|
Over 1,000 scholarships granted to poor children
Hanoi (VNA)- The Vietnam Children Sponsor Fund (VCSF) and Bao Viet Life Insurance Corporation (BVL) signed an agreement to grant over 1,000 “Bao Viet – Education Welfare” scholarships worth 900 million VND to disadvantaged children with good study results on August 5 in Hanoi.
In 2010, BVL raised the value of each scholarship to 700,000 VND from 500,000 VND. Since 2005, VCSF and BVL have helped about 6,000 outstanding students nationwide with nearly five billion VND in scholarship.
Starting 1994, VCSF has donated about 2,500 scholarships each worth 500,000 VND per pear.
Speaking at the ceremony, Minister of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan expressed belief that VCSF and BVL will continue to help poor children in their study.-Enditem
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vietnam strongly supports ASEAN social development
Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam has participated as well as made important contributions to the development of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC), a senior Vietnamese official has affirmed.
Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, Minister of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs of Vietnam, and Chairwoman of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Council, talked about the country’s contributions to ASCC in a recent article.
She said ASCC forms one of the three important pillars of the ASEAN Community, working toward furthering the quality of living conditions of the people in the region through cooperative activities engaging the people and creating a friendly environment.
These activities are tailored to promote sustainable development and contribute to building a firm foundation for the regional people to gain deeper mutual understanding and establish the friendly neighborliness and a sense of mutual responsibility.
Targeting an integrated, strong, self-reliance and self-strengthening ASEAN Community, ASEAN leaders, at the 12 th ASEAN Summit held in Cebu, the Philippines , on January 13, 2007, signed the Cebu Declaration confirming their pledges to step up the process of establishing the ASEAN Community by 2015.
The ASEAN Community will consist of the Political-Security Community, the Economic Community, and the Socio-Cultural Community, which will be tied together closely and support one another to ensure long-term peace, stability and mutual prosperity for the region.
To realise ASCC goals, ASEAN leaders approved the ASCC Master Plan at the 14 th ASEAN Summit in Hua Hin , Thailand , on March 1, 2009, and began to implement it just one day later.
The development of ASCC has been considered and evaluated on the grounds of the implementation and deployment of the ASCC Master Plan.
This master plan focused on six key areas, including human development, social welfare and insurance, rights and social equality, sustainable environment, ASEAN identity, and the narrowing of the development gap.
In the 2009-2015 period, the ASCC master plan consists of 40 compositions and 340 activities.
ASCC has over the past time made significant achievements, including building a legal framework for community activities, planning a roadmap and defining prioritized stages to implement related plans, and working out programmes and solutions to deal with public problems, including those involving healthcare, education and the environment.
Regarding labour issues, Vietnam has made positive and effective contributions since it joined the field by organising labour events and carrying out decisions adopted at ASEAN labour forums.
The country successfully organised the 12 th ASEAN Labour Ministers Meeting in 1998, the fifth Vocational Competition in 2004, and the fifth Labour Sanitation and Safety Network conference in 2005.
Hanoi hosted the 21 st ASEAN Labour Ministers Meeting on May 24, 2010 where the participants adopted an action plan in the field for the 2010-2015 period.
The action plan focuses on speeding up the implementation of labour laws in regional countries, boosting healthy labour relations, developing labour markets, enhancing labour sanitation and safety, reinforcing partnerships, developing human resources and improving the quality of ASEAN human resources.
On promoting and safeguarding the rights of women, children, and immigrant workers, the Vietnamese Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs hosted the seventh conference of ASEAN Women’s Committee in Hanoi in October 2008.
In performing its role as ASEAN Committee Chair in 2008, Vietnam proposed an initiative to build a master plan to enhance the capacity of national institutions in dealing with gender equality and women’s advancement through activities, conferences and seminars.
Vietnam has coordinated actively with relevant agencies in the process of establishing the ASEAN Committee for the Rights of Women and Children.
The Committee for Advancement and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC) was set up at the 16 th ASEAN Summit in April, 2010 in Hanoi . The committee will become a bridge for children and women’s participation in the building of the ASEAN Community, ensuring their happiness and development.
Acting as the ASCC Chair in 2010, Vietnam has worked hard to contribute to ASCC activities by introducing initiatives and implementing its commitments in theme activities, including the organization of the ASEAN Labour Ministers’ Meeting, the ASEAN Social Welfare Ministers’ Meeting, and the ASEAN Women’s Committee.
During the presidency term, Vietnam successfully hosted the third meeting of the ASCC Council on April 7, 2010 with the participation of ASEAN Ministers in charge of socio-cultural affairs.
At present, Vietnam is making preparations for the organisation of the fourth ASCC in August this year.
In the role of ASCC Chair, President of the ASEAN Labour Ministers’ Meeting, and President of the ASEAN Social Welfare Ministers’ Meeting , Vietnam is demonstrating its status as an active coordinator in ASCC development.
With these contributions, the country is eager to contribute more to building the ASEAN Community that will centre on the people and bear a social responsibility of forging solidarity and long lasting unity among ASEAN nations and countries, while establishing a mutual identity and a society where the people can enjoy improved living conditions and social welfare.-Enditem
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3rd Southeast Asian Pencak Silat Champs kicks off
Thanh Hoa (VNA)- Almost 200 martial artists from Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Timor Leste and the host Vietnam are attending the 3 rd Southeast Asian Pencak Silat Championship in the central province of Thanh Hoa which opened on August 5.
The athletes will compete in 16 weight categories in both performance and combat events. A total of 22 sets of medals will be awarded to atheletes at the closing ceremony.
This tournament is considered an important chance to help athletes prepare well for the 2010 World Pencak Silat Championship to
be held in Indonesia. This is the second time that Vietnam has hosted this event.
The event will last till August 9.-Enditem
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VNA’s news for foreign services honoured
Hanoi (VNA) – The News for Foreign Service Department of the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) has received the State’s Independence Order, third class, in recognition of its contributions to the country’s foreign news services.
At a ceremony to receive the Order in Hanoi on August 5, VNA Director General Tran Mai Huong affirmed that news for foreign services is always the foundation of VNA.
He stressed that in the transition from a traditional newswire agency to a powerful national communications group to meet news requirements in the new circumstance, VNA seeks to develop a variety of news products, including news for foreign services.
The VNA leader noted that the News for Foreign Service Department’s 65-year tradition, and especially contributions by its older generations, always serves as a fulcrum for its younger staff to further raise their sense of responsibility to and quality of the news they publish.
On the VNA’s founding day (September 15, 1945), the News for Foreign Service Department also made its first debut with the publication of the country’s Declaration of Independence in English and French languages.
During the two resistance wars against French colonialists and American aggressors, the News for Foreign Service Department played a key role in keeping foreign readers updated with developments of the wars.
It is noteworthy that that during the Vietnam War, the department’s English, French, and then Spanish bulletins greatly helped foreign readers and friends gain good understanding of the situation in Vietnam and the Vietnamese people’s just war.
When Vietnam entered a new phase of renovation and international integration, the News for Foreign Service Department has proved itself as one of mainstream and key foreign news channels to bridge the country with others around the world.
The department has exchanged news in English, French and Spanish with foreign news agencies partnered with VNA. Especially, its English bulletin is provided for the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry, the NNN website of the Non-Aligned Movement and the Oorganisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA).
Apart from English, French and Spanish bulletins, the Department plans to launch its own Chinese bulletin on the occasion of VNA’s 65 th founding anniversary.
Everyday, news in English, French and Spanish are updated on VNA’s official website, Vietnamplus, to disseminate current events in Vietnam as well as the country’s viewpoints on regional and international issues.-Enditem
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dung Quat Oil Refinery sees capacity raised
Hanoi (VNA) – Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai has given the nod on the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group’s proposal of raising the Dung Quat Oil Refinery’s designed capacity.
Accordingly, the Dung Quat Oil Refinery’s designed annual capacity of 6.5 million tonnes will be raised to 10 million tonnes, said Dang Hong Son, Office Manager of the Binh Son Oil Refinery Company, which manages the Dung Quat refinery.
With the current 6.5 million tonne capacity, the 3 billion USD Dung Quat refinery can meet up to 30 percent of the needs for petroleum products in the country.
The plant is expected to satisfy higher petroleum needs and shape up the first oil refinery consortium once it runs with the expanded capacity.
Rolling out its first product on February 22, 2009, the Dung Quat refinery has to date produced such items as LPG, Propylen, non-lead petrol, kerosene, petrol for planes, DO and FO.-Enditem
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ASEAN senior officials meet on environment in Hanoi
Hanoi (VNA) – The President of the 21 st meeting of ASEAN Senior Officials on the Environment (ASOEN-21) has stressed that climate change, ASEAN’s big challenge, is likely to have huge impact on regional socio-economic development.
When addressing the meeting in Hanoi on August 4, President Vann Monyneath said he believed that Vietnam and other ASEAN nations will work out effective ways of coping with climate change.
Bui Cach Tuyen, head of Vietnam ’s Environment Administration, said that cooperation in environmental protection and response to climate change is top of the agenda at the ASOEN-21.
The delegates will discuss sea and coastal environmental protection, bio-diversity and their commitments to protect the environment, he added.
The meeting is a good opportunity for ASEAN members to discuss joint initiatives on environmental protection cooperation within the bloc and the bloc’s partners, said Tuyen.
The ASOEN is held annually in rotation by ASEAN member nations. This year’s meeting was attended by 150 delegates from ASEAN nations and six partners, namely Japan , China , the Republic of Korea , New Zealand , Australia and India .
Vietnam , which joined the ASOEN in 1996, is one of the five countries in the world predicted to be hardest hit by climate change, Tuyen said, stressing that environmental protection and fight against climate change are two of the Vietnamese Government’s top priorities.-Enditem
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New TV show features Khmer community
HCM City (VNA) — A TV series on the culture and lifestyle of the ethnic Khmer people living in Vietnam 's southwest region will be filmed this week.
The 30-part work, titled Hay Cung Em Dieu Sarikakeo (Join Me in the Sarikakeo Dance), is being made by Vang Mien Nam (Southern Gold) Film Studio, a private film and entertainment company in HCM City.
Based on a screenplay by Nguyen Thi Hong Xuan, it is about the life and love of Sophia, a Khmer woman who lives in a small village in Soc Trang province in the early 1980s.
The film recounts Sophia's time as a Sarikakeo dancer in her native village before she moved to An Giang province and learned weaving.
Sarikakeo is a traditional dance of the Khmer.
Truong Son Hai, the film's director, said he and his producer chose Xuan's screenplay because few films had focused on this topic.
"We wanted to spotlight the Khmer people and their culture, lifestyle and dance," he said.
Hai said his crew would begin filming in the Cuu Long (Mekong) River Delta province of Soc Trang and then in Tra Vinh and Ca Mau. Skilled dancers from local traditional art troupes like Anh Binh Minh will be in the film.
There are nearly 1.3 million Khmer people in the delta, mostly in Soc Trang and Tra Vinh.
The Khmer celebrate their New Year's festival, the Chol Chnam Thmay, which is similar to Vietnamese Tet Lunar New Year, following the Khmer traditional calendar.
During the festival, dozens of professional artists from local art troupes travel around the three provinces of Tra Vinh, Soc Trang and Ca Mau to perform special programmes featuring the culture and lifestyle of the Khmer.
Local people and visitors can participate in many cultural activities, such as music and singing programmes, traditional games and sports competitions launched by local authorities. — Enditem
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thu Thiem Tunnel three weeks from completion
HCM City (VNA) -- Work on the Thu Thiem Tunnel beneath the Sai Gon River has entered the home stretch and is likely to be completed next month.
The East – West Highway and Water Environment Project Management Board and Japanese contractor Obayashi began pouring concrete to connect the fourth section with the final section on the District 1 side.
A ceremony was held for the purpose on Wednesday and it was attended by the HCM City Party Committee Secretary Le Thanh Hai, HCM City People's Committee Chairman Le Hoang Quan, and Party Committee Deputy Secretary Nguyen Van Dua.
The head of the board, Luong Minh Phuc, said the first four sections had been properly installed.
The fourth section was sunk in the river on June 5 after being delivered from Nhon Trach district in neighbouring Dong Nai province, where all the sections had been fabricated.
The tunnel is expected to be completed on September 2, the National Day, and connected with the completed East – West Highway next January. –Enditem
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vietnam top badminton player advances to quarters in Taiwan
Hanoi (VNA) -- Nguyen Tien Minh has won a place in the quarter-finals of the Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold Open on Aug. 5.
Minh , Vietnam 's top badminton player, crushed Indonesian Alamsyah Yunus 21-15, 17-21, 21-19 in the third round.
Minh, seeded No 1, was granted a bye in the first round.
Yunus, meanwhile, was up against Chinese Taipei's Chia Hsuan Lin in his first match. After a hard-fought contest, he triumphed 21-19, 21-17 – but the victory invariably took its toll on player.
Earlier, Minh, ranked 6 in the world, spent just 21 minutes demolishing Hung Ming Chi of Chinese Taipei 21-5, 21-19.
In his match today, Minh will play Hashim Muhammad Hafiz of Malaysia , seeded No 7. Hashim on Aug. 5 beat fellow countryman Chong Wei Feng 21-13, 21-18.
Hashim lost to Minh in the semi-finals of the tournament last year. However, the 27-year-old later lost to the Malaysian at the Hong Kong Open.
The final will take place on Sunday. The winner will earn 200,000 USD and 7,000 points towards his world ranking.-Enditem
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power shares brighten dull market
Hanoi (VNA) – Shares closed essentially unchanged on August 5 on the HCM Stock Exchange, as the VN-Index ended the session off just 0.1 percent to 486.21 points.
The Index was saved from further declines as investors probed to try to catch the bottom of the market, but purchasing remained hesitant and weak. The volume of trades reached only 37.15 million shares, worth a combined 1.16 trillion VND (59.5 million USD).
VSH was the most-active sghare on the HCM City bourse on August 5, with a volume of 1.34 million, and the shares closed up 1.6 percent despite the company’s reported second-quarter losses.
PPC rose by an even more impressive 4.35 percent and generated a volume of 1.2 million shares following the company’s announced decision that it would buy back 2 million shares beginning August 10, as well as make a 3-percent dividend payment.
Foreign investors on August 5 bought in 268,570 FPT shares worth a total of over 21 billion VND (1.1 million USD).
The HCM Stock Exchange also announced on August 5 that FPT would pay a 10 percent dividend on August 31 and close registration for the dividend on August 13.
On the Hanoi Stock Exchange meanwhile, the HNX-Index also largely marched in place, losing 0.28 percent for a close at 147.45 points.
Trading volume on the northern bourse dropped by 10.7 percent from August 4 to just 27.9 million shares, with a combined value of 754.03 billion VND (38.7 million USD).
Vinaconex Transport Co (VCV), an affiliate of construction giant Vinaconex, saw its opening day of trading on Aug. 5 on the Hanoi market. The newly-listed shares declined from an opening price of 17,000 VND to a close of 15,800 VND per share, while volume totalled just 130,600 shares.-Enditem
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HCM City holds global marketing expo
HCM City (VNA) -- The country's first-ever International Advertising Equipment and Technology Exhibition opened August 5 in HCM City .
The three-day event, Vietad 2010, has attracted more than 150 booths and nearly 70 domestic and foreign companies specialising in printing, electric signs, audio and lighting systems, and advertising products and services.
Dinh Quang Ngu, chairman of the Vietnam Advertising Association, told the opening ceremony the exhibition was an opportunity to promote the domestic advertising industry, which still lags behind the rest of the industrialised world.
The event also served as a platform for people who want to network and seek business opportunities.
The advertising industry's annual turnover was estimated at 1 billion USD, of which foreign companies accounted for a large proportion, Ngu said, adding that most equipment and technologies for the industry in Vietnam were imported.
"Inexperienced and unprofessional domestic advertising enterprises still have very little opportunity to access advanced equipment and technology in this field," he said.
A job festival for the advertising industry and an exchange between youth and businesspeople working in the industry will be held on August 7 at the Phu Tho Indoor Sport Stadium.
The event is co-organised by the Vietnam Advertising Association, the Vietnam Printing Association, the HCM City Advertising Association and Dong Nam Advertising and Commercial Promotion JSC.-Enditem
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contest puts kids in the picture
Hanoi (VNA) -- A photo competition with the theme Children of the World has been launched by the Photographic Society of Singapore in conjunction with the International Federation of Photographic Arts (FIAP).
The Photographic Society will organise the competition and host an exhibition next February 24-28 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of both the society and FIAP, said the society's vice president, Goh Kim Hui.
Goh who was in Hanoi to attend the 30th FIAP Congress said he has enjoyed the works of Vietnamese photographers displayed at the Sofitel Plaza hotel, the congress venue. He encouraged Vietnamese photographers to join in the newly announced competition.
The competition is opened to all national federations from around the world which are operational members of FIAP. They were each encouraged to enter about 20 colour or black-and-white photos of children engaged in their daily activities, a maximum of two per photographer, prior to December 28.
In order to ensure the submission of images of children from around the world, as well as complement UNESCO's efforts to promote better understanding the situation of underprivileged children, images submitted must be taken in the country of the sponsoring national federation.-Enditem
|
