Day: October 28, 2022

Vietnam always attaches great importance to and prioritises the development of ties with Thailand, and hopes to enhance the bilateral strategic partnership in all fields, including defence, Deputy Minister of National Defence Sen. Lieut. Gen Hoang Xuan Chien told the new Thai attachés in Vietnam.

 

Chien made the statement at a meeting with Thai defence and army attaché Colonel Anupon Naksut, Thai navy attaché Captain Warun Weerakul, and Thai air attaché Colonel Prin Yongpiyanon in Hanoi on October 27.

 

He highly valued the outcomes of the Vietnam-Thailand defence ties over the past years, with regular delegation exchanges and high-level contacts, the establishment and implementation of joint working groups and consultations between forces, and the organisation of the deputy ministerial policy dialogue, as well as the close coordination and mutual support at multilateral forums, especially the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM), ADMM Plus, and the ASEAN Chiefs of Defence Forces’ Meeting (ACDFM).

 

Chien suggested that this year, when Vietnam and Thailand are celebrating their strategic partnership, Thai attachés should continue to work closely with the Vietnamese side to effectively implement the cooperation agreements with a focus on all-level and high-level delegation exchanges, and the organisation of the fourth Vietnam – Thailand defence policy dialogue, and the optimising of existing cooperation mechanisms, the enhancement of collaboration and experience sharing between services and arms, and personnel training.

 

The host affirmed that the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defence’s leaders always support and create optimal conditions for the strengthening of bilateral defence ties.

 

On behalf of the guests, Colonel Anupon Naksut thanked the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defence for assisting Thai attachés to complete their tasks.

 

Holding that defence cooperation will continue to be one of the key pillars in the two countries’ strategic partnership, he affirmed that Thailand will continue to further beef up defence ties with Vietnam to be on par with the strategic partnership of the two countries.

 

Thailand will send a delegation to the Vietnam International Defense Expo 2022 in Hanoi this December, he said./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The relationship between Vietnam and China has maintained its positive and healthy development over the past years, a Chinese journalist has said.

 

Wei Wei, head of the Vietnamese department under China’s central TV and radio station, told the Vietnam News Agency that the two sides have continued with high-level strategic contacts through phone talks between their senior leaders.

 

Recalling their mutual support in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, he highlighted China is one of the countries that provided the most types of vaccines for Vietnam in a timely manner, vividly demonstrating the friendship and the tradition of mutual support between the two neighbouring countries.

 

Wei noted that the two countries have utilised their reciprocal advantages in the spirit of mutual benefits, and stepped up pragmatic cooperation in economy, trade and investment.

 

Vietnam remains the biggest trade partner of China in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the journalist added.

 

He highlighted similarities between the two countries in the political system, traditional cultural identities and development goals.

 

Vietnamese and Chinese Party and State leaders are working to deepen the bilateral comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in the new situation, Wei said, stressing that the two sides have enhanced solidarity and cooperation, shared the wish for development, supported and maintained multilateralism, and promoted common values of humankind.

 

The relationship has been developing intensively and extensively and the comprehensive strategic cooperative is getting diverse, he said./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 

Vietnam’s aquatic product exports reached 900 million USD in October, lifting the country’s total export turnover in the first ten months of 2022 to 9.39 billion USD, a sharp increase of 32.7% compared to the same period of 2021.

 

The export of tra fish raked in 183 million USD, raising the ten-month export value to 2.06 billion USD, up 76.5 % from the same period last year, according to the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

 

Meanwhile, shrimp exports fetched 444 million USD in October, bringing the ten-month value to 3.84 billion USD and up 20.3% year on year.

 

The top three import markets of Vietnam, including the US, Japan, and China, accounted for 50.1% of the Southeast Asian nation’s total aquatic product export value in the first nine months.

 

Vietnam’s aquatic product export value increased in almost markets, excluding Russia which saw a decrease of 11% in the first nine months of this year. The country witnessed the highest growth, at 85.2%, in exports to China./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 

Vietnam and other countries shared their view on the important role by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in handling international disputes peacefully, at a plenary session of the 77th United Nations General Assembly on October 27.

 

The court has significantly contributed to promoting the observance of the UN Charter and international law, as well as sustainable development, peace, security and stability in the world, they said.

 

Vietnam and some other countries, including Vanuatu, proposed the initiative of asking for the court’s consultancy regarding nations’ obligations in the climate change issue.

 

Ambassador Dang Hoang Giang, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the UN, stressed that climate change has remained a challenge to the international community and threatened lives of people in coastal countries and small island nations.

 

Many response measures have been taken, including commitments to net zero carbon emissions, yet climate change has still been developing complicatedly, he said.

 

The diplomat called for stronger actions in this regard, saying the responsibility and obligations of countries should be identified in accordance with relevant international conventions, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Paris Agreement, and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

 

The ICJ, also known as the World Court, is the main judicial organ of the UN. It was established in June 1945 by the Charter of the UN and began work in April 1946.

 

The court’s role is to settle, in accordance with international law, legal disputes submitted to it by states and to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by authorised UN organs and specialised agencies. The court decides disputes between countries, based on the voluntary participation of the states concerned. If a state agrees to participate in a proceeding, it is obligated to comply with the court’s decision.

