SOCIETY IN BRIEF 5/9

Quality of workforce still low; Agricultural land use tax relief to extend; Conjunctivitis occurs complicatedly in Hanoi; 28 provinces hit by blue ear in pigs; Flu vaccine available in Vietnam

Quality of workforce still low

Vietnam always confirmed that it has abundant workforce that can meet the requirements of economic-social development in the future, however, the quality of the country’s workforce is now a thorny problem, said Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, Minister of Labor Invalids and Social Affairs.

The minister Ngan September 3 discussed the implementation of policies related to working abroad with supervisors of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee .

The low quality of workers also leads to difficulties in labor exports, said Mrs. Ngan.

Besides, enterprises should pay attention to the rights and interests of workers, she added.

To solve problem, the Government and the ministry need to improve vocational training programs, aiming to approach the world labor market.

To date, Vietnam has 500,000 laborers working in 40 countries and territories.

Agricultural land use tax relief to extend

The Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development and Finance have proposed to extend the reduction and exemption on agricultural land use taxes for the phase 2011-2020, coming to abolish the taxes.

The policy has been implemented since 2003, under a Congressional degree, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said. 11.2 million households have enjoyed agricultural taxes exemption and reduction.

Specifically, each of rural inhabitants has received an average exemption of VND50,000 a year, partly easing financial burden on poor farmers and encouraging them to focus on agricultural production.

In related news, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has ordered its departments to temporarily postpone doing surveys on poor households nationalwide until new poverty standards for the phase 2011-2015 will be issued.

The change of criteria is suitable with the current socioeconomic conditions and the price fluctuation.

According to the new standards, the poverty line has roughly VND500,000 a month or lower in urban areas and VND400,000 in rural areas. The common international poverty line has in the past been roughly $1 a day. In 2008, the World Bank came out with a revised figure of $1.25 at 2005 purchasing-power parity

With this new norms, the country will have about 16.5 millions poor people, or 3.3 million households.

The surveys are set to begin early this month.

In the old standards, applied for the phase 2006-2010, the poor are those with monthly average income of VND260,000 or below in urban areas and VND200,000 in rural areas.

Conjunctivitis occurs complicatedly in Hanoi

The disease of conjunctivitis, locally called red eye disease, still occurs complicatedly and persists in Hanoi and neighboring provinces, said the Central Eye Hospital on September 3.

In August alone, the hospital received nearly 2,000 patients suffering from the conjunctivitis, doubled over previous months.

Its doctors forecast the number of patients would increase in coming days. Conjunctivitis usually breaks out in the city and its neighbouring provinces in September when the rainy season begins in the north.

The conjunctivitis is caused by the adenovirus. It is often accompanied by a slight fever and sore throat. The patient’s eyes turn red with much irritation, itchiness and tears.

The disease is highly contagious in family, school and office environments. Hot weather also created favourable conditions for it to spread.

The doctors warn risk of conjunctivitis increases because the school opening season has come and thousands of students have come back to school.

28 provinces hit by blue ear in pigs

The Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus, also called blue ear disease in pigs, hit one more province, putting the total of affected provinces in the country to 28, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said Thursday.

Gia Lai Province’s Department of Animal Health said the disease was reported from pig farming households in Chu Pah District and Ayun Pa Town.

On September 2, Quang Ninh Province also announced that the pandemic broke out again in Yen Hung District’s Lam Sinh 2 Hamlet on August 20.

Flu vaccine available in Vietnam

Flu vaccine against influenza H1N1, H3N2, and influenza B is available in preventive health centers in Vietnam, said a medical worker on August 31.

Dr. Nguyen Thi Hong Hanh, vice director of the country’s National Institute for Hygiene and Epidemiology said the vaccine can prevent influenza strains of H1N1, H3N2, and influenza B as seasonal sicknesses proliferate with more patients suffering from dangerous complications.

Residents should go to nearby preventive health centers for vaccination. The vaccine costs VND200,000 a shot.

Dr. Hanh said season flu takes place all year round so people should inject to protect themselves from the illness.

Holiday shoppers crowd supermarkets

Supermarket and shopping centres in HCM City were crowded with shoppers enjoying a long National Day holiday and the city’s promotion month offering discounts on thousands of products.

Although supermarkets had beefed up their staff and prepared additional parking lots to accommodate the predicted increase in holiday shoppers, they were still overloaded. Shoppers have had to wait in long lines at parking lots and cashier counters since Wednesday afternoon, one day prior to the National Day.

The declaration of Friday as a holiday extended the National Day holiday to four days including the weekend.

“It took me nearly 20 minutes to park my motorbike and it was not until noon that I managed to escape the long lines of people at the cashiers’ counters although I came early in the morning,” said Tran My Ha, who shopped at Big C supermarket in District 10.

