VNU among Asian top universities

The Vietnam National University (VNU) has been, for the second time, listed in Asia’s top 250 best universities.

According to the World University Rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), the university is also among the regional top 100 universities in the field of natural sciences.

With more than 100 years of history and development, the VNU has affirmed its position as a comprehensive multi-disciplinary training and research centre of excellence based on international standards.

Numerous articles and scientific studies by VNU experts and lecturers have been published on international magazines and applied in reality, said the university’s Deputy Director Nguyen Huu Duc.

Quinvaxem use to be resumed nationwide

The use of the five-in-one Quinvaxem vaccine for children will be resumed in all localities nationwide in November as it has proven to be safe.

According to the Preventive Healthcare Department under the Ministry of Health, the ministry has kept a close eye on the implementation of the vaccination process - from pre-checking, supervision to post-vaccination - to ensure its safety.

The ministry has also sent working groups to localities to assist them in the work and give timely support in settling problems.

As of October 30, more than 200,000 children in 15 provinces and cities nationwide had been vaccinated. No abnormal reaction had been seen in the children, the department said.

Earlier on July 30, the Prime Minister allowed the Health Ministry to continue using Quinvaxem in its expanded vaccination programme.

The use of the vaccine had been suspended for five months for investigation following nine deaths. However, findings have so far failed to show that the deaths were connected to the quality of the vaccine.

Quinvaxem prevents five common, child killer diseases, including diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B and pneumonia, and meningitis.

According to the World Health Organisation, over 400 million doses of Quinvaxem have been administered in 90 countries since 2006.

Vietnam received 15.8 million doses, of which 15.2 million were delivered to localities from June 1, 2010, following the Government’s approval to use it in the expanded vaccination programme to protect infants under 12 months old against deadly childhood diseases.

Metro line plans released in capital

The office of the Ha Noi People's Committee has announced the plan for the city's sixth metro line.

The line will run from Thanh Tri District's Ngoc Hoi Commune to Noi Bai International Airport with a station at the intersection point of urban railway line 2A connecting Cat Linh and Ha Dong.

The line could be connected to the fifth line between Nam Ho Tay and Lang – Hoa Lac in the future.

Thousands of people left without safe water

More than 2,000 households with nearly 9,000 residents in the central province of Khanh Hoa's Dien Khanh Town are using contaminated water from wells as there is no clean water system.

The chairman of the Dien Khanh People's Committee, Le Xuan Nhan, said that the water system project had not been implemented due to the lack of capital.

As a result, local residents have to use aluminuous and foul smelling water from family wells and the Cai river.

Many have to spend hundreds of millions of dong to dig deep wells to obtain clean water but afterwards the polluted water returns, he said.

Equal development for ethnic minorities in Vietnam

Besides supplementing legal documents targeting ethnic minority people, Vietnam has implemented many policies to improve the spiritual and material life of these people over the past years.

The task has been conducted unceasingly since the country gained its independence in 1945. Article 8 of the 1946 Constitution said “apart from interest equality, the national minorities are assisted in every aspect to make rapid progress and keep pace with the general advance.”

On April 29, 1955, President Ho Chi Minh signed decree 229/SL to prioritise and ensure the rights of ethnic minorities, affirming “all ethnic minority groups have the rights to freedom in developing their own languages and writings, maintaining or improving their traditional customs, and to religious freedom, and are supported by the Government in political, economic, social and cultural fields”.

Together with the country’s socio-economic development, Vietnam has made important achievements in ensuring the rights of ethnic groups. Ethnic minority deputies make up 17.27% of the National Assembly. The rate in the People’s Committees at the provincial level is 18%, district level, 20%, and communal level, 22.5%.

The Vietnamese State has been implementing policies to support production and human resources training to improve ethnic minority people’s living conditions, especially in extremely disadvantaged and mountainous regions. To date, most of the communes where the groups live are accessible by roads and have access to electricity, clean water, and educational, healthcare and postal services. 85% of the ethnic minority population watch television programmes and 92% listen to radio programmes.

A number of independent UN experts on minority issues have been invited to Vietnam to see how ethnic minority people live. After such a fact-finding tour, Gay McDougall, an expert on ethnic minority people’s rights, spoke of the country’s political determination, policies, programmes and measures to ensure the rights of the minority groups in education, heathcare, job generation, culture, languages and traditions preservation, especially in poverty reduction and hunger alleviation.

At a UN Human Rights Committee session in Geneva, Gay McDougall affirmed that ensuring the rights of ethnic minorities is Vietnam’s top priority, which is shown in the country’s laws, policies and socio-economic development programmes.

Despite the State’s great efforts, ensuring the human rights of ethnic minority people in some places has faced difficulties, especially in life improvement as most of them live in mountainous regions with geographical obstacles. To deal with the issue, the Government has issued an action plan to realise the ethnic minority strategy towards 2020.

The draft revised 1992 Constitution, which is expected to be passed at the sixth session of the 13th National Assembly, also mentions fully the ethnic issue and ethnic policies to create conditions for all ethnic minorities to uphold their internal strength to contribute to the country’s development. The National Assembly is expected to complete the “Law on Nationalities” by 2020.

Vietnam has 54 ethnic groups, of which the Kinh people account for 86% of the 90-million population. The population of the ethnic minorities is different. Some of the groups have over one million people, including the Tay and Thai, several others have a population of several hundred, such as the Pu Peo, Romam and Brau. Most of the minority groups live in the mountainous regions, which account for three fourths of the country’s total area.

Each ethnic group has its own cultural characteristics, reflecting their long-lasting traditions, history and pride.

Residents insist on harvesting rubber trees despite warnings

Despite increasingly dire warnings that growing rubber trees in the central region is a risky proposition, local farmers still insist on cultivating the crop.

"Rubber is a tropical tree that is very vulnerable to typhoons and cold weather. Therefore, it's too risky to grow the plants in the northern central region, where most typhoons end up," said Le Quoc Doanh, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.

As many as 21,000 out of 82,000 hectares of rubber forests in the northern central region collapsed in storms Wutip and Nari, causing major damages and plunging many households deep into debt.

However, local residents still rushed to grow rubber trees because the plants could help them reduce poverty and eliminate hunger, according to Doanh.

"I will continue growing rubber trees because no other crop has more economic efficiency," said Nguyen Nhu Du, a farmer in central Quang Tri Province's Vinh Linh District, which suffered the most severe losses in the recent storms.

By focusing only on expanding rubber forests, farmers like Du were making a mistake, Director Nguyen Van Bai of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department in Quang Tri Province told Nhan Dan (The People) newspaper.

He advised them to place trees in areas sheltered from the wind and to plant windbreaks, dense trees or shrubs that protect the rubber trees from excessive wind.

Agriculture and Rural Development departments in storm-affected localities plan to ask People's Committees to draw on local budgets to help residents recover, said participants at a recent seminar.

During the seminar, Bai said that local authorities would support residents to diversify their crops, while farmers in attendance expressed hope that the Government would support them to continue growing rubber trees.

Hospitals set rules for treating malnutrition

The Paediatrics Hospital No.1 in HCM City has been asked to work with the city's Nutrition Centre to draw up guidelines for the treatment of severe malnutrition in children.

At a workshop on malnutrition prevention yesterday, Nguyen Huu Hung, the department's deputy head, said the guidelines would be used in hospitals in the city's districts.

Hung also asked the city's Reproductive Health Care Centre to draw up common guidelines for district hospitals who treat malnourished pregnant women.

Nguyen Ngoc Thong, head of the centre, said the rate of malnourished children under five years old in the city was 5.3 per cent last year.

Although the city rate was lower than the national rate, he said intervention methods should be improved as many babies continue to be born undernourished.

For the first nine months of this year, according to a report from the city's Paediatrics Hospital No.1, more than 7,470 of 46,825 outpatients treated at the hospital for health exams and nutrition consulting were malnourished.

Of 7,479 malnourished children, nealry 18 per cent suffered either severe malnutrition or very severe malnutrition.

For the same period, the hospital treated 1,388 malnourished inpatients. Of that number, more than 45 per cent of them were severely malnourished and 14.8 per cent were very severely malnourished.

Thong said the city should pay more attention to developing programmes to reduce stunted growth and low weight among infants, as these two conditions had increased in number in recent years.

He said this had occurred because mothers in the city had not breastfed their babies properly.

The centre's report showed that only 17 per cent of mothers breastfed within the first six months after delivery because they resumed working early.

The increase in Caesarian births was one cause for the reduction in the number of women who were breastfeeding, Thong said.

The Republic of Korean Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) will organise a skilled employment festival on November 11-12.

The event will be attended by nine Korean businesses which plan to invest in Vietnam’s automobile spare part production, electricity generation, electronics, information technology, engineering and chemicals manufacturing.

Vietnamese workers will have the chance to seek employment from Korean businesses.

Around 2,700 Korean businesses are operating in Vietnam. In recent times, the number of businesses involved in electricity, electronics and engineering has increased with a strong demand for skilled employment.

Vietnam hosts int’l waterfowl conference

As many as 200 domestic and foreign scientists and managers are attending the 5th International Waterfowl Conference (WWC) in Hanoi on November 6-8.

Themed “Sustainable Waterfowl Production”, the event builds on rapidly expanding and increasingly sophisticated waterfowl industries in Asia.

It provides an important forum for reviewing the latest advances in waterfowl research as well as in-depth discussion and exchange of information on sustainable waterfowl production now and in the future.

An interesting field trip will bring participants to a duck farm in Hanoi to demonstrate new methods of sustainable waterfowl production.

The conference is jointly held by the World Poultry Science Association’s Vietnam branch and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Workshop discusses family development in Vietnam

Social scientists from the United Kingdom, France, the United States, Netherlands, Japan, the Republic of Korea, China and Vietnam gathered for an international workshop in Hanoi on November 7 to discuss the development trend of modern families in Vietnam.

Director of the Institute of Family and Gender Studies (IFGS) Nguyen Huu Minh said the workshop is a good chance to assess and analyse achievements and challenges in building and developing the family in Vietnam in the Renewal period, particularly over the past decade.

Vietnamese experts focused on analysing structure, function, value and diversification of families in Vietnam as well as policies and action plans for family development in the country.

Meanwhile, foreign guests discussed the important role of public policies in enhancing gender equality and policies on care in socialist countries.

Participants said that knowledge of changes in family size and structure in all countries in the context of modernisation and integration is an important foundation for mapping out measures to develop well-off, modern and happy families in Vietnam.

WB project for low-income earners launched

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan has announced to kick-start a project on innovations that targets people on low incomes using the World Bank’s soft loan.

The US$55 million project aims to support research institutes and businesses to upgrade and commercialise the latest technology to create products and services of reasonable prices for a great majority of the population, especially low-income earners.

It also helps connect research institutes, businesses and banks to jointly speed up the application of advanced technology and realise their research outcomes into production.

The project will prioritise developing traditional medicine, information technology and communications, agriculture and aquiculture.

Scientific research in the aforementioned spheres must be practical, applicable, environmentally friendly and cost effective, and may be implemented in two or three years.

RoK’s U-City model inspires Vietnamese development

Hanoi hosted an international seminar on November 7 discussing the potential for applying green U-City planning and development principles in Vietnam.

Vietnam’s rapid urbanisation has had concomitant costs in land, energy, and environmental resource waste, and the U-City model is an effective solution, presenting a path to a more sustainable urban development.

Experts from the Republic of Korea introduced U-City’s advanced technologies enabling citizens easy access to all services within an urban space. Its systems detect and alert authorities to abnormalities in transport, environment and crime prevention.

Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements Director Lee Jae Yong said developing the infrastructure required for smart Vietnamese cities demands clear strategy.

Participants agreed the relevant authorities should base their development standards and criteria on U-City guidelines and instruct staff on its principles.

Improving climate change communications

Nearly 200 Vietnamese delegates joined foreign organisation representatives at a climate communications workshop in Hanoi on November 7.

The workshop aimed to reiterate the importance of effectively informing the public about Vietnam’s concerning vulnerability to climate change’s repercussions.

The UK’s BBC Media Action research reveals communication programs conducted by the Government, communication agencies, and civil society organisations have helped Vietnam better cope with natural disasters and climate change than its regional neighbours such as China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, and Pakistan.

But the research identified Vietnamese people still want more information to be well prepared for natural disasters, and climate change in particular.  

Workshop participants agreed communications could be improved by greater cooperation between relevant State agencies, legislators, scientists, journalists, project officials, and the community.

Tran Phong, Director of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s Centre for Environment Training and Communication, stressed the importance of clarity, simplicity, and timeliness in public relations campaigns. Climate change communications must work in unison with each other.

“Effective audience-based climate communication” will be discussed as part of the 19th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Poland on November 11–22. Vietnam will attend the conference.

Skilled workers can ‘make it' in Germany

Vietnamese professionals, especially skilled workers in the sectors of science, technology and engineering who wish to work in Germany, will be helped to seek job opportunities in the country under a new programme titled "Make it in Germany".

Under the programme – which is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, qualified professionals will be offered locally-based support as they prepare for their move to Germany.

The support will be offered by Vietnamese advisors who have previously spent time studying or working in Germany. It also includes information events, individual support with job-hunting and the application procedure and tips on preparing for departure to Germany.

In Asia, this service is only available in two other countries - India and Indonesia.

Nguyen Tuan Anh, an engineer from Ha Noi who has a master's degree in civil engineering, said he was currently learning German, hopefully to find a job in Germany through the initiative.

"The fact that Germany has eased its immigration rules to encourage more skilled professionals from abroad is a great opportunity for people who majored in scientific fields like me," said Tuan Anh.

He said the programme would create a win-win situation for both Germany, with its labour shortage, and Vietnamese skilled workers and possibly for Viet Nam as a whole as well, as Vietnamese workers will gain experience and learn a lot of valuable lessons in Germany.

Featured in an introductory video on the "Make it in Germany" website, Tung, a software developer who comes from Viet Nam and currently lives in Giessen, said that his education and expertise is very much appreciated there.

"In my profession it is important to "keep it rolling" and to improve oneself, Germany is the perfect place for that," he said.

Dominik Ziller, Head of the Directorate for Migration of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the three Asian countries - India, Indonesia and Viet Nam - were chosen for the pilot programme as they have comparatively well-trained workers in relevant professions and extensive potential in humans resources.

These workers, according to Ziller, possess qualification profiles that are suitable for, or can quite easily be adapted to, the German labour market.

He pointed out that some universities and schools in Viet Nam even offer courses following the German curricula, citing the Vietnamese-German University in HCM City or the Ha Noi University of Science and Technology (HUST) as examples.

He added that there is a similar landscape of institutions in India and Indonesia.

Ziller also said the German government has had excellent co-operation with the Vietnamese Department of Overseas Labour, which had showed an open mind and interest in having Vietnamese professionals gaining qualifications abroad, in order to enjoy the manifold advantages that come along with living and working abroad.

He said the benefits would not only lie in the remittances that the Vietnamese diaspora would send back home – but also the possibility of technology transfer that will eventually benefit Viet Nam.

Ziller said the "Make it in Germany" programme is an initiative to solve the problem of a drop in the number of available qualified professionals in Germany as a result of changing demographics.

"There is already a perceptible fall in the numbers of available qualified professionals in the "STEM" – science, technology, engineering, maths – sectors," Ziller said, adding that the problem will worsen and spread to other professions.

According to the programme's website, some sectors and regions in Germany are already lacking qualified professionals. It states that if nothing is done by 2025, demographic changes will have created a shortfall of more than 6 million workers in the country. Vietnamese professionals who are interested in seeking jobs in Germany could find helpful information through the "Make it in Germany" website.

The site shows professionals how to access Germany – from information about making a career and living in Germany to the details about which sectors are in search of qualified professionals and what the terms and conditions are for taking up employment in Germany.

Quang Binh promotes assistance to people with disabilities

The central province of Quang Binh has brought light to 5,236 cataract patients, and helped people with disabilities integrate into the community by providing job consultancy to 817 people and vocational training for 550 others from 2016-2013.

The outcome was highlighted at a workshop held by the provincial Department of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs and the Quang Binh Association for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities on November 6.

Under plans set up during the workshop, from now to 2020, Quang Binh will ensure access to healthcare services for 90 percent of the targeted group, and health check-ups for 85 percent of under-6-year-old children to early detect congenital conditions and growth disorders.

It plans to provide orthopaedic surgery and therapeutic rehabilitation to disabled 1,500 children and adults while building 80 percent of public and residential buildings accessible to them.

Over 45,000 disabled people reside in Quang Binh, but most of them have to rely on their families and have a low income.-

First Queensland education exhibition in Hue city

An exhibition on Australia’s Queensland state education was held in Hue city, capital of the central province of Thua Thien-Hue, on November 7 to intensify the education cooperation between the state’s universities and the Hue University.

This is part of the activities within the framework of the annual commercial activities by the government of Queensland in central Da Nang city and organised for the first time in Hue.

Visiting the exhibition, students had a chance to access useful information relating to curriculum, visa, scholarships and the life at those universities.

Over the recent past, the Hue University has implemented various cooperation programmes on scientific research, training and student and lecturer exchanges with Australian universities in the fields of economics, agriculture, forestry, pharmacy and medicine. Many of Queensland universities have trained Hue University staff, especially in health care and language.-

Vietnam opens training course on drowning prevention

A training course to improve inter-ministerial intervention activities against drowning in children was held in central Da Nang city on November 7.

