Save the Children aids Tien Giang in response to disasters

Save the Children in Vietnam, a non-profit organisation, has funded a project on building capacity to cope with natural disasters and enhance access to clean water and hygiene in coastal areas in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang.

The project is being implemented from March to December 2017 with total funding of 4.95 billion VND (some 220,000 USD) in the four coastal communes of Tan Thanh, Gia Thuan (Go Cong Dong district) Phu Dong and Phu Tan (Tan Phu Dong district). These communes have been facing difficulties caused by climate change and rising seawater.

The project is hoped to benefit more than 15,000 local residents. Composite rubbish bins will be installed in 60 disadvantaged households, while rainwater storage systems will be provided for 262 families and 60 others will receive plastic toilets.

Several activities will also be held, such as establishment of emergency rescue teams, drills on response to natural disasters and training courses on building safe toilets in flooded areas for locals.

Nguyen Thien Phap, Chief of Office of the provincial Steering Committee on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, said the project is essential for residents living along the Go Cong coastal region. It will raise the climate change adaptation ability of poor and vulnerable people, as well as improve water supplies in the dry season.

Local administrations to play greater role in blindness prevention

Local administrations should play a greater role in the national strategy on blindness prevention, head of the national steering committee for blindness control and Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Viet Tien said at the committee’s debut meeting on March 24. 

Deputy Minister Tien also said the chairpersons of People’s Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities have the responsibility to allocate and ensure resources to carry out the strategy on blindness control. 

Delivering a report on blindness prevention in 2016-2017, Director of the Central Eye Hospital Nguyen Xuan Hiep, who is a deputy head of the steering committee, said his hospital, in coordination with the Health Ministry, the World Health Organisation and domestic charity organisations, conducted 1,000 cataract surgeries free of charge for the poor in 11 provinces in 2016. The hospital also provided eye care training to 1,500 medical workers of communal and district clinics, and transferred eye surgical techniques to many provincial hospitals across the country. 

This year, the Central Eye Hospital plans to transfer medical techniques to 23 medical establishments. 

According to the doctor, Vietnam currently has around 2,000 eye doctors and about the same number of nurses specialising in ophthalmology. The number is too small compared to eye care and treatment needs, he said, noting that shortages of human resources and medical equipment are posing great challenges to the prevention and treatment of blindness in the country.

The national strategy on blindness control to 2020 with a vision to 2030 was approved on December 31, 2006. 

The strategy sets the goal of improve access to services in preventing, early detecting, treating eye disorders, thus reducing the rate of blindness due to preventable diseases. The overall target is to reduce the rate of blindness to below 45 per 10,000 persons by 2020 while increasing the ratio of people receiving cataract surgery to more than 25 per 10,000 and the rate of diabetic patients receiving periodical eye care to more than 45 percent.

Project helps raise kids’ awareness of wildlife

Save Vietnam’s Wildlife (SVW) has kicked off a project named “Green Childhood” for nearly 1,200 kindergarten kids in Nho Quan town, the northern province of Ninh Binh.

The goal of the project is to raise awareness of protecting the natural environment and wildlife in Vietnam among children.

The project is sponsored by the Welttierschutzgesellschaft e.V., Germany, in collaboration with the Cuc Phuong National Park and the Nho Quan district’s Division of Training and Education.

Ho Thi Kim Lan, SVW Education Outreach Manager, said children today do not have many opportunities to contact with the wildlife and the “Green Childhood” project is created to solve the problem.

With the “Green Childhood,” children will have chances to take part in field trips to the Cuc Phuong National Park to study nature and wildlife animals as well as preservation activities at the Carnivore and Pangolin Education Centre.

There will be a total of 49 trips, each for 25 children, with activities designed for kindergarten pupils.

Dinh Thi Nhien, teacher at the Cuc Phuong kindergarten, said such significant activities will increase kids’ love for animals and awareness of nature protection, thus helping them grow both physically and mentally with social skills via interaction with their peers.

She hopes the project will be expanded to children of other age groups in the district.

Earlier, the SVW organised a conference for 43 officials from the district’s Division of Education and Training, and teachers from 14 kindergartens in Nho Quan district to introduce the project, preservation activities, as well as the role of education in fighting wildlife trafficking.

The project will last until December 2017.

Save Vietnam’s Wildlife (SVW) is a non-profit organisation established to save the future of wildlife in Vietnam. Its main activity is cooperating with the Cuc Phuong National Park to support the management and operation of the Carnivore and Pangolin Conservation Programme (CPCP).

New project on HIV prevention among young drug users launched

A new project has recently been launched to control HIV infection among young drug users aged 16 to 24 in Vietnam by the Centre for Supporting Community Development Initiatives (SCDI), according to the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office under the Ministry of Health.  

The project, which will runs through 2019, was sponsored by Expertise France, a French agency for international technical expertise.

It will be implemented in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong, Ninh Binh, Thai Binh, Quang Ninh and Khanh Hoa and is expected to benefit about 8,000 young drug users.

The project is designed to help develop intervention strategies and enhance capacities of community-based groups in implementing intervention programmes, while improving effectiveness of communication channels.

Within the framework of the project, an initial survey was conducted in Hanoi, Hai Phong and Ho Chi Minh City among 471 young drug users, said the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office.

The result showed drug users often came from economically disadvantaged families or had negative childhood experiences.

It also revealed that about 13.7 percent of youth injected drug, while 60 – 75 percent had experienced sexual intercourse, of which unsafe sex accounted for 50 percent.

Data problems hinder IT application in health insurance

Incomplete data is among the issues hindering the application of information technology in health insurance, according to a report by the Ministry of Health’s Health Insurance Department.

As part of a health insurance medical information system rolled out last June and described as the optimal solution to ensure transparency and prevent insurance fraud, the transmission of electronic data in health insurance management and payment is facing challenges due to continuous changes in local health service facilities, said the report.

These were changes to technical and medical equipment, medicine and other health related items.

Others issues, according to the report, relate to the difficulties in hiring IT service companies to help health insurance agencies follow the Government’s rules on using information systems in health insurance.

In particular, some documents issued by Vietnam Health Insurance are not synchronised with the Ministry of Health’s instructions on the hiring of IT companies to install medical infomation systems for health insurance management and payment

The problems were found mostly at health insurance authorities at grass-root levels where many staff lack qualifications to record data about patients’ tests and treatments and therefore information transmitted to social insurance agencies for payment is often not sufficiently clear, said the report.

A lack of both quantity and quality of IT facilities such as computers and network servers at local health insurance agencies is also hindering the application of IT in their management works.

A majority of hospitals and clinics have not installed information medical systems with a capacity to import the required data, which often includes many figures.

Moreover, most health care workers have not been trained in IT and find it hard to adapt to the medical information system.

Deputy Minister of Health Le Tuan, told the Vietnam Economic Times recently that although this year was promoted as the threshold year for implementing the National Assembly’s resolution on boosting the linkage of health care data between healthcare systems and health insurance and social insurance, the connection is still very limited due to problems in sending and receiving data.

According to another report delivered by Pham Luong Son, Deputy Director General of the Vietnam Social Security at a conference held in January, 99.5 percent of medical facilities nationwide have been linked to the health insurance medical information assessment system since its launch, except for 65 commune-level health stations in remote areas without electricity access.

The health insurance medical information assessment system received some 68.9 million dossiers requesting insurance payments worth 35 trillion VND (1.55 billion USD) in the last six months of 2016, and another 3 million requesting insurance payments of 2 trillion VND (88.6 million USD) in the first month of 2017, the report said.

Doctors complete double-chamber pacemaker surgery

Thu Duc District Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City implanted a double-chamber pacemaker in the body of a 51-year-woman who had an abnormally slow heart rate on March 23.

The patient, from the northern mountainous province of Bac Kan, was brought to the hospital on March 21 with symptoms of dizziness and fatigue. The woman said she could not do any daily activity.

Results of a 24-hour electrocardiogram (ECG) showed that she had a slow heart rate of 40 beats per minute compared to the normal rate of 60 or more per minute. In this situation, cardiac arrest can sometimes occur within six seconds.

The doctor said that her slow heart rate was caused by a sinus node dysfunction.

After counselling from the doctor, the patient agreed to surgery which lasted 90 minutes. She is expected to be discharged within several days.

Compared to single-chamber pacemakers, the double-chamber pacemaker helps hearts beat more regularly. They are used in patients with an abnormally slow heart rate, according to the hospital’s doctor.

Dialysis treatment extends patients’ lives

More than 26,000 people receive regular dialysis treatment in the country, which helps prolong their life.  

A 42-year-old patient in HCM City’s District 8 with end-stage kidney failure for three years has visited An Binh Hospital weekly for dialysis, which removes waste, salt and extra water from his blood to prevent them from building up in the body. Dialysis also helps control blood pressure.

Dr Vo Duc Chien, Director of Nguyen Tri Phuong Hospital in HCM City, said that effective dialysis helps prolong the life of patients with the condition.

The hospital has the only advanced dialysis machines in HCM City, which use high-flux membrane (with larger pore size) dialyzers which filter the blood of patients. These are considered by some doctors to be more effective than low-flux dialyzers. 

Chien said that many patients at end-stage disease need a kidney transplant, but there are not enough donated kidneys. Those patients must receive dialysis treatment regularly.

Dr Pham Van Bui, Chairman of the Society of Dialysis Therapy of HCM City, said that chronic kidney failure in 2010 was the 18th cause of fatalities globally, compared to the 27th cause of deaths in 1990.

One out of 10 people suffer from the condition worldwide, Bui said, adding that the figure in Vietnam is higher. However, there is no official number of patients with the condition.

Chronic kidney failure cannot be cured, he said, adding that patients diagnosed at the end stage of kidney failure must have dialysis for the rest of their life.

“The leading criterion for dialysis is how to improve quality of living for patients and help them live for an additional 30 years. This can be done with patients who use dialysis in Japan,” Bui said.

He said that it was important for patients to have normal lives and take part in social activities.

To improve efficiency and reduce the death rate, health facilities in the country providing dialysis should use high-flux dialysis and replace low-flux dialysis treatments, he said.

Hirokazu Matsubara of the Japanese Society for Technology of Blood Purification said that patients in Japan lived longer if they used high-flux dialysis, sometimes up to 40 more years.

Matsubara said it was essential to use very pure water to prevent bacterial contamination during treatment.

Filtration membranes in dialysis machines should not be reused to treat another patient, a practice that sometimes occurs in Vietnam, reducing treatment effectiveness, he added.

Bui said that in Vietnam, kidney disease can develop in patients who are obese or diabetic.

A strategy for losing weight and preventing diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiac disease helps reduce the risk for kidney conditions, he added.

“The most important thing is to provide guidance on nutrition for patients,” Bui said.

During dialysis, patients should take vitamins and eat nutritious diets with meals having enough protein, fat and other nutrients to avoid malnutrition and anaemia, he said.

Many patients often become malnourished because they do not obey doctors’ recommendations or do not receive information from doctors about nutritional supplementation, he added.

Vietnam, RoK share experience in national reform, development

National reform and sustainable development in East Asia was the main topic of a forum jointly held in Hanoi on March 24 by the Development Strategy Institute under the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) and the Forum Oh-rae of the Republic of Korea (RoK).

Addressing the event, MPI Deputy Minister Dang Huy Dong said that the forum opens up new prospects of cooperation between Vietnam and the RoK, while contributing to the enhancement of connection between their scholars, policymakers and businesspeople.

Recommendations given at the event will serve as references for the ministry in working out strategies, plans and planning schemes as well as policies for national development, he said.

Hahm Seung Heui, Chairman of Forum Oh-rae, said that the sharing of experience among countries will speed up the removal of obstacles hindering Vietnam’s bid to become a developed industrial country.

Vietnam and the RoK elevated their relations to the level of strategic partnership in 2009, he noted, adding that the RoK is currently the largest foreign investor in Vietnam with a total investment of 50 billion USD in 5,600 valid projects. In 2016 alone, RoK businesses invested over 5.5 billion USD in 828 projects.

Meanwhile, Vietnam is also the third largest recipient of investment from the RoK, just behind China and the US. 

The RoK is currently the second largest provider of bilateral official assistance for Vietnam after Japan. In terms of trade, the RoK is Vietnam’s third biggest partner with two-way trade reaching 45.1 billion USD in 2016.

Regarding solutions for Vietnam to deal with low growth, Kim Byong Joon, head of the Oh-rae Institute for Policy Research, highlighted the importance of science-technology, development research capacity and improved productivity. 

Meanwhile, Dr Nguyen Thi Tue Anh. Vice Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management, said that Vietnam is reforming its growth model to increase productivity and competitiveness.

She stressed that improving qualifications of the workforce is essential, which will also help narrow the gap of competitiveness among regional countries, attract technologies and fully tap opportunities from international economic integration.

Illegal zipline makes authorities swing into action in Central Highlands

Authorities in Lam Dong Province are looking into reports of unauthorized tours to a zipline over the Golden Stream in Lac Duong District, an area that is not licensed for adventure tourism.

A group of around 10 tourists, including foreigners, was spotted with a tour guide on March 24 taking turns on the zipline, which is around 50 meters long.

The guides built the zipline themselves, according to the provincial tourism department.

“Only some of them had a chance to try the line before the guide realized they had been spotted,” said an unnamed inspector from the department.

Nguyen Thi Nguyen, the department’s director, confirmed that Lam Dong only allows adventure tourism at Datanla Falls in Da Lat and only licensed travel agencies are allowed to operate there.

Lam Dong is home to the popular resort town of Da Lat.

Last month, a Polish traveler and a Vietnamese tour guide died after falling from a rope as they were climbing down Hang Cop Falls in the province.

The Polish man bought his tour from Giac Mo Vang (Golden Dream) Limited Company, which does not have a license to organize adventure tours, according to local authorities.

In February last year, three British tourists, including two women, died after being swept down Datanla Falls in the Central Highlands province.

Last week, the UK issued a warning to its citizens about traveling to Vietnam, saying that while the country is a safe destination, adventure tourism risks should be taken seriously.

Two killed, 10 injured in head-on bus crash in Central Highlands

At least two people have been killed and 10 others wounded after two passenger buses collided head-on in Vietnam on the afternoon of March 26.

The accident occurred on the section of National Highway 20 in Di Linh District, Lam Dong Province, located in the Central Highlands, at around 2:30 pm.

One of the sleeper buses belonged to Thanh Buoi Bus Lines, which was traveling from Da Lat to Ho Chi Minh City while the other, from Futa Bus Lines, was running in the opposite direction.

Following the collision, the Thanh Buoi bus exited the roadway and slammed into a house, while only a few windows of the Futa coach were smashed.

As of 8:00 pm on the day of the accident, authorities revealed that two people had been killed, namely Dang Thi Hong Nhung, 29, and K’Juroe, 13.

Nhung, a passenger of the Thanh Buoi coach, was found dead after being stuck inside the vehicle for nearly three hours.

K’Juroe was a local boy who had been playing in front of his house before the bus crashed into the residence.

Ten other people were injured in the collision, two of whom remained at a local hospital.

Another two were transferred to Ho Chi Minh City while the six others have all been discharged.

Most of the victims were aboard the Thanh Buoi bus, according to initial reports.

The search and recovery mission had been complete by around 9:00 pm, with the provincial Department of Police continuing their investigation to determine the cause of the devastating crash.

Leaders of the Lam Dong People’s Committee also arrived at the hospital to support the victims.

Police intercept restaurant supply, rescue dozens of bamboo rats

Bamboo rat is a species of rodent that makes a popular delicacy in both Vietnam and China.

Police have seized dozens of bamboo rats of unknown origin from a Vietnamese man who was taking them on a motorbike to local restaurants, traffic police said.

Traffic police patrols on March 26 detected and stopped the man carrying two suspicious sacks on his motorbike  on a national highway in the central province of Nghe An, some 300 km (190 miles) south of Hanoi.

They found 40 brown bamboo rats, with weights totaling 25kg (55 lbs), in the sacks. The rodents were inside small iron cages, with one still in a plastic tube-shape trap. 

The motorbiker failed to present valid papers. He said he bought the rats from locals and was en route to sell them to restaurants to make a popular delicacy. The species are raised in captivity in several locations across Vietnam.

Having identified the bamboo rats as wildlife animals, the traffic police handed them over to the local forestry unit, which often releases them.

HCMC increases management on private pre-schools

Lately, Deputy Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Le Thanh Liem has sent a document to the Department of Education and Training and people’s committees in the districts asking to tighten measures to manage private day time nurseries.

The document was issued after the ill-treatment on kids in private daytime nursery in District Go Vap was detected. Local officials shut down the nursery soon.

In its document, local authorities are asked to pay unscheduled visits to private nurseries aiming to detect wrong deeds to kids.

People’s Committee also asked districts to publicize lists of private nurseries in the localities including registered and unregistered schools and schools were shut down.

Authorities must be determined to close unregistered nurseries.

Ho Chi Minh City has most private nurseries in the country. Within three recent years, 8 departments of Education and Training recruited more personnel for management of private schools. Private schools have mushroomed recent years.

Camera installed in National Highway 1A to monitor traffic violations

The Road and Railway Traffic Police Department (C67) under the Ministry of Public Security yesterday operated traffic surveillance camera systems in the National Highway 1A through the Southern Province of Dong Nai.

This is one of measures to raise people’s awareness of traffic regulation on driving in streets, helping deal with traffic violations in time to reduce accidents.

The system includes modern specific and automated cameras to verify the license – plate and to analyse lines installed in the National Highway. These cameras are connected to main machines and data storage in traffic police stations in province, districts and communes. 

Through the system, traffic police officer will detect violations especially faults leading to accidents such as driving fast in the wrong lanes, wrong parking, contrary direction, and passing red light...The system is expected to support traffic police in probing cause of serious accidents.

According to Major General Nguyen Quoc Diep, deputy head of C67, the 102km complicated traffic National Highway through Dong Nai with nearly 5,000 cars and 120,000 motorbikes travelling a day is an accident prone zone; accordingly  the new system is considered an effective measures to reduce accidents.

Next time, C67 and related agencies will install more monitoring systems in hot spots of accidents  in the National Highway through Ho Chi Minh City, the central provinces of Phu Yen, Binh Thuan and the Mekong delta province of Tien Giang.

Hue to open six new local, int’l air routes

The People’s Committee of Thua Thien- Hue Province has launched a plan to open six local and international air routes in the 2017-2020 period.

As plan, the flights will connect Phu Bai International Airport in the province and the northern province of Quang Ninh, the Mekong Delta City of Can Tho, Thailand’s Chiang Mai, Singapore, Japan and South Korea.

The province’s official delegation will make a travel demand survey in Chiang Mai, Singapore, Japan and South Korea in April.

The new service is expected to help promote tourism in Hue and the country to the world, meeting the growing travel and trade demand between the ancient capital of Hue and countries.

VN marks World Meteorological Day 2017

Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment held a meeting to respond the 2017 World Meteorological Day in Hanoi on March 23. 

The 2017 World Meteorological Organization (WMO)'s theme is “Understanding Clouds”, aiming to send a message about the importance of cloud in weather system, climate, weather forecast to serve socio- economic development and natural disaster prevention.

On the occasion, the WMO's organization board released its digitized International Cloud Atlas, the global reference for observing and identifying clouds.

This is the first time that the Atlas has e-version at http://wmocloudatlas.org/index.php/en/.

Its content includes detailed guidance about cloud classification via hundreds of images drawing kinds of clouds. Additionally, the Atlas also contains important information about other meteorological phenomenon such as rainbow, solar corona, snow and hail.

The World Meteorological Day is annually celebrated on March 23.

Exhibition gives Back Long Vi islanders insight into island sovereignty

Bach Long Vi islanders of Hai Phong city is currently offered a chance to gain a better understanding of Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagoes through an exhibition that opened on March 24.

The displayed maps and documents are part of historical evidence and legal foundation testifying to Vietnam’s sovereignty over Hoang Sa and Truong Sa. 

They show that throughout history, states of Vietnam have explored, established, exercised and protected the national sovereignty over these two archipelagoes, along with many other islands and sea areas under its territory. 

It is a continuous, long-lasting and peaceful process that has been recorded in a number of historical documents, including maps and documents published since the 16th century in Vietnam and other countries.

The exhibition features copies of documents written in Han (Chinese), Nom (Vietnam’s Chinese-like script), Vietnamese and French issued by Vietnam’s feudal dynasties and France’s administration in Indochina from the 17th to the early 20th century.

Copies of administrative documents issued by the Republic of Vietnam’s administration in the south from 1954 to 1975 and by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam since 1975, as well as publications by some western countries from the 18th to the 19 century, are also on display.

Others include photos of Vietnam’s exercise and protection of its sovereignty over the islands from 1930 to January 1974 when China illegally occupied Hoang Sa, 65 maps proving the two archipelagoes under Vietnam’s sovereignty issued since the 17th century, and studies and publications on the country’s Hoang Sa and Truong Sa conducted by Vietnamese and foreign scholars since 1975.

The event also showcases outstanding photos and documents on social, economic and cultural activities in Truong Sa island district, and stamps that feature Vietnam’s islands and seas.

The exhibition will last through March 28.-

Youth Union anniversary celebrated in Da Nang

The Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union (HCYU) Central Committee held a meeting in Da Nang city on March 23 to mark the union’s 86th anniversary (1931-2017) and present the Ly Tu Trong awards to outstanding youth union members.

This year’s Ly Tu Trong awards were presented to 87 outstanding youth union members, who have made contributions to the development of the Union and youth campaigns. The winners, selected from 208 outstanding nominees nationwide, also achieved good academic results in research, studying and launching campaigns for young people.

Speaking at the event, Politburo member and Secretary of the Party Central Committee (PCC) Truong Thi Mai praised achievements made by the HCYU and Vietnamese youth over the past years.

Politburo member Mai, who is also Head of the PCC Commission for Mass Mobilisation, called on the youth union to continue reforming its operations, which should focus on encouraging the youth to study and follow President Ho Chi Minh’s moral example, providing the youth with career guidance, and promoting the vanguard and exemplary role of Vietnamese youngsters.

At the meeting, Le Quoc Phong, First Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union Central Committee, reviewed the glorious tradition of the HCYU during its 86-year history of establishment and development.

While congratulating winners of this year’s Ly Tu Trong Awards, he expressed his hope that the awards will motivate them to make more efforts, raise their responsibility to the community, the country and its people, as well as make further contributions to the country’s industrialisation, modernisation and international integration.

The same day, the delegates offered incense to President Ho Chi Minh at the Ho Chi Minh Museum and presented gifts to children at a support centre for Agent Orange victims in Da Nang.

Book on Vietnamese market launched in Czech Republic

A Czech-language book featuring Vietnam's market was launched at the Embassy of Vietnam in Prague, the Czech Republic, on March 23.

The release of the book is part of the Embassy’s diplomatic activities to serve the two countries’ economic cooperation.

The Vietnamese Embassy has planned to organise various activities to promote investment, trade and tourism in the year.

Addressing the ceremony, Truong Manh Son, Vietnamese Ambassador to the Czech Republic stressed that the traditional cooperation of Vietnam and the Czech Republic is thriving, with many high-level visits that provided a driving force for economic, trade and investment links.

However, the bilateral economic and trade cooperation has yet to match the potential and wishes of each country.

As of mid-2016, 30 businesses of the Czech Republic have operated in Vietnam, with a total investment of 170 million USD. The European country ranked 40th out of 150 countries and territories that invested in Vietnam. Import-export turnover of the two countries reached roughly 1 billion USD. 

Bilateral cooperation still faces difficulties, such as the absence of a Hanoi-Prague direct flight and complicated visa-granting procedures for Vietnamese businesses and tourists to the Czech Republic, Son said.  

On the occasion, Ambassador Son and Trade Counsellor Tran Hiep Thuong also responded to questions of local reporters and businesses on investment policies of the Vietnamese Government.