New policy on OVs to see progress in 2011

A project that focuses on policies and measures to attract Vietnamese experts and intellectuals living abroad will be completed in 2011 and submitted to the Secretariat of the Party’s Central Committee, said the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese (OVs).

At the December 6 press briefing, Pham Hai Bang, Head of the OV committee’s Culture and Information Department, revealed that the committee will propose building an ordinance on OVs-related work to create a more comprehensive legal corridor for Ovs and policies that offer OVs retirement and social insurance when they return home.

The committee will continue to boost administrative reforms and finalise regulations on immigration and citizenship, permanent residence and nationality registration to create the best possible conditions for OVs to visit their relatives, go on holiday and do business in Vietnam, said Bang.

The committee will also bolster the development of OVs organisations worldwide, he added.

A wide range of programmes will be held next year, including the “Homeland Spring” programme which is expected to take place at the UNESCO-recognised Thang Long Imperial Citadel on the Lunar New Year (Tet) festival, to welcome OVs visiting during the Tet holiday and other great celebrations and summer camps for young OVs.

Two delegations of OVs will return homeland to celebrate the 100 th year that late President Ho Chi Minh left Nha Rong Wharf to seek ways of liberating the country and the day he went to Pac Bo in the northern province of Cao Bang from abroad 60 years ago.

According to the committee, 4 million OVs are living in 103 countries and territories worldwide, of which 520,000 returned to their homeland in the first 11 months of this year. In 2010, overseas remittance is estimated at 7.2 billion USD, up 400 million USD over 2009.

There are more than 3,200 OVs-funded projects being carried out in the country, costing nearly 5.7 billion USD.

The OVs community has also donated over 16.6 billion VND to support local people living in difficulty and victims of natural disasters./.

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HCM City to lift farmers out of poverty

HCM City will introduce measures to uplift farmers to ensure there are no poor farming households in the city in five years' time, the city leader has promised.

Le Hoang Quan, chairman of the People's Committee, told a meeting held to review the coperation between the People's Committee and the Vietnam Farmers Association (VFA): "With agricultural land shrinking, we should help farmers use modern technologies to increase productivity and add value to their products to raise their income.

"Besides helping them select the best crop strains and animal breeds, we should also persuade them to be more aware of environmental impacts."

The city would no longer license golf courses, he said, adding it would also be more careful while making zoning plans to ensure the agricultural area would not shrink further.

Nguyen Trung Tin, deputy chairman of the People's Committee, said under the cooperation programme, the city had seen positive changes in agriculture.

The VFA should be even more active in acting as a bridge between the Government and farmers, apprising the latter of policies and how they are implemented.

It should ensure farmers supply enough quality produce to city supermarkets, he said.

The average income per hectare for farmers this year has risen to an estimated 170 million VND (8,700 USD) compared to 138.5 million VND last year./.

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People's Committee takes blame for HCM City roads

HCM CITY — With potholes and uncovered manholes causing a series of road accidents in recent weeks, the HCM City People's Committee has decided to closely monitor roadworks and hold relevant individuals and agencies responsible in case of accidents.

Nguyen Thanh Tai, deputy chairman of the People's Committee, admitted the city administration's responsibility for the accidents.

On October 20 Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai ordered the city People's Committee to inspect all roads that are in danger of developing potholes and take measures to repair them, ensuring road users' safety.

His order followed media reports on the road accidents, several of them deadly, caused by improper covering of manholes and re-paving of roads following sewage works.

On October 22 there were 30 deep potholes in city roads, the Department of Transport reported.

Tai said the department was responsible for overseeing the situation and penalising individuals and agencies found responsible for accidents.

But the department said it would be difficult to monitor the situation because there were too many road and other works at the moment, adding if an accident was caused by a pothole created during public works, the contractor and management of that work must bear responsibility.

Truong Trong Nghia, a lawyer, concurred saying the project managers were culpable in case of an accident and should investigate the cause.

If the department denied responsibility, it must inform accident victims who was responsible, he said.

It should order project managers to contact victims or their families and deal with the consequences. — VNS

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Hanoi cancels firework displays on millennial anniversary

Hanoi's committee of the Party Friday cancelled firework displays planned at 28 of the 29 spots for the city’s millennial anniversary this weekend, VnExpress reported.

Now the display will be held at My Dinh Stadium only, the news source said.

According to the committee, all funds set aside for the Sunday display, which was expected to be the biggest ever in Vietnam will be sent in aids to central provinces hit by floods last week.

Also Friday the capital began raising donations for the flood victims, the news website said, adding that so far, Hanoi has donated VND1 billion (US$51,289) to each of them.

The latest reports from the Central Committees of Storm and Flood Control showed that at least 52 people have died in floods, while property losses were estimated at thousands of billions of dong.

The city’s Party committee made the announcement four days after two containers carrying fireworks exploded at My Dinh Stadium, killing four and injuring another four.

The incident, according to Nguyen Duc Nhanh, director of Hanoi Police Department, was caused by “mistakes” during transportation.  

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Gia Lai province to focus on national unity

The Party Committee of the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai should see national unity as a life and death issue, a force to fight various kinds of enemies, including poverty, and a decisive factor for stability and sustainable growth in the Central Highlands, said the Party Chief.

Addressing the provincial Party Committee’s XIVth congress in Pleiku city on Oct. 4, Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh said the provincial party committee should, in its 2010-15 term, constantly care for the material and spiritual life of people of all walks of life in the locality, especially ethnic minority people and those living in the former revolutionary bases.

He urged the committee to continue to strengthen its leadership and the combat capacity of its grassroots cells, as well as political systems to promptly deal with local issues.

“Gia Lai needs to make the best use of its advantages in terms of geographical location, roads, air routes, and natural conditions favourable for growing large-scale crops, tourism, and handicraft industries, to create a breakthrough in development in the future and become a socio-economic centre in the Central Highlands northern area,” Manh said.

He also advised the locality to work harder to attract investment from all economic sectors inside and outside the country into industrial and service sectors, as it still has a small economy with low per capita income, under-developed infrastructure, and a high proportion of poor households, which have been seen clearly in rural areas and areas inhabited by ethnic minorities.

In its political report, the provincial Party Committee reported that Gia Lai posted an annual economic growth of 13.6 percent on average in the past five years, ranking among the country’s top 15 provinces in terms of GDP growth rate.

Only 10.8 percent of the locality’s households remain poor while 99 percent of ethnic minority households have been helped to settle down. Per capita income of local people in 2010 tripled that in 2005./.

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Youth scholarships programme launched

HCM CITY — The Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union in co-ordination with the Vietnam Mobile Telecom Services Company (MobiFone) last week launched a VND1 billion (US$52,000) scholarship programme for students in 30 cities and provinces.

The programme will award a total of 500 scholarships to highschool and university students who are union members and have a good academic track record.

The programme, first initiated last year, will run until March 2011.

Navy urged to save 18 fishermen adrift at sea

PHU YEN — Two tuna fishing boats with 18 fishermen were still adrift offshore the Truong Sa (Spratly) Archipelago due to their engine failure, the Phu Yen Province's Border Guard Command said last Friday.

The boats PY 92179TS and PY 92684TS were reportedly damaged and drifted out to sea due to strong winds last Wednesday.

The provincial Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Prevention and Search and Rescue on Friday asked the National Committee for Search and Rescue to mobilise naval forces to rescue the boats.

Unification trains departing time adjusted

HA NOI — Thong Nhat trains operating between Ha Noi and HCM City will follow a new schedule beginning on Wednesday, the Viet Nam Railway Corporation has announced.

Trains SE5 and SE6 will depart at 3:45 pm, 3 hours and 20 minutes later than the current timetable. SE7 will depart from Ha Noi at 6:15 am and SE8 will depart from HCM City at 6:30am, one hour later than the current timetable.

The corporation is also planning to add more express trains to transport goods along the route in addition to its current 14 trains.

Three porn websites shut down in HCM City

HCM CITY — The Ministry of Public Security's Information and Communications Security Agency announced on Wednesday that it had shut down three pornographic websites.

25-year-old Pham Ba N of Tan Binh District was accused to set up the website http://phimvang.com at the end of 2008. The site featured free pornographic movies and earned revenues from online advertising.

Last February, he and two other men, Dang Bui Phi H, 33, and Tran Ngo Q, 25 allegedly installed programmes to automatically update and provide access to pornographic films on foreign websites to attract more visitors.

Another porn website, http://chophieubong.com, which was set up by one of the three men, has also been shut down. — VNS

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National Assembly congratulates prize-winning professor

Prof. Ngo Bao Chau

The National Assembly Standing Committee has congratulated Professor Ngo Bao Chau, a young Vietnamese mathematician, on his 2010 Fields Medal for his proof of the Fundamental Lemma in the theory of automorphic forms, by introducing new algebro-geometric methods.

The congratulation was made at the opening of the 33rd session of the NA Standing Committee in Hanoi on Friday.

This award brings happiness and pride for not only Prof. Chau but also the mathematician’s circle, Vietnamese scientists and for us all, stressed NA Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong.

The NA Standing Committee took the occasion to thank Chau’s teachers and the good working environment in France for facilitating him in gaining such an exalted award.

Trong demanded the creation of favorable legal, policy and environmental conditions for mathematicians, physicists and musicians and other scientists in their work.

This is the first time Vietnam has won such an award and Vietnam is the second nation in Asia after Japan to have a citizen awarded the Fields Medal.

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National Assembly congratulates Prof. Chau

The National Assembly Standing Committee has congratulated Professor Ngo Bao Chau, a young Vietnamese mathematician, on his 2010 Fields Medal for his proof of the Fundamental Lemma in the theory of automorphic forms, by introducing new algebro-geometric methods.

The congratulation was made at the opening of the 33 rd session of the NA Standing Committee in Hanoi on August 20.

This award brings happiness and pride for not only Prof. Chau but also the mathematician’s circle, Vietnamese scientists and for us all, stressed NA Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong.

The NA Standing Committee took the occasion to thank Chau’s teachers and the good working environment in France for facilitating him in gaining such an exalted award.

Trong demanded the creation of favourable legal, policy and environmental conditions for mathematicians, physicists and musicians and other scientists in their work.

This is the first time Vietnam has won such an award and Vietnam is the second nation in Asia after Japan to have a citizen awarded the Fields Medal./.

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