The 16th edition of the Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Festival is set to take place from July 16 to 19, the municipal Department of Tourism and the HCM City Tourism Association announced on July 8.

The event will be held simultaneously with an international food festival at Le Van Tam Park in District 1, said Deputy Director of the HCM City Tourism Association Tran Ngoc Dong Quan.

They are hoped to attract more visitors and affirm the city’s image as an “Attractive – Friendly – Safe Destination”.

The tourism festival will feature more than 150 pavilions of businesses from 50 cities and provinces nationwide and for the first time will promote tours linking HCM City with the Mekong Delta and other localities in the south.

To bolster domestic travel, promotions and discounts of 30 percent on various tourism products will be available.

HCM City welcomed 9.4 million tourists in the first half of this year, including 1.3 million foreigners and 8.1 million Vietnamese, year-on-year declines of 69.3 percent and 50.9 percent, respectively, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Total revenue from tourism products and services was more than 34 trillion VND (1.46 billion USD), down 49.6 percent against the same period last year./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The first national kite festival was held in the northern province of Nam Dinh on July 5, attracting the participation of nearly 60 kite clubs from 40 cities and provinces nationwide.

The kite artisans competed in two categories of kite design and kite making, with Song An team from Thai Binh province claiming the top position in both categories.

The participants also had a chance to show off their talents and skills in the traditional craft while sharing experience with each other.

The festival is the starting event of upcoming kite festivals and competitions which will be held annually in cities and provinces nationwide.

It is among a series of activities being hosted by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Nam Dinh province to stimulate the local tourism sector after COVID-19.

It also seeks to preserve flute kite playing, a folk game which has recently been recognised as a national intangible cultural heritage, while creating a new tourist product to entertain visitors.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

More than 1,000 students and residents in the central city of Da Nang flocked to a job festival on July 5 to seek advice and opportunities in both training and employment.

The event, jointly held by the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union in Da Nang city, the municipal Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, and the city young entrepreneurs’ association, brought together 150 businesses with 26 booths.

It also featured a dialogue between young entrepreneurs and students, along with 10 booths for vocational training establishments to provide consultation in this regard.

According to Nguyen ThanhDiep, deputy director of the job service centre under the Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, the centreorganises four job transaction sessions each month.

However, he added, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, only 15 sessions have been held so far this year.

Given the increasing number of job hunters in the post-pandemic period, the centre will organise a job transaction every Friday, while joining hands with job service centres in Quang Nam, QuangNgai and ThuaThien-Hue provinces to hold online sessions, he said.

The unemployment rate in Vietnamese urban areas in the second quarter jumped to the highest in the past decade due to the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the General Statistics Office (GSO) revealed.

The national jobless rate in the first half of this year was estimated at 2.26 percent, as compared with 1.99 percent recorded last year. The rate in urban and rural areas stood at 3.26 percent and 1.59 percent, respectively.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Award-winning Taiwanese films with the theme ‘All about Love’ will kick off the series of activities to introduce Chinese Taipei’s culture in Vietnam in 2020.

The event is organised by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vietnam, the Vietnam National Institute of Culture and Arts Studies (VICAS), and the Centre for Assistance and Development of Movie Talents (TPD).

The films to be screened include award-winning works of Chinese Taipei’s filmmakers in recent years. These films are all part of the Taiwan Cinema Toolkit (TCT) – a project to curate, store and provide data about Taiwanese films to serve the non-profit cultural promotion activities organised by the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute.

Three films are being introduced for three weeks from June 27 to July 11 within the Taiwan Film Salon programme held at VICAS and TPD to attract more people to the art of filmmaking as well as the human values reflected in the works. Entrance is free.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

A photo exhibition featuring everyday moments in Vietnam during the COVID-19 pandemic opened at Ly Thai To Park near HoanKiem Lake in the heart of Hanoi on June 26.

On display are over 100 photos and photo sets divided into five themes: disease prevention, Vietnam in the fight against COVID-19, education, the health sector on the frontlines, and people responding to disease prevention and control measures.

The images give an overview of Vietnam’s fight against the pandemic and the efforts of the Party, the political system, and the people.

President of the Vietnam Association of Photographic Artists (VAPA) Vu QuocKhanh said that to show life in the country as the disease took hold, the VAPA called on photographers and photojournalists nationwide to submit works for the exhibition. There were 2,748 entries received, including 2,491 single shots and 257 photo sets, from 406 photographers and photojournalists in 52 cities and provinces around Vietnam.

VAPA chose 104 entries, including 38 photo sets, after consulting with experts from the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.

After Hanoi, the association plans to hold the exhibition elsewhere to continue raising public awareness about COVID-19 prevention and control.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The 2020 Vietbuild International Exhibition kicked off at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre in Ho Chi Minh City’s district 7 on June 24, with the theme “Construction – Building Materials – Real Estate – Interior and Exterior Decoration.”

The exhibition features nearly 1,800 booths from more than 400 exhibitors, including major brands such as Viglacera, Secoin, Sado Germany Window, Apollo Silicone, Eurowindow, Phuong Nam, Truong Phat, and NhaVui.

It is one of the first expos held this year and many other Vietbuild exhibitions with different themes will be held in the country’s four biggest cities of Hanoi, HCM City, Can Tho, and Da Nang during 2020.

On display are building materials, electrical equipment, interior and exterior decorative items, hygiene equipment, doors and door accessories, paint, water purifiers, and hand tools, among others, with many new models and improved features and quality that meet the rising requirements from customers for environmentally-friendly products.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Van Sinh said the Government has adopted a variety of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, revive the economy, and support enterprises and people, including land rental relief and cuts to corporate income tax and interest rates.

The Ministry of Construction is advising the Government on a resolution to stimulate real estate investment, in which low-cost commercial apartments will be offered at 20 million VND per sq m, he said.

These policies provide opportunities for developers and providers of building materials and furniture to bounce back, he added.

Professional seminars and business-matching events are scheduled on the sidelines of the exhibition, including a seminar on “Innovative technologies and materials in the construction industry post-COVID-19”, which seeks to encourage businesses to continue their research and produce new and high-tech products to meet urban construction and housing market demand for green and sustainable development.

The exhibition offers a platform for companies to meet, exchange information, explore prospects for cooperation, and introduce their latest products and technologies, according to the organisers.

It is co-organised by the Ministry of Construction’s Information Centre and the VIETBUILD Construction International Exhibition Organisation Corp. and is open until June 28.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Ministry of National Defence on June 22 launched an exhibition on Vietnam’s achievements in military aspect, national defence, and weapons over the last five years.

Present at the opening ceremony were Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen TrongNghia, Deputy Director of the General Department of Politics under the Vietnam People’s Army (VPA), and Lieutenant General Phung Si Tan, Deputy Chief of the VPA’s General Staff.

The exhibition focuses on the theme of promoting the revolutionary heroism and the tradition of Uncle Ho’s heroic army, calling on people to fulfill all tasks to contribute to national construction and defence.

It introduces the building of the Vietnamese military in terms of politics, ideology, organisation and ethics and its achievements in various fields, from training, combat readiness, search and rescue operations, discipline observance, production, defence diplomacy, technical innovation and scientific studies.

Source: Vietnam News Agency