Day: October 1, 2022

Nine critical ill sailors in a suspected food poisoning case on a Chinese vessel have been saved after being taken to the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, said a local health official.

 

They are among 21 sailors on the Wu Zhou 8 en route from Thailand to China, who suddenly fell ill suspectedly from food poisoning when the cargo ship was about 63 miles to the southeast of Con Dao island, Ba Ria-Vung Tau province.

 

After receiving distress calls from the ship on September 30 morning, the national rescue committee quickly dispatched two helicopters to bring the victims to a hospital onshore.

 

When the rescue force arrived, 10 sailors were already dead and 11 others were in critical conditions. Another two sailors died on the way to a hospital on Con Dao island.

 

Director of the Con Dao military-civil medical centre Le Cong Tho said on October 1 morning that six victims have gained consciousness and were able to communicate, two others have shown positive progress, and one was still in a coma.

 

He added that the provincial health department had sent two more doctors and one nurse to Con Dao to help with the treatment.

 

According to the Vung Tau-based coordinating centre for maritime rescue in region 3, rescue forces on a ship sent by the centre had reached the ship to preserve the bodies of the dead sailors./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 

The Vietnam Red Cross Society (VRSC) will send emergency aid worth 330 million VND (13,830 USD) in cash and kind to help flood victims in the two central provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh.

 

The VRSC Central Committee on October 1 announced that Nghe An will receive 100 million VND and 200 relief packages while Ha Tinh will get 50 million USD and 100 flood relief boxes, to be distributed to families with injured victims, or those whose houses and crops destroyed and seriously damaged by flooding.

 

The Investment and Trade Consultancy Co Ltd (Intraco) has sent some 1,000 water filters worth 1.1 billion VND through the VRSC to flood-hit families in Nghe An.

 

On September 29, the VRCS Central Committee provided assistance in cash and kind worth 640 million VND for people in Quang Nam and Quang Ngai central provinces victimised by Typhoon Noru, the fourth one to enter the East Sea this year.

 

The storm caused heavy rain, floods and landslides in the central and Central Highlands regions./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

A delegation of agriculture, defence, and public security officials visited Khanh Hoa on September 30 – October 1 to inspect the south central province’s efforts against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

 

The trip was made ahead of a visit to Vietnam by a European Commission (EC) delegation from October 17 to 28 to examine the country’s moves to carry out recommendations about IUU fishing prevention. This is considered a great opportunity for Vietnam to persuade the EC to remove the “yellow-card” warning against IUU fishing.

 

Nguyen Trong Chanh, head of Khanh Hoa’s fisheries division, said the entire local political system has taken drastic actions to eradicate IUU fishing and obtained encouraging results.

 

The province has updated information about all the 3,199 fishing vessels on the national fisheries database (Vnfishbase) and granted fishing licenses to 3,184 vessels (equivalent to 99.5%). All vessels are examined before and after each fishing trip, according to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

 

In the first nine months of 2022, local authorities examined 2,724 tonnes of seafood and certified 2,082 tonnes. The fisheries division also organised 336 patrols and examinations, fining 54 violating cases nearly 600 million VND (25,100 USD).

 

Vu Duyen Hai, Deputy Director of the Capture Fisheries Department at the MARD’s Directorate of Fisheries, spoke highly of Khanh Hoa’s efforts in combating IUU fishing but also asked the province to address several shortcomings, including those related to the examination of food safety, monitoring system, fish catch, export, and import.

 

In particular, it is necessary to increase personnel for fishery ports and ensure control over the number of vessels, he noted.

 

Deputy General Director of the Directorate of Fisheries Nguyen Quang Hung said removing the “yellow-card” warning and steering clear of a “red card” issued by the EC is an urgent task of the entire political system.

 

He added as Khanh Hoa has a relatively large fishing industry and many businesses exporting fishery products to Europe, its localities should step up communications to encourage fishermen to join hands in fighting IUU fishing while keeping a close watch on the boats that haven’t installed the vessel monitoring system and asking vehicles to turn on the equipment during their fishing trips.

 

Khanh Hoa still has much to be done before the EC delegation comes, Hung said, requesting it to devise a detailed plan, complete papers, and review personnel at fishery ports./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 

The Dung Quat oil refinery produced about 5.18 million tonnes of petrol and oil during January – September, up 6% from the nine-month plan and equivalent to 80% of this year’s target, its operator – Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical JSC (BSR) – said.