The Big C supermarket chain opened its outlets 30 minutes earlier and closed 30 minutes later for the holiday, and also had additional parking lots readied. They received 30-40 per cent more customers than normal days, said Duong Thi Quynh Trang, the chain’s PR manager.

Sales at the Co.op Mart chain rose by 2-3 times on Thursday, mostly of essential products, dry, processed and fresh food, home appliances and apparel.

Shoppers also flocked to shopping centres like Sai Gon Square, Parkson Plaza and Vincom Plaza as well as electronics trade centres including Nguyen Kim, Thien Hoa and Cho Lon.

These establishments have reported a surge in sales of LCD-screen TVs, washing machines and home appliances during the holiday.

Remains of 74 Vietnamese troops found in mass grave

Soldiers and residents of Quang Tri Province’s Cam Lo District have unearthed the remains of another 40 liberation soldiers from a mass grave discovered at the end of August.

This brings the total number of remains unearthed from the grave to 74. Other objects including hammocks, uniform buttons, watches and raincoats have also been found in the mass grave.

The soldiers are believed to have been killed during the Mau Than Offensive in 1968. Identification work is now underway on the remains.

Authorities had searched unsuccessfully for the grave in the province for three years based on information provided by American veterans who’d said 158 soldiers might be buried there.

Quang Tri was on the frontlines of the Mau Than Offensive.

125 homes to be moved for $300m tower project

As many as 125 households and organisations in downtown HCM City must move to make way for the construction of the Ben Thanh Towers project, which begins in October.

The US$300 million project is developed by Bitexco Group on the Ben Thanh Quadrangle, an 8,600-square-metre area bordered by the streets of Le Thi Hong Gam, Calmette, Pham Ngu Lao and Pho Duc Chinh in District 1’s Nguyen Thai Binh Ward.

Le Quoc Cuong, head of the district’s board for compensation and site clearance, said the board would inform the affected households and organisations about land clearance and compensation prices, and collect their opinions next week.

The board will apply compensation rates that were approved by the municipal People’s Committee in November 2008.

The compensation price for land on Pham Ngu Lao Street is the highest, at VND165.7 million (US$8,720) per sq.m, followed by land on Pho Duc Chinh Street at VND156.9 million per square metre.

The front-street land on Le Thi Hong Gam and Calmette streets has compensation prices of VND147.8 million and VND147.2 million per sq.m, respectively, while land on the two streets’ alleys is valued at VND50million-VND50.5 million.

Compensation prices for apartments acquired by the project range from VND61-73 million per square metre.

Action soon against tax dodgers

People’s Committee Chairman Le Hoang Quan has instructed HCM City tax officials to immediately identify enterprises that have neither submitted a tax declaration nor paid tax.

He also wants to know the extent to which the city’s licensed enterprises have been properly monitored.

The latest survey shows that 44,000 of 144,000 licensed enterprises in HCM City had not registered with the tax office as of July.

Work starts on $10.2m hospital

Construction of the high-tech Hue Central International Hospital began Thursday.

The estimated cost of the seven-floor hospital is VND200 billion (US$10.2 million), with 70 per cent of the money provided from loans.

The 300-bed, 200,000-sq.m. facility will include surgical, pediatric, gynaecology and rehabilitation wards for the treatment of both domestic and international patients.

Work is expected to take two years.

Blue-ear disease strikes the South

Blue-ear disease has infected pigs in 30 southern provinces, including the Mekong Delta, during the last 21 days, reports the Animal Health Department.

The latest infections were identified in southern Binh Phuoc, An Giang, Ca Mau and Tra Vinh on Thursday, it says.

The Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry has asked provincial officials to take immediate measures to suppress the outbreak.

Department’s epidemiological service’s head Van Dang Ky said more than 200,000 doses of Chinese-made blue-ear vaccine had been distributed to 21 provinces as of yesterday. Each province had received 20,000 doses.

The vaccine, which arrived last month, will be administered from Wednesday.

Japan assists Bac Giang province in education

Japanese non-governmental organisation, Pro-work Towada, directed by Nakano Shozo, will invite some of the teachers at Thang Cuong kindergarten in Yen Dung district, Bac Giang province, to visit Japanese kindergartens in order to learn about the education model from September 15 to October 13.

This kindergarten in Vietnam is a present of Pro-work Towada to poor Thang Cuong commune. It is invested at VND700 million, began construction in July 2009 and opened on January 1, 2010.

The school aims to provide educational assistance for 60 students in 400 households in this commune.

In August, the Japanese NGO equipped the kindergarten with teaching aids and Japanese teachers also taught music and provided advice on teaching methods to local colleagues.

Hanoi-Amsterdam school upgraded to regional level

Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Hanoi, Nguyen The Thao, pinned a plate “Project in celebration of Thang Long-Hanoi millennium anniversary” to the gate of the Hanoi-Amsterdam High School on the inauguration of the 2010-11 academic year on September 4.

The school has been reconstructed as the most modern in Vietnam and put on a par with other leading schools in the region.

Thao said the project was an evidence of the municipal administration’s thoughtfulness and sense of responsibility to the school in an effort to nurture young talents for the capital city and the nation as a whole.

He expressed thanks to the Dutch people, especially Amsterdam citizens, for their assistance to the development cause in Vietnam, especially Hanoi.

“May such a friendship and cooperation, especially in education and training, further develop, thus contributing to improving the educational quality of the Hanoi-Amsterdam school to a new height,” said Thao.

The Dutch Ambassador said he would do his best to boost the student exchange programme between the Hanoi-Amsterdam and a school of gifted students in the Netherlands.

He also presented five scholarships for a study visit to schools in Amsterdam in next summer.

The Hanoi-Amsterdam High School was first built in September, 1985 as a gift of the Dutch capital city to Hanoi. The school has contributed over 100 international prize winners to the nation.

In 2000, the school was awarded the title “Labour Hero in the Renewal Period”, a high State honour.

The school embarked on reconstruction on May 19, 2008 at a cost of VND429 billion. It now houses 45 classes capable of accommodating some 2,000 students.

Its campus, covering 5 ha of land in the downtown street of Tran Duy Hung, includes nine classrooms specialising in fostering talented students and physical and hobby training such as music, a gymnasium, a swimming pool, football and basketball playgrounds.

Prof Chau honoured outstanding capital citizen

Prof Ngo Bao Chau was presented with the title of outstanding citizen of Hanoi 2010 on September 4 by Chairman of the Hanoi Municipal People’s Committee Nguyen The Thao.

Prof Chau thanked the Party, authorities and people of the Hanoi capital city for their due attention, expressing his honour to receive the award.

As a Hanoian, he said he always looks toward to capital city, wishing for it to be more beautiful, greener and richer.

Prof. Ngo Bao Chau, born in 1972 in Hanoi, used to be a pupil at Giang Vo experimental primary school, Trung Vuong secondary school and the Hanoi National University’s talented school.

He was awarded the 2010 Fields Medal for his proof of the Fundamental Lemma in the theory of automorphic forms, by introducing new algebro-geometric methods at International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) in India on August 19.

Prof. Chau was among 11 outstanding capital citizens honoured for the first time in 2010 by Hanoi.

People memorise President Ho on National Day

Ho Chi Minh City’s leaders on National Day (September 2) paid floral tribute to President Ho Chi Minh at his Memorial House on Nha Rong Wharf, where he left on a vessel to seek ways to liberate his country.

The leaders included Le Thanh Hai, Politburo member and Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee; Le Hoang Quan, Party Central Committee member and Chairman of the Municipal People’s Committee; Pham Phuong Thao, Chairperson of the Municipal People’s Council; and Duong Quan Ha, President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front HCM City chapter.

They offered incense and expressed their gratitude to President Ho for to great services he rendered to the nation as the founder of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (now the Socialist Republic of Vietnam).

Close to 50,000 people paid tribute to President Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum in Hanoi on September 1 and 2.

Esperanto leader honoured for his contribution to Vietnam

President of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations, Vu Xuan Hong, on September 3 presented the “For Peace and Friendship among Nations” insignia to Osmo Tapani Buller, General Director of the World Esperanto Association Central Office.

Mr Buller received the distinction for his valuable contributions to Vietnam during the war against the US, as well as to the Esperanto movement in Vietnam.

When he was a student, he took part in the Finnish people’s movement against the US war in Vietnam.

Joining a young Finnish people’s Esperanto movement, he paid attention to Vietnam’s Esperanto publications and mobilised Finland to support Vietnam. He also helped Vietnam publish over 100 Vietnamese books in Esperanto.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Mr Buller expressed his pleasure at Vietnam’s achievements over 20 years of national renewal and pledged to actively cooperate with the Vietnam Esperanto Association to make preparations for the 97th Esperanto Congress to be held in Vietnam in 2012.

Quang Tri builds grand marker on Laos border

Authorities of Vietnam’s central province of Quang Tri and Salavan province of Laos on September 3 began construction of a border marker called grand marker 635 on their shared border.

Marker 635 will lie at the La Lay National Border Gate in La Lay village, A Ngo commune, Dakrong district, in Quang Tri province. The construction is expected to be completed on November 2.

From 2008 to now, Quang Tri has completed the installation of 22 out of 62 border markers on its border shared with Laos’ Salavan and Savannakhet provinces.

It plans to install an additional 14 national markers on its border with Lao localities from now to the end of this year.

As planned, Quang Tri will complete the plantation of two grand markers, 26 medium-sized markers and 34 small-sized ones along the 206km it shares with Salavan and Savannakhet provinces.

PV