Month: October 2022

Vietnam’s fruit export turnover is expected to top 5 billion USD by 2025 and about 6.5 billion USD by 2030.

 

According to a plan to develop key fruit trees until 2025 and 2030 approved recently by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), Vietnam will concentrate on developing 14 key fruit trees, including dragon fruit, mango, banana, litchi, longan, orange, grapefruit, pineapple, rambutan, durian, jackfruit, passion fruit, avocado, and custard apple.

 

The area of these fruit trees is planned to reach 960,000 ha by 2025 and 1 million ha by 2030, producing about 11 – 12 million tonnes and 13-14 million tonnes of products, respectively.

 

MARD set to expand the total planting area of fruit trees nationwide to 1.2 million by 2025 and 1.3 million by in 2030, with respective yields of 14 million tonnes and 16 million tonnes.

 

The ministry has assigned its Plant Protection Department to coordinate with localities in disease management on fruit trees, and guide localities to develop planting area codes and traceability of the origin of products; and work with units on expanding export markets for fruit products.

 

It will join hands with localities and businesses in removing trade barriers, expanding markets, promoting science and technology transfer, supporting farmers in accessing capital, building concentrated fruit growing areas, and developing deep processing facilities.

 

Statistics from the General Department of the Vietnam Customs show that dragon fruit recorded the largest export turnover in the first eight months of 2022, reaching nearly 463 million USD. It was followed by banana and durian with 237 million USD and 158 million USD, respectively./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 

Sen Lieut. Gen. Nguyen Van Rinh, president of the Vietnam Association of Agent Orange/dioxin Victims (VAVA) has suggested the US form a long-term support programme inclusively for Agency Orange (AO) victims in Vietnam to enhance the effectiveness of US’s assistance relating to the settlement of war consequences.

 

He made the suggestion at a reception for Tim Rieser, senior foreign policy advisor to US Senator Patrick Leahy, in Hanoi on October 30.

 

US support should be extended to many provinces and cities of Vietnam, with priority given to direct aid to victims’ families, Rinh said.

 

He spoke highly of Rieser’s contribution to promoting cooperation programmes in overcoming war consequences between the two countries, which he described as a bright spot in Vietnam-US relations.

 

The official also expressed his wish that Rieser would continue to direct the US Government and Congress’s attention to collaboration programmes on the settlement of war consequences in Vietnam and for AO victims.

 

On the occasion, Rinh presented the “For Agent Orange/Dioxin victims” insignia to Rieser in recognition of his contributions to supporting AO victims./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 

The Can Tho University in the Mekong Delta city of the same name on October 30 hosted an International Forum on Sustainable Development of the Mekong Delta titled “Science and Technology: Driving forces for innovation and sustainable development”.

 

The forum attracted over 500 delegates from Government agencies, ministries, sectors, educational establishments, businesses, and international organisations.

 

Over 20 presentations at the event focused on five main fields: development of high-quality human resources, hi-tech agriculture and aquaculture, maritime economy – circulation economy, environment – natural resources – climate change, and digital transformation. Delegates affirmed that the Mekong Delta holds many advantages as well as opportunities to contribute more to the development of the country. However, climate change, degradation of environmental resources, saltwater intrusion, and quality of human resources are barriers to the development of the region.

 

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Duy Dong said that in a Prime Minister’s decision earlier this year on the master plan for the Mekong Delta region in the 2021 – 2030 period, with a vision to 2050, a special stress is laid on the need to invest in transport infrastructure to facilitate inter-regional connectivity, boost administrative reform, and step up research and application of science and technology in production.

 

Participants also stressed that there should be groups of solutions to strengthen coordination and resource sharing with international organisations, governments of other countries and foreign businesses to better support the region.

 

It is also important to raise the quality of local human resources, delegates said.

 

Expert Ho Thi Ha from the Can Tho University cited a 2019 report as saying that the whole region had about 9.4 million workers aged 15 and over, of whom only 5.2% has a Bachelor’s degree./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Director General of the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) Vũ Việt Trang on October 30 had a working session in Hà Nội with President of Cuban news agency Prensa Latina (PL) Luis Enrique Gonzalez Acosta.

 

Welcoming the PL leader, Trang briefed the guest on the situation of the VNA and its development orientations towards a multimedia news agency playing a key role in Việt Nam’s press system.

 

Showing delight at the cooperation outcomes between the two news agencies over the past four decades, the VNA leader affirmed that the two sides have enjoyed a close partnership on the foundation of the Việt Nam-Cuba solidarity and friendship established by President Hồ Chí Minh and Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

 

In the current period, they should continue to strengthen cooperation and implement new cooperation projects, she said.

 

For his part, the PL leader thanked the VNA for its support in all fields since the two news agencies set up their partnership in 1966, and pledged to continue backing the Vietnamese news agency’s representative office in Cuba and assist its affiliate Vietnam Pictorial in enhancing the quality of the Spanish version.

 

The two sides reviewed their cooperation programmes since 2020 in various fields, agreed on the significance of their cooperation, and reaffirmed that the partnership has contributed to strengthening the mutual understanding and traditional friendship between the two countries.

 

Leaders of the two news agencies concurred to resume annual high-level exchanges starting in 2023 after two years of interruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Trang invited the PL leader to visit Việt Nam on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s historic visit to Việt Nam (September 1973-2023).

 

The two sides highly valued bilateral cooperation in printing and circulating the Vietnam Pictorial in the Latin American region over the years, and agreed to sign a new cooperation deal in the field next year.

 

The VNA hailed contributions by PL experts in enhancing the quality of foreign service information in Spanish of the VNA as well as training VNA sub-editors. Leaders of the two sides agreed to extend the working term of PL experts in Viet Nam to two years instead of one year.

 

They will work together to organise a photo exhibition in Việt Nam to mark the 50th anniversary of Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s visit to Việt Nam, with the PL sending photos to the VNA for display.

 

The VNA opened its representative office in Havana in 1966, the first in the Latin American region.

 

Since then, the VNA and the PL have signed many cooperation agreements, with the latest in 2018. The two sides have provided each other with news in English, French and Spanish, and the PL has sent its experts to the VNA every year to support the latter to produce Spanish news and train VNA sub-editors as well as printing and circulating the Spanish-version of the Vietnam Pictorial. They have supported each other’s correspondents, with the VNA providing parts of operation costs for the PL office in Hà Nội. In 2018, the VNA presented the PL with an industrial printer.

 

The partnership between the VNA and the PL is considered a model of successful international cooperation of the VNA in both wartime and current period.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

It is critical for State-owned enterprises (SOEs) to strengthen innovations as Vietnam has set the target of having at least 25 SOEs with a market capitalisation of 1 billion USD and more.

 

According to Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc, SOEs are slow to innovate, and this means they fail to keep up with the rapidly changing requirements of the market-based economy.

 

He pointed out that the inadequate policies for managing SOEs remain a major cause of their slow innovation and confusion in developing investment strategies and plans.

 

In addition, the policies on salary and remuneration are not attractive for SOEs to attract high-quality human resources.

 

The legal framework for management and usage of State capitals at SOEs should be reviewed and improved in line with the amendments to the Law on Bidding and the Law on Land to ensure efficiency, he said.

 

The recent Government report submitted to the National Assembly revealed that the operation efficiency of SOEs was below expectation while the investment efficiency of SOEs was not as high as expected when the projects were approved.

 

Some projects with huge investments failed or incurred losses for many years while the restructuring plans did not work.

 

The report showed that State-owned enterprises saw the total revenue in 2021 drop by 12% against 2020. Pre-tax profit also fell by 20%. Many SOEs earned low ratio of pre-tax profit to equity, around 1-5% which was below the average banking deposit interest rate.

 

Eighty-four out of 401 SOEs reported accumulated losses for many years.

 

SOEs failed to play their role in driving the development of other sectors and promoting value chain linkage, the report wrote.

 

In addition, SOEs were weak in industries that affected the improvement of the economy’s competitiveness such as high technology, precision mechanics, component manufacturing and source technology.

 

Most SOEs in key and spearhead industries operated in a close-ended manner which did not create conditions for other enterprises to participate in their value chains.

 

According to Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung, SOEs needed to focus on research and development, innovation, digital transformation, infrastructure development and finance to create growth drivers.

 

It is necessary to improve policies and mechanisms for the management of SOEs to enable them to operate under the market-based mechanism, Dung said.

 

As of the end of last year, there were 826 SOEs, 476 of which were wholly State-owned. The total State capital at SOEs was more than 1.6 quadrillion VND, up by 3% against 2020./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

A respect-paying service was held at Bucheon Hospital mortuary on October 31 for a Vietnamese citizen who died in a Halloween celebration stampede in Seoul two days ago.

 

Minister Counsellor at the Vietnamese Embassy Nguyen Viet Anh attended the service, while RoK Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin sent a wreath to it.

 

The deceased’s body will be repatriated to be buried in the hometown of the victim.

 

The Korean Foreign Ministry also told the Vietnamese Embassy that its Government is exerting efforts to provide necessary support for all victims of this tragedy.

 

The stampede, which broke out in the night of October 29, took the life of 154 people and injured 133 others as of October 30 night, as crowds were celebrating Halloween on Itaewon street./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency