Day: December 23, 2022

Politburo member, Permanent Vice Chairman of the National Assembly (NA) Tran Thanh Man wished Catholic dignitaries and followers in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue a merry Christmas, while visiting the Archdiocese of Hue on December 23.

 

Man hailed solidarity and consensus of Thua Thien – Hue’s people which has been significantly contributed by religious organisations.

 

The Party and State always pay attention to the freedom of religion and belief; and have created conditions for the Catholic Church to organise many major events in 2022 such as the 15th General Congress of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Vietnam, and La Vang pilgrimage festival.

 

As the year 2023 is predicted to experience a lot of difficulties and challenges, Man expressed his hope that the Archdiocese of Hue, Archbishop Joseph Nguyen Chi Linh, and priests will continue encouraging Catholics to implement the Party’s guidelines and obey the Party’s policies and laws, and respond to patriotic emulation movements to stand side by side with the Party, authorities and people in national building and development.

 

Archbishop Joseph Nguyen Chi Linh affirmed to continue guiding dignitaries and followers to uphold the spirit of “living a good religious and secular life”, actively respond to patriotic emulation movements and campaigns, and contribute more to the nation building and safeguarding cause./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 

Bolstered by the government’s stimulus measures, Thailand’s consumer spending is predicted to hit a 17-year high, reaching 103.04 billion THB (2.9 billion USD).

 

Thanavath Phonvichai, an adviser to the Centre for Economic and Business Forecasting, revealed at the conference on “Consumer behaviour and spending during 2023 New Year festival” that it would be the first time that consumer spending would be exceeding 100 billion THB since 2007.

 

With the support of the government’s stimulus measures, such as “Shop Dee Mee Kuen” (Shop and Payback) and “Rao Tiew Duay Kan” (We Travel Together) schemes during the first quarter of next year, the country’s economy is expected to grow by 0.1-1%, said Thanavath.

 

Adviser to the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC)’s Council Saowanee Thairungroj said that the survey regarding consumer spending behaviour during the New Year festival, conducted between December 9-16 with a sample size of 1,345 participants across the country, showed that 69.8% of respondents are likely to spend money on travelling and party through the New Year period.

 

The survey also illustrated that consumers tend to buy more luxurious goods, with a basket of healthy products as the most popular New Year gift.

 

Some 48.3% of respondents thought that this New Year festival would be more bustling than the previous year, she said.

 

Meanwhile, Kasikorn Research Centre (KResearch) expected spending by Bangkokians during the New Year festival to be around 30.9 billion THB, up 10.5% year on year following recovery in economic activities and tourism in the post-COVID-19 era.

 

However, most people would set aside their budget only for the four-day-long New Year holidays (December 30, 2022, to January 2, 2023) due to uncertainty over rising product prices, KResearch said./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on December 23 chaired a teleconference of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control with leaders of 63 provinces and centrally-run cities.

 

He said the meeting aimed to review the COVID-19 prevention and control performance and set out tasks to control the pandemic and other infectious diseases in the New Year holidays to “not leave anyone behind”.

 

According to the committee, as of December 19, Vietnam has recorded more than 11.5 million COVID-19 infections. Over 10.6 million patients have recovered from the disease, and more than 43,100 people have died.

 

In the last 30 days, there have been 12,008 new cases, declining by 23.5% compared to 30 days earlier.

 

As of December 18, Vietnam has administered more than 265 million COVID-19 vaccines. Roughly 100% of people from the age of 12 have completed the first two doses.

 

The proportion of over-18-year-old people receiving the third and the fourth doses has reached 80% and 86.8%, respectively.

 

About 92.3% of children between 9 and 12 years old have received the first dose. As many as 72% of children between 9 and 12 have been administered the second dose.

 

PM chairs meeting of steering committee for COVID-19 prevention and control hinh anh 2

 

An overview of the meeting (Photo: VNA)

 

State agencies and localities have distributed 87 trillion VND (nearly 3.69 billion USD) to over 55.6 million citizens and nearly 1 million employers affected by COVID-19.

 

Regarding implementing Prime Minister’s Decision No 08/2022/QD-TTg on supporting employees with house rental fees, by November 30, localities have distributed more than 3.74 trillion VND to over 5.2 million employees and 122,991 employers.

 

The steering committee predicted the pandemic would get complicated with new variants. In particular, the seasonal changes will cause more respiratory diseases, leading to various outbreaks simultaneously.

 

The New Year season involves a high intensity of travelling that will also create favourable conditions for illnesses to spread, especially among children and the elderly with underlying conditions.

 

PM Chinh ordered participants to give comments on the COVID-19 treatment and vaccination, especially for children, as well as problems that the steering committee needs to solve./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has signed agreements with tourism operators from the Republic of Korea (RoK) to expand tourism cooperation between the two nations.

 

The agreements were inked during TAT Governor Yuthasak Supasorn’s recent visit to Seoul on December 19.

 

The authority signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Korea Association of Travel Agents (KATA) to exchange information, encourage visitor traffic, establish new emerging market sectors and provide assistance for both parties.

 

The TAT and SOOBAK, meanwhile, signed an MoU to promote Thailand’s tourism products and services through the use of NFTs.

 

Various incentives and deals will be offered in line with the kingdom’s goal of utilising new technology and establishing a ‘tourism ecosystem’ for a more sustainable industry.

 

The TAT also inked a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) with Korean Air to expand the airline’s flight services to Thailand, including launching new routes to more destinations in the country.

 

Additionally, the agreement aims to provide more options for American travelers visiting Thailand by using Korean Air’s route network.

 

The TAT Governor said these agreements, which come ahead of the Visit Thailand-Korea Year 2023-2024, will benefit Thai tourism and help market the kingdom as an all-year-round destination for Korean travelers.

 

It predicts that the number of Korean tourists visiting Thailand would reach at least 1.1 million in 2023./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 

The Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica of Saigon in Ho Chi Minh City rang out with the chimes of new symphonic bells on December 23 for the first time in nearly three years.

 

On January 18, 2020, the Archbishop’s Palace of the Archdiocese of HCM City decided to stop ringing the old bells at the cathedral as they became damaged.

 

The new melody consists of 25 brass bells produced by Perrot GmbH & Co.KG of Germany.

 

Four of the new bells were inscribed with the names of four archbishops since 1960, while the remainders have the names of contributors who have helped restore the cathedral since 2015.

 

The ongoing restoration began in late 2015 after the cathedral turned 135 on April 5 the same year. The project is being carried out by the Belgium-based Monument Group and is expected to be completed in 2027./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is to seek another term in a general election due to be held in the kingdom before May next year.

 

The newly created United Thai Nation Party has offered support for him to become the PM candidate in the next election, he told reporters outside the Government House in Bangkok on December 23.

 

Prayut had been widely expected to leave his Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP), which leads the ruling coalition.

 

PPRP has announced its leader and acting Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan will be the party’s candidate in the election next year.

 

The Thai National Assembly is scheduled to end its term in March 2023, paving the way for a new parliamentary election in the country in May./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency