Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc visited Samsung Electronics Vietnam Thai Nguyen (SEVT) during his working trip to the northern province of Thai Nguyen on July 26.

The PM appreciated Samsung’s investment in Vietnam with its high committed capital and disbursement ratio. He especially praised the technology’s commitment to exporting 50 billion USD worth of products this year.

He said that he is impressed with Samsung’s operation in Vietnam, which focuses on not only research and development (R&D) but also manufacturing and assembly. He hailed the firm for improving the living conditions for employees and workers and reaching a localisation rate of 57 percent for their products.

The Government leader thanked the group for its contributions to Vietnam’s development, asking it to remain a role model in doing long-term business in the country.

Samsung was also urged to pay more attention to the living conditions of workers and environmental protection while setting an example for other businesses.

The PM also asked the group, as the biggest foreign-invested company in Vietnam, to create favourable conditions for local businesses to develop support industries and provide necessary services.

Since it started operating in 2014, SEVT has increased its capital and revenue by 250 times to 5 billion USD and 20.4 billion USD.

IT is a member of Samsung Electronics Vietnam, which contributed 20 percent of the country’s exports in 2016 (39.9 billion USD).

Samsung Vietnam targets an export turnover of 50 billion USD and a localisation rate of 57 percent for its products, which are supplied by 215 Vietnamese companies.

Conference highlights significance of people-to-people diplomacy

The people-to-people diplomacy work performed by the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations (VUFO) obtained considerable results across fields in recent times, contributing to promoting ties between Vietnam and other nations worldwide, heard a conference in Hanoi on July 26. 

At the 7th meeting of the union’s Presidium (2013-2018 tenure) to review the union’s activities in the past six months and tasks for the remaining months of this year, Secretary General and Vice President of the VUFO Don Tuan Phong stressed that people-to-people diplomacy activities focused on boosting ties between Vietnam and neighbouring and Southeast Asian countries, especially Laos, Cambodia, China, and nations having traditional relations with Vietnam. 

Apart from enhancing political links, the people-to-people diplomacy also helped foster cooperation in the economy, trade, investment, culture, technology, education, tourism among others, he said.  

The VUFO continued upholding its role in coordinating with Vietnamese people organisations and actively joining activities in the framework the ASEAN People Forum (APF), the Asia-Europe People Forum, the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR). It made good performance in disseminating issues related to democracy, human right, religion, sea and island sovereignty, and Agent Orange/dioxin. 

The union worked hard to call for foreign financial assistance for many projects with a total committed value of over 47 million USD as of June this year. 

It also implemented well the management of foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) while supporting localities nationwide in attracting foreign non-governmental aid. 

At the event, National Assembly Vice Chairman Uong Chu Luu, who is also President of the Vietnam Peace Committee, said the committee will host a meeting of the Executive Board of the World Peace Committee in November this year, asking the VUFO to support the Vietnam Peace Committee to successfully organise the event. 

Participants agreed that the union continue coordinating with relevant agencies to organise activities celebrating anniversaries such as the 55th anniversary of the Vietnam-Laos diplomatic ties, 40 years of the Vietnam-Laos Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, 50th anniversary of Vietnam-Cambodia diplomatic ties, and 25 years of Vietnam-Republic of Korea diplomatic ties.

Hoang Sa – Truong Sa exhibition comes to Nghe An

An exhibition displaying maps and documents on Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagos opened in Anh Son district, the central province of Nghe An, on July 26. 

On display are 154 documents issued by Vietnamese feudal dynasties from the 17th to the early 20th century, ancient maps published by Vietnam, western countries and China relating to Vietnam’s sovereignty over the two archipelagos as well as the country’s exercise of the sovereignty before 1975. 

Of note, the exhibition introduced official documents of the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945)  regarding Vietnam’s exploitation, management, establishment and exercise of its sovereignty over Hoang Sa and Truong Sa. 

Apart from documents and publications compiled by western countries in the 18th and 19th  centuries certifying that Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos belong to Vietnam, the exhibition features four atlas published by China’s Qing Dynasty and the Chinese government from 1908 to 1933 defining Hainan island as China’s southernmost point.

Anh Son district is the resting place of more than 12,000 Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and experts who laid down their lives in battlefields in Laos. 

The three-day exhibition aims to contribute to raising awareness of officials, soldiers and people about national construction and defence.

Party official greets KOICA Vice President

Head of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission Nguyen Van Binh has appreciated cooperation of the RoK government and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in particular in high-quality personnel training over the past years at a meeting with KOICA Vice President Sul Kyung-hoon.

During a reception in Hanoi on July 26, Binh expressed his wish that the government of the Republic of Korea (RoK), including KOICA, would continue expanding ties with Vietnam in vocational training and improving managerial capacity of Vietnamese officials. 

He said since the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties 25 years ago, Vietnam and the RoK have pushed forward their practical ties, and friendship between the two peoples have been increasingly strengthened. 

Sul, for his part, said the Korean government and KOICA in particular always give priority to ties with Vietnam. 

Hailing Vietnam as one of the countries that effectively use official development assistance (ODA) funded by the RoK over the past years, Sul said KOICA will continue providing support for Vietnam in the near future to contribute to its socio-economic development.-

Trainer Summit in Hanoi promotes e-learning

The Trainer Summit, themed “Raising income with online training”, took place in Hanoi on July 26, giving lecturers a platform to promote e-learning environment in Vietnam. 

Speaking at the event, Chairman of the Vietnam Internet Association (VIA) Vu Hoang Lien said the VIA serves as a bridge linking together its members as service providers and software makers, making it easier for them to develop e-training. 

A survey from the Unica training facility said only 8 percent of firms nationwide are turning to online learning solutions while 7 percent of others are piloting them. The figure is expected to surge to 28 percent in the next two years. 

Unica founder Nguyen Trong Tho said online training could serve millions of users, save their time and travelling cost. Meanwhile, traditional classrooms sometimes face the lack of students, leading to limited income for lecturers and high tuition fees. 

During the event co-hosted by VIA and Unica, more than 800 people interested in online training career shared their experience in how to become a successful online trainer, including producing online curricula and expanding the market. 

In Vietnam, 40 percent of its population subscribe to Internet, mostly young people. The Vietnamese spend up to 3-4 billion USD on sending their children to abroad for study. The online training market grows over 40 percent annually with an estimated worth of no more than 2 billion USD. 

According to the Topica Founder Institute, Vietnam recorded 309 projects in education-training with a total registered capital of more than 767 million USD at the end of 2016.

Treating the country’s ‘talent emergency’ with better training

Employers in the major urban areas of Vietnam are looking to hire workers with better training and skills development, said speakers at a symposium in Hanoi earlier this month addressing the ‘talent emergency’ the country faces.

Meanwhile job seekers are struggling to figure out just which skillsets they actually need and where they can learn them, said Tran Van Hung from the Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences.

Mr Trung, who is the deputy director of the Human Resources Training Demand Forecast and Development Centre at the Institute, told conference attendees that this leaves millions of workers without employment or stuck in a low paying job without a career path.

The government has set its sights on creating a high-skilled industrialized economy, but businesses and non-profit entities alike are facing a talent emergency now, that is starving the country’s economic growth.

Particularly hard-hit segments negatively affected by this mismatch include construction, manufacturing, science, engineering and technology.

Most of the job openings in these segments are in the middle-skill jobs –  jobs that require a high school degree, some postsecondary technical education and training but not a college degree – in the major cities of Hanoi, Danang and Ho Chi Minh City.

In fact, he noted, a college degree today actually increases a person’s chances of becoming unemployed.

The unemployment rate for those with an advanced degree currently approximates 27% compared to 5.3% for applicants holding a post-secondary vocational training certificate and 2.2% for those having just a high school diploma.

Mr Trung elaborated on some of the underlying causes of the talent mismatch.

First, employers, he said, are providing far too few opportunities for on-the-job training. As a result, the responsibility for developing skills is shifted away from employers to the job seekers.

This shift creates an undue imperative for the government to develop an education system, especially at the community college and post-high school level, that recognize the skills and credentials that are needed by employers.

When in fact, employers must and should shoulder more of the responsibility.

Second, there is a definite lack of collaboration among educators to identify the talents that are needed to fill the jobs of tomorrow and help them map career pathways from entry-level to middle skill jobs and beyond.

Third, there is a need for better career advice to help young people understand more about the jobs likely to be available in the future.

How can Vietnamese youth today attending a college or university decide what type of work they want to do in the future, when the advice they receive from career counsellors is poor?, said Mr Trung.

Lastly, the country must do more to target disadvantaged populations such as ethnic groups and other needy groups living outside the major urban areas to help them identify potential job opportunities that match with their education and skillsets.

Without major structural changes to better train the country’s workforces, the talent gap will continue to hold back economic growth and the workforce— eager to be productive and earn a higher standard of living, said Mr Trung.

Smuggling, trade fraud on the rise

The national steering committee against smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit (Steering Committee 389) has reported that 12,000 smuggling and trade fraud cases were penalised over the first six months of 2017, an increase of 1,000 cases compared to the same period of 2016.

The figures indicate that smuggling and trade fraud in Hà Nội has become more complicated and the fight against the crime remains very difficult, the committee’s officials said.

Illegal goods were transported by organised smuggling rings with networks extending from border areas to downtown of Hà Nội.

Smuggled commodities regularly included tobacco, wine, fruit, agricultural products, ready-made clothes, electronics, technique products, cosmetics, dietary supplements and poultry.

Major General Đinh Văn Toản, Deputy Director of Hà Nội Police, said that over the last six months, the city police force handled 1,300 smuggling and trade fraud cases with a total fine of VNĐ49 billion (US$2.1 million) and tax arrears of VNĐ264 billion ($11.6 million).

"Through the investigation of main cases, we realise that smugglers and trade fraudulent users are taking full advantage of technology to order goods and establish contracts,” he said.

“Their tricks aren’t simple and similar to those of previous years. On the contracts, trade fraudulent users have tricks to erase information in the process of collecting goods from abroad. It’s very sophisticated," he added. 

The economic police force investigation reveals that smugglers and trade fraudulent users often fill in purchase invoices an amount of money lower than the real selling price, or the incorrect amount of goods quantity, or items of goods and re-used the purchase invoice.

The Hoàng Mai District was revealed to be a key smuggling zone, as it is home to bus stations and hundreds of stores. Smugglers transport goods at different routes and different times of day.

Nguyễn Kiều Oanh, deputy chairwoman of Hoàng Mai District People’s Committee, said most local warehouses contain Chinese goods including automotive parts,  detergents and electronic devices.

She admitted that local authorities’ weak warehouse network management led to the ineffective fight against smuggling and trade fraud.

She proposed that steering committee 389 work out new regulations on warehouse business condition, standard of qualified warehouse, in order to ensure fire safety and quality of goods.

"Inter-sector inspection teams should support local authorities to examine regularly and manage the best warehouses," she said.

The steering committee 389 reported one of the key difficulties in the fight against smuggling and trade fraud in Hà Nội was the lack of synchronous legal documents or effective punishments.

However, Nguyễn Văn Hồng, deputy director of Customs Department, said that the primary cause was ineffective coordination among relevant offices, including customs, market management, tax and economic police.  

Hồng said that although the Government had provided regulations on the provision of information to agencies operating in airports, co-ordination remained very difficult.

"Every agency has its own secret.  Police have their own secrets, so sharing is very limited, despite well-promulgated regulations,” he said.

“In my opinion, one of the effective anti-smuggling solutions is the sharing of information between relevant offices.”

HCM City steps up flood-prevention efforts

The HCM City People’s Committee has asked all investors to maintain water drainage systems of their buildings’ basements as part of a wider effort to control flooding.

Investors also need back-up plans to prevent flooding in case of heavy rain, the committee said.

In addition, the People’s Committee has asked the Steering Centre for Urban Flood Control to work with agencies on a rescue plan in flood-prone areas and to disseminate information about flood prevention to local residents.

The steering centre is responsible for helping investors of buildings set up a rescue plan to minimise flood damage to residents.

The city’s Department of Construction has been asked to increase the number of inspections of construction projects and to strictly punish violators, while the people’s committees in all districts and wards have been instructed to monitor encroachment on rivers, canals and manholes. 

Authorities seek ways to prevent internal criminal activity in banking sector

Low-quality staff and relatives of officials are partly responsible for a work environment at banks that leads to criminal activity, participants at a conference held in HCM City said on Tuesday.    

“Low-quality staff and relatives arrange loan receipts and approval. Their low-level abilities do not enable them to do the work themselves and they must do everything following orders,” said Vũ Như Hà, head of the HCM City Police’s Investigation Department of Crimes and Economic Management.

The conference, with the theme “Increasing prevention efficiency and solving crimes in the banking sector in HCM City”, was organised by the HCM City People’s Procuracy.

Other banking staff also take advantage of the right to manage State assets and use financial and accounting skills to steal State money for private purposes, he said.

Nguyễn Quỳnh Lan from the People’s Procuracy said that managers lacked responsibility and did not often control and supervise activities, creating conditions for criminals to deploy their actions.

“We can see the case of Nguyễn Thanh Nhàn, who worked at the Việt Nam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Bank’s (Agribank) Bình Thạnh branch office. Nhàn took advantage of loose management and stole VNĐ20 billion (US$900,000) when the bank was providing cash for ATMs,” Lan said.

“Two years later, the theft was discovered,” she added.

In another example, Nguyễn Văn Tường, an employee at Việt Nam International Joint Stock Bank (VIB), used the username and password of his director in the Tân Phú branch office to illegally disburse VNĐ5.3 billion ($235,000) while taking VNĐ4 billion ($178,000).

Participants at the conference said that authorities must pay more attention to crimes in the banking sector by promoting legal education and strengthening State management and inter-industry cooperation in banking activities.

Ensuring an independent role for the internal controlling board in each bank is also necessary, they said.

“Article No 206 about violations of banking activities in the Criminal Law 2015 should be amended by bringing to court all activities violating laws and regulations in banking activities,” Hà of the police department said. 

Charity musical in HCM City

Kids Vietnam (Kids in Difficult Situations in Vietnam), a non-profit organisation that aims to improve the lives of underprivileged children, will stage The Dreams musical at the Institute of Cultural Exchange with France (IDECAF) on August 4.

The play is about people’s dreams and goals and how to achieve them, featuring talented young dancers and musicians.

All of the proceeds from the show will be spent on equipment and other items for Kids Vietnam’s next charity trip.

The show will begin at 5 pm at 28 Lê Thánh Tôn Street in District 1. Tickets can be booked at http://tinyurl.com/thedreams.

Martyrs Day music show

HCM City’s Youth Union and Youth Cultural House have launched a new music programme at schools, universities, industrial parks and export processing zones to mark the 70th anniversary of War Invalids and Martyrs Day on July 27.   

The programme, called Hát Về Thời Hoa Đỏ (Singing revolutionary songs), will include 10 outdoor shows to entertain students and workers.

Performers will include pop star Đàm Vĩnh Hưng and popular young singers like Nguyễn Phi Hùng, Tiêu Châu Như Quỳnh and Quốc Đại, and girl bands Mây Trắng and Mắt Ngọc.

Meritorious Artist Tạ Minh Tâm of the HCM City Music Conservatory and singers Thanh Thúy and Vân Khánh of Seven Military Zone Art Troupe will be featured with the support of 30 dancers. 

The programme will debut tonight (July 27) at the HCM City University of Agriculture and Forestry in Thủ Đức District, before going to six other universities and secondary schools in August.  

“We will also perform for workers at the Tân Thuận and Linh Trung I export processing zones in districts 7 and Thủ Đức,"  said folk singer Vân Khánh, adding that Một Thời Hoa Đỏ would also be staged for students and workers. "We also hope to encourage love for traditional and revolutionary music,” she added.

Khánh and her colleagues will perform songs in praise of love, friendship, family and country, composed by veteran musicians such as Phan Huỳnh Điểu, Hoàng Việt and Phạm Tuyên. 

Khánh is expected to perform before nearly 10,000 labourers at Tân Thuận Export Processing Zone on July 30. She will later visit Lương Thế Vinh Secondary School.

Photo exhibition marks 70th War Invalids and Martyrs Day

A photo exhibition on Tuesday (July 25) was launched on Nguyễn Huệ pedestrian Street in HCM City’s District 1 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of War Invalids and Martyrs Day.

Attending the ceremony were Tất Thành Cang, Deputy Standing Secretary of the HCM City Party Committee, Nguyễn Thị Thu, deputy chairwoman of the city People’s Committee, and other officials. 

Speaking at the ceremony, Lê Minh Tấn, director of the city’s Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said the exhibition has two themes; “Tribute to heroic soldiers, war invalids and martyrs” and “Socially responsible HCM City”.

The exhibition displays photos and documents capturing historic and memorable moments among the government, President Hồ Chí Minh and families of heroic soldiers, war invalids and martyrs.

Showcased are figures from the government and HCM City paying tribute to heroic soldiers, war invalids, martyrs and their families in recent years.

On the same day, another photo exhibition commemorating the National War Invalids and Martyrs Day was launched at the corner of Lý Tự Trọng and Pasteur streets. About 50 photos are featured.

Conservatory receives book donation from late musician

The HCM City Conservatory of Music on Monday received valuable books on music from Bùi Thanh Tùng, husband of the late musician Hoàng Lan.

Among 100 books given to the conservatory, 35 are about classical European music.

“Hoàng Lan wanted to provide students at the conservatory with extensive knowledge about music,” Tùng said.

Tạ Quang Đông, director of the conservatory, said the school welcomed Lan’s contribution.

“This contribution shows that, though they live overseas, Vietnamese expats always have the country in their heart,” Đông said.

Hoàng Lan, who was born and raised in Vũng Tàu City, moved to France at the age of 12.

She graduated from a music school in Paris and performed Vietnamese folk music and classical European music.

She died in 2012.