Day: January 4, 2023

The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) has well performed its role as a strategic advisor of the Government, especially in COVID-19 prevention and control and socio-economic recovery and development strategies, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said at a year-end conference held by the ministry in Hanoi on January 4.

 

The leader also hailed the ministry for its work in handling issues related to enterprises, improving the domestic business environment, directing public investments, mobilising non-State resources, promoting digital transformation and innovations, building laws and institutionalising the Party’s resolutions.

 

Regarding tasks in 2023, PM Chinh urged the ministry to make greater efforts in managing plans and coordinating the macro-economy, keep a close watch on the regional and international situation, step up the forecasting work and build scenarios so as to timely provide consultations for the Government and the PM in directing the implementation of resolutions of the Party, National Assembly and Government.

 

The ministry should provide strategic consultations in the implementation of the resolution of the 13th National Party Congress, the 2021-2025 socio-economic development plan and the 2021-2030 socio-economic development strategy, along with directions given by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at the recent teleconference between the Government and the 63 cities and provinces on January 3, the PM noted.

 

 

 

PM hails planning-investment ministry’s role as strategic advisor in socio-economic development hinh anh 2

 

An overview of the conference (Photo: VNA)

 

He asked the ministry to continue institutionalising policies and guidelines of the Party, and push innovations and scientific-technological application with attention paid to major trends like circular economy and green economy.

 

The government leader also listed other tasks regarding Party building, personnel, and the fight against corruption and other negative phenomena.

 

According to a report presented at the meeting, as of the end of December 2022, the ministry had completed all of the tasks assigned by the Government and the PM.

 

Participants suggested that the ministry continue to make recommendations to the Government on policies for harmonious development among industries, economic sectors, and between economy and culture, social security and environmental protection. They also proposed that the ministry encourage the development of green economy, circular economy, green transition and digital transformation./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 

Ho Chi Minh City and 13 cities and provinces of the Mekong Delta need to strongly promote regional coordination in diversifying tourism products and developing new tourism models in a bid to become an attractive destination for tourists, Vice Chairwoman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Phan Thi Thang has said.

 

The Mekong Delta, which was identified as one of the seven tourist regions of the country, has rich tourism resources, with over 28,000 km of canals, a diverse ecosystem, and unique cultural values. As a result, it boasts great potential to become an important resort destination in the southern region.

 

However, tourism development in the Mekong Delta remains very modest compared to other tourist areas in the country.

 

Despite efforts to lure visitors to the region, tourism products in the Mekong Delta are not diverse and attractive.

 

Many provinces in the region have similar tourism products, confusing tourists when they choose a destination for their travel.

 

Tran Anh Thu, Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of An Giang province, said tourists usually chose the first destination in HCM City, the international gateway to the region, and then the second destination as sea tourism in the central region or Phu Quoc Island in Kien Giang province or river tourism in the Mekong Delta.

 

Thu said tourism products in the Mekong Delta were less attractive to tourists, especially international visitors.

 

Fruit gardens in Tien Giang somehow bring the same experience to tourists when they travel to Vinh Long and Ben Tre, according to the official. Likewise, cultural tourism in Tra Vinh, Bac Lieu, and Soc Trang is similar to that in An Giang, and eco-tourism in Dong Thap, An Giang, Bac Lieu, Long An, and Ben Tre is not different.

 

He added that each locality needed to develop its unique tourism products and establish promotion links to develop regional tour packages to lure tourists.

 

Poor infrastructure

 

Duong Duc Minh, Deputy Director of the HCM City’s Tourism and Economic Development Research Institute, said community-based tourism would be an excellent material for tourism development strategy in the Mekong Delta.

 

However, community-based tourism had not been integrated into tourism planning and development, requiring localities to have policies to develop the model in the future.

 

Pointing out weaknesses in tourism development, Deputy CEO of Saigontourist Group Truong Duc Hung said in many community-based tourism sites, the transport infrastructure was still inadequate, and services remained poor.

 

A shortage of qualified human resources had hindered the development of some services. In addition, there was little information about tourist attractions in the Mekong Delta, making it difficult for international visitors to access them.

