, creating a favourable environment for cooperation and development of all member countries.

With a population of more than 650 million and GDP of about 4 trillion USD in 2021, ASEAN is the most promising and dynamic market in the world, he said.

Ambassador Thanh underlined the similarities between ASEAN and Argentina, expressing his hope that the bilateral partnership will continue to be deepened, contributing to peace, stability in the region and the world, benefiting ASEAN countries and Argentina.

For his part, Argentinian Deputy Foreign Minister Pablo Tettamanti congratulated ASEAN countries on their achievements during the integration process as well as the rising role of the association in the regional and global arena, adding the Argentinian Government always attaches great importance to the development of friendship and cooperation with ASEAN countries. Also on August 8, ASEAN Committee in Mexico City (ACMC) coordinated with the administration of Mexico City and three ASEAN partners of Japan, the Republic of Korea and China to hold a cultural and culinary festival called Bazaar ASEAN 3 to celebrate the 55th founding anniversary of the ASEAN.

Addressing the event, Indonesian Ambassador Cheppy T. Wartono, rotating Chair of the ACMC, affirmed that the formation of the ASEAN Community in 2015 has brought important and practical benefits to each member country and further enhanced the position and central role of ASEAN in the region. The ASEAN has always been ready to strengthen relations with Mexico in all aspects, especially in economy, trade, investment, tourism and culture, he stressed./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

A get-together was held by the Association of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin of Ho Chi Minh City on August 8 to commemorate the 61st anniversary of the AO disaster in Vietnam.

Addressing the event, Major General Tran Ngoc Tho, chairman of the association, thanked all-level authorities, sectors, and domestic and foreign organisations and individuals for joining hands with the association in supporting AO/dioxin victims in recent years

He affirmed the Party and State have determined that overcoming the consequences of toxic chemicals used by the US troops during the war in Vietnam is an urgent and long-term issue that must be settled by party committees and administrations at all levels, officials, party members and organisations.

The association has mobilised social resources to care for and assist AO victims and their families.

So far this year, the association has collected over 9.6 billion VND (410,344 USD) in cash and kind to support 10,300 AO/dioxin victims by providing capital, monthly allowances, medical expenses, and presenting scholarships and wheelchairs.

It has also continued to represent AO/dioxin victims in the struggle to force the US to take responsibility for overcoming the consequences of toxic chemicals.

According to the association and the Vietnam Red Cross Society, an estimated 3 million Vietnamese people have had their health affected due to the exposure to toxic chemicals/dioxin, including 20,000 in HCM City.

Among them, at least 150,000 children suffer from inborn defects and at least 1 million people suffer from serious impacts of AO.

Although there have been many support policies for AO victims, many families having two or three generations suffering from the disaster. They are in dire need of support from the community and society to overcome difficulties in their life.

On this occasion, the association presented 268 scholarships to local children who were victims of AO/dioxin. Meanwhile, 21 individuals were awarded the “For Vietnam Agent Orange Victims” insignia in recognition of their great contributions to caring for and supporting AO/dioxin victims./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Dak Lak province Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is preparing necessary conditions for the shipping of local passion fruit to China, as the fruit has been officially allowed to enter the market.

The preparation includes supporting businesses and farmers in making the fruit meet related requirements.

The Central Highlands province is home to 1,055ha of passion fruit, of which 884ha are yielding 14,703 tonnes annually.

The planting area and production of passion fruit nationwide are continuously increasing, especially in Central Highlands localities. Currently, Vietnam grows the fruit on about 6,000ha across 46 cities and provinces with an annual output of 300,000-400,000 tonnes.

With relevant negotiations beginning in 2006, the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) agreed this year to pilot the import of Vietnamese passion fruit starting in July, making it the 10th Vietnamese fruit permitted to enter the market.

According to the two sides’ agreement on phytosanitary requirements, in the immediate future, GACC permits the import of fresh passion fruit from Vietnam through seven border gates in China’s Guangxi province./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency