Exchanging money for profit to be prohibited

Individuals and organisations that earn profits from exchanging small-denominations with large notes at historical sites, pagodas and festivals will be strictly punished.

A document issued on Monday by the Governor of the State Bank of Viet Nam has asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Public Security to work together to discover violators of the currency regulation.

A study by the State Bank revealed that many residents used small denomination notes at temples and during festivals. Only a small amount of these small denominations are used as entrance payments, as the main amount is spent when worshipping objects in pagodas and festivals.

This comes from old-school thoughts that worshippers need to "give" money to the dead or Buddhists if they want to pray for good health or good business.

Thus, they need to exchange large notes for smaller denominations, while many individuals have taken the change to earn profits from this service.

The money, then, remains unaccountable and, spread throughout pagodas, affects the solemn historical sites and the image of Vietnamese money.

Moreover, such use of these notes creates a great waste for society in printing, issuing, counting, classifying, transporting and maintaining money.

The demand for small denomination currency during past years has placed great pressure on the State Bank of Viet Nam and the banking sector, according to the State Bank of Viet Nam.

Firefighter injured in Ha Noi blaze

One firefighter was injured when trying to put out a blaze, which occurred yesterday morning, destroying several apartments at Nam Dong Apartment Building in Ha Noi.

Over 200 firefighters, soldiers and police were sent to fight the blaze, which was brought under control after one hour.

During an initial investigation, the blaze was alleged to have started in a bedroom in a third-floor apartment, then quickly spread to others.

The property damage has yet to be estimated.

Viet Nam improves rights of PWDs

People with disabilities in Viet Nam now enjoy better access to facilities as well as greater recognition of their legal rights and responsibilities, an international conference heard on Tuesday.

Speakers acknowleded at the conference that the improvement in status happened after the nation became a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

Once considered passive beneficiaries of social welfare and healthcare programmes, people with disabilities are now seen as active members of society, said Hoang Chi Trung, Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Department of International Organisations.

He said said people with disabilities now had many more opportunities to contribute to the well being of their families as well as the larger community.

He said Viet Nam had issued several preferential policies and taken firm steps to help people with disabilities stabilise their lives, both materially and spiritually.

The country adopted the Law on Persons with Disabilities in 2010.

Doctor Hyung Shik Kim from the University of International Studies in the Republic of Korea said government departments should ensure that all vulnerable groups benefited.

Co-operation should not only focus on protecting them, but also on improving their rights to take part in the development of society.

He said Viet Nam was right to focus on promoting the participation of disabled people in social and economic activities.

Risnawati Utami from Indonesia said Indonesia approved the CRPD in 2011 and positive changes had been recorded, particularly the active participation of local organisations of disabled people.

Viet Nam has about 6.7 million people with disabilities, equivalent to 8 per cent of the total population.

Waste-to-energy model spotlighted at seminar

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) held a seminar in Hanoi on December 11 to discuss the combination between waste treatment and power generation.

Representatives from other ministries, sectors and domestic and foreign experts from leading waste treatment and electricity companies attended the event.

MoIT Deputy Minister Le Duong Quang said that the Vietnamese Government prioritises finding new energy sources to generate power, as the sector’s growth is yet to meet the demand of the country’s socio-economic development.

The seminar offered a good opportunity for Vietnamese agencies to consider and learn from international experience in applying waste treatment technology in electricity development and environmental protection, he added.

The model, once implemented, will contribute largely to raising the efficiency of energy use and protecting the environment.

Vietnam’s power demand is forecast to hit 210 billion kWh by 2015, 360 billion kWh by 2020 and 830 billion kWh by 2030.

In the 2015-2020 period, the country expects to churn out nearly 350MW of electricity per day thanks to waste-to-energy plants.-

OV girl wins top global calculus score

Tracey Tran, a Vietnamese-American student of Kentridge School in Washington DC, US, has achieved the highest result possible on the AP Calculus AB exam.

Of the 2,100 students who attend Kentridge Senior High School, only about a dozen make it into the Calculus AB classroom.

Only 14.3% of the nearly 4 million exams taken in 2013 earned this top score and Tracey is one of the only eight students in the world to achieve full marks..

"I've never had a pupil score a perfect score on any of our AP tests," said Kentridge headmaster Mike Albrecht.

However, Tran’s friends are not surprised by the result. "If anybody was going to get a perfect score, it was going to be Tracey," said Josh Curtis, her classmate.

Since a child, Tran was always fond of reading. Her parents used to force her to stop reading and go to bed. She describes books as escapism, but said maths brings her back to reality.

"We can solve so many problems with it. So now it's become like a passion," Tran said.

For Tran, the credit belongs to her entire class. She calls calculus a community effort, and she plans to use her maths skills to give something back.

Following her success she is now a candidate for Merit national scholarship.

HCM City forecasts lower budget collections in 2014

The HCMC People’s Council yesterday approved total budget collections for the city in 2014 at over VND226 trillion, 4.45% lower than estimated and 0.53% less than the figure this year.

Domestic collections would be over VND124 trillion while VND74.8 trillion would come from export and import operations and VND27.3 trillion from crude oil. In addition, the city’s budget spending is forecast at over VND41.7 trillion next year.

In 2013, local budget collections have reached VND229.5 trillion, an 8.2% rise against the previous year. Of the figure, collections from the domestic market total VND125.5 trillion, VND72 trillion from exports and imports, and VND32 trillion from crude oil.

People’s Council deputies yesterday approved a couple of proposals presented by the People’s Committee, including for healthcare fee hikes, land prices, a new poverty threshold and a reduction of automobile registration fee from 15% to 10%.

The deputies also approved the city’s construction investment plan for 2014 with total capital of over VND14.4 trillion (excluding official development assistance loans). There will be 107 projects to be developed within next year.

Speaking at a discussion in the morning, deputy Tu Minh Thien said the local government should set up specific market and export product strategies soon to cope with a decline in export value.

If local enterprises get no assistance in the city’s export restructuring, especially when Vietnam joins the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, they might be taken over by foreign firms, thus further weakening the domestic corporate sector.

Thien suggested local authorities should limit exports of renewable materials because material exports to China have soared up.

Deputy Truong Vinh Kien said local enterprises are looking for support to cope with difficulties and volatility of the world economy.

The central bank recently allowed for a reduction or exemption of loan interest, a suspension of collection of the interest on overdue loans and a rescheduling of loans for businesses until the end of this year. However, Tien proposed the city government request the central bank to extend those incentives.

Nguyen Hoang Minh, deputy director of the central bank’s HCMC branch, said the People’s Council should ask the central bank to extend Document 7558 that allows banks to continue lending to enterprises who have incurred bad debt.

As banks were allowed to give the loans from October, most enterprises had no time to prepare procedures to apply for the credits, Minh said.

Many banks said they would carefully consider borrowing applications of enterprises to prevent further bad debt. The number of applicants is also low as few firms want to expand their business due to their unsettled bad debt.

HCM City to gradually raise medical service prices from next year

HCMC will start raising prices of healthcare services at public hospitals from the middle of next year to make up for the burgeoning cost and have revenues for improving the service quality, said Huynh Cong Hung, head of the culture-society committee of the city’s People’s Council.

The price hike in healthcare services which will be effective from June 1, 2014 is applicable to 1,996 services as regulated in Circular 04 issued by the health and finance ministries in 2012. The People’s Council this afternoon will discuss the petition on the service price hike for approval as proposed by the city’s government.

The price hike starting from next June will be gradual, with an aim to raise prices to the ceiling provided for in the aforesaid circular in the middle of 2016, by then the average price will be 49% higher than the current level.

If the petition is passed, the prices of health examination and treatment services at local hospitals will be adjusted to 75% of the price ceiling in Circular 4 by next June, to 85% one year later, and 100% of the ceiling by June 2016.

Healthcare prices introduced 18 years ago have become outdated, which fail to allow clinics to cover health examination and treatment costs compared to rising expenses resulting from new medical technologies and pay rise for labor force in the industry, Hung said.

The report presented by Hung at the meeting indicates that besides providing health examination and treatment services to local residents, city-based hospitals have had to serve patients from other southern provinces, estimated at 30-50% of the total number.

Therefore, if the fee hikes are not carried out, local hospitals will continue struggling with the severe overload. Raising the fees will help improve the service quality as hospitals will have more revenue to purchase necessary equipment to expand examination areas as well as maintaining their premises.

Sixty-two out of 63 provinces and cities have already revised up healthcare service fees compared to the price frame set up 18 years ago.

Regarding the increased charges due to the price hikes, Hung asserted that the gap would be small as the amount set aside for medicine account for up to 60% of the total expense, meaning only the 40% for healthcare services would be adjusted subject to the price hikes.

As 63% of local citizens are joining medical insurance citywide, the impacts of the service fee hikes on these people will not be so huge while the 37% that have yet to have insurance coverage will definitely feel the pinch. The price hikes will be carried out at around 56 city-level hospitals, medical centers and clinics and 318 district-level medical centers from the middle of 2014.

North-western power link gets underway

The National Power Transmission Corporation yesterday launched a 500kV power line project running from the northwestern provinces of Lai Chau to Son La.

The VND4 trillion (US$188 million) project, spanning 158.5 kilometres, is scheduled to become operational in 2015.

It seeks to connect the Lai Chau hydro-power plant with the national power grid, while linking small hydro-power plants in the northwestern region to the national power network, ensuring power supplies from the plants to stations in the northern region.

At the same time, the project, , also enables the northern and national power system to operate smoothly and effectively.

Crackdown ordered on ‘loose change' trade

Individuals and organisations that earn profits from exchanging small-denominations with large notes at historical sites, pagodas and festivals will be strictly punished.

A document issued on Monday by the Governor of the State Bank of Viet Nam has asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Public Security to work together to discover violators of the currency regulation.

A study by the State Bank revealed that many residents used small denomination notes at temples and during festivals. Only a small amount of these small denomination notes are used as entrance payments, as the main amount is spent when worshiping in pagodas.

Officials urged to speed up road works

Clearing the sites for the expansion of National Highway 1 and HCM Highway in Central Highland region must be finished by April to ensure the projects are completed in 2016.

Deputy PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc made this order yesterday at an online meeting with officials of 22 provinces the roads run through, along with ministries and agencies, including Electricity of Viet Nam and military telecom company Viettel.

Considered the most important highway in Viet Nam, National Highway 1 runs through half of the provinces and cities in the country, linking Ha Noi, Da Nang, HCM City and Can Tho.

The work to expand the nearly 1,400 km-long highway from central Thanh Hoa province to Mekong Delta Can Tho City would create four lanes for motor vehicles and two lanes for motorbikes.

Officials noted that about 25,000 households would have their land and houses acquired to make room for the road expansion, including 7,500 households relocated to resettlement areas.

About VND7.35 trillion (US$348.2 million) is needed for the site clearance, compensation and resettlement. So far, nearly VND3 trillion ($142.1 million) has been disbursed to localities.

Meanwhile, the 663-km Ho Chi Minh Highway Project running through the Central Highland region requires 220ha of land and the resettlement of 620 households. Estimated funding for site clearance is VND1.3 trillion ($61.6 million), though until now only VND82 billion (3.8 million) has been disbursed.

According to the Transport Ministry, site clearance was till a major difficulty in both projects. For example, the removal of infrastructure, including electricity or telecommunication facilities, was moving slowly and failing to follow plans.

Also, some localities, including the central provinces of Thanh Hoa and Nghe An, could not raise enough money to compensate households or build resettlement areas.

When asking localities and agencies to take drastic measures to speed up site clearance, deputy Prime Minister Phuc noted that the localities should listen to local residents and negotiate further with them to harmonise benefits to both the citizens and State.

Also, agencies were asked to seek solutions to address difficulties, such as in identifying land origins, to properly deliver compensation for households who had their land acquired or sought funding.

US-funded agriculture project helps Quang Tri farmers

Over 700 households across four districts in the central province of Quang Tri, one plagued by unexploded ordnance (UXO) left over from the war, have benefitted from a sustainable agriculture development project funded by the US’s non-governmental organisation the Roots of Peace (ROP).

Implemented from 2011-2013 in Vinh Linh, Gio Linh, Huong Hoa and Cam Lo districts, the project’s first phase helped farmers – mostly victims of UXOs and Agent Orange/dioxin - and poor families in the locality increase their incomes by assisting them in planting peppers, thus securing sustainable livelihood for local people.

After three years of implementation, the project has established 18 farming clubs in six communes with 453 members. Through the clubs, the project has offered training in pepper cultivation techniques to more than 5,700 people.

It has also provided fertiliser, plant-protection chemicals and seeds to farmers participating in the project.

So far, ROP has provided Quang Tri people with assistance worth 1.8 billion VND (nearly 86,000 USD). It also worked with other non-governmental organisations operating in the locality to clear areas covered by UXOs in order to extend more cultivation areas for local people to farm pepper.

At present, over 65 percent of pepper trees in project areas has high productivity and output. The area of pepper farming has expanded more and more, increasing to 859.2 ha from 717.5 ha in 2011.

At the December 11 conference to review the implementation of the project’s first phase, representatives from the project’s management board said the scale of the project will be expanded in the time to come to support more local disadvantaged households.-

Quang Tri raises effectiveness of HIV transmission prevention

Health officials in the central province of Quang Tri discussed ways to carry out a project on improving local people’s access to quality services in preventing HIV infection at a conference on December 11.

The 223,180 USD project, funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), will be implemented in three districts of Huong Hoa, Vinh Linh and Trieu Phong and Quang Tri town until 2017.

It will help enhance the professional capacity of health workers through holding refresher courses and provide equipment to communal health stations, particularly those in remote and border areas, while investing in epidemic monitoring systems at district and provincial levels.

The province now has 408 HIV carriers and AIDS patients. As many as 37 new infections were reported in the first 11 months of this year, mainly men aged between 20 and 39.

Experts discuss mealybug threat

Top international experts from Finland, Colombia, Australia, the US and Southeast Asia discussed methods to control invasive mealybug infestation on cassava and other plants at a three-day workshop, that concluded yesterday in HCM City.

Dried cassava chips and starch are one of Viet Nam's top 10 key export products.

Cassava is the third-largest source of calories after rice and maize in Southeast Asia. It is used as a food, animal feed and starch processing, and currently the main raw material for bio-fuel and bio-film processing.

Kris Wyckhuys, lead entomologist in Asia for the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), said Southeast Asian cassava crops were historically pest-free until 2008 when a highly destructive pest of cassava, Phenacoccus manihoti, was discovered in Thailand and then in neighboring countries.

Other kinds of invasive mealybugs were also affecting cassava crops in parts of the region.

"Invasive pests come in many forms, and sometimes we don't know exactly what they are and where they are," he said.

The workshop in HCM City is the first one held to tackle the region's threat of invasive mealybug pests.

It was orgainsed by CIAT, the Institute of Agricultural Sciences of Southern Viet Nam, the Plant Protection Research Institute and the Plant Protection Department. and supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

The workshop aims to raise awareness about the invasive mealybug threat, equip local researchers with practical training in species identification, and learn about mealybug ecology, Wyckhuys said.

It is hosting academic talks, field visits, hands-on training and presentations on mealybug taxonomy and identification.

Ngo Quang Vinh, deputy director of the Institute of Agricultural Sciences for Southern Viet Nam, said Viet Nam had seen a big jump in cassava production in recent years, with currently the highest yield in the world.

However, cassava production in Viet Nam, like other countries in the region, is facing a problem of disease and insects.

"Among them, invasive mealybugs are the most dangerous," he said.

"Last year, it occurred first in Tay Ninh Province, which has the largest cassava area, and then it spread to many other provinces," he said.

Although measures were taken, the results were limited, he added.

"The impact of mealybugs in Viet Nam could be devastating if we do not act now," Kris Wyckhuys, said.

Ngo Tien Dung of the Plant Protection Deaprtment said mealybugs had become more widespread, affecting many plants, including cassava, custard apple, papaya, pineapple, sugarcane, citrus fruit and others.

"Farmers' practices of using pesticides are ineffective, and lead to more severe outbreaks. The abuse of chemicals is also hazardous for food safety and affects the environment," Dung said.

Vietnam should expedite ratification of the 1997 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Waterways, according to experts.

They said at a recent workshop held in the northern province of Vinh Phuc that the ratification will help Vietnam better protect and exploit its rivers.

The workshop was co-organised by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment's Department of Water Resources Management, as well as the World Wildlife Fund and International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Head of the Department Hoang Van Bay noted that Vietnam is located in the lower reaches of many large trans-boundary rivers.

Thus, ratifying the treaty was expected to offer Vietnam opportunities to negotiate with other countries on how to use trans-boundary water resources effectively, Bay said.

Explaining why Vietnam had yet to join the convention, Bay noted that it is a global convention, providing a set of regulations to use and maintain trans-boundary water resources, with regulations that include many sensitive and political issues.

"So, it takes time for Vietnam to carefully consider and create a comprehensive assessment of how the convention would impact the nation's politics, economy, and society before ratifying it," he said.

If the Government approves a proposal to ratify the convention in 2014, Vietnam will become the first country in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to endorse it, he added.

Vietnam's signing is hoped to be a precedent, in order to call upon other countries to join the convention, he added.

To become a member of the convention, Vietnam will also be able to demand that other countries sharing the same water resources with Vietnam join together to reduce and control trans-boundary water pollution, as well as receiving compensation under regulations of the convention.

Additionally, ratifying the convention will force Vietnam to quickly perfect its planning and management of the waterways, and establish a Rivers' Basin Commission, they added.

Also, by signing the convention Vietnam will have access to statistics and information about hydro-meteorology, hydro-geology, ecosystems and the quality of trans-boundary water resources.

Further, the country will have an obligation to adjust the flow of rivers, prevent pollution of trans-boundary water resources, and obey rulings by third parties in dealing with disputes about exploiting and protecting shared water resources.

The 1997 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Waterways, adopted by the United Nations on May 21, 1997, is the only convention governing shared freshwater resources that is of universal applicability.

The convention, however, has yet to enter into force, since only 31 countries have ratified it. The convention will take effect after being approved by 35 countries.

This is the first convention to comprehensively adjust water resources among countries located in the lower and upper reaches of large trans-boundary rivers.

GMS countries boost comprehensive cooperation

A greater Mekong sub-region (GMS) conference in Laos has approved a regional investment framework (RIF) with more than 200 projects to be implemented in 10 areas till 2022.

Meeting in Vientiane on December 11, representatives from Vietnam, Laos, China, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Thailand agreed that each RIF projects will involve at least two GMS countries to ensure its connectivity.

RIF is an open investment framework and it is updated every year based on which the Asian Development Bank (ADB) seeks financial aid for GMS countries.

RIF has an estimated capitalisation of UD$50-60 billion, of which US$2-3 billion will be sourced from ADB and the remainder will come from development donors and private businesses.

Addressing the event, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen The Phuong hailed the approval of RIF as a milestone in the GMS cooperation framework for 2012-2022, and proposed parties concerned increase cooperation to foster the grouping’s connectivity.

Vietnam is willing to cooperate with other GMS countries, development partners, the private businesses sector, and relevant parties to achieve the GMS’s vision and goals, Phuong said.

The conference adopted a joint statement, affirming that boosting GMS cooperation is of importance to regional and global economies. The joint statement says RIF is a strategic plan and the guideline of the GMS development.  

Freedom of speech, press strengthened in Vietnam

Freedom of speech and press has always been a global issue, which is not only a concern of every nation’s leaders but also a fundamental requirement of human rights.

The freedom is also a spiritual need during the existence and development of each nation in an era of information.

According to Associate Prof. Dr. Nguyen Hong Vinh, Chairman of the Central Council for Theory and Criticism of Literature and Arts, all the Constitutions of Vietnam have contained stipulations on the freedom of speech and press and affirmed this as one of the most fundamental rights of human beings and all citizens.

He added that each constitution stipulates this issue on the basis of the previous version while further developing the content to suit the specific conditions of the country in that period.

Over the past time, the Vietnamese press has grown rapidly in terms of quantity, types, publications, the number of reporters and readers, technical and physical facilities, technology and financial capacity, thus making an increasingly stronger impact on society.

Most ministries, branches, agencies and organisations from the central to grassroots levels, social classes, professional associations and major religions have their own newspapers.

According to Vinh, as of February 2013, the country had a total of 812 print newspapers with 1,084 publications, and 67 central and local radio and television stations with 172 channels.

The pay TV system has made big strides with a variety of transmission possibilities such as cable, satellite, digital terrestrial and most recently, internet protocol television (IPTV), which is presently being piloted.

Regarding electronic information, the country has 74 online newspapers and magazines, 336 social networks and 1,174 information websites.

The Vietnam Journalists Association has more than 19,000 members, of whom nearly 17,000 have been granted professional licences and are working in hundreds of press agencies from central to grassroots levels. The association has always encouraged and created favourable conditions for journalists to work freely and creatively in accordance with the law.

Dr. Vinh remarked that the press has truly served as the voice of the Party, State, political, social and professional organisations, as well as an important forum and tool for protecting the interests and rights of people from all walks of life.

Everyone has the right to express their aspirations, opinions and recommendations on all aspects of social life via the mass media, including the press.

He affirmed that since the Communist Party of Vietnam initiated and led the Renewal cause and international integration, the State has attached importance to information freedom, publicity and transparency and created favourable conditions for the operation of the mass media.

One of the activities that have won domestic and international acclaim over the past two decades is the live broadcast on national TV and radio of question and answer sessions between National Assembly deputies and cabinet members, including the Prime Minister.

To meet the people’s demands for greater information publicity and transparency, the Prime Minister has recently issued detailed regulations on the provision of information to the press by ministries, ministerial-level agencies, Government-affiliated agencies and People’s Committees of centrally-run provinces or cities.

The researcher noted that the press, playing the role of reflecting and participating in social criticism, has become an increasingly important source of consultation for competent agencies in perfecting guidelines and decisions of the Party as well as policies and laws of the State, making them more relevant to realities.

In additional to publicising and celebrating new achievements, good people and good deeds, the press has also played an effective role in the fight against corruption, bureaucracy, social vices, thus winning the sympathy and support of the people.

He concluded reality has shown that genuine freedom of expression and press exist in Vietnam, on the basis of journalists’ strict compliance with the law while upholding their social responsibilities and duties as citizens to contribute to national construction and defence.

Vietnamese students in Cambodia begin new school year

As many as 220 students of the Khmer-Vietnam friendship primary school in Cambodia attended a ceremony to start their new academic year on December 11.

The school, located in Prek Sai Kho commune in Prey Veng province, about 100 kilometres east of Phnom Penh, was built in August last year at a cost of US$185,000. Of which, US$145,000 was sponsored by Vietnam’s Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap.

At the ceremony, Headmaster of the school Nguyen Van Hao said the students, accounting for 70% of Vietnamese children in the locality, are grouped in seven classes, including five Vietnamese and two Khmer. All the students enjoy free education and uniform.

Since the school was put into operation in 2012, it has received attention from the local government and the Vietnamese community in Cambodia, as well as the Vietnamese Embassy and the Dong Thap People’s Committee, he said.

However, he also pointed out that the school is facing numerous difficulties such as poor infrastructure and teachers’ low income.

Lang Son border gates brace for H7N9 virus spread

Border gates in the northern province of Lang Son are busy with medical tests on entries and departures as the strain of avian flu virus H7N9 is spreading further across neighbouring China.

Director of the provincial international medical quarantine centre Ly Kim Soi said the centre has put three automatic thermometers in place at Huu Nghi, and Tan Thanh international border gates, and Dong Dang railways station.

Quick body temperature measuring devices have been installed at Chi Mai, Binh Nghi, Na Nua, Na Hinh and Co Sau border gates.

The centre also works with relevant agencies to spray disinfectants on vehicles coming from the borderline while stocking up all necessary materials, chemicals and machines to cope with the epidemic.

Several general hospitals have set up isolation rooms, ready to promptly provide treatment for suspicious cases of H7N9 infection.

Some auxiliary border gates, however, still rely on medical staff to monitor the situation.

HCM City marks upcoming Japanese National Day

Deputy Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Le Thanh Liem sounded his confidence about the future of Vietnam – Japan relations at a December 11 ceremony marking the upcoming 80 th birthday of Japan’s Emperor Akhito and the National Day of Japan.

Liem said his optimism is founded on thriving investment and trade ties. As of September, Japan became the city’s fifth largest investor with 619 projects topping 2 billion USD. The city also partnered with various Japanese localities on a number of urban projects.

Japan is always a friend and trustworthy partner of Vietnam, Liem noted.

The Japanese Consul General in HCM City, Hida Harumitsu, shared this view, stating that the bilateral relationship is currently at its peak over the past 40 years. He said he hopes the partnership will move to yet greater heights next year.

On the economic front, Japan poured 5.1 billion USD in Vietnam last year, or 40 percent of the country’s foreign direct investment. In the past 11 months, the figure jumped to 5.7 billion USD, making Japan the biggest investor in the country.

During the 2013 Japan – Vietnam Friendship Year, HCM City and southern localities hosted a string of cultural exchanges to link their people together.

Also on December 11, the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations and the municipal chapter of the Vietnam – Japan Friendship Association also hosted a similar event.