Two children die after eating poisonous toad eggs

Two children in central Quảng Trị Province died on Monday after they ate poisonous toad eggs mistaking them for fish eggs.

Hồ Văn Ngọc, 14, and Hồ Văn Nam, 12, were found dead at home in the province’s mountainous Đắkrông District on Monday afternoon soon after lunch.

Ngọc, Nam and another child, Hồ Văn Cươi, had gone fishing in a nearby stream from which they picked up the eggs. Cươi, who has survived after he was rushed to hospital, told local newspapers that they mistook them for fish eggs.

Ngọc and Nam were cousins, and their grandmother, who cooked the meal, is too old to recognise toad eggs.

Local authorities are paying for the children’s funerals and hospitalisation expenses, Hồ Chí Cường, chairman of the commune where the victims live, said.

Fire damages 1,000sq.m store in Bình Dương

A fire broke out on Monday morning at Hoàng Sinh Export-Import joint-stock Company’s 1000sq.m furniture workshop and store in southern Bình Dương Province’s Thủ Dầu Một.

No casualties were reported, but everything inside the space was destroyed. Damages are estimated at billions of đồng.

Workers discovered smoke rising and heard a big explosion in the furniture painting workshop. They informed the company guard and the city fire fighting force. The flames spread quickly, as there was much inflammable equipment and material stored inside the workshop.

Twenty trucks and dozens of firefighters were mobilised to stamp out the fire, which was finally extinguished after two hours and a half.

Investigations are underway.

Two people injured in crane collapse

At least two people were seriously injured, and three houses and a wood workshop were damaged after a construction crane collapsed early Tuesday in HCM City’s District 12.

At 2:45am, a 100m-long crane collapsed and crushed three houses.

According to the local police, survivors of a damaged house said they heard a loud sound on their roof and then hurried to run out of the house. The crane block crushed their house right afterward.

Two seriously injured men were the crane operator and a 20-year-old was inside a collapsed house during the accident.                  

District 12 authorities and transport department inspectors are working with Vạn Thái Trading & Service Construction Joint Stock Company, owner of Topaz Home construction, where the crane collapse occurred.

Owners of damaged houses and workshops were also invited to discuss consequences and repair measures.

Da Nang supports local fishermen

The central city of Da Nang has implemented policies to support local fishermen, said Luu Quang Khanh, head of the city’s Fisheries Department.

Under Government Decree No. 67/2014/ND-CP on incentives to support fishery development, eight projects on building new fishing ships have been granted preferential credit, with four ships already operational.

In accordance with Decision No 47/2014/QD of the city on support to fishermen to build ships, 42 newly-built ships have been launched since 2012, worth a total 27 billion VND (1.1 million USD).

The city’s agro-forestry-fishery promotion centre has supplied new fishing equipment worth more than three billion VND (131,340 USD) to more than 100 ships since 2010.  

In addition, Da Nang has provided insurance for 317 ships and 5,418 local fishermen, worth more than 10 billion VND (437,800 USD).

Besides the construction of new ships and equipment support, the city’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development also provided training for ship captains.

Ngo Thi Kim Cuong, Deputy Director of the Agro-Forestry-Fishery promotion Centre, said that the near-shore seafood resource is on the decline despite increasing demand. Therefore, local fishermen are advised to go further offshore and modernise their equipment.

The new policies were part of efforts to help fishermen develop offshore fishing and contribute to protecting the country’s sea and islands sovereignty, she added.-

New cold wave to batter northern areas

A fresh cold wave is approaching the mountainous areas of Việt Nam on Monday, according to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorology Forecasting.

Temperatures in Hà Nội and the northeastern provinces are predicted to drop to 14-17 degrees Celsius on Monday evening or night.

The cold wave is forecast to bring scattered light rainfall to the northern and northern central provinces on Tuesday.

The central provinces of Thanh Hóa and Thừa Thiên-Huế will also be affected, with cloudy and rainy weather predicted. From central Đà Nẵng City to central Bình Thuận Province, the skies are expected to be cloudy, with the sun shining occasionally. Temperatures will range from 18 to 21 degrees Celsius. 

2 winning tickets for Mega 6/45 jackpot sold in Vietnam

Two winning tickets were sold for last week’s US$1 million Mega 6/45jackpot, the Vietnam lottery has reported.

2 winning tickets for mega 6/45 jackpot sold in vietnam hinh 0 One was purchased in the province of Dong Nai and the other in the province of Quang Ninh — each being worth US$500 thousand.

The winning numbers in the draw were: 18, 21, 24, 26, 39 and 45.

Smart control center to be launched on expressway connecting Saigon, Dong Nai

Data collected from 68 surveillance cameras along the Ho Chi Minh City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay expressway in southern Vietnam will be analyzed by a control center for real-time analysis of traffic situations.

The center will incorporate an intelligent transportation system (ITS) to monitor traffic on the 55-kilometer expressway, which runs from the southern metropolis through Long Thanh Town, Dong Nai Province, to Dau Giay Town.

Set to be launched on Friday, the center will be connected to a network of 68 surveillance cameras which will provide accurate information regarding the flow of traffic as well as any emergency, according to Do Chi Trung, chief of office at Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC).

All data retrieved from the cameras will be displayed on monitors at the ITS control center, where they are monitored 24/7, Trung said.

The center will also work closely with local authorities and medical services to provide timely response to emergencies happening on the expressway.

Variable-message signs installed along the expressway will be connected to the center, providing drivers with helpful information regarding weather conditions and the status of the remaining part of the expressway.

Footage from the surveillance cameras will be used to penalize drivers who violate traffic laws while moving on the expressway.

According to VEC, the Ho Chi Minh City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay expressway will have been used by 30 million vehicles since its opening in 2014, by the time the center is launched.

The expressway currently serves between 37,000 and 40,000 vehicles daily, with nearly double that number during peak seasons.

National press festival to kick off in March

The national press festival for 2017, featuring spring newspapers and outstanding journalistic publications, will take place from March 17-19 at the Vietnam Journalists Association Building, Duong Dinh Nghe Street, Cau Giay District, Hanoi.

This information was announced at a press conference in Hanoi on March 6 held by the Party Central Committee’s Information and Education Commission, the Vietnam Journalists’ Association, the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Finance and the Hanoi People’s Committee.

This year’s festival will display press works, with three themes: “Overview of Vietnam’s Press in 2016,” “Central Press” and “Local Press.” In addition, the event will showcase some products and technological equipment, which have been used in educating and making press.

The highlight of festival is an exhibition of 500 objects and materials featuring women and female reporters.

Meanwhile, the organising board will host a seminar on journalists’ ethics in the digital era, meetings between journalists and press agencies, a competition on excellent reports on the environment in 2016, and a showcase of objects of the Vietnam Press Museum.

At a concluding ceremony on March 19, the organising board will present several awards to participating agencies based on their exhibition space, the covers of selected New Year’s special editions, articles and TV/radio programmes.

The event aims to honour the rapid growth and great achievements of the Vietnamese press.

Central Highlands to bustle with economic and cultural events in March

A series of economic and cultural events will be held in Central Highlands this March, announced the Central Highlands Steering Committee at a press conference held in Buon Ma Thuot City, Dak Lak Province on March 6.

Accordingly, the sixth Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Festival will take place from March 8 to 13 in Buon Ma Thuot City, featuring a street carnival, an elephant race, and and a coffee trade and expo with 735 booths on display by over 220 businesses across the county.

The opening ceremony will be held at 8 PM on March 10 at the city’s March 10 Square and will be broadcast live on Vietnam Television’s Channels 1, 5 and 8.

It is designed to promote the brand of coffee of Dak Lak Province and Vietnam in general while providing an opportunity for participating businesses to introduce their products and seek more trade deals.

Meanwhile, the 2017 Central Highlands Gong Cultural Festival, to be held coincide as part of the Coffee Festival, will draw the participation of more than 600 artists and artisans in the region and four foreign art troupes.

The artists will take part in a gong night concert, a wood statue craving competition, and a photo contest on Central Highlands’ gong cultural space. Traditional rituals of the regional ethnic minority groups, which have strong attachment to gong performances, will also be introduced to visitors to the event, such as the praying-for-rain ritual by E De group, the ceremony to celebrate a new crop season by K’Ho people, the traditional wedding of the M’Mong people, and the new house greeting ceremony by Bahnar people.

Last but not least, the fourth Central Highlands Investment Promotion Conference will be jointly held by the on March 11 by the Central Highlands Steering Committee, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, and the People’s Committees of regional provinces on March 11.

Ten projects with total registered capital of over VND 83,937 billion will be granted investment licenses at the event.

The series of economic and cultural events aims to advertise the land and cultural essence of Central Highlands region, boost exchange and cooperation among regional localities, and call for more investment in the region.     

Photo exhibition, reading book movement launched in district 8

Commission for Propaganda and Education of Party Committee in district 8 in coordination with Ho Chi Minh Museum and local Culture House organized a photo exhibition and launched month-long reading books movement about Uncle Ho, aiming to boost learning and following Uncle Ho’s idea and ethics.

Additionally, book reading movement aims to develop a reading habit amongst people.

According to Deputy head of the Commission Le Thi Kim Dung, the commission will select local police station, people’s committees in wards 3 and 16, and Vo Van Kiet Senior High School to display photos and books of Uncle Ho.

District authority will continue to exhibit photos and books to other places so that every one can read one book. Furthermore, administrators will increase information of benefit of reading books amongst people. 

Exhibition honors female reporters

An exhibition honoring women and female reporters opened at headquarter of the Vietnam Journalists' Association in Hanoi on March 6. 

The event display about 500 objects and materials honoring female reporters’ outstanding contribution to the national history and their important role in the family and society.

The exhibiton aims to celebrate International Women's Day (March 8), the 1977th anniversary of the Hai Ba Trung (the two Trung Sisters) uprising and the 12th National Women Congress.

The event is also one of the activities of the 2017 National Press Festival themed “Vietnamese press accompanies national renewal” which will be held from March 17-19 in Hanoi.

Can Tho expects to complete new-style rural area building by 2020

The Mekong Delta City of Can Tho aims to have all of its 36 communes by 2019 and four districts by 2020 recognised as new-style rural areas.

In 2017, the city hopes to have seven more communes and one district meet all the criteria of the new-style rural area building programme.

To realise the target, the city has accelerated the implementation of resolutions, plans, and action plans at all levels. The city will earmark its budget while calling for resources from enterprises for new-style rural area building.

Effective business models will be expanded while investment in rural area will be encouraged, particularly in labour-intensive sectors, to create jobs, increase incomes and improve living conditions for rural people.

Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Dao Anh Dung said the city wants localities to review new-style rural area building criteria. Those that need investment beyond the capability of the locality will receive assistance from the city. Districts must take drastic measures to ensure its communes complete their targets and improve the quality of the criteria in recognised communes.

Community work needs to be promoted to encourage the participation of locals in building new-style rural areas, while conducting training courses for local staff. 

Director of the municipal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Ngoc He underlined the need for restructuring agriculture production to raise incomes for local people.

The city encourages numerous large-scale economic cooperation models, such as cooperatives, cooperative groups and farms, with the application of advanced technology.

In 2017, the city aims to set up at least four new agricultural cooperatives in four districts while supporting and upgrading operating ones.

The agricultural sector will continue implementing projects and plan crop restructuring, large-scale farming, and farmer-enterprise connection to improve efficiency and raise incomes for farmers.

To date, Can Tho has 20 out of its 36 communes and one out of four districts recognised as new-style rural areas.

These communes have completed at least 14 out of 19 criteria of the new-style rural area building programme.

The national programme on building new-style rural areas, initiated by the Government in 2010, includes 19 criteria on socio-economic development, politics and defence, aiming to boost rural areas.

The criteria cover infrastructure development, production capacity improvement, environmental protection and cultural value promotion.

Southern power corp. brings electricity to rural border communes

The Southern Power Corporation (SPC) of the Electricity of Vietnam Group (EVN) has been working to bring electricity to not only rural island communes but also border areas in recent years.

The corporation has asked local power companies to give priority to connecting residents living near the border with Cambodia in southern Binh Phuoc, Tay Ninh, Long An, Dong Thap, An Giang and Kien Giang provinces with the national grid.

Approximately 57,000 households in 20 remote communes of Tan Chau, Tan Bien, Chau Thanh and Ben Cau districts, Tay Ninh province have gained access to electricity while nearly 102,000 families in 27 communes of Hong Ngu town, Hong Ngu and Tan Hong districts, Dong Thap province have been provided power.

More than 81,000 border households in Long An province, 15,760 in Binh Phuoc province, and 1,877 in An Giang province have been also linked to the national grid.

Over 2 mln households in disadvantaged regions get preferential loans

More than 2 million households have received loans totaling 44.2 trillion VND (1.95 billion USD) from aprogramme designed to help business households in disadvantaged regions as of February 28, 2017, according to the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP).

Currently, 640,000 households are borrowing 16.4trillion VND (722 million USD), of which the rate of overdue debt is only 0.35 percent.

According to statistics from the localities, the demand for capital from business households by 2020 will be at least 6.6trillion VND (290.7 million USD).

The programme was launched on March 5, 2007, aiming to assist business households, including those running farms, with maximum assistance of 50 million VND (2,250 USD) at an interest rate of nine percent per year.

Because commercial banks do not have transaction offices in remote areas, the VBSP, with its nationwide network, was entrusted to help those households access capital.

The VBSP now has 11,000 transaction points across the country.

Party chief lauds Women’s Union at National Congress

Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong congratulated the women’s movement and the Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU) for their past achievements in his speech at the opening of the 12th National Women’s Congress in Hanoi on March 7. 

The Congress for the 2017-2022 tenure, themed “Solidarity – Renovation – Equality – Integration”, attracted 1,153 delegates representing women from walks of life across the country. 

Accounting for more than half of the population and 48 percent of workforce, the Vietnamese women have been active in every aspect, actively responded to patriotic emulation campaigns and abided by the Party policies and State laws, he said. 

He praised the VWU for continuing to uphold its crucial role in women work and gender equality cause, better performing its functions of representing and protecting legitimate rights and interests of women, serving as a bridge connecting the Party and women, contributing to building the great national unity, a strong and transparent Party and political system. 

The Party chief said the rate of female leadership in the political system is growing, with 25 percent of legislators being women. Women working in science-technology sector account for nearly 40 percent and female scientists make up over 6 percent of the total. 

Directing VWU’s activities in the near future, he said the union needs to fully grasp the Resolution adopted by the 12th National Party Congress and take specific measures to bring it into life. 

The leader requested further improving the quality of emulation campaigns and engaging them into those launched by the Vietnam Fatherland Front, including the campaigns “For the Poor” and “Studying and following moral example and lifestyle of President Ho Chi Minh”. 

It is necessary to raise women and VWU’s role in building cultural and happy families, he said, adding that VWU chapters at all levels should continue assisting women in implementing marriage-family policies, maternal and child health care and protection, and environment protection. 

The VWU chapters were asked to adopt synchronous measures for the full advancement of women in terms of brainpower, morality, well-being, innovation capacity and sense of civic responsibility while building a contingent of qualified staff with political firmness and virtue and introducing capable women to Party committees, local authorities, ministries, agencies and sectors from the grassroots to the central level. 

He wished that the VWU would seriously implement the Resolution on strengthening Party building and rectification set by the fourth plenum of the 12th Party Central Committee, encourage its members to effectively join social supervision and criticism, Party and administration building, as well as the fight against corruption, wastefulness and negative phenomena. 

On the occasion, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong urged Party committees, local authorities and sectors to devise specific plans to improve the efficiency of women work and operations of VWU chapters, and raise public awareness of gender equality. 

Speaking at the event, VWU Chairwoman for the 11th tenure Nguyen Thi Thu Ha said the Congress will review the past activities, discuss orientations and goals for the 2017-2022 tenure, adopt the amendments and supplements to VWU’s regulations and elect an executive board of the VWU Central Committee. 

A highlight in the past tenure was support for women in economic development, she said, adding that VWU chapters offered assistance to more than 2.4 million poor households led by women, 430,000 of them have escaped from poverty via funding from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies and the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development. 

They raised over 1 trillion VND (43.4 million USD) to provide care for policy beneficiaries and families of soldiers tasked with safeguarding sea and island sovereignty, repaired about 20,000 houses, and successfully proposed 119 policies. 

During the 2017-2022 tenure, VWU sets the goal of improving material and spiritual lives of women, building a strong and professional women’s union and continuing emulation campaigns for the sake of gender equality and women’s advancement. 

It will set the three key tasks of assisting women in building a happy family, start-ups, economic development, and environment protection; engaging them into building the Party and administration, social supervision and criticism; and stepping up people-to-people diplomacy.

Khanh Hoa moves to tackle overload at Cam Ranh airport

The central coastal province of Khanh Hoa is striving to tackle overload at the Cam Ranh International Airport, including calling for additional capital to complete the construction of its second runway.

The lack of capital once hampered the building of the new runway. However, the province has got the green light for central budget allocation while mobilising other resources to ensure that the runway will be put into operation in 2018.

In addition, Khanh Hoa will also encourage enterprises to make investment in the international terminal construction project to professionalise the airport’s functions.

The Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) and the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank) committed to provide a loan worth over 2.98 trillion VND (132 million USD) for the terminal construction.

Accounting for 80 percent of total investment (3.75 trillion VND) of the project, the loans will be used to complete the first phase of the construction, which is expected to be fulfilled in early 2018.

The Cam Ranh International Airport was built by the US army to serve its military missions during wartime and was converted into a civil airport in 2004. It was upgraded to an international airport in 2009.

According to the provincial People’s Committee, the increasing number of passengers has exerted pressure on the Cam Ranh International Airport in recent years.

The airport received 1 million passengers in 2011 and the number escalated to nearly 4.9 million people in 2016. This year, the airport is expected to welcome 6 million passengers. Meanwhile, its designed annual capacity is 2.5 million passengers.

Bustling domestic and international flights operated by 16 airlines to the airport are attributed to the overload of the airport’s terminal.

Thus, the construction of a new runway and an international terminal is essential and urgent to meet the development needs of the province.

PVF enter U19 football tourney’s final round

PVF have become the first team to enter the final round of the National U19 Football Championship, though three more qualifying rounds are left.

After seven rounds, the team gained 21 points with seven wins to top Group C.

Group C’s second ticket will be determined after Wednesday’s match between Long An, who have 12 points, and HCM City, who have 9 points.

PVF have put up a strong performance in this year’s tournament. Many of their players, such as Khắc Khiêm, Trọng Long and Huỳnh Sang, performed well in the final round of the 2016 AFC U16 Championship, while Văn Xuân, Hồng Sơn and Quang Vinh did a great job at the U18 football tournament in Japan last year.

Other candidates for the final round include defending champions Hà Nội (18 points) and Sông Lam Nghệ An (16 points) in Group A; Sanatech Khánh Hòa who top Group B with 16 points and Thừa Thiên Huế, with 15 points.

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