 

Hung said localities in the region must strengthen marketing strategies and have firm stimulus promotion policies to attract tourists.

 

Regional coordination

 

For the Mekong Delta to become an attractive destination, many experts believe that localities need to strengthen regional coordination and links among one another, especially with HCM City, to diversify tourism products and connect service supply chains between HCM City to 13 localities in the Mekong Delta.

 

Vice Chairman of the An Giang Provincial People’s Committee Tran Anh Thu said ecological and spiritual tourism was a growing trend in the world, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

The province’s most popular spiritual tourism destination, Ba Chua Xu Temple in Chau Doc city’s Nui Sam Mountain, welcomed about five million tourists last year, creating jobs for more than 400,000 people.

 

HCM City is the first destination for domestic and international tourists. Therefore, tourism development between HCM City and 13 Mekong Delta localities will create attractive tourism values.

 

Deputy Director of HCM City’s Department of Tourism Bui Thi Ngoc Hieu agreed, saying that some tour packages from HCM City to the Mekong Delta had received a large number of tourists after a short time of coordination.

 

A 1-day tour from HCM City to Tien Giang, Ben Tre, or Long An, and a 2-day tour from HCM City to Tien Giang – Ben Tre; Ben Tre – Tra Vinh; and Long An – Dong Thap are among popular travel packages. In addition, the river tour from the Sai Gon River to the Tien River, which was launched this year, has received positive feedback.

 

Other multipleday tours have been built to serve tourists. For example, Saigon Tourism Corporation has set up three tours lasting between four and six days from HCM City to the Mekong Delta provinces, which feature the identity and characteristics of the life, people and culture of the Mekong River.

 

HCM City has worked with the Mekong Delta to reduce food costs and free admission tickets to lure tourists.

 

By the end of 2022, the Mekong Delta was estimated to have welcomed over 44 million tourists, an increase of 201.2% over the same period in 2021. As a result, tourism revenue of Mekong Delta reached nearly VNĐ34 trillion, up 216.9% over the same period of 2021.

 

Currently, domestic tourists account for two-thirds of the total.

 

Bold plans

 

Experts said bold moves were necessary to develop tourism in the Mekong Delta to a new level.

 

Deputy General Director of Vietravel Huynh Phan Phuong Hoang said that shortly, localities in the region needed to focus on investing in synchronous tourism infrastructures, such as building expressways connecting HCM City to the Mekong Delta, solving the traffic jam at Trung Luong – My Thuan Highway at peak times and urgently implementing the construction of Dai Ngai Bridge to develop tourism products between Tra Vinh and Soc Trang.

 

Four or five star hotels, resorts, and garden resorts must be associated with the typical river and water nature of the Mekong Delta, developing tourism products with incredible prices to boost the number of visitors.

 

Authorities should have policies to encourage local people to do tourism, such as community-based and green tourism, and develop more eco-agricultural tourism products.

 

Thang suggested that tourism products of the Mekong Delta must serve tourists of different ages, such as discovery tourism for young people and resort tourism for the elderly.

 

Each province should identify a strong tourism product, then cooperate to develop attractive tourism products to compete with that in the Southeast Asian region, she added./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 

The HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases on January 4 said the COVID-19 Omicron XBB variant, first discovered in India in August, has been found in the southern metropolis.

 

The result came from the testing conducted by researchers of the hospital and the Oxford University Clinical Research, on 526 COVID-19 patients hospitalised between July 1 and December 25, 2022.

 

The Omicron sublineage, however, circulated at a low rate, making up only 5.7% of the genome decoded, the researchers said, noting that Omicron was the dominant variant in the city in the second half of 2022.

 

The group concluded that the pandemic is under control in the city, reflecting the efficiency of vaccines in the fight.

 

The national COVID-19 caseload rose to 11, 525,408 with 71 new cases recorded on January 3, according to the Ministry of Health.

 

With 13 patients given the all-clear during the day, the number of recoveries rose to 10,611,338.

 

Meanwhile, there are only 9 patients needing respiratory support in hospital.

 

No deaths from COVID-19 were recorded on the day. The total fatalities stand at 43,186.

 

With 894 doses administered on January 2, the total number of doses of COVID-19 vaccines injected rose to 265,519,661./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 

The tourism sector raked in about 9.6 trillion VND (408.3 million USD) in revenue during the three-day 2023 New Year holiday, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism reported on January 4.

 

From December 31, 2022, to January 2, 2023, the sector recorded about 3 million domestic travellers.

 

Positive signs were also seen in the number of international visitors, most of whom came from the Republic of Korea, Russia, Germany, and Spain. Vietnam has also started welcoming back tourists from India, the Middle East, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, among others.

 

Notably, Quang Nam province attracted 89,000 foreign arrivals, Ho Chi Minh City 35,000, Hanoi 38,000, Khanh Hoa province 6,950, and Ba Ria – Vung Tau province 5,815 during the holiday, statistics show.

 

The administration said tourism has sustained the recovery trend and completely surmounted difficulties after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. The return of international visitors has also proved the country’s right and timely moves to restructure tourist markets and renew tourism products./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Indonesia, the world’s biggest palm oil producer, is about to cut its overseas shipments of the commodity, as it tightens a policy requiring companies to keep more supply at home.

 

The Government cut the amount producers can export to six times the domestic sales requirement, down from eight times currently, according to Budi Santoso, DG of foreign trade at the Indonesian Trade Ministry. The change took effect from January 1.

 

Firman Hidayat, an official at the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment, said the Government wants to ensure ample domestic supply during the Ramadan and Aidilfitri holidays in April as production will be seasonally weaker in the first quarter.

 

On the contrary, the tightening of palm oil exports in Indonesia has affected the prices in Malaysia, the world’s second largest exporter of this commodity. The move may encourage Malaysia to raise prices and exports./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The inflationary pressure on Vietnam in 2023 may not be high, said experts at a conference in Hanoi on January 4.

 

The pressure from inflation due to fluctuation of currencies, exchange rates, fuel prices and raw materials was likely to reach its peak in 2022 and is predicted to decrease in 2023, said Dr. Nguyen Duc Do, Vice Director of the Institute of Economics-Finance under the Academy of Finance.

 

According to him, in fact, inflation has declined since December 2022 when core inflation rose only 0.33% over the previous month. Although the prices of electricity and a number of services controlled by the State in 2023 are predicted to increase in 2023, the level of impact from the hike depends on the timeliness and level of adjustments.

 

“If reasonable price adjustments are made in the second half of 2023, the country’s target to keep the inflation rate at about 4.5% or even under 4% is completely reachable,” he said.

 

Meanwhile, Associate Prof. Dr. Ngo Tri Long pointed to a number of advantages in 2023, including the momentum of recovery and well-controlled inflation in 2022.

 

Inflationary pressure manageable for Vietnam in 2023: experts hinh anh 2

 

At the event (Photo: VNA)

 

Credit packages within the economic recovery programme and national target programmes are likely to be implemented faster this year, while a number of problems in the real estate, financial, labour and medical markets have been removed, making it possible for the country to rise up in 2023, he added.

 

However, Le Thanh Nga from the Ministry of Planning and Investment said that there are still some factors causing pressure on inflation, including fluctuations in the world market and increases in the prices of power, water supply, education and health care services.

 

Dr. Long asserted that in order to achieve the goals of 6.5% economic growth and 4.5% inflation, the Government should promptly remove obstacles in mechanism, policy and administration, while harmoniously combining macro-economic policies and ensuring the balance between interest and exchange rates, growth and inflation, and support to businesses and State budget collection.

 

It is necessary to keep a close watch on price developments and inflation in the world to give a timely alert and proper response, he added.

 

Nga suggested the increase of production of input materials with priority given to the domestic market, while applying measures to stablise the prices of commodities.

 

Director of the Price Management Department under the Ministry of Finance Nguyen Minh Tien said that the ministry will give cautious monetary policies and combine them with suitable fiscal policies to rein in inflation and ensure major balances of the economy./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency