Pilot plan to lift food safety

A pilot programme that will promote food safety through a local retail supply chain is being submitted to HCM City authorities for approval.

The programme, to be overseen by the city's Department of Industry and Trade (DoIT), would help ensure consumer safety and interests, and improve the service quality of sellers at local markets.

Customers buy clean fruit at a supermarket in HCM City. The city plans to implement a pilot programme that will promote food safety through a retail supply chain.
 

Le Ngoc Dao, deputy director of the department, said the programme was part of the city government's ambitious plan to build HCM City into a modern "civilised mega-city".

While many kinds of commodities, particularly food, are supplied by traditional markets, control over food safety remains lax.

Commodities eligible for the programme will be fresh food supplied from supply chains and wholesale markets, including livestock and poultry, poultry eggs, fruit and vegetables, seafood and food services

Traders of fresh food and providers of food services as well as market managers will also take part in the programme.

The city's Ben Thanh Market and wholesale Hoc Mon Market will be the first two sites chosen for the "healthy-food market" programme, according to Bui Thi Thuy Duyen, an official of DoIT.

At Ben Thanh Market, the livestock and poultry trading sector and the food services sector will have to meet certain criteria.

For instance, traders must be licensed and clearly show the origins of their commodities, according to Duyen.

Departments, branches, districts and market management boards will also offer support to traders.

Shops involved in trading livestock and fruits and vegetables at the Hoc Mon Wholesale Market will also participate in the programme.

The livestock sector would encounter few problems because their products often have clear origins, Duyen said.

However, it was more difficult to trace the origin of fruit and vegetables as they were often collected from various sources.

Another problem is the resistance of traders to work under such an official system.

In an attempt to battle such prevailing attitudes, the programme will educate traders about the importance and effectiveness of having healthy markets.

Traders as well as markets should realise that their prestige and brand names would be enhanced if they met food-safety criteria, she said.

The city has 247 traditional markets, 142 supermarkets, 25 trade centres, more than 200 convenience shops, 2,000 grocery stores and nearly 200 vendor shopping points.

Ha Noi approves bird flu prevention plan

Ha Noi has approved a financial plan for the Viet Nam Avian and Human Influenza Control and Preparedness Project (VAHIP).

The World Bank-funded project aims to control avian influenza and minimise losses. With total capital of more than VND13 billion (US$624,000), the plan will further the effectiveness of veterinary services and re-plan breeding.

Vietnam in the face of growing gender imbalance

The spectre of a huge imbalance in the numbers of Vietnamese women and men is a real threat to the country’s future socioeconomic development and social welfare.

This concern was raised by Dr. Duong Quoc Trong, head of the General Department for Population and Family Planning in a recent interview to VOV.

Trong said Vietnam successfully reduced its birth rate, from 6.4 percent in 1960 to 2 percent in 2010. As many as 18 million children would have been added to its population if there had been no family planning over the past two decades. And this population boom might have hindered improvements in general living standards.

He noted that Vietnam is entering a golden age with people enjoying a higher life expectancy.

Trong, however, is concerned about the imbalance between newly-born males and females.

Vietnam’s yearly sex ratio at birth (SRB) hit 1.15 in the 2006–2009 period, 0.4 percent higher than in recent years.

Against this backdrop, Vietnam may lack as many as 2.3–4.3 million brides in the near future, he said.

So, there must be appropriate measures to address the three main reasons behind the gender imbalance, Trong insisted.

First, information campaigns need to focus on changing old attitudes in order to promote female births and discourage the birth of third child in family.

Second, laws forbidding pre-natal sex selection need to be enforced more effectively.

Third, there are incentive policies for women, including the law on gender equality, the national action programme on gender equality, and agencies in charge of women protection and advancement. Those who only have two daughters also enjoy these policies.

It requires about VND3,000 billion in funding to carry out the plan for protection of gender balance in the coming period (2013–2020).

He cited some models being applied in Thailand and the Republic of Korea which have successfully provided financial support for population programs.

Aid which is temporary but positive in the short term should be provided until the gender rate is rebalanced, he said.

Journalists attend world conference in RoK

Seven Vietnamese journalists have joined other 110 colleagues from 74 countries and territories at the 2013 World Press Conference in the Republic of Korea (RoK).

Participants at the ongoing conference are discussing the future of journalism in the digital age as well as digital news and changes of media.

The Vietnamese representatives come from various newspapers, including Nhan dan (People), Thanh Nien (Youth), Quan doi Nhan dan (People’s Army) and Tap chi Suc khoe va Moi Truong (Health and Environment Magazine).

The event, themed “Communication and Future of Global Journalism”, is held by the Journalists Association of Korea (JAK) with the support of Vietnam’s Ministries of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Foreign Affairs.

Addressing the April 14 opening ceremony, RoK Prime Minister Chung Hong-won expressed his hope that journalists will convey the RoK people’s aspiration for peace to the world.

The week-long conference is expected to adopt a declaration of world journalists calling for the maintenance of peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula, said JAK President Park Chong-ryul.

During the event, delegates will visit Dokdo island, a demilitarised zone in the trans-Korean border, the Samsung electronics factory and a high-tech park in Daejeon.

First graders increase after 2007 baby boom

The number of students enrolled in first grade this year surged by over 11,000 due to the 2007 baby boom, according to the Ha Noi Department of Education and Training.

Around 900,000 babies were born in 2007, the year of the Golden Pig in the lunar calendar, as many believed it was a particularly lucky year to give birth.

By 2023, the city plans to use five per cent of its total land area for public purposes and utilise unoccupied land for the construction of schools, said deputy chairwoman of the city people's committee Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc.

Boat project fails to reel in fishermen

Fishermen in central Quang Ngai Province are not switching to fishing vessels made from iron – even though metal ships would be safer and more efficient than traditional wooden ones – because they don't have enough money to do so.

The province's project to build 22 high-capacity vessels from iron was approved by the Prime Minister last July.

However, it has yet to be implemented, as not many fishermen can afford the VND5-7 billion (US$238,000-333,000) that each vessel costs to produce, according to director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Duong Van To.

Besides, many fishermen have not been trained in the use of modern boat equipment, so they are reluctant to take the risk.

While 20 fishermen initially registered to join the project, that number has now fallen to five.

Fisherman Nguyen Huu Ngot from Binh Son District's Binh Chanh Commune told Nguoi Lao Dong (The Labourer) newspaper that local fishermen were very happy to hear about the project, as they had dreamed for a long time of steering iron vessels.

However, many fishermen ultimately decided to turn their back on the project due to the high investment required.

"I myself would not build such a ship. It's just too expensive," Ngot said.

Even though fishermen can access preferential loans, they still have to pay a deposit of 30 per cent of the ship value.

To said more preferential policies were needed to encourage fishermen to participate in the project.

Reproductive health advice at clinic for poor

A new obstetrics and gynaecology clinic that will offer reproductive-health services for low-income families was opened yesterday in Dong Nai Province's Bien Hoa City.

The clinic is part of a 42-month programme to improve the health of workers and community in the province, with a total cost of US$500,000 funded by the Pou Chen Group.

The MSI Pou Chen Dong Nai clinic will provide quality family planning services for workers in industrial parks. The province has a total of 30 industrial parks with more than 400,000 workers.

Traffic inspections enhanced on highways

The Road and Railway Traffic Police Department will increase inspections on National Highway 1 to ensure traffic safety during the upcoming Reunification Day and Labour Day holiday (April 30-May 1).

Oversized and overloaded trucks on National Highway 5 will face fines from April 9-28.

In the second week of this month, 332 traffic accidents occurred nationwide, injuring 201 people and killing 154, according to the department.

Lao Cai seeks tight disease control ties

Heath authorities in the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai are stepping up measures to prevent and control the spread of diseases while calling for the active co-operation from local communities.

Past experiences show that contagious diseases are likely to break out during the current transition of seasons in the mountainous province.

From the beginning of the year until the end of March, 37 cases of typhus were reported in Bat Xat District, while the same number of cases of hand-foot-mouth disease were reported in Sa Pa District. Sixty-three cases of parotitis were also reported in Bao Ha Commune in Bao Yen District.

The risk of people getting infected by the dangerous A/H5N1 and A/H7N9 strains of bird flu also posed a headache for local authorities.

The province is a centre of poultry trading and borders China, where the A/H7N9 is spreading widely and claimed 13 lives.

Bui Thi Loc, director of the Lao Cai Centre for International Heath Quarantine, said the risk of the A/H7N9 virus spreading to Viet Nam via Lao Cai was very high, since thousands of Chinese and Vietnamese travel between the two countries on a daily basis.

The illegal transport of animal organs and poultry from China to Viet Nam, meanwhile, was still prevalent, said Loc.

She said strict supervision of travellers in the border areas must therefore be increased to minimise risks.

Nong Tien Cuong, director of the provincial Department of Health, said the authority had instructed relevant units to increase communications activities to raise public awareness on measures to stop the spread of diseases.

Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy, deputy director of the provincial Preventive Medicine Centre, stressed the need to raise awareness on the issue among ethnic minority people living in remote and disadvantaged areas.

She said the roles of health officials in villages and communes, therefore, were very important in controlling diseases.

Recently, to prevent the spread of A/H7N9, the Lao Cai International Border Gate tasked officials from the Lao Cai Centre for International Heath Quarantine to conduct heath checks for tourists.

The border gate also installed an automatic thermometer to examine those with high fevers, which is a typical characteristic of the A/H7N9 virus. Officers at the border will quarantine those suspected of being infected. An automatic sterilisation machine has also been set up at the local Kim Thanh International Border Crossing to sterilise vehicles passing through.

VNN/VOV/VNS/VNA