Dreams palace nurtures many stars of sports

This year, the academy will celebrate its 55 th anniversary on the occasion of the 1,000 th anniversary of the capital. 

Established in 1955, the centre has a history of training thousands of children in both sports and education such as table tennis, martial arts, dance, art, music and foreign languages with the participation of 3,500 trainees annually. 

The secret to the centre’s success is in part, due to the scouting work of coaches who scour the country in search of child prodigies who can be moulded into winners. 

“We have over half a century’s worth of experience in educating kids in sporting and cultural activities. The palace, which is situated on a 1ha plot near Sword Lake, is well-known to most children in Hanoi,” said the centre’s vice director, Tran Duc Hoa. 

“Many parents enrol their kids during the summer time when schools are closed for the two-month vacation. The teachers and coaches look after the children when their parents are at work,” Hoa says. 

He added that the centre will be upgraded by the capital’s People’s Committee with an investment of 30 billion VND (1.5 million USD). 

Nguyen Huy Vinh, 50, said he has witnessed his son’s progress over the past six years. 

“I sent him to the palace when he was eight. I wanted him to grow in character and learn patience by playing table tennis. I am satisfied that he has done both,” the 50-year-old technician said. 

“The centre is only able to provide them with a basic level of training,” explained table tennis coach, Do Thuy Duong. 

“We also give advice to the kid’s parents when we discover exceptional talent. Parents can choose a long-term programme for potential future stars,” Duong said, adding that table tennis and martial arts are the most popular sports during summer time. 

Table tennis draws around 300 children annually, which is the most crowded section along with taekwondo, karate, chess and aerobics. 

“The centre has been seeking partnerships with other countries. Last year, we inked a memorandum of understanding with a Republic of Korea counterpart in taekwondo training, in which kids will make exchange trips to train in Vietnam and RoK every summer,” said centre head of sports Tran Minh Tuan. Among the centre’s successes are table tennis players, Ngo Thu Thuy and Chu Thi Hong Hanh, and karate kid Dinh Thi Thu Thuy. 

The centre’s staff are doing their best to add more sports and events to the curriculum including swimming and football.

Folk music gala celebrates Hanoi’s millennium

Hanoi (VNA) – A gala night of Ca Tru (Ceremonial songs) and Quan Ho (Love duets) took place at the Hanoi Opera House to mark the 1,000 th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi. 

The gala, held by the Vietnam Van Hien Magazine and the Centre for Traditional Arts Preservation also aimed to honour Ca Tru and Quan Ho , which have been recognised as the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Mankind.

The gala drew the participation of senior Ca Tru artists, including Nguyen Van Mui, Nguyen Thi Chuc and Nguyen Phu De together with young faces from the Thang Long and Thai Ha Ca Tru Clubs. 

Famous Quan Ho singers such as Thuy Cai, Thuy Huong, Duc Vuong and Quang Vinh also performed during the night. 

On the occasion, the organising board presented the Dao Tan Award to outstanding individuals who have made great contributions to preserving and promoting the national cultural heritages.

Largest-ever flower festival kicks off in HCM City

HCM City (VNA) -- A spring flower festival, the largest of its kind, opened in Ho Chi Minh City on Feb. 8 as part of the activities to welcome the Lunar New Year Festival. 

Entitled “Vietnam’s flowers,” the festival brings together over 8,000 exhibits both at home and abroad, including bonsais, flowers, apricot blossoms, rock-gardens, ornamental fish, birds, five-fruit trays, herbal plants and fruits from regions across the country. 

Visitors will have the opportunity to enjoy traditional art performances every nigh during the festival and join in competitions featuring the country’s cultural identities. 

The annual fortnight festival is seen as a chance to promote the land, people and cultural values of Vietnam to foreign friends.

Vietnam to join Asia-Europe exchange exhibition

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam will participate in the sponsoring committee for the “2,500 years of Asia-Europe exchange” exhibition in Belgium to promote its image internationally. 

The government has assigned the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to coordinate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and work with the concerned agencies of Belgium to implement the committee’s activities. 

As one of the founding members of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), Vietnam has played an active part in inter-continental cooperation in politics, economy and other fields, including culture and education, to serve its national development.

Highland artefacts show styles of different areas

HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Museum has opened a new exhibition of artefacts from Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands). 

The exhibition, which opened on Feb. 5, showcases more than 190 antique objects made of wood, ceramic, terra cotta, elephant leather and bronze made by ethnic groups of the Central Highlands . 

Artefacts from different areas can be distinguished by the unique styles that have been handed down for generations. About 120 of them are on loan from Trung Nguyen Coffee Corporation’s giant collection and another 70 selected from the museum’s collection. 

There are at least 11 categories of objects that were used in daily home and farm life plus musical instrument used in festivals and worshipping. 

Gongs, jars, Kpan table and many other objects the central highlanders used to symbolise health and power are also on display. 

Many of the artefacts were donated by artists from Tay Nguyen or cultural scholars. 

The exhibition features a dozen wooden funeral statues, which were used for decorating graves in Central Highlands, and a painting collection with 30 works by Xu Man, a famous Tay Nguyen artist.

BUSINESS

Irrigation expanded in Red River delta

Hanoi (VNA)- Nearly 80 percent of winter-spring crop in the Red River Delta have access to water, according to the national irrigation department. 

The reservoirs of Hoa Binh, Thac Ba, and Tuyen Quang remain open, releasing high volumes of water at 1,482cu.m, 255cu.m, and 150 cu.m per second respectively. 

Water levels in the Red River reached 2.2m by February 6, and this helped provide sufficient irrigation for rice seedlings this season, the department said. 

The provinces with highest demand for water include Hai Duong, Ninh Binh, Bac Ninh, Hanoi, and Thai Nguyen. 

The reservoirs will remain open from February 7-13, the department said. 

Meanwhile, drought has recently hit Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta provinces, enabling pests and diseases to attack thousands of ha of rice among 1.6 million hectares of the winter-spring crop. 
The National Plant Protection Agency has urged concerned agencies in the delta provinces to closely monitor the situation to prevent and effectively control the spread of pests and diseases.

Banks to back rice production

Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has directed ministries, sectors, food corporations and the Vietnam Food Association to develop support for this year’s domestic rice production and export activities. 

According to the Prime Minister’s official letter No 211/TTg-KTTH, State commercial banks must meet loan requests that will help with the purchase of rice for domestic consumption and exports. 

The Ministry of Finance must work with the People’s Committees in provinces and the Vietnam Food Association to set up an information system with updated information about production costs, farmer’s selling prices and export prices for rice. 

“The move will help with the management of rice production and consumption to ensure the interest of farmers and to stabilise the price of rice on the domestic market,” Dung said. 

The Ministry of Industry and Trade and the inter-ministerial rice export management team would instruct State food corporation to enhance transactions and sign large volume rice export contracts to effectively use the winter-spring and summer-autumn rice crops this year, he said, 

They should boost trade promotion activities and development of rice export market, and keep eye on how the domestic and international rice markets develop. 

Meanwhile, the VFA must intensify its efforts to seek export markets and customers for 2010 and 2011, he said. The association must work with relevant offices to deliver sufficient export products according to set schedules and to stabilise prices for services related to rice export activities. 

Truong Thanh Phong, VFA chairman, said Vietnam rice exports in 2010 would face many difficulties, making it hard to forecast the final numbers. 

To meet the Government’s requirement of ensuring farmers’ interest, the VFA plans to set up an investment fund this year to improve the quality of rice and guarantee income for the farmers, Phong said.

Auto sales surge, but down on December

Hanoi (VNA) – January auto sales surged 76 percent over the same period last year to 6,961 units, the Vietnam Automobile announced in its monthly report. 

Sales of commercial vehicle reported the highest surge of 150 percent with 3,340 units sold. Passenger cars followed with 2,170 units, up 79 percent and MPV/SUV vehicles reached 1,440 units, a 3 percent increase. 

However, compared to December when car sales reached 16,065 vehicles, January’s sales were down 53.8 percent. With a year-on-year increase of 59 percent, last December was the best sales month of 2009. 

Industry insiders attributed this year’s sharp drop in sales to the Government’s decision to end incentive tax policies for the auto industry. Previously, car buyers benefited from a 50 percent reduction in value-added tax and car registration fees. The Government decision resulted in a roughly 10-12 percent increase in car purchase costs. Last year the Government’s tax incentive policies resulted in sales of a record 120,000 automobiles in the country, including domestically-manufactured and imported units, despite the global economic slump. 

Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp accounted for 31.8 percent of the country’s total car sales in January, with 2,212 vehicles sold, a year-on-year rise of 109 percent. 

GM Daewoo and Ford Vietnam followed with nearly 630 and 373 units sold in January, respectively. 

However, some carmakers reported decreased sales last month compared to the same period last year. Honda Vietnam sold only 200 units, a 34 percent decrease. VinaStar’s sales totalled 138 units, down 24 percent, and Isuzu reached 80 units, down 31 percent. 

Most automobile manufacturers have forecast 10-20 percent lower sales this year as a result of the increased value-added tax and registration.

Domestic powder milk production rises by 41.2 percent

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s milk industry reported a production output of 4,400 tonnes of powder milk in January, an increase of 41.2 percent over the same period last year. 

Price increases for animal feed and decreases in the output of fresh milk, used in the production of powder milk, have translated into difficulties for farmers.

Market grinds to pre-Tet halt

Hanoi (VNA) - The VN-Index closed off a mere 0.37 percent on February 8 to 491.20 points, as trading slowed to a crawl in the week ahead of the Tet (lunar New Year) holiday. 

Market value on the HCM Stock Exchange fell below the 1 trillion VND level to 906.14 billion VND (49 million USD), on a volume of 21.2 million shares. 

Pham Vinh Thanh of Kim Long Securities Co said that it was traditional for people to hold onto money or pay debts before Tet, leading to a slowing in stock market activity before the festival. 

Nguyen Thanh Binh, head of the investment and analysis department of APEC Securities Co, also believed that unfavourable moves on the global markets, as well as the unpredictable economic situation, were contributing to investor reluctance. 

Binh advised investors to make decisions based on a resistance zone ranging between 510 and 530 points. He advised investors to hold onto stocks with a return-on- equity (ROE) ratio of over 15 percent. 

Meanwhile, the Hanoi Stock Exchange on Feb. 8 launched online trading for brokerages. However, the pre-Tet sentiment also held the HNX-Index to just 161.37, a decrease of 0.29 percent. 

Trading remained sluggish at 349.8 billion VND (18.9 million USD), with 11.01 million shares changing hands. The Hanoi exchange announced that the new online trading system, which could process orders within 50 milliseconds in comparison with 2-3 seconds previously, had performed well.