As of early 2012, the Dung Quat Industrial Zone (IZ) has granted licences to 111 projects with total registered capital of US$8 billion, of which US$4.8 billion has been disbursed.

Local property developers are finding ways to survive the gloomy property market which experts say is unlikely to recover in 2012.

More than one million of visitors from across the country visited the Hung Kings Temple historical site in the northern province of Phu Tho during the Lunar New Year festival (Tet).

Vietnam’s tourism industry set a record by attracting 6 million foreign visitors in 2011. The sector will officially launch a new strategy this year with a new logo and the slogan “Vietnam-timeless charm”.

The Vietnamese Entrepreneurs Association in France held a get-together to celebrate the Lunar New Year (Tet) festival on January 29.

A grant ceremony was held on Jan. 30 in Huong Van Zen monastery in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue , to pray for a peaceful nation.

Vietnam has been honored as an exemplary model for agricultural development in developing countries at the current 42nd World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Thai Public Health Ministry expressed readiness to assist Vietnam in developing its universal health-care coverage scheme, scheduled to be implemented in 2014, according to National News Bureau of Thailand.

President Truong Tan Sang on Jan. 29 launched an order for ploughing the rice field at the beginning of the lunar new year at the annual Tich Dien (ploughing) festival in Doi Son commune, in the Red River delta province of Ha Nam.

Efforts to preserve traditional Vietnamese xoan singing have received a boost after the art form was listed by UNESCO as an example of world cultural heritage that need urgent protection.