VN plans to put end to TB within 20 years

HA NOI — Viet Nam plans to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) by 2030. The National Tuberculosis Prevention (NTP) Programme yesterday revealed its strategy for the next five years to reduce the prevalence of TB by half of the estimated incidence in 2000. It also aims to keep the multi-drug resistance (MDR) rate steady between now and 2015.

"TB epidemiology in Viet Nam is still higher than the previous estimation of health experts. Thus, a significant number of TB cases remain undiagnosed or unreported and will continuously be sources of transmission," said NTP Director Dinh Ngoc Sy.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Health, Viet Nam still ranks 12th among 22 TB high burden countries and ranks 14th among 27 countries with a high burden of MDR-TB. The NTP estimated that Viet Nam has about 200,000 TB cases of all forms, of which nearly 100,000 are new cases.

The number of TB cases detected and treated consistently remains under 60 per cent of new cases annually. MDR-TB is about 20 per cent of previously treated TB patients.

Viet Nam will have to mobilise about US$250 million of the total budget of $340 million from local and international donors to implement the National Tuberculosis Prevention Programme (NTP) in the next five years, Sy said.

"The State funding for the tuberculosis prevention programme only satisfied about 30 per cent of the budget requirement," he said.

The NTP said TB prevention activities have faced many challenges due to inadequate budget, lack of human resources, legal shortcomings, a weak health system and the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The programme period 2011-15 targets objectives that ensure access to and provision of equitable, high-quality and basic directly observed treatment (DOT) services at all levels of the healthcare system; address TB/HIV, MDR-TB and TB control in prisons; integrate NTP into the health system; and mobilise the involvement of all economic sectors in the NTP fight. WHO estimates there are about 2 million new TB cases, 93 per cent of which are in Viet Nam, the Philippines, Cambodia and China. In fact, 260,000 people die from TB each year in the Western Pacific region. — VNS

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Coaches lack safety equipment

HA NOI — Most coaches based out of Ha Noi's terminals lack safety equipment such as emergency hammers, fire-extinguishers and seatbelts.

Nguyen Huu Hao, who drives a coach on the Ha Noi - Thanh Hoa route, said that every coach had hammers to smash windows in case of emergency and fire-extinguishers when it was first bought, but the items had gone missing over time.

"The fire-extinguishers have also become rusty," he said.

Another driver, who wished to remain anonymous, said that passengers didn't care whether his coach had emergency hammers and fire-extinguishers, and he didn't need the equipment anyway because he never had accidents.

He claimed that passengers didn't have any idea what an emergency hammer looked like, and wouldn't know how to use them to smash windows anyway.

Passenger Nguyen Duc Thanh said he had never seen rescue equipment on coaches, and most of coaches only had multimedia equipment for showing DVDs or for singing karaoke.

"I hope terminal management equip their coaches with emergency hammers and fire-extinguishers, and give passengers guidance on how to use them," he said.

Despite it being quite common for equipment to become lost, terminal management and drivers remained unaware of suppliers.

Nguyen Minh Anh, owner of an accessory shop on Tran Khat Chan Road, said that previously his shop had sold safety equipment for coaches, but people rarely bought it now.

"Mine and many other shops on this street don't bother selling this equipment any more," he said.

The Viet Nam Vehicle Licensing Department regulates that all coaches must have safety equipment, yet the country still lacks any guidance on punishment for violators.

Government's Decree 34/2010/ND-CP, which regulates administrative fines for traffic violations, does not specify fines for coaches lacking safety equipment.

Director of the Department for Transport and Legislation under the Directorate for Roads of Viet Nam Do Xuan Hoa said: "The lack of punishments means terminal management aren't paying any attention to safety equipment."

The lack of safety equipment was thrown into sharp relief when floodwater swept away a coach carrying 37 passengers from National Highway 1A in the central province of Ha Tinh this October. Twenty passengers died in the incident as they could not swim, and the bus lacked emergency hammers to smash the windows. — VNS

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WWF is incorrect on tra fish, says ministry

HA NOI — It is regrettable that a number of the European World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) offices have released unobjective, scientifically groundless and impractical assessments on the Vietnamese tra fish, said Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga yesterday.

In reply to reporters' questions relating to the WWF red listing of Vietnamese tra fish in the Consumer Guide 2010/2011, Nga said this would seriously hurt the livelihood of Vietnamese aquaculture farmers as well as European consumers and would not benefit the growing economic and commercial relations between Viet Nam and European countries.

"Over the past years, Viet Nam has strictly controlled its aquaculture sector from planning, production and processing, and widely applied highest international standards on aqua-production while meeting food sanitary and safety requirements and protecting the environment in accordance with international criteria. Many of Viet Nam's high-quality aqua-products have been exported to world markets and enjoyed by international consumers," she said.

"We ask WWF offices in those countries to remove Vietnamese tra fish from the red list, release the assessment criteria and make judgments that accurately reflect the Vietnamese tra fish production and export," Nga said.

Viet Nam would welcome WWF experts and facilitate their fact-finding activities in the hope that they would be able to assess the industry accurately. — VNS

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US groups to intensify Agent Orange efforts

War veteran Nguyen Thi Thanh in Quang Tri Province's Gio Linh District with her 16-year-old daughter who is AO-infected. All her other seven children also suffer. — VNA/VNS Photo Duong Ngoc

HA NOI — The two organisations that represent Viet Nam's Agent Orange victims are to intensify their effort to win more help from the United States Congress and Administration to rid contaminated land of the toxic chemical.

The effort will be based on the realisation that the US Government carries paramount responsibility for compensating those exposed to the chemical, says the Viet Nam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA) and the Viet Nam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign (VAORRC) in a joint statement.

The statement follows a VAVA delegation's visit to the US from November 21 to December 5.

It says both organisations will work together to target the Dow Chemical Company, Monsanto and other makers of Agent Orange that have never paid compensation to their victims in Viet Nam.

The 16-day visit was the sixth the VAVA has made to seek support for the victims from Americans and other people throughout the world since since 2005.

Led by VAVA chairman Nguyen Van Rinh, the delegation's itinerary included San Francisco, New York and Washington.

Its primary purpose was to persuade the Congress to pass an Agent Orange, Viet Nam, Bill and have the Administration pay more attention to the health problems the defoliants have caused.

In so doing, the Administration would have to address the damage attributed to Agent Orange.

VAVA chairman Rinh said members of the House of Representatives; aides to Senators and State Department representatives received a delegation from Viet Nam Agent Orange victims.

House of Representatives Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment Subcommittee chairman Eni Faleomavaega said his congressional hearings had changed attitudes.

And although further hearings were unlikely, Viet Nam would always have his support.

Frank Jannuzi, a senior aide to Senator John Kerry, said that addressing the effects of Agent Orange in Viet Nam was a humanitarian act that needed immediate action.

Although America was in the economic doldrums, it was still capable of finding a way to deal with the issue, he said. — VNS

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S Korean news boss hails VNA

HA NOI — Visiting President and CEO of Yonhap News Agency of the Republic of Korea Park Jung-chan praised the co-operation with Vietnam News Agency (VNA), describing it as one Yonhap's most important international partners, at a meeting with General Director of VNA Tran Mai Huong in Ha Noi yesterday.

He said he highly valued information provided by VNA and expressed his wish to develop the bilateral relations to become a symbol of co-operation among news agencies in Asia.

VNA General Director Huong spoke highly of the Yonhap delegation's recent visit, stressing the need to continue exchanging visits between high-level delegations, reporters and information. He also emphasised the need to increase mutual assistance between the two news agencies' bureaus in their respective countries.

"VNA is willing to support the implementation of language training programmes for Yonhap," the VNA General Director said.

