Germany, Australia support climate change

The Governments of Germany and Australia have provided non-refundable aid worth over EUR18 million to a climate change adaptation programme in Vietnam’s Mekong River Delta.

The Integrated Coastal and Mangrove Protection/Climate Change and Coastal Ecosystems Programme (ICMP/CCCEP) operating in the Mekong River Delta of Vietnam, costing a total of EUR20 million, will be implemented in An Giang, Bac Lieu, Ca Mau, Kien Giang and Soc Trang provinces over the next 36 months.

Juergen Hess from the German International Cooperation (GIZ) said the aim of ICMP/CCCEP is to assist Vietnam to manage coastal ecosystems, enhance resilience and reduce the risk of injury to fauna, protect the Mekong River Delta, increase awareness of the environment and create sustainable livelihoods for local people.

Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ha Cong Tuan notes that the programme complements the Vietnamese Government’s strategies for comprehensive development and poverty reduction by 2020.

The integration of climate change into socio-economic development is a suitable method of approach for the Mekong River Delta, Tuan says.

Vietnam is one of a number of countries greatly affected by climate change, with the Mekong River Delta expected to suffer from severe flooding caused rising sea levels and storms.   

Support for poor fishermen in Quang Nam

The labour federation of central Quang Nam province on March 28 presented over 1.5 billion VND to 12 fishermen in special difficulty.

The beneficiaries, residing in the three districts of Duy Xuyen, Thang Binh and Nui Thanh, have been seriously affected by natural disasters or accidents at sea.

The aid, sourced from the Golden Heart Fund and the Fishing Net of Love Programme launched by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour, aims to help the fishermen repair their boats and purchase new fishing nets.

Earlier this year, a Fishermen Support Fund was formed in Quang Nam with an initial budget of 20 billion VND coming from the province’s budget.

The fund will assist fishermen in building high-capacity vessels under preferential credit terms.

The fund firstly targets fishermen in the three communes of Tam Hai, Tam Quang and Tam Giang communes in Nui Thanh district, which have the largest number of off-shore fishing boats in the province. 

Public administrative reform impact to be gauged

The satisfaction of people and businesses with the implementation of public administrative procedures at state agencies will be assessed via supervisory systems with specific criteria, creating a basis to gauge the real impact of the public administrative reform every year.

The Administrative Procedure Control Agency (APCA) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) jointly held a workshop in Hanoi on March 28 to discuss a draft questionnaire for 24 key groups of public administrative procedures in need of drastic reforms as stated in the Prime Minister’s Decision 263/QD-TTg.

The questionnaire will assess public service quality and attitude of public servants in 13 criteria on a four-grade satisfaction scale.

According to the APCA, outcomes from surveys of people and businesses will serve as reference for the advisory panel on administrative procedures reform to advise the Prime Minister on key tasks in the following years, as well as initiatives to further the reform.

At the workshop, participants agreed that the new form of survey will help ensure a more objective assessment of administrative procedures reforms.

They, however, noted that the draft questionnaire is still too long and goes into too much detail, which may cause difficulties for implementation.

Demographic challenges to Vietnam

Investing more in education and job generation for young people will be key solutions to demographic challenges in Vietnam, population experts agreed at an international conference in Hanoi on March 27.

Duong Quoc Trong, Director of the General Office for Population and Family Planning, said new challenges have arisen from the country’s significant achievements in tackling the population boom over the past 50 years.

The average number of children born by each woman of child-bearing age has reduced from 6.3 in 1961 to 2 in 2010. The children from the baby boom are now of working age and the country is experiencing a potential demographic golden period in which the group of working-age people reaches its maximum.

Trong cited it as one of the greatest challenges facing the nation, raising the question on how to utilise the period, dubbed a “golden opportunity”, for national growth.

In addition, he said, life expectancy has increased from 40 in 1960 to 73 in 2010, and the number of elderly people will increase sharply in the future putting new pressure on the population structure.

Different birth rates in different areas and regions created another challenge, Trong said. The rate in the Mekong Delta is 1.84 whereas in the Central Highlands it is 2.65.

Other participants from Thailand, China, Singapore and India shared experiences in responding to slowing population growth and how to develop a proper population structure to avoid a shortage of human resources in the future.

Prof. Gavin Jones from the Nation University of Singapore said that Vietnam should introduce policies, making it easier for both parents by combining child-rearing and involvement in the workforce.

The representative of the United Nations Population Fund in Vietnam, Mandeep O’Brien, said investing in young people’s access to quality social services, including sexual and reproductive health, could reap benefits for sustainable development.

Vietnam strengthens int’l cooperation in demining

The Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation under the International Centre (IC-VVAF) and the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) will work closely with Vietnam to effectively overcome bomb and mine aftermath.

To this effect, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed in Hanoi on March 27 between IC-VVAF, GICHD and the State Steering Committee on National Action Programme on settling the consequences caused by unexploded ordnance (UXO), also known as the Steering Board 504.

Under the MoU, by 2015 the two centres will provide consultations to help Vietnam continue the effective implementation of the action programme on overcoming UXO consequences as well as improving the country’s capacity in this work.

They will assist Vietnam to build an information management system and other systems necessary for plan-making and effective coordination among the involved sides.

In addition, IC-VVAF and GICHD will help Vietnam improve the surveying and clearance of UXO and incorporate them in the country’s socio-economic development programmes.

The two centres will support the country to building national standards on overcoming the consequences caused by post-war bombs, mines and explosives in line with the International Mine Action Standards (IMAS).

GICHD and IC-VVAF will also provide Vietnam with a system to monitor bomb and mine accidents and victims, while designing and implementing programmes to support the victims. They will create conditions for Vietnam to increase its information access and participation in international demining through seminars and training courses.

Meanwhile, the Steering Board 504 will be responsible for building annual cooperation plans with the two centres and implementing approved cooperation projects and programmes.

During the war, Vietnam was subjected to 15 million bombs, mines, artillery shells and other munitions and about 10 percent of them are estimated to have yet been defused.

Vietnam’s healthcare effort praised

International partners applauded the efforts Vietnam has made over the past years for many significant achievements in the healthcare sector, and pledge to continue working closely with the country.

The statement was made by Pratibha Mehta, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Vietnam, at a conference co-chaired by Minister of Healthcare Nguyen Thi Kim Tien and World Bank (WB) Country Director for Vietnam Victoria Kwakwa, in Hanoi on March 27.

The UN official affirmed that Vietnam has reached a number of millennium goals such as providing vaccination for most of newborn children, reducing the maternal mortality rate, and offering healthcare services for mothers, poor children and those of minority ethnic groups and in remote areas.

However, she also pointed out the gap in healthcare services among residential groups and regions, and called on the country to exert more efforts to narrow it.

At the conference, representatives of the Health Ministry suggested the inclusion of the Millennium Development Goals relating to health care into the local socio-economic development plans so as to attract investment from local and state budget as the foreign aid to Vietnam is reducing.

RoK-Vietnam conference on digital content

A conference covering the current status of digital content in Vietnam and the Republic of Korea (RoK)’s vast contribution to the industry was held by the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) in Hanoi on March 27.

MIC Deputy Minister Nguyen Minh Hong said the event provides assistance to  businesses and scientists involved in the information technology (IT) industry to seek cross-border partnership opportunities.

Digital content is a new but very promising sector that has already contributed to Vietnam’s economic growth. Although estimated to account for just 10 percent of earnings from IT industries, revenue from digital content has grown 20-40 percent over the past ten years.

In 2011, Vietnam’s IT sector consisted of 500-600 enterprises generating over 60,000 jobs and earning over US$1 billion.

Choi Youn Chel, a representative from the Korean Creative Content Agency (KOCCA), said the RoK has the leading digital content industry in the world, with the market valued at nearly US$3 billion in 2012. The country is now focusing on new technologies for personalisation, 3D and virtual reality.

Major factors for HIV transmission in Vietnam

The rate of HIV infection via unprotected sexual intercourse cases has increased rapidly and is considered the main cause for the transmission of the disease in Vietnam.

This was announced by the Department of HIV/AIDS Prevention under the Ministry of Health at a conference in the southern province of Dong Nai on March 27.

The Department said since the first instances of HIV were discovered in 1990, Vietnam has recorded over 210,000 cases of people contracting the disease, leading to more than 63,000 fatalities.

In 2012 alone, the country has reported 14,100 new HIV infections and over 2,000 fatalities.

About 45 percent of the detected cases were caused by unsafe sexual intercourse, while the rate of HIV infections among drug users continued to fall, from 13.4 percent in 2011 to 11.6 percent last year.

The Health Ministry said although there was a decline in the overall number of HIV carriers detected last year, the downward trend was less pronounced than in previous years and more communes and wards across the country had found new people living with HIV that had previously been undetected.

It is estimated that a further 50,000 HIV patients do not know about their status, leading to concerns that they could  infect their partners unintentionally.

Although concentrating on the prevention of the disease, the Health Ministry will also strengthen the dissemination of information to raise public awareness of managing HIV/AIDS once infected.

OIF helps civil servants improve language skills

The Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam (DAV) commenced French language courses on March 27.

These courses are part of a cooperative agreement between Vietnam and the International Organization of the Francophonie (OIF) to train Vietnamese diplomatic cadres and civil servants over the 2013-2016 period.

Addressing the opening ceremony, DAV Deputy Director Nguyen Dinh Thao said that 2013 marks a new chapter for the Francophone community in Vietnam, with the implementation of the cooperative agreement now underway.

OIF representative to Asia-Pacific Anissa Barrak emphasised that French language training for diplomatic officials is a direct result of Vietnam’s central role in the Francophone community for the region.

The commitment reflects Vietnam’s determination in promoting French and other languages for international relations.

Nguyen Ngoc Son stressed that the language program is one of several concrete measures to implement the policies of OIF member states to strengthen cooperation with the Asia-Pacific region. Vietnam is the first nation to implement the project.

This move affirms the OIF’s trust in Vietnam as a proactive member of the Francophone community in the country. Vietnam has shown a renewed vigour to improve the French skills of Vietnamese diplomatic officials and civil servants, especially those in charge of international cooperation departments.

US NGO provides free medical check-ups for poor children

As many as 153 poor children in the northern mountainous province of Cao Bang have received free medical check-ups provided by the California-based Social Assistance Programme for Vietnam (SAP-VN).

The check-ups, conducted with the support of the Thai Nguyen Orthopedics and Rehabilitation Hospital on March 24-26, targeted children with defects affecting their limb movement and inborn deformities.

Of the beneficiaries, 26 will be given free surgeries and the remainders will get involved in rehab training courses.

Founded in 1992, SAP-VN was headed and run mainly by US citizens of Vietnamese origin. It aims to provide direct relief to needy and poor people, orphans and handicapped children, focusing on healthcare, education and social welfare in Vietnam.

Labourers must apply themselves

The demand for unskilled workers is high, but they rarely attend job placement events, according to the Ha Noi Job Placement Centre.

Vu Thi Thanh Lieu, head of the centre's Labour Market Information Department, said previous job transaction sessions revealed that the supply and demand for skilled workers were much more balanced than the supply and demand for unskilled individuals.

During last month's job placement sessions, for instance, the proportion of college graduates who found employment reached over 50 per cent –while only 8-11 per cent of less-skilled individuals succeeded.

Unskilled workers may not be interested in looking for jobs through job placement sessions. Luong Thi Sao Mai, HR officer of the House Cleaning Service Development Company, pointed out that the company needed over 50 unskilled workers but received only a trickle of applications.

"In previous job placement sessions, we received only four or five applications a day," the HR officer said.

Luong Hong Thuong, finance and human resources director of the Tien Du Lighting Company, said it was difficult to find workers for construction projects due to the limited number of applicants, while positions like administrative officials were easy to fill.

Lieu explained that unskilled workers had not developed the habit of coming to job transaction events to find jobs and instead found employment through word of mouth.

Nguyen Thi Hong Mai, an HR officer at the Mechanical and Electrical Design Jointstock Company, said only a few experienced and competent workers went to transaction sessions to look for job opportunities.

Moreover, according to labour experts, unskilled workers often fail to include enough information about themselves and their capacities when they fill out applications. Thuong said his company frequently received incomplete applications.

Lieu said to attract more unskilled workers, the Job Placement Centre hoped to organise more sessions in industrial areas and suburban districts.

The centre is also working to simplify application procedures and employ advisory officers to help workers with the application process.

National ID number for all Vietnamese by 2020

Each Vietnamese citizen will get a 12-digit national identification (ID) number by 2020 under the Ministry of Justice's draft plan, released at a conference in Ha Noi on Tuesday.

Additionally, all citizens' personal data will be uploaded to a national database – making it easier for people to fill out paperwork and cutting down on administrative expenses, said the ministry's Administration Procedure Management Department director Ngo Hai Phan.

The Ministry is currently collecting suggestions from the public before submitting the plan to the National Assembly.

A similar plan has also been implemented by the Ministry of Public Security.

"More than 3,000 residents have been given 12-digit IDs thanks to a pilot project that will also be carried out in Hai Phong City," said Colonel Vu Xuan Dung, director of residence registration and management for the Ministry of Security.

According to the justice ministry, 1,045 of the total 1,300 administration procedures required citizens to fill out application forms and declarations. Using information from the national database instead would cut VND1,643 billion (over US$78 million) in expenses.

Raging river stops kids going to school

For years, people living in the isolated Khe Muong Hamlet in the central province of Quang Tri's Hai Lang District have yearned for a bridge.

The hamlet is separated from other districts by the dangerous Thac Ma River, which has caused up to four deaths in the last three years, said hamlet chief Tran Quang Hai.

Last year, a child drowned while trying to get to school.

All 70 households have a small area of land for farming production. But they also have to fetch firewood in the forest and do extra jobs to survive, he said – meaning that they are often forced to cross the river.

"We can get across the river in the dry season but not in the rainy season, when the water level rises to nearly 15 metres. As a result, most students have to skip school for nearly one month," said Hai.

Ho Xuan Chien, a fourth-grader at Hai Son Primary School, was once swept away by the river's swift current – but he fortunately escaped death thanks to a local resident.

"My parents work in the forest for the whole day so I have to cross the river by myself. I feel so scared now and won't go to school if nobody helps me cross the river," Chien told Nguoi Lao Dong (Labourer) newspaper.

For the same reason, Chien's older sister left school when she was only in fifth grade.

The lack of a bridge has forced local residents to create their own means of transport.

Punctured car tires collected from auto repair shops are fixed and inflated, then used as buoys to carry students.

"Since the tubes are old, they sometimes turn over and get students' clothes and books wet. They have to miss their classes that day," said 53-year-old villager Doan Thanh Binh.

Khe Muong Hamlet now has 30 school-age children, but in the 2012-2013 academic year, only one student attended high school. The rest refused to brave the river.

The lack of a bridge also affects agricultural production. Local farmers find it hard to transport products across the river for sale; residents, as a result, are forced to sell products at a price two or three times lower than market value.

According to Nguyen Khanh Vinh, chairman of the Hai Son communal people's committee, the commune has proposed a motion to build a bridge over the Thac Ma River many times but it has not been approved as yet due to the lack of budget.

HCM City firms to require 70,000 workers in Q2

HCM City companies will need 70,000 workers in the second quarter, up from 50,309 in the first, according to the Centre for Forecasting Manpower Needs and Labour Market Information.

Most of them will be in retail, marketing, information technology, services, garments-footwear, accounting-auditing, insurance, engineering, health services, construction, and the electricity sector.

Manual work would account for 30 per cent of the jobs, 4.2 per cent down from the first quarter, Tran Anh Tuan, the centre's deputy head, said.

The rest would require trained employees, he said.

In the first quarter, when demand and supply were balanced, employers needed human resources in services and sales, he said.

Most people seeking jobs during the period were fresh graduates from colleges and universities.

Government workers get welcome break

Government workers will be given five days off on the occasion of Reunification Day (April 30) and International Labour Day (May 1) this year following a decision by the Prime Minister.

The holiday will begin on Saturday April 27 and end on May 1. Government workers will have to work on the following Saturday to compensate for their day off on Monday April 29.

First endoscopic heart surgery successful

Doctors from Ha Noi's Bach Mai Hospital conducted the first endoscopic heart surgery in the country.

Doan Ngoc Thang, 38, of central Thanh Hoa Province left the hospital yesterday afternoon after a six-day treatment. He was taken to the hospital with heart failure last Friday.

Duong Duc Hung, head of the hospital's Heart Division, said that endoscopic heart surgeries will be frequently conducted from now on.

Gang charged with forging Gov't seals

Police prosecuted five members of a ring who were suspected of producing fake Government seals used for appropriating property in northern Hai Phong City's Kien An District yesterday.

Ringleader Dinh Thi Dat was remanded in custody for further investigation and four members were forbidden from leaving the district.

Police believe Dat borrowed VND2.8 billion (US$133,000) from Bui Tien Dung in late 2010, but she failed to repay the money to Dung.

Dat paid VND77 million ($3,700) to hire six members of a ring to produce three fake land-use right certificates worth tens of billions of dong.

She gave one of the faked certificates to Dung so that she wouldn't have to repay her debt.

She also used another faked certificate to borrow VND2.8 billion ($133,000) from a local couple.

Local police are still searching for the sixth member of the ring.

Efforts to clear bombs, mines get int'l support

Two international organisations have pledged to continue helping implement Viet Nam's national action plan on clearing unexploded ordnance left over from the American War from now until 2015.

A memorandum of understanding to this effect was signed yesterday by the Vietnamese State committee responsible for dealing with the aftermath of the war.

The two foreign partners are the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining and the US-based International Centre – Vietnam Veterans of American Foundation.

The two centres committed to continue work on surveying areas for ordnance and disarming bombs, mines and unexploded ordnance to ensure these weapons did not pose a threat to people.

They will also help build a set of regulations on clearing bombs, mines and unexploded ordnance in line with international standards.

Additionally, Viet Nam will get assistance for projects on supporting victims of bombs and mines.

An estimated 15 million tonnes of bombs, mines and explosives were used during the American War in Viet Nam.

At the current pace of detecting and defusing unexploded ordinance, it would take Viet Nam about 300 years to completely clear the threats currently posed by the aftermath of the war, according to experts.

Source: VNA/VNS/VOV/SGGP