Japan assists Vietnam in vocational training

Japan has agreed to send experts to Vietnam to help improve the quality of vocational training.

Under the agreement, which was reached in Hanoi on December 25, Japanese experts will get involved in a project at Hanoi Industrial University.

Photo: VOV

From 2013-2016, the focus will be on improving vocational training in Vietnam, especially in the electronic and mechanic sectors.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said Vietnam and Japan have effectively cooperated in various fields, particularly in human resource development.

Japanese firms operating in Vietnam are in urgent need of skilled Vietnamese workers, he said, adding that personnel training is a key task of many ministries and agencies.

The Rector of Hanoi Industrial University, Tran Duc Quy, pledged to work closely with Japanese experts.

Early intervention can prevent HIV spread

Early intervention and treatment can almost completely prevent transmission of HIV/AIDS in Viet Nam, a workshop heard in Vung Tau on Monday.

If pregnant women with HIV get early access to antiretroviral (ARV) therapy, the transmission rate would be zero per cent, Assoc Prof Dr Bui Duc Duong, deputy head of the Viet Nam Administration of HIV/AIDS Control, said,
This means their babies would be healthy like normal ones, he told the workshop that reviewed a project on HIV/AIDS Prevention in Viet Nam funded by the World Bank.

Generally, early intervention and treatment would curtail transmission by 96 per cent, he said.

For this, more information would need to be disseminated to help people understand that being infected with HIV is not a death sentence, he added.

A report by the administration showed that the number of new HIV-infected people has reduced since 2007, going down from 30,846 to 17,780 last year.

In the first nine months of this year 8,560 people tested positive.

As of September the number of people living with HIV was 206,435. Of them 59,206 have AIDS while 62,073 have so far died of the disease.

Dien Bien Province continued to top the country in the ratio of HIV-infected people, with 992.8 per 100,000 population. It was followed by HCM City with 665 and Thai Nguyen Province with 579.

In the last five years the number of HIV-infected people aged between 30 and 39 nationwide has been on an upward trend. Last year they accounted for 43 per cent of newly infected people.

There has been an increase in the ratio of sexual transmission in the first nine months of this year to 46.4 per cent from 42.3 per cent last year.

Most of the incidence was in the Cuu Long (Mekong) River Delta and the south-eastern region.

Infections transmitted through blood fell to 41.3 per cent from 46.2 per cent last year, and was mostly found in the northern region.

New infections among men who have sex with men have been rising in the last two years.

Duong warned of the high risk of HIV infection among ethnic minorities, but said it was difficult to prevent in northern mountain provinces like Dien Bien, Lai Chau, and Lao Cai because of people's habit of giving themselves opiate shots to relieve pain.

More than 69,880 people with HIV use ARV.

This number is likely to double by 2015.

"The steady decrease in new HIV infections is a result of assistance from international organisations like the World Bank," Duong said.

The project on HIV/AIDS prevention, with funding of US$65 million, has been carried out in 32 provinces and cities.

Authorities have handed out 21 million syringes to addicts and 48 million condoms to prostitutes for free.

Thanh Hoa, Nam Dinh, Thai Nguyen, and An Giang Provinces and Hai Phong have introduced methadone-substitution treatment for heroin addicts as part of the programme.

Woman seized for absconding with funds

Pham Thi Thuy Hang, 27, was arrested in Tu Liem District's Phu Dien Commune for the alleged appropriation of VND13 billion (US$625,000), Ha Noi Police announced on Monday.

According to investigators, a man from Gia Lam District agreed to buy a SH motorbike from Hang, known as a motorbike trader, for VND90 million ($4,300) last September.

He paid her a deposit of more than VND3 million ($140) and she then fled with the money.

When arrested, Hang confessed to police that she had borrowed up to $625,000 from people around Ha Noi to do business but then ran away because she could not fulfil the agreements.

Police seize expired cosmetic products

The Ha Noi Market Watch seized more than 1,000 beauty products on Monday which had passed their expiry date in 2008.

All the products were being stored at the Trade Service and Transport J.S.C, based at 20 Mac Thi Buoi in Hai Ba Trung District's Vinh Tuy Ward.

These products included boxes of face cream, nail polish, shampoo, hair dye and glue from brands including Top Brass, Revlon and Flex.

Inspectors also searched a connected warehouse and discovered many other containers of cosmetics without sufficient legal documentation and proof of origin.

RoK hails Vietnam’s efforts on illegal labourers

The Republic of Korea (RoK) has appreciated Vietnam’s efforts in reducing the number of its guest workers staying illegally in the country.

This was announced by Director of the Overseas Worker Center Phan Van Minh at his meeting with Ambassador Tran Trong Toan on December 25.

The director also briefed the ambassador on the outcomes of meetings between a delegation of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs that he leads and the Foreign Workforce Division under the Ministry of Employment and Labour of the RoK and the Human Resources Development Service of the RoK.

Minh said at the meetings, the two sides agreed that they will work closely together to manage and supervise Vietnamese workers in the RoK, especially illegal ones. At the same time, they stressed, the RoK side should build and impose severe sanctions on Korean employers using illegal Vietnamese labourers.

In the near future, if the number of illegal Vietnamese labourers in the RoK is reduced, the country will resume the hiring of Vietnamese workforce under the Employment Permit System (EPS), the RoK side was quoted by Minh as saying.

Minh said he had proposed that Vietnamese workers who finish employment contracts and return to Vietnam on time will receive contract termination allowances in Vietnam instead of the RoK as before. In case labourers stay illegally in the RoK after their contracts, the money will be confiscated.

The RoK side took note of the proposal, according to Minh.

Gender inequality poses pregnant problem for future

Viet Nam will face significant challenges in controlling the birth sex ratio and balancing birth rates across different areas in the current year, said director of the General Office of Population and Family Planning Duong Quoc Trong yesterday.

The office said the birth ratio of boys to girls in Viet Nam had increased from 110/100 only six years ago to 112.3/100 at present.

The rate was forecast to climb to 125/100 by 2020 unless urgent measures were taken.

On the anniversary of Viet Nam's Population Day, which was held yesterday in Ha Noi, Trong said the department hoped population experts and agencies across the country would continue to join hands with central-level agencies to implement the State's population policies.

He added that the number of mothers receiving premature screening and children receiving screening exceeded the assigned norms this year.

Many projects for improving the population's birth procedures quality were conducted effectively, he added.

During this year, the population sector supplied family planning and reproductive health services to nearly 4 million people. The project for premature screening and diagnosis which aimed to discover innate disabilities was implemented in 51 out of 63 provinces and cities.

The department also joined hands with the United Nations Population Fund to set up co-operative plans for the period 2012-16.

Nguyen Thi Tuyet Mai, head of the Viet Nam Women's Union Family and Life Division, said the union set up a number of population and family planning clubs such as the Mother and Daughter Club and the Reproductive Health and Sex Balance Club.

However, good models of family planning were unable to expand due to lack of funds, she said.

Mai proposed the population sector should allocate more funds and disseminate documents for women's union at different levels.

VNN/VOV/VNS