He introduced VNA's functions as a national news agency, saying that VNA is accelerating its multimedia components, including mobile news and the TV station, along with existing media to improve the quality of its publications in order to provide information to foreign news agencies. In addition, VNA also focuses on personnel training and human resource development as well as management reform.

VNA values its co-operation with Yonhap, General Director Huong said, seeking to promote relations between the two news agencies to promote friendship between Viet Nam and the RoK.

Huong agreed with President Park Jung-chan on the importance of regular co-operation and said VNA would create favourable conditions for Yonhap reporters to cover news in Viet Nam.

In return, President Park Jung-chan said Yonhap will work to bring language training programmes to Vietnamese and RoK reporters and said the company was ready to share information technology with VNA. He also expressed his interest in VNA's initial efforts to launch a TV channel and said that Yonhap will soon have a TV channel of its own to meet the RoK people's demand and give their correspondents a larger voice.

Also at the talks the two sides agreed to further increase the quality and effectiveness of information exchange to produce quick and accurate news and act as a bridge between the two countries. During its visit, the Yonhap delegation also visited the VNA Television Centre. — VNS

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Sluice gate will stop flooding

Dredging has begun in a section of the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal where it flows into the Sai Gon River soon after a groud-breaking ceremony in HCM City yesterday. A 58-metre-wide sluice gate is expected to protect more than 600ha of low-lying areas in seven districts. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Vu

HCM CITY — Work began yesterday on the construction of a sluice gate on Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Cannal to help control chronic tidal flood in HCM City.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Hoang Van Thang and deputy chairman of the HCM City People's Committee Nguyen Thanh Tai broke the ground of the VND300 billion (US$15 million) project in Binh Thanh District.

The 58-metre-wide sluice gate is expected to protect more than 600 hectares of low-lying areas in seven districts from flooding during high tide, according to officials.

Nguyen Ngoc Cong, deputy head of the city's Flood Control Centre, said the Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe sluice gate would help reduce flooding in Districts 1, 3, 10, Binh Thanh, Phu Nhuan, Go Vap, and Tan Binh.

It would have a pumping system with a capacity of 48cu.m per second, and was scheduled for completion in December 2012.

Fifty per cent of the 2,095-square-kilometre city was vulnerable to flooding during high tides, Cong said.

The city also plans to spend $550 million to build a 172km-long dyke system along the Sai Gon, Vam Co Dong and Soai Rap rivers to keep out floods. It suffered from record high tides last month, which flooded several residental areas.

Binh Thanh is among the districts worst affected by high tides on the Sai Gon River. —VNS

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VN approaches target of all rural households getting access to power

Vietnam is likely to reach the target of 100 percent of rural households to get access to electricity for rural households.

World Bank Country Director for Vietnam Victoria Kwakwa made the statement at a seminar to assess the impact of Vietnam’s rural electrification (RE) and the announcement of the result of a survey on the benefit of RE in Hanoi on Dec. 9.

All of the nation’s districts have connected to the national grid and had on-the-spot electricity and 97.78 percent of communes and 95.4 percent of rural families now have electricity, Kwakwa said.

She spoke highly of the joint efforts of the Vietnamese Government, enterprises and people and various resources for rural development, hunger eradication and poverty reduction in the field.

Together with the impact of the education universalisation programme, RE has helped rural people improve their health and income through increasing their families’ production capacity, she added.

However, she said, authorities need to make thorough calculations and give priority to use resources in the context of limited finance and technology to help the remaining five percent of rural families access electricity.

The result of the survey that was conducted in seven provinces of Vietnam in 2002, 2005 and 2008 within the framework of the RE project is an important foundation for WB to consider the decision to provide continued assistance and coordinate with the Vietnamese Government to carry out more power projects, said the seminar.

According to Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Hoang Quoc Vuong, the government is striving to have 100 percent electricity access for rural households by 2020 as planned.

The comprehensive assessment of the impact of rural electrification and the potential for on-the-spot distribution will help the Government, enterprises and people select the most effective investment in network power projects or use on-the-spot power sources./.

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