Huge investment in coastal rescue road system

The potential road will be 38 m wide with four major lanes and two lanes for rudimentary vehicles. The 33km-long project will run across the two natural calamity-prone coastal districts of Thang Bin and Nui Thanh and Tam Ky township. 

The Xuan Thanh group, the project execute, signed up to complete the construction in 24 months. 

Also on this occasion, the province announced a project, worth 1.4 trillion VND (roughly 74.2 million USD), to dredge the Truong Giang river for emergency flood drainage. 

They are part of a general project on population redistribution and natural disaster control for coastal areas in Quang Nam province which is regularly hit by floods and storms. 

Once completed, these projects will connect the eastern region and other economic zones in Quang Nam province with the string of coastal tourist sites in Da Nang city and the Hoi An ancient town. 

The Xuan Thanh group took this opportunity to hand over the Quang Nam representative 2 billion VND in relief aid to storm victims and rebuild ramshackle homes for poor families in the Tam Ky township and four districts where the two projects will cross over.

Italian businesses keen on Vietnam’s market

Rome (VNA) – Italian enterprises attending a workshop on business opportunities in Vietnam have expressed their interests in the Southeast Asian country’s market. 

They asked for more information on the country’s investment environment and related legal documents at a workshop held in Italy on March 20. 

Addressing the function, Ambassador to Italy Dang Khanh Thoai affirmed that last year Vietnam was among ASEAN countries posting the highest GDP growth rates and remained an attractive destination for investors despite the impacts of the world’s economic and financial crisis. 

Vietnam and Italy have made efforts to boost trade ties, but the results are still far behind their potentials, the diplomat said. 

Italy ranks 26 th among nations and territories investing in Vietnam with its total capital reaching 162 million USD.

VN businesspeople in Russia contribute to bilateral trade

Moscow (VNA) – The Vietnam Business Association in Russia (VBA) has played an important role in strengthening traditional friendship, strategic partnership and mutual trust between the two countries, a Vietnamese diplomat said.

The VBA helped increase bilateral trade to 1.7 billion USD in 2009 from 1.64 billion USD in 2008 despite the global economic crisis, Vietnamese Ambassador to Russia Bui Dinh Dinh said at the VBA’s meeting in Moscow on March 21 to review its 2009 operations and discuss a plan for 2010. 

He suggested that the VBA hold workshops or forums to discuss the Vietnamese community-related urgent issues such as registration for business start-up, labour and legal residence in Russia . 

At the meeting, VBA President Tran Dang Chung highlighted the difficulties facing the association and the Vietnamese community in Russia , citing impacts from the global economic crisis and the closedown of the Cherkizovo market, the main trading venue for the Vietnamese people in Moscow , as examples.

He, however, pointed to the achievements made by the VBA in external and social affairs, investment promotion, and businesses, community support activities.

According to VBA Vice President Do Xuan Hoang, the association will host the fifth Vietnam business forum in Europe this year and join in an export goods exhibition in Moscow in September.

During the meeting, participants discussed issues relating to easing difficulties for businesses and the community and put forth new types of business in accordance with law and the Vietnamese people’s capacity.

Exports to ASEAN up 60 percent

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam ’s export turnover to the ASEAN market reached 850.6 million USD in the early months of 2010, up to 8.4 percent and 60.6 percent over December 2009 and the same period last year, respectively. 

Vietnamese exports of oil, rice and coffee in January strongly increased against the same period last year. Oil exported turnover reached 194.8 million USD, up 83.22 percent. Rice export value rose by 45.33 percent to 149.25 million USD.

Mobile phone firms face crackdown

Hanoi (VNA) – Mobile phone promotions are undercutting competition and leading to inactive phone numbers and a waste of digital resources, Government sources say. 

The problem has led to the formation of a draft management plan by the Ministry of Information and Communications to control mobile phone promotions and reduce the “chaos” in the market. 

The draft plan puts a limit of 90 days a year on which mobile phone promotions can be run and a limit of 45 days on each promotion. 

In also mandates that mobile networks must maintain the quality of their services during promotions and the information given to subscribers must comply with regulations. 

Under the draft plan, minimum charges set by the Government may not be reduced and any promotion reduction may not exceed 50 percent of the service’s total value. 

The ministry has called for comment on the draft management plan which is expected to become the final plan by the end of the month. 

Ministry telecom department head Pham Hong Hai said close management of mobile promotions aimed to create healthy completion. 

While promotion programmes attracted users, Hai said, they were tending to be used to undercut competitors and had led to and crease in the number of inactive subscriptions, resulting in a waste of digital resources. 

Changes had already been made to the promotions regulations. At the end of last year, mobile operators were limited to 50 percent promotions for pre-paid cards, instead of 100 percent or more before. 

The Ministry of Industry and Trade said the country’s telecommunication market was in chaos because of promotion “races” to attract subscribers to domestic networks.

“Charming Vietnam” features breath of the sea

Phu Yen (VNA) – Duyen Dang Vietnam Nam (Charming Vietnam), a popular music and fashion show, took place in Tuy Hoa city of the central coastal province of Phu Yen on March 21. 

The show’s director Nguyen Quang Dung successfully combined the application of sound, light and performing art to bring the breath of the sea, to audience. 

The musical section featured emotion-filled songs about the sea by veteran singers like Elvis Phuong, Huong Lan, Cam Van, Thanh Lam, My Linh and Hong Nhung and young singers, including Ha Anh Tuan, Phuong Vy and Anh Khoa. 

The fashion component highlighted designers Lien Huong and Thuan Viet, who introduced their new collections of stylised swimsuits. 
A portion of all ticket sales and donations collected during the show will go towards the Nguyen Thai Binh Fund for poor students and the Vietnamese Talent Fund, both organised by Thanh Nien Newspaper, the programme organiser.