 

The court is composed of 15 judges elected to nine-year terms of office by the UN General Assembly and the Security Council./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 

 

The workforce of Vietnam has recovered quickly and the labour supply chain was not cracked down, Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung told the National Assembly (NA)’s fourth session on October 28.

 

The minister said that to date, Vietnam has 51.9 million labourers, 2.8 million higher than the figure recorded at the same time last year, while the rate of new labourers joining the labour market is 68.7%.

 

Currently, the unemployment rate is 2.28%, he said, underlining that Vietnam is among the countries with the lowest rate.

 

Regarding the implementation of support to people hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, Dung said that so far, 87 trillion VND (3.5 billion USD) has been provided as assistance to 56 million pandemic-affected labourers and more than 730,000 employers.

 

The policies have greatly contributed to the economic recovery and development, he said, citing statistics from the Statistics Office as showing that the average monthly income of labourers in the third quarter of this year was 7.6 million VND each, 1.6 million VND higher than that of 2021. In the service sector, the amount rose to over 8 million VND, he added.

 

The official also highlighted progress of the national target programme on sustainable poverty reduction, with the majority of criteria reached.

 

According to the minister, improvement has also been seen in vocational training activities in both scale and quality.

 

However, he pointed to a number of challenges in ensuring social welfare and poverty reduction. Currently, 2.4 million households are living under and near the poverty line, accounting for 9% of the total households.

 

The number of labourers in the informal sector remains high, he said, adding that the poverty reduction target of this year is likely to be completed but at a lowest level in many years.

 

Dung said that in the future, the ministry will continue to give advice to the Politburo and the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat to issue a directive on the strengthening of the Party leadership to vocational training activities and the building of a flexible, modern, sustainable and developed labour market.

 

It will advise the Government to issue a resolution on labour market development, which focuses on the renovation and improvement of vocational training quality, the connection of labour demand and supply, and the enhancement of labour productivity.

 

At the session, Minister Dung also clarified a number of issues related to the providing of vocational training to students at secondary and high schools./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 

 

A workshop to announce a research report on international experience in developing and implementing mechanism experiment in some fields and its applicability in Vietnam was held in Hanoi on October 28.

 

Jointly organised by the Central Institute for Economic Management, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the event was part of the Macroeconomic Reforms/Green Growth Programmes funded by the International Co-operation Agency of Germany (GIZ).

 

CIEM Director Tran Thi Hong Minh said Vietnam has frankly acknowledged difficulties, risks and challenges related to the risk of falling into the middle-income trap and aging population.

 

In the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and speeding up economic recovery, Vietnam has paid attention to promoting institutional reform and expanding new economic models, besides focusing on fiscal-monetary solutions, she said.

 

According to statistics of the World Bank, by 2020, there were 57 countries around the world applying mechanism experiment.

 

Vietnam has embarked on research to build mechanism experiments, however the process of putting these mechanisms into practice still remains slow.

 

To promote the completion and application of mechanism experiment, head of the CIEM’s General Research Department Nguyen Anh Duong said that Vietnam needs to determine the appropriate criteria for enterprises involved in mechanism experiment, and maintain consumer confidence in services and businesses that participate in the experiment.

 

The development status of Fintech and some outstanding circular economic models in Vietnam were introduced at the event. Participants also gave policy recommendations for developing, issuing and implementing polices on IT application./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 

The first flight of Starlux Airlines carrying 171 passengers from Taipei (China) landed at Da Nang International Airport on October 28 morning, resuming the route after over two years of hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Representatives of the Da Nang Department of Tourism, Tourism Promotion Centre, Da Nang International Airport, Da Nang International Terminal Investment and Operation JSC, and Starlux Airlines presented flowers and gifts to congratulate the passengers.

 

Da Nang welcomes first foreign passengers from Taipei after pandemic hinh anh 2

 

Rong (Dragon) bridge in Da Nang (Photo: VNA)

 

The airline plans to operate three weekly flights, each lasting 2 hours and 50 minutes. It is also expected to increase the flight frequency in December 2022 to meet travellers’ demands, said Roger Yen, Starlux Airlines Chief Representative in Vietnam.

 

Deputy Director of the Da Nang Tourism Promotion Centre Mai Thi Thanh Hai said that the resumption of direct flights from Taipei to Da Nang is a good signal for the city’s tourism sector to increase the number of tourists in the future./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 

 

Prime Minister of Thailand Prayut Chan-o-Cha on October 28 visited Laos to attend a foundation-laying ceremony of the fifth friendship bridge over Mekong River.

 

The Thai government’s spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri said PM Prayut was the guest of honour of Lao PM Phankham Viphavanh.

 

The friendship bridge has been built since 2020, with about 57% of the workload being completed.

 

Upon completion, the bridge and its approaches will stretch for 15 kilometres, crossing the Mekong River and linking Thailand’s Bueng Kan province with Laos’s Bolikhamxay province, and provide an alternative to ferry services between two countries.

 

The cost of bridge is currently 1.1 billion baht (more than 29 million USD)./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency