Category: General

The United Nations (UN) highly valued Vietnam’s high sense of responsibility and the professionalism of Vietnamese officers in peacekeeping operations, and wished that Vietnam will continue to maintain and increase its forces in UN peacekeeping missions, according to Deputy Minister of National Defence Hoang Xuan Chien.

Speaking to a Vietnam News Agency correspondent in New York right after his meetings with UN officials on the sidelines of the opening of the UN General Assembly’s 76th session on September 21, Chien said that over the past more than seven years, Vietnam has deployed three units and more than 50 officers to UN peacekeeping operations at its headquarters and missions.

Vietnamese peacekeeping officers received good assessment for their performance, with more than 31 percent rated as excellent, especially women officers, he said. Chien said that in the time to come, Vietnam will continue to maintain its presence in peacekeeping missions, including the Level-2 Field Hospitals No.3, while preparing Level-2 Field Hospitals No.4 to replace the No.3 when its term ends.

Meanwhile, Vietnam is also making preparations in personnel, organisation and equipment for an engineering force for a suitable UN peacekeeping mission following the UN requests, he said, adding that Vietnam is ready to receive examination teams from the UN for pre-launch check.

Vietnam has paid great attention to ensure an adequate ratio of women officers in peacekeeping operations at 15-21 percent, he underlined, adding that Vietnam will strive to further increase the ratio to meet the requirements of reality.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

A teleconference was held on September 22 to discuss post-pandemic cooperation between Vietnam’s the northern province of Quang Ninh and Thailand’s Phuket, especially in re-opening tourism markets.

Speaking at the event, Director of the Representative Office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand in Vietnam Ratiwan Boonprakong introduced the “Phuket Sandbox” programme which aims to prevent COVID-19 transmission between tourists and local residents.

From July 1 to August 29, the programme welcomed over 25,800 visitors spending 450,806 nights and travelling to Phuket on 283 chartered flights, mostly from the US, UK, Israel, France, Germany, United Arab Emirates and Switzerland.

Director of the Quang Ninh provincial Tourism Department Pham Ngoc Thuy suggested Thailand continue creating favourable conditions for Udon Thani province to effectively carry out an action plan within the framework of tourism cooperation in the heritage triangle of Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay, Thailand’s Ban Chiang and Laos’ Luang Prabang, as well as help Quang Ninh’s tourism sector explore opportunities and promote destinations.

He also proposed the two local tourism sectors establish an information sharing mechanism and study building a suitable tourism cooperation model.

Quang Ninh officially resumed its intra-provincial tourism from September 21 and plans to welcome back visitors from other localities without local transmissions within 14 days, in the last two months of this year. They are required to be fully vaccinated and take Realtime-PCR tests within 48 hours.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The T&T Group on September 21 signed several MoUs and contracts with US partners within the framework of President Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s working trip to the US.

The Vietnamese firm inked an MoU with UPC Renewables on working together in offshore and nearshore wind and solar power projects in several provinces in Vietnam with a combined capacity of nearly 1,500 MW and total investment of about 2.5 billion USD.

T&T Group also sealed two deals in buying animal feed materials totalling 525 million USD.

Accordingly, its agricultural arm T&T Agri will import 1.25 million tonnes of materials worth 450 million USD from The Delong Company next year. The other is an agreement in principle valuing at 75 million USD per year also between T&T Agri and US firm Valero.

Meanwhile, the group’s pharmaceutical arm, T&T Pharma reached a deal worth 23 million USD to be the sole distributor of Nutraceuticals dba Au Naturel, Inc for five years.

The deal followed numerous contracts that T&T Pharma had earlier reached with European partners in clinical trial, procurement and technology transfer for the production of COVID-19 vaccine and Real Time RT-CPR test kits.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Supreme People’s Procuracy issued an indictment and launched criminal proceedings against former Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung on charge of “abusing position and power while performing duties” in the case related to the municipal Department of Planning and Investment and relevant units.

The case is under the supervision and direction of the Central Steering Committee for Anti-corruption.

Other defendants in the case were also prosecuted, including former Chief of the Office of the municipal Party Committee and former Director of the municipal Department of Planning and Investment Nguyen Van Tu; former Director of the municipal Department of Planning and Investment Nguyen Tien Hoc; former head of the business registration office under the municipal Department of Planning and Investment Pham Thi Kim Tuyen; and former Chief of the Office of the municipal Department of Planning and Investment Pham Thi Thu Huong.

Director of the Dong Kinh Development and Investment Co. Ltd. Vo Viet Hung, and Business Director of the Dong Kinh Development and Investment Co. Ltd. Le Duy Tuan were prosecuted for violating bidding regulations, causing serious consequences.

General Director of the Nhat Cuong Technic Co., Ltd. Bui Quang Huy, who was the mastermind in the case related to the Nhat Cuong – Dong Kinh joint venture, has fled and been on the wanted list.

According to the indictment, Chung abused his position and power to illegally interfere in bidding activities for the package deal on digitization of business registration documents in 2016 at the municipal Department of Planning and Investment.

Later, he asked the department to allow the Nhat Cuong company to pilot digitalisation of the bidding package for the personal purpose of making the company win the bid and enjoy benefits, causing the loss of over 26.5 billion VND (1.16 million USD) to the State budget.

Notably, Minh Hoa company led by Nguyen Thi Truc Chi Hoa, Chung’s spouse, signed a contract with the Nhat Cuong company to enable the Nhat Cuong – Dong Kinh joint venture to validate its bidding dossier and win the bid.

In December 2020, Chung was sentenced to five years in prison for “appropriating State secret documents” in the case related to the Nhat Cuong company.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Vietnam values and supports the central role of the United Nations (UN) in the global governance system to respond to today’s common challenges and wishes to promote all-round cooperation with the organisation, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc has reaffirmed.

President Phuc made the statement during his separate meetings with President of the UN General Assembly Abdulla Shahid and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York on September 21.

He told the two UN leaders that Vietnam is exerting utmost efforts in the fight against COVID-19, and putting the safety and health of the people first. He asked the UN to continue supporting Vietnam during this difficult time, especially in the vaccination drive.

Phuc highlighted that Vietnam has always made effective contributions to the common work of the UN, including taking on the role of a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2020-2021 term, participating in peacekeeping operations, implementing the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, participating in elections to UN organisations and contributing to reform efforts to improve performance of the organisation.

Discussing regional and international issues, the two sides emphasized the need to continue strengthening multilateralism with the UN playing a central role, and speeding up the implementation of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, and the Paris Agreement on climate change.

They agreed to strengthen cooperation between the UN and ASEAN, promote ASEAN’s central role in solving regional issues, and support efforts of the bloc and relevant countries in maintaining peace and stability in the region, upholding respect for international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The UN leaders said that they are impressed by Vietnam’s socio-economic development achievements and appreciated the country’s increasing role and position in the region and in the international arena. They spoke highly of Vietnam’s active, responsible and effective contributions to the UN’s common work, especially as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council as well as in joining UN peacekeeping missions, and implementing sustainable development goals and climate goals.

The UN Secretary-General affirmed that the organisation will continue to pay attention to and support Vietnam’s response to the pandemic, and always stand side-by-side and assist the country in post-pandemic socio-economic recovery and development.

He also expressed his wish that Vietnam will contribute more to climate change response efforts, especially raising its commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions towards the COP26 Conference in November 2021 in Glasgow (Scotland- UK).

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Vietnam always focuses on gender equality issues, increasing the percentage of female soldiers involving in missions in different branches and other important issues to gradually promote the participation of women in this field, Major General Vu Cuong Quyet, Director of the Institute for Defence Strategy under the Ministry of National Defence said on September 22.

He made the statement at an exchange on gender, peace and security which was jointly organised by the Vietnam Department of Peacekeeping Operations under the Ministry of National Defence and the Australian Embassy in Vietnam in both virtual and in-person forms.

Senior Lieut. Colonel Pham Tan Phong, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Peacekeeping Department, emphasised that the country’s sending of female soldiers to UN peacekeeping operations is a pragmatic activity in line with the gender equality strategy and capacity building for them in the process of participating in peacekeeping operations There have been many practical activities between Vietnam and Australia in the peacekeeping field in general and in the field of gender, peace and security in particular, he said.

Lieutenant General Cheryl Pearce, former Commander of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyrus and Senior Advisor on Gender, Peace and Security of the Australian Defence Force, said his country acknowledged Vietnam’s progress in ensuring gender equality, as well as in integrating gender equality into peacekeeping training activities.

He said Vietnam and Australia have effectively realised cooperation contents in the implementation agreement under a Memorandum of Understanding signed on March 18, 2015 between the two defence ministries on defence cooperation in the field of peacekeeping.

Participants at the event gave an overview of the importance and role of women in UN peacekeeping operations as well as in global peace and security, developing a roadmap to facilitate women’s greater engagement in the issues in the future while building capacity and improving conditions for women to join peace and security activities.

They also exchanged experience and useful knowledge for Vietnamese soldiers in general and female ones in particular when participating in UN peacekeeping operations, thereby contributing to enhancing the role and position of Vietnam in the region and the world in this field. Vietnam officially participated in UN peacekeeping operations in 2014. In January 2018, it sent its first female officer to the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, as a tactical staff officer. In October 2018, it successfully deployed the first level-2 field hospital to the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) in Bentiu, with 10 female officers out of the 63 officers, medical staff and doctors.

In November 2019 and April 2021, Vietnam deployed the level-2 field hospitals No. 2 and No.3, continuing to maintain security and increase the percentage of participating female soldiers with the ratios of 10/63 and 13/63, respectively.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Vietnam-Singapore Technologies Engineering Aerospace Co.Ltd (VSTEA) recently received a certificate approving its component maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities from the US Federation Aviation Administration (FAA).

VSTEA is a joint venture between the Vietnam Airlines Engineering Company (VAECO), a subsidiary of Vietnam Airlines, and ST Engineering Aerospace Systems Company, a member of the ST Engineering of Singapore.

It specialises in providing aircraft component MRO services for domestic and international airlines, which cater to such current aircraft as the Boeing 787, Airbus A350, A320, A321 and ATR72, as well as technical assistance in avionics, hydraulic, pneumatic, electro-mechanical, wheels, brakes, and emergency equipment.

The FAA standards are widely adopted in the global aviation industry and serve as a gauge of quality and a passport to market expansion, making it easier to offer maintenance services to airlines in different regions, including the US.

To achieve the certificate, the VSTEA said it went through five stages of appraisal under the FAA’s strict standards. After completing the final examinations in late July, its facility in Hanoi was certified on August 31 and another in Ho Chi Minh City on September 16.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on September 22 attended a ceremony to open the 2021-2022 academic year held by the National Defence Academy (NDA) under the Ministry of National Defence.

Senior Lieutenant General Tran Viet Khoa, Director of the NDA said that the academy will focus on improving the comprehensive quality of training and scientific research.

The Prime Minister emphasised the importance of training senior cadres of the Party, State and army to the development of the country.

He called attention of the academy’s staff, lecturers and students to the key tasks in the 2021-2022 academic year and the future, including seriously following the leadership of the Party and State, the Government, the Central Military Commission, the Ministry of National Defence on COVID-19 prevention and control, and constantly renewing teaching and learning methods.

PM Chinh urged the academy to continue to expand and improve the effectiveness of collaboration with other academies, universities and defence research institutes of countries in the world.

He suggested the academy focus on building a contingent of cadres and lecturers who are politically strong, have good professional skills, strategic thinking and working capacity to meet the requirements of the training mission. The academy should enhance scientific research to improve training and education quality, Chinh said.

The Prime Minister said the Party, State and Government want to build the National Defence Academy into the country’s leading defence and military training and research centre.

Source: Vietnam News Agency