The two-day event, jointly held by the Child Care and Protection Department under the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs and the World Health Organisation, attracted participants from the Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry of Transport and nine cities and provinces in the central and Central Highlands region.

According to the Child Care and Protection Department, drowning is the leading cause of deaths in children.

On average, ten children drown every day, accounting for nearly 50 percent of accidental deaths.

Statistics have shown that the number of fatalities due to drowning increases during summer holidays and the flood season.

Children’s lack of awareness in the matter is one of the reasons to the problem. Furthermore, unsafe living environment, the lack of adult supervision and poverty are also behind the situation.

Following an inter-ministerial plan against child drowning for the 2012-2015 period which was issued last year, ministries, branches and localities have organised more than 2,500 swimming classes for 60,000 children aged between 6 and 16.-

Cao Bang restores teenage hero historical relic

The northern mountainous province of Cao Bang on November 7 held a ceremony to inaugurate the first phase of a project to restore the Kim Dong historical relic.

During the phase, with total investment of over 10 billion VND (470,000 USD), the site was extended to 12 hectares with tombs of Kim Dong and his mother upgraded and restored.

In other phases, the project will also build a new exhibition hall, squares, a monument house, statues dedicated to teenage heroes, and some support items at a total cost of over 100 billion VND (4.7 million USD).

The Kim Dong historical relic, included in the Pac Bo special national relic, was the place where the Ho Chi Minh Vanguard Teenager Union was established. It is closely connected to the sacrifice of Kim Dong, the first leader of the union who was born in 1929 in Cao Bang and died at the age of 14.

The site has an educational meaning to teenagers nationwide, contributing to raising their pride and responsibility in national construction and defence.-

Efforts to search for volunteer soldiers’ remains continues

The K72 team searching and excavating the remains of Vietnamese soldiers in Cambodia has just started their assigned work for the 13th period in the 2013-2014 dry season.

K72, under the Military Command of the southern province of Binh Phuoc, said they excavated the remains of as many as 54 martyrs in the last period.

According to a senior official, unforeseeable weather and the approaching rainy season along with the high pressure of working in the jungle have harmed the health of the team members and their work progress.

During their mission, team members also provided free health check-ups and medicine to residents in Cambodia’s Kratie province, contributing to nurturing the friendship between the two Governments, militaries and peoples.

Khmer monk school inaugurated in Soc Trang

A Pali primary school has been inaugurated at Sro Lon pagoda in My Xuyen district, the southern province of Soc Trang.

Built at a total cost of nearly 2 billion VND (95,000 USD) the Khmer architectural style school includes four classrooms and other functional rooms.

Venerable Lam Chanh, head of Sro Lon pagoda, said that the new facilities will help improve the teaching quality for the pagoda’s monks in training and provide them with fundamental knowledge for further study in the future.

Sro Lon receives between 80 and 100 students from across Soc Trang and other localities every year.

The province now has 92 Khmer pagodas and a Pali supplementary school, which trains monks for Khmer pagodas. Students have to complete primary courses at pagodas to be admitted to the supplementary school.-

Class improves media’s human trafficking insight

A training course for reporters in southern provinces was held in the southern coastal province of Ba Ria-Vunng Tau on November 7, aiming to improve their knowledge in human trafficking and crime prevention.

During the three-day course, participants heard reports on human trafficking prevention in Vietnam as well as in the Sub-Mekong Region; domestic and international legal framework on the work; and human trafficking signs.

They also learnt about the State’s policies on fighting human trafficking and crimes and protecting and assisting trafficking victims.

According to a report released in 2013, there were 500 human trafficking cases, involving 800 traffickers and 3,800 victims in Vietnam last year.-

Ha Giang moves to reduce HIV/AIDS infection

The northern mountainous province of Ha Giang has recently approved the implementation of a plan on methadone treatment until 2020, with the aim to provide therapy for 70-80 percent of local drug users.

Accordingly, the province will build and improve the infrastructure of three rehabilitation centres in Ha Giang city and Bac Quang and Meo Vac districts, as well as medicine distribution centres in Vi Xuyen and Bac Me districts.

During the 2013-2015 period, it will focus on building and upgrading a methadone treatment clinic at the provincial centre for HIV/AIDS prevention and control.

Vietnam piloted its first detoxification model using methadone in 2008, with 15 clinics in six cities and provinces nationwide.

The methadone treatment programme will be expanded in Vietnam, heading to 245 clinics in 30 provinces and cities providing treatment for 80,000 drug users by 2015.

Methadone maintenance treatment is a comprehensive treatment programme that involves the long-term prescribing of methadone as an alternative to the opioid on which drug users were dependent. Central to the treatment is the provision of counselling, case management and other medical and psychosocial services.

Access to safe water in rural Quang Ninh on rise

As of November this year, more than 90 percent of the northern coastal province of Quang Ninh’s rural population have gained access to sanitary water, 32 percent of them use clean water that meets the Health Ministry’s standards.

The province is striving to bring the figures to 95 and 70 percent respectively by 2015, said Director of the Quang Ninh Centre for Rural Water Supply and Environmental Hygiene Nguyen Viet Anh.

To achieve this target, Quang Ninh has worked out measures to encourage investment in building water facilities and services that require fee payment so that water supply stations can run on their own.

The province has also paid attention to knowledge dissemination to raise locals’ awareness of using clean water, joining hands with authorities to realise the target.

At present, there are some 70 centralised and tens of thousands of household-scale water facilities in the locality. This year, Quang Ninh has completed 20 rural water facilities and kicked off construction of seven others while preparing resources for the building of six works.

Dong Nai Catholic followers review 30-year journey

The southern province of Dong Nai is one of the first localities in the country to establish the provincial Committee for Solidarity of Catholics right after the Vietnam Committee for Catholic Solidarity (VCCS) was founded in 1983.

Priest Tran Xuan Thao, Chairman of the provincial Committee, made the remark at a ceremony in Dong Nai on November 6 to mark its 30th founding anniversary.

Over the past 30 years, the committee has assisted Catholic followers in patriotic emulation campaigns launched by the Vietnam Fatherland Front and authorities.

Local Catholics have actively joined in drives to build cultural lifestyles in residential areas, lent a helping hand to the poor, studied and followed President Ho Chi Minh’s moral examples while building new-style rural areas.

Other campaigns to encourage studies and talents, and improve rural transport have also received their warm responses.

On top of this, local Catholic priests and followers have contributed hundreds of millions of dong to social welfare activities.

Addressing the ceremony, VCCS Vice President cum General Secretary Phan Khac Tu stressed that Dong Nai is the only province that has reviewed the patriotic emulation campaign among its Catholic community.

They have fully grasped teachings in the letter “Living out the Gospel in the midst of the Nation to serve the happiness of our compatriots”, issued by the Vietnam Episcopal Council in 1980, he noted.

Catholic followers form the second largest religious community in Vietnam. Based on the number of followers, Buddhism is the largest religion with Mahayana and Hinayana branches having a total of about 6.8 million followers.

Catholicism has 5.7 million, followed by Hoa Hao sect (1.4 million), Cao Dai sect (808,000), Protestantism (734,000), Islam (73,000), and Brahmanism (56,000).

Russian October Revolution marked in major cities

A ceremony was held in Ho Chi Minh City on November 7 to mark the 96th anniversary of the Russian October Revolution, which laid a foundation for the traditional friendship between Vietnam and Russia.

This relationship has stood the test of time to be incessantly fostered and developed, said Nguyen Huu Thanh, Chairman of the Vietnam-Russia Friendship Association’s Ho Chi Minh City Chapter.

Reviewing the historical significance of the event, Thanh noted that both countries are working closely together in a number of global issues and actively cooperating in economics, energy, diplomacy, military, culture, and education-training.

The two countries strive to raise annual bilateral trade to five billion USD by 2015 and 15 billion USD by 2020, he said, adding that at a local level, his city is developing ties with Moscow , Saint Petersburg and Sverdlovsk .

Russian Consul General in HCM City Anatoly Vassilievich Borovik stressed both nations will jointly preserve and reinforce their traditional brotherhood and promote mutual understanding and cooperative ties.

Borovik highlighted the talks between leaders of both sides as the foundation to develop ties between Vietnam and Russia as well as between HCM City and Russia’s Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Sverdlovsk in particular.

The same day, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Hanoi Party’s Committee Nguyen Cong Soai led a delegation from the Hanoi Party Committee, People’s Council, People’s Committee and the municipal Fatherland Front Central Committee to lay wreaths at the statue of Vladimir Ilych Lenin to mark the revolution.

On the occasion, the Vietnam-Russia Friendship Association Hanoi chapter, along with the Party Committee, People’s Council, People’s Committee and the Fatherland Front Central Committee of Hanoi’s Ba Dinh district paid floral tributes to the first leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

Source: VOV/VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/Dantri