Sleeper bus collides with container truck, injures 6

Some six passengers were injured when their sleeper bus collided with a container truck early today on the My Phuoc – Tan Van Expressway in the southern Binh Duong Province's Hiep Thanh Ward.

The accident occurred while the sleeper bus, carrying 19 passengers, was travelling from HCM City to Binh Duong.

The cause of the accident, which left the bus in a wrecked state, remains unknown. The injured were treated at the Binh Duong General Hospital.

Local police are investigating the case.

Unions prepare Tet support for workers

Trade unions in southern localities will support workers with gifts and bus tickets during Tet, which falls in the middle of February this year.

In Binh Duong Province, the provincial Federation of Labour planned to give free bus tickets to 1,220 workers from central and northern provinces to travel home for the holiday. The federation is giving 10 per cent more workers tickets than last year.

The union also organised a number of art performances, and proposed that the Binh Duong People's Committee give 6,000 gifts to low-income workers, said Nguyen Thien Phuoc, vice chairman of the federation.

Meanwhile, Dong Nai Province mobilised about VND80 billion (US$3.8 million)to support its workers. Aside from offering free bus tickets, the province will present gifts to about 400 families who cannot afford to go back to their hometowns for the holiday.

HCM City, which houses 15 economic zones and industrial parks with 280,000 workers, will give out 6,000 bus tickets and 1,500 gifts to poor workers.

Huynh Cong Khanh, chairman of the Trade Union for export processing zones and industrial parks in HCM City, said the board would work with local processing zones and industrial parks to monitor wage, salary and bonus payments for workers.

No increment in 2015 Tet bonus

The average Tet bonus for labourers will likely stay the same as last year, said Pham Minh Huan, the Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.

"In general, enterprises still have financial problems this year," he said. "Based on reports from localities, many have only managed to maintain the bonus from last year."

Last year, labourers' Tet bonuses increased by 20 per cent to VND4.4 million (US$206) per person. A FDI enterprise in HCM City had the highest bonus of VND709 million (US$33,320), up 9.2 per cent from 2013.

In 2012, bonuses grew by 10.8 per cent, to VND2.8 million (US$131) per person.

Although Tet bonuses would not be rising, many enterprises have made other purchases for their employees, such as building accommodation or insurance.

The ministry is still in the process of collecting reports on Tet bonuses from localities. It will release its final report in January.

Ministries step up efforts to get overloaded trucks off the roads

Overloaded trucks will no longer be a public concern next year, Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang said in a conference on Wednesday in Ha Noi.

"There's no such nonsense as certain people's interests getting in the way. We can do it. We have accomplished many tasks that were even more challenging," said Thang.

Weighbridges across the country have checked over 416,000 trucks since last December, of which 64,885 were fined VND331 billion (US$1.5 million) for weight violations.

The authority also temporarily banned 1,885 truck-type vehicles from traffic and 42,066 drivers had their licenses taken away, according to a joint report by the Ministry of Transport (MOT) and the Ministry of Public Security, which organised the conference.

President of the Viet Nam Automobile Transportation Association Nguyen Van Thanh said transportation companies appreciated the stepped-up effort from the authorities but hoped for even stricter moves to stop overloaded trucks.

"It has been a problem we have had to live with for the last 30 years. We understand it is very difficult to stop," said Thanh.

In certain provinces, truck drivers even made deals with corrupt officers to avoid weighbridges, Thanh said. He proposed increasing fines for weight violations and making local authorities responsible for any overloaded trucks found in their areas of jurisdiction.

Lieutenant General Le Quy Vuong, deputy minister of the Ministry of Public Security, urged police chiefs and other high-ranking officers to join road patrol forces to set an example and boost morale.

Colonel Nguyen Trong Phuong, deputy director of the Hai Phong police, said more weighbridges were needed to cover all the traffic-heavy routes. For example, there was only one weighbridge on National Route 5, so overloaded trucks were able to use alternative routes to avoid it.

Minister Thang responded that MOT was considering equipping toll collection points with weighbridges and cameras.

Moreover, overloaded trucks will be ordered to return to their departure point instead of unloading part of their cargo as dictated in current regulations.

Fire breaks out at incense workshop

A fire broke out about 9am today at the Thanh Huong incense workshop, located at 81, Hang Bo Street, Ha Noi.

Eyewitnesses at the scene said that they saw smoke coming out of the second floor of the building and a blaze soon after.

People in the neighbourhood tried to put out the blaze with fire extinguishers, but were unsuccessful due to the large amount of inflammable material stored in the workshop, such as paper and incense.

Ten fire trucks were dispatched to the scene, but the blaze had not been completely extinguished as of 11.25am, reports said.

One firefighter reportedly required medical attention because of the heavy smoke.

Two ‘rhino horn traffickers' arrested

The Nam Tu Liem District police arrested two suspects for illegal possession of about 100gm of white rhino horn on Tuesday night in Ha Noi.

The suspects are a 34-year-old woman of the city's Trang Thi Street, and a 29-year-old man from the northern mountainous Cao Bang City.

The two suspects admitted to the police that the 100gm of white rhino horn was worth VND100 million (US$4,670).

The police also seized other types of unidentified horn from the suspects' houses.

The police said that the two suspects were linked to a rhino horn trafficking ring, believed to be operating for four years in the city.

Explosion at petrol station injures four persons

Four customers, including two women, were injured in an explosion at a petrol station in the Mekong Delta Soc Trang Province's Hung Vuong Street yesterday.

The authorised agencies quickly extinguished a fire caused by the explosion. However, the blast destroyed the petrol station and damaged a house behind it.

The cause of the explosion remains unknown. The injured received treatment at the Soc Trang General Hospital.

The local police are investigating the case.

Japan, GMS countries to cooperate on urban environment

Japan and Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) countries have agreed to step up cooperation in improving urban environment in the Mekong region while continuing to pursue their economic growth targets.

At the third Green Mekong Forum held on December 25 in Bangkok, Thailand, the involved parties were also committed to enhancing capacity to cope with natural disasters in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The countries reiterated that the cooperation between public and private sectors, including the involvement of local authorities, plays a key role in addressing environmental issues in the region.

The results of the forum will be reported to a United Nations conference on mitigating the risks of natural disasters in Sendai, Japan, next March and the Japan-Mekong summit in July, 2015 in Tokyo.

Health insurance law to expand benefits, coverage

New amendments to the health insurance law will expand benefits, increase coverage among poor people and encourage more people to join plans, a senior official has said.

Le Van Kham, Deputy Director of the Department of Health Insurance, said on December 23 at a conference that the new changes will take effect at the beginning of next year.

Under the amendments, inpatients registered at province-level hospitals can get treated at central-level hospitals by paying 60 percent of their fees, instead of the current 70 percent.

Similarly, those registered at district level hospitals but wanting to get treatment at provincial facilities will have to pay 40 percent of their fees instead of the current 50 percent.

Inpatients getting treatment at district-level hospitals after being registered at commune-level hospitals will continue to pay 30 percent of the fees.

Poor patients and those belonging to ethnic minority groups in disadvantaged districts will have 100 percent of their fees covered, instead of the current 80-95 percent.

From January 1, 2016, health insurance card holders will be allowed to visit any hospital in communes and districts for examination and treatment. Those from poor households and minority groups can visit any hospital in the country.

Under the amended law, the State budget will pay 100 percent of the treatment expenses for those who've had health insurance for five consecutive years and whose hospital fees exceed six months of their basic salaries.

Japan aids Vietnam’s disaster mitigation, primary education

The Japanese government has pledged to grant nearly 700,000 USD in non-refundable aid to Vietnam in the 2014 fiscal year, with a view to supporting the country to mitigate natural disaster risks and improve primary education.

Documents to this effect were signed in Hanoi on December 24.

Of the aid, 214,345 USD will come to the project on enhancing education capacity on natural disaster risk mitigation for schools and the coastal community in the central province of Quang Nam.

The project’s beneficiaries are six coastal areas, namely Hoi An and Tam Ky cities, and Dien Ban, Duy Xuyen, Thang Binh and Nui Thanh provinces.

Through the project, Japan’s lessons and experience in natural disaster fight will be shared to local residents.

Meanwhile, over 482,000 USD will be funded to the project on improving primary education for ethnic minority groups in northern Ha Giang province and central Quang Binh and Quang Ngai provinces.

Plan Japan, a non-governmental organisation ensuring children’s rights, will coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training and relevant agencies to carry out the project.

The project will focus on the improvement of education environment by building classrooms, installing sanitary equipment and supplying clean water as well as providing textbooks and training courses for teachers.

A series of workshops will be held to discuss measures to improve programmes and share teaching methods among teachers while promoting educational activities in the localities such as reading festival.-

Youth union central committee’s 6th session kicks off

The Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union Central Committee convened its sixth session in Hanoi on December 25.

Addressing the opening ceremony, First Secretary of the committee Nguyen Dac Vinh said that the two-day session reviews a report on youth union activities in 2014 and discusses orientations for the following year.

Outstanding youth union activities and movements in 2014 are scheduled to be selected during the session.

During the year, youth union organisations at all levels operated effectively, helping promote youngsters’ pioneering and voluntary role and creativeness in the cause of nation building and safeguarding.-

Localities told to stay alert for flu viruses, diseases

The Ministry of Health has urged all provinces and cities nationwide to intensify measures preventing influenza viruses and diseases amid the approaching Lunar New Year holiday, a move triggered by reports of avian flu outbreaks in some localities.

Earlier, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD)’s Animal Health Department said influenza virus strain A type H5N1 was recorded on a flock of poultry in three communes of the Mekong Delta provinces of Tra Vinh and Vinh Long. Meanwhile, virus A/H5N6 affected quails in Tinh Ha commune, Son Tinh district, the central province of Quang Ngai.

Avian flu virus A/H7N9 has been raging in China since 2013, especially in winter-spring months.

Surge in food purchasing power will occur in preparations for the Lunar New Year holiday, which will fall in late February next year, and will the trade, transport, and slaughter of unsafe poultry. Additionally, respiratory and digestive diseases are also likely to mushroom during the time due to the humid weather, the MARD warned.

The Ministry of Health, therefore, asked localities to pay special attention to rural and remote areas as well as the localities affected by influenza viruses in the past.

Local health departments must tighten supervision at communities and border gates and gear up for flu prevention and patient treatment.

They were also required to step up food safety inspection and strictly punish markets, food stores, restaurants, and collective kitchens which violate relevant regulations.

Project helps raise awareness of Thalassemia in Hoa Binh

A project aiming to reduce the number of Thalassemia sufferers carried out in the northern mountainous province of Hoa Binh in 2009-2014 has proven effective, helping raise public awareness of the disease.

It was reported at a conference in the locality on December 25 that Hoa Binh is one of the localities having the highest rate of people carrying the gene that causes this disease. As many as 13,000 students and 3,800 pregnant women in the locality were identified to have the gene during the project time.

The provincial People’s Committee asked its inferior authorities and relevant agencies to boost communication works as part of efforts to reduce the development of Thalassemia in the locality.

Over the last five years, t he pilot project organised a number of training courses for local medical workers, and research projects in the field were also implemented. The local community was equipped with preventive measures against the disease.

In 2015, the project will be further expanded in all districts and towns. Activities related to communication works, training, screening test, and prenatal consultancy will be also intensified.

Thalassemia is a form of inherited autosomal recessive blood disorders characterised by abnormal formation of haemoglobin. It can cause significant complications, including iron overload, bone deformities and cardiovascular illness.

Scholarships aid Thai Nguyen’s needy children

Scholarships under the “Together with you to school” programme were presented to 120 disadvantaged children in the northern mountainous province of Thai Nguyen on December 25 to support their study.

Vice State President Nguyen Thi Doan, Chairwoman of the National Fund for Vietnamese Children (NFVC), granted the scholarships, worth 3 million VND each, to the children.

More than 4 million out of 26.7 million children in Vietnam, including orphans, the disabled, the homeless, and dropouts, need help.

The NFVC’s programme, launched in 2012, granted nearly 7,700 scholarships totaling over 23 billion VND (1.09 million USD) to the target group in all 63 provinces and cities nationwide. The NFVC has raised over 4 trillion VND (190.47 million USD) from organisations and individuals to support 28 million needy children over the last 22 years.

Improving workforce’s quality a must for Central Highlands

The Central Highlands needs to rapidly increase both quantity and quality of its workforce so as to meet requirements of the industrialisation and modernisation, heard a conference on vocational training and job creation in Dak Lak province on December 25.

The region, comprising Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Dak Lak, Dak Nong, and Lam Dong provinces with 45 percent of total population being ethnic minorities, is forecast to be home to 5.5 million people in 2015 and 6 million in 2020, accounting for 6 percent of the nation’s population. Of those figures, people of working age will number around 3.6 million next year and 4 million in 2020.

About 857,000 people are expected to receive training between 2011 and 2020, raising the number of trained labourers to 1.3 million in 2015 and 1.7 million in 2020, making up 41 percent and 50 percent of the workforce, respectively.

During the period, the region plans to focus on training personnel for spearhead sectors such as hydropower industry, mining, agricultural and forestry product processing, and coffee, rubber, cocoa, and cashew industries. It will also improve local workers’ capacity in finance-banking and tourism sectors.

To such ends, each province needs to have at least one vocational college which offers training on two or three vocations meeting ASEAN criteria and three to five satisfying national standards.

The regional localities are also required to re-organise the network of vocational training facilities, procure advanced equipment, raise staff quantity and quality, and devise appropriate policies supporting trainees.

A report at the conference read that more than 805,950 people in the Central Highlands secured jobs from 2005 to 2013, mostly the young in rural areas. Around 37 percent of them were trained workers.

Participants at the event suggested the Government and ministries amend vocational training policies designed for ethnic minorities, provide more funding for the work, restructure the vocational training system, and give support to vocational training facilities and ethnic minority trainees.

Vice President presents scholarships to poor Bac Ninh students

Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan presented scholarships, each worth 3 million VND (142 USD, to 110 poor students excelling in studies at a ceremony in the northern province of Bac Ninh on December 25.

As part of the “Together with you to school” progammme launched in 2012, the event was co-hosted by the National Fund for Vietnamese Children (NFVC) and the provincial People’s Committee.

The programme has come to 61 cities and provinces, benefiting less-privileged kids with a total sum of over 22 billion VND (1.1 million USD) since its launch in 2012.

Over 4 million children are in need of help, including 1.5 million orphan, disabled and homeless kids, Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Hong Lan told the ceremony, adding that the scholarship programme contributes greatly to helping the disadvantaged children pursue study.

Over the past years, the NFVC has raised over 4 trillion VND (190 million USD) and offered help to more than 28 million children.

People with disabilities need better workplaces

If businesses provide people with disabilities with appropriate facilities to work, they can increase their output, the head of a small company that hires such people told a recent workshop in Ho Chi Minh City.

Tran Thi Trung Thuan, Director of Thien Tam Service, Trade and Manufacture Co.Ltd, told the workshop held by the Disability Research and Capacity Development (DRD) Centre, that her company, which produces herbal products like therapeutic herbal pillows and face masks, has three people with disabilities — a man with Down syndrome and one each with hearing and sight impairment.

They have passion for their work, she said.

The man with moderate intellectual disability cuts herbs and threads after stitching pillows, cloth bags, and face masks, and his products "are of better quality than those made by his non-disabled colleagues," she said.

The man with the hearing impairment draws beautifully, and she took advantage of his aesthetic gifts to employ him as an embroiderer, she said, adding he is now the company's main embroiderer.

However, many businesses do not trust people with disabilities, and hire few of them, according to a study by the city's Institute for Development Studies.

A 2010 report from the Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs said only 6,000 out of 18,000 people with disabilities of working age have jobs.

Luong Thi Quynh Lan, deputy head of the DRD Centre, said a job is a vital element in helping people with disabilities integrate easily into society.

Another reason for the low number of disabled people with jobs is that they are prevented from working by sympathetic parents, Thuan said.

"They feel pity for their child with disability and even more pity when they work.

"They do not think that work will be a therapy for their child. It is the way for them to integrate into society."

The man with Down syndrome, for instance, had to quit his job twice, she revealed. At home, he was confined to his room to watch television all day.

"He was upset and constantly shrieked. He remembered his job and so would cut up books in his room like cutting leaves and threads."

Pained by his situation when visiting him, she persuaded his parents to send him to back to work.

Le Huu Thuong, a job consultant at the DRD Centre, said he once persuaded a company to recruit a person with disability and it agreed, but the person then told him her parents refused to allow her to work.

Parents of people with disabilities should be aware of the importance of jobs for their children, he added.

Luu Thi Anh Loan, head of the DRD Centre, said the centre plans to organise workshops for parents of people with disabilities to educate them about this issue.

National project helps prevent respiratory diseases

A national project on bronchial asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has been implemented in 30 provinces and cities across the country in 2014 has helped spread knowledge about the diseases in the community, it was reported at a conference in Hanoi on December 25.

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Xuyen, said the project also significantly contributed to improving diagnosis and treatment of the diseases at local hospitals, bettering health care for people and easing the overload for central-level hospitals.

Operated by Bach Mai Hospital as part of the National Target Programme for Preventing Non-communicable Diseases in the 2012-15 period, the project has organised a number of training courses for medical workers, while over 1,000 people received examination in the framework of the project.

COPD is now one of the three leading killers in the world. The latest statistics show that about 4.2 percent of Vietnam’s populations suffer from this disease.

In 2015, the project will be expanded to 15 more localities. Activities related to communication works, training, screening check-up will be also intensified in the time ahead.

Conference raises understanding of stem cell

Researchers and experts on biotechnology from across the country gathered in a December 24 conference themed “Stem Cell Day 2014” to foster understanding of stem cell research and potential applications to disease and injury treatment.

The event was co-organised in Ho Chi Minh City by the municipal Society for Stem Cell Research (SSCR) and the Laboratory of Stem Cell Research and Application under the Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City’s University of Natural Sciences.

Chairman of the SSCR – Ho Chi Minh City Truong Dinh Kiet said while stem cell research has made great strides over recent years, contributing to curing many fatal diseases, the public know little about its use.

He noted that Vietnam now has five stem cell banks, which keep about 10,000 samples, accounting for only 0.05 percent of the annual birth rate.

Meanwhile, Dr. Pham Van Phuc from the University of Natural Sciences stressed the need for advancing related technologies, saying that outdated equipment pushes up treatment costs while there is a shortage of stem cell supply and support technology.

Participants also pointed to a lack of quality researchers and doctors specializing in the field, with the number of specialists involved in stem cell-related activities at around 300.

In Vietnam, stem cells research and application in medical treatment have been carried out since the 1990s. The technology has been used in the treatment of blood diseases, cardiology, dermatology, brain paralysis, and surgery.

In 1995, the country conducted the first stem cell transplant for a 26-year-old patient with blood cancer.

By now, many hospitals have applied the technology in health treatment, including Hue Central Hospital, National Paediatric Hospital, Hospital 108 and August 19 Hospital, the Haematology and Blood Transfusion Hospital, Hospital 115.

Hundreds of stem cell transplants have been carried out nationwide so far, mostly on patients of blood diseases.

Workshop talks decentralised wastewater treatment

Domestic and foreign experts gathered at a workshop in Hanoi on December 25 to share experience in applying the decentralised wastewater treatment model in Vietnam.

They were updated with policies facilitating the use of the model in the region, and market opportunities for providers of hygiene services in Southeast Asia.

They also learnt about the latest regulations on wastewater management, and decentralised wastewater treatment systems currently in use in several localities.

Representatives from the United Nations Human Settlements Programme and the UN Economic and Social Commission for the Asia-Pacific praised the initiatives that Vietnam put forth at the event, saying that they will be helpful not only for the design of the country’s own strategy on waste management but also for other countries in the region.

The event was co-hosted by the Vietnam Association of Conservation of Nature and Environment and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s General Department of Environment.

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