 

During the period, BSR sold more than 5 million tonnes of products, up 6% from the nine-month plan and equivalent to 78% of the target for 2022. It posted over 125 trillion VND (5.2 billion USD) in revenue and contributed nearly 14 trillion VND to the State budget.

 

BSR Director General Bui Ngoc Duong said in the year’s first half, global oil prices surged due to impacts of the Russia – Ukraine conflict and fuel demand soared driven by the post-pandemic global economic recovery.

 

Therefore, crack margin was advantageous to BSR and helped the firm’s revenue increase sharply, especially in the second quarter, he explained./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 

Vietnamese’s use of domestic digital platforms recorded a year-on-year rise of 23.5% in August, with 494 million users.

 

According to data of the Ministry of Information and Communications, Vietnamese spent more than 934 million hours on local platforms, making up 13.77 percent of total time they spent on all digital platforms.

 

On average, a smart phone user spent 9.93 hours on Vietnamese digital platforms in August, up 11.44% from July and 4.67% from January this year.

 

Five local platforms reported more than 10 million users monthly, namely Zalo with 75 million, followed by Zing Mp3 with 23.6 million, Momo e-wallet 19.6 million, Bao Moi 15.5 million and Vietcombank application 12 million.

 

Digital platform users on mobile devices have been on the rise as the number of new app downloads hit about 312 million, surging 19% compared to that in July.

 

With this momentum, Vietnam is projected to maintain the seventh place in the number of new app downloads globally./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 

Thailand on October 1 officially lifted the state of emergency imposed in March 2020 to battle the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

With the emergency removal, all COVID-19 restrictions have also been scrapped or become optional.

 

From October 1, visitors to Thailand will not have to show a negative test result for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Face mask wearing, temperature check, or hand disinfection are no longer mandatory when people go outside or to public places.

 

According to a government decision issued on September 23, Thailand also downgraded COVID-19 from a “dangerous communicable disease” to a “communicable disease under surveillance” from October 1 and will maintain the status through September 2023.

 

As a result, the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration was also automatically dissolved.

 

Thai officials said the health ministry downgraded the COVID-19 status since the pandemic situation in the country is now stable and existing virus variants are under control.

 

However, they said, it will be difficult to predict the number of patients in the future or whether there are more outbreaks. Therefore, organisations of the ministry will keep monitoring the situation.

 

Severe COVID-19 cases will continue to receive free treatment, and vaccination will still go ahead, they added./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Buses in Hanoi served 212.7 million passengers in the first nine months of 2022, rising by over 25% from a year earlier, statistics show.

 

The passenger number has bounced back since the second quarter and gradually increased month on month.

 

This result is partly attributed to the opening of 11 new bus routes, including five connected with the Cat Linh – Ha Dong urban railway and six using electric vehicles, raising the number of e-bus routes to nine.

 

Hanoi has also adjusted and expanded the itineraries of eight routes, extend the running time of 14 routes, and upgrade support infrastructure, helping improve services and ensure safety for both vehicles and passengers.

 

The capital currently has 154 bus routes, including 132 subsidised routes, eight non-subsidised ones, 12 connecting the city with neighbouring provinces, and two City Tour routes.

 

The network has covered all district-level localities and is being expanded to more universities, colleges, high schools, large industrial parks, residential areas, craft villages, and tourist sites.

 

Hanoi targets that public passenger transport will meet 30 – 35% of travel demand by 2025./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 

 

Deputy President of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) Mohamad Hasan on September 30 announced that the party’s top leaders have reached a consensus that parliament must be dissolved soon so that general elections can be held this year.

 

The meeting was coordinated by UMNO President Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob also attended as one of the party’s vice presidents.

 

Malaysia’s 14th Parliament will expire in July 2023. Under the law, if the parliament is dissolve ahead of schedule, a general election must be held within 60 days of Parliament’s dissolution.

 

UMNO is a major component party in the ruling Barisan National (BN) coalition in Malaysia.

 

However, some states including Penang, Kedah and Kelantan announced that they will not dissolve their assemblies./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency