Former poor district in City now poverty free

A HCM City district that was thought to be relatively poor has sprung a surprise by announcing that it no longer has poor people.

The Government has set the poverty threshold at VND12 million (US$571) per year per capita, and District 6 has become the first district to get rid of poverty, leaving behind wealthy localities like Districts 1 and 3.

In District 1 only one out of its 10 wards can claim this distinction, while in District 3 it is a more creditable 12 out of 14.

Every year District 6 has been helping more than 1,000 families improve their income.

Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberated Sai Gon) newspaper quoted Truong Van Luong, head of HCM City's Steering Committee for Poverty Reduction, as saying the speed of poverty reduction in District 6 has been rapid.

Three years ago the district had some 4,500 families with 23,600 members with a per capita income of less than VND12 million, he said.

But it vigorously implemented the Government's anti-poverty programmes. More than 5,700 families got access to easy loans, as a total of VND88 billion (US$4.1 million) was lent.

More than 2,400 students also got loans totally worth VND15 billion.

Trinh Thi Bo, 63, a local resident said she has managed to overcome her poverty. Last year she got a loan of VND30 million and helped her daughter open a fashion shop, which has been bringing a decent income for her family, she said.

Luong said the district did better than others because of the commonality of purpose between the people and authorities to eliminate poverty.

Nguyen Van Xe, deputy director of the city's Department of Labour, War Invalid and Social Affairs, hailed the district's achievement.

"District 6's achievement of the target two years ahead of schedule would motivate other districts to perform better," he added.

Since 2009 the city has enabled around 86,000 people to rise above the poverty line.

The city has nearly 66,400 households with 301,000 people living below the poverty line now, accounting for 3.64 per cent of the population.

Nearly VND400 billion for policy beneficiaries during Tet

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) has proposed a plan to provide financial assistance to policy beneficiaries with a total funding of nearly VND400 billion, or VND10 billion higher than the previous year’s figure.

Under the plan, gifts worth VND200,000 and VND400,000 each will be presented to policy beneficiaries and poor households during the upcoming lunar New Year (Tet) holiday.

The recipients include heroic Vietnamese mothers, war invalids, martyrs’ families, veterans, Armed Forces' Heroes, Labour Heroes, Agent Orange/dioxin victims, and those who have rendered great service to the nation’s revolutionary cause.

Answering inquiries at a live TV broadcast programme on January 6, MoLISA Minister Pham Thi Hai Chuyen emphasized that the Party and State always pay due attention to the poor and social policy beneficiaries. Ministries, agencies, businesses and localities have offered preferential loans for low-income earners and provided them with lower-cost health insurance services.

The MoLISA is asking the Government to issue incentive policies on vocational training, labour export and production subsidy for needy people, Chuyen said.

She noted that Vietnam is one of nations in Southeast Asia which have won great applause from the international community for promoting the welfare of all citizens.

Many provinces and cities across the country have gone to great lengths to provide relief aid to people living under the poverty line, she said.

The MoLISA Minister also called for local authorities and businesses to further help low-income earners stabilize their lives and enjoy a happy new year.

Scholarships for disadvantaged

The Mai Am Gia Dinh Viet (Viet Nam Family's Home) programme will host a Tet party and offer scholarships to disadvantaged children during an event at Phan Dinh Phung Sports House in HCM City's District 3 on February 9.

Nearly 1,500 children at city shelters and those living in rehabilitation centres in southern Dong Nai and Long An provinces will be invited to the party. Children who are members of the HCM City Blind Association and students unable to return to their hometown for Tet will also be invited.

Safe food push ramped up

More food safety and hygiene inspections have recently been undertaken in markets, the ministries of Health and Agriculture and Rural Development have confirmed.

Food that is particularly popular during the Tet holidays, such as pork pies, dried fruit, jams and vegetables, has been the main focus of the inspections.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said many inter-ministerial teams have been formed to carry out the wide-reaching checks.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat said his staff would increase supervision and monitoring of suppliers of plant pesticides and chemical preservatives and ensure hygiene standards were being met in abattoirs.

He also said that measures to stop poultry smuggling had been successful, with the number of illegal chickens dropping by more than 90 per cent.

However, the city's Industry and Trade Department has said that smugglers have taken advantage of a regulation stating traders transporting fewer than 50 chickens are not subject to presenting documents proving the origin of their stock. They also confirmed that many food businesses in the city have been detected using forged stamps for their products.

The city has been asked to punish these violations strictly.

Talks examines learning Vietnamese

The Second International Conference on Researching and Teaching Vietnamese was held in the Australian capital Canberra in late December.

Hosted by the city and the Australian National University, it attracted researchers and teachers from the US, Australia, China, Japan, Thailand, Viet Nam and elsewhere.

The conference was expected to build on the progress made at the first conference held in Ba Ria –Vung Tau Province in early last year, and encourage future meetings of Vietnamese researchers and teachers.

It provided an opportunity for fruitful networking and discussion among professionals to promote collaboration in research into and teaching of Vietnamese as a foreign/second language in Viet Nam and elsewhere.

Sixteen reports were tabled by researchers and teachers on subjects such as teaching Vietnamese as a second language, comparative analysis of Vietnamese and other languages in all linguistic aspects like phonology, morphology, semantics, and social linguistics, and preserving the language among overseas Vietnamese.

A report by Dr Thai Duy Bao from the Australian National University dealt with changes and challenges in teaching Vietnamese as a foreign/second language.

He stressed the importance of the relationship between theoretical and experimental research in teaching Vietnamese.
A researcher of Australia's Victoria University said in a report that because of the Vietnamese language's linguistic and cultural characteristics, teaching Vietnamese required paying attention to people's awareness of culture in communication.

Prof Bui Khanh The of the HCM City University of Foreign Languages and Information Technology said it was necessary to set up a forum for countries to co-operate in training, studying, and sharing research results and documents for teaching.

Other reports focused on teaching and researching Vietnamese and all of them agreed that students must be central.

Extra train seats for Tet holidays

Roughly 3,500 extra-train seats will be added on the Sai Gon - Ha Noi Route during peak times for the upcoming Tet, according to Nguyen Dat Tuong, general director of Viet Nam Railway.

The railway corporation will also offer a 40 per cent discount to all passengers who buy extra-seats for trips between Junuary 1 and 8.

There are approximately 10,000 train tickets still available to passengers wishing to travel during the holidays, Tuong said.

$125,000 to aid ‘quake families

More than VND2.6 billion (US$125,000) has been sent to Bac Tra My District's Division of Agriculture and Rural Development to aid families affected by the Song Tranh Hydropower Plant's recent earthquakes.

The transfer has been made through the division's bank account, according to Vu Duc Toan, deputy head of the Hydro-power Plant Project No 3's Management Board, which is the investor of the Bac Tra My plant. It was also confirmed yesterday by the division.

Each affected family will receive VND2 million ($96), and public works damaged by the quakes will get VND30 million ($1,400).

Jewelry bandits given life terms

A court in central Binh Thuan Province yesterday, Jan 6, handed down life sentences to an overseas Vietnamese and his associate for robbing two jewellery shops.

Mark Jose (alias Khanh), 35, an American of Vietnamese origin living in HCM City's District 3, was found guilty of the robberies, while Nguyen Phuoc Hai, 36, also of HCM City, acted as a fence.

Their associates Nguyen Bao Quoc, 34, Huynh Quoc Thai, 24, Truong Minh Toan, 47, and Bui Trung Kien, 28, got three to 19 years' imprisonment for the same charges.

On May 29, 2011, Khanh and Hai stole a van in HCM City's Go Vap District to use as the getaway vehicle after their robbery.

On June 2 the two along with Kien took away 7.2 taels of gold from Hoang Kim Jewellery Shop in Binh Thuan's Cho Lau Town in an armed robbery.

They burnt the van in Tuy Phong District later the following night to destroy the evidence before heading for HCM City, where they sold the gold for VND176 million (nearlyUS$8,400).

On October 14 the same year Khanh, Hai, Thai, and Quoc robbed Thu Thanh Gold Shop also in Cho Lau.

Local residents and traffic police gave chase, and the robbers threw a bag of gold into a river to destroy the evidence.

The robbed gold was retrieved from under the river a few months later by the Binh Thuan Police.

VNN/VOV/VNS