Germany assists with vocational training

Germany’s Hessen State and Vietnam will take turns to organise visits and working sessions between vocational training institutions, with employer participation.

The commitment of cooperation was stated in a Memorandum of Understanding signed by Deputy Minister of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) Dam Huu Dac and Steffen Saebisch, Secretary and Minister of Economy, Transport and Development of the Hessen State , in Hanoi on October 5.

The two sides agreed to set up a joint taskforce on vocational training in an effort to materialise the MoU.

Under the two-year MoU , Germany and Vietnam will join hands in compiling curricular and making plans on communication equipment and technology in the field of refresher and professional training courses.

The Hessen State will hold refresher training courses for teaching and management staff of vocational training colleges in the fields of German strengths, ranging from environment technology to information technology, electronics, electricity, automation, mechatronics and construction technology.

Recognising German assistance in poverty reduction and vocational training, Deputy MOLISA Minister Dac said the MoU provided an opportunity for Vietnam to gain experience in vocational training from the Hessen State and Germany .

The cooperation would contribute to improving the quality of human resources in Vietnam , Dac said.

In return, Saebisch expressed willingness to cooperate in vocational training with Vietnam . He also asked Vietnam to promote the successful German model that attracts employer participation in vocational training.

Vocational training based on employer demands plays a key role in improving the human resource quality and business circles should be a key element in the vocational training process, the German official said./.

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Germany helps Vietnam’s agriculture

Representatives from the German government have presented gifts worth 11,000 Euro to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

The German government’s gifts, including a mobile clean-water filter and a mobile classroom for forestry farmers, were handed over in Hanoi on October 5 by Vice Governor of Hessen state Joerg Uwe Hahn and German Ambassador to Vietnam Rolf Schulz to representatives from the Ministry.

The mobile classroom will be passed on to Huu Lung College in the northern province of Lang Son to help implement farmer training programme, said Deputy MARD Minister Nguyen Thi Xuan Thu.

The clean-water filter will be transferred to the central region where people are suffering from heavy flooding.

Vietnam and Germany have seen effective cooperation in different areas, including reforestation, sustainable forest management and development, conservation of forest ecological system biodiversity and mangrove protection in response to climate change.

Cooperation in forestry was always given priority by the German government and is its strongest area of cooperation in Asia, German Ambassador Rolf Schultz said./.

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Vocational skills boosted with new project

The improvement of vocational skills will be the focus of a new project that will benefit from an allocation of 78 million USD, including 70 million USD from an Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan.

A loan agreement for the project was signed in Hanoi on October 5 by representatives of the State Bank of Vietnam and ADB.

Addressing the signing ceremony, SBV Governor Nguyen Van Giau said the ADB loan would help Vietnam to renew vocational training teaching methods for key economic sectors. This was also a good opportunity for the country’s socio-economic development and poverty reduction, he said.

The project aims to develop a network of vocational training colleges to supply skilled workers for power generation and information technology sectors.

ADB also supports 15 non-public schools to help improve training quality and encourage healthy competition with public schools, creating a basis for private businesses to increase investment in the vocational training sector.

By 2009, Vietnam had more than 90 vocational training colleges and 250 vocational training schools./.

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Central Highlands grapples with water shortage

The Central Highlands is experiencing a severe water shortage as rainfall in the region, which is Vietnam’s largest coffee growing area, has dropped by 40 percent since the start of the rainy season.

As a result, water levels in the area’s major rivers, including the Dong Nai, Se San and Serepook, have fallen below the average level recorded over the last few years by 0.5-1 m. In particular, the Ba River in Gia Lai province is lower by 1.5-1.8m.

Gia Lai province has reported that 23,200 ha of crops have been badly affected by the water shortage, with losses estimated at 40 billion VND.

In Kon Tum, the dry weather has emptied more than 200 reservoirs, which provided water for 8,000 ha of rice paddies, 13,000 ha of coffee plants and 11,000 ha of other crops.

“The Winter-Spring rice crop will be seriously affected by the water shortage,” said the Director from the Kon Tum Agriculture and Rural Development Department, Nguyen Huu Hai.

Pham Tien San, who is in charge of irrigation in Dak Lak province, said the current shortage of water could possibly cause a serious drought in the province.

Dak Lak province has a total of 500 reservoirs and needs to ensure sufficient supplies of water for 28,000 paddy fields and 180,000 ha of coffee plants.

The Tay Nguyen Hydro-meteorology Forecasting Bureau has predicted that the Central Highlands will face severe droughts next year due to a lack of rain./.

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State-run preschools fail to keep teachers

State-owned preschools in Hanoi are having trouble retaining qualified teachers, losing them to privately operated schools that offer higher income.

Teachers in private kindergartens received an average salary of 2 million VND (100 USD) per month, while their colleagues in State-owned ones often needed to work about four years to achieve this level of salary, said Nguyen Thi Lan Huong, chief of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training's preschool education division

"Many teachers leave State schools to work in private ones," Huong said.

Nguyen Thanh Hang, a teacher at the Tuoi Hoa Private Kindergarten in Thanh Xuan district, said she left a State school after two years because she received no allowances and was unable live on the meagre salary.

"We were busy all day taking care of the children but received only a little over 1 million VND (50 USD) a month," said Hang.

Huong admitted that city regulations provided for allowances for primary and secondary school teachers but not for preschool teachers.

"But the school fees are low compared to the current standard of living and the State budget is limited, so if we want allowances for teachers, we need support from parents," she said.

But Ngo Thi Binh from the Soc Son district Department of Education and Training disagreed.

"We cannot encourage teachers in the district if we don't pay them more," she said.

However, few parents are able to afford to send their kids to private kindergartens because of high fees.

Le Mai Phuong, whose daughter is attending a private kindergarten in Hai Ba Trung district, said she reluctantly let her daughter study there while she was on a waiting list at a nearby State preschool.

"The school fees of 1.5 million VND (78 USD) a month here is too high for people on State workers' wages like my husband and me," Phuong said.

But the city is also suffering from a shortage of State-supported preschools.

Ha Noi has 667 State-owned preschools and 160 privately operated schools. Another 865 private kindergarten classes are offered, according to the Hanoi Department of Education and Training.

Huong said the number of children at preschool age had been increasing, with the result that State-supported schools were overloaded.

Many parents queued up all night for a chance to register their children in one of these schools, which are often larger and better equipped, as well as less expensive than private schools, Huong said.

Building new preschools was also problematic, said Huong, because of the shortage of available land. "We can't build preschools too high ," she added./.

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Press works about millennial Thang Long-Hanoi awarded

Outstanding press works about the millennial history and development of Thang Long-Hanoi were rewarded at a ceremony held in Hanoi on Oct. 4.

Organisers presented six A prizes, 20 B prizes, 33 C prizes and 33 consolation prizes for the best entries of the contest, which was launched in June last year as one of a series of event to mark the 1,000th birthday of the capital city.

The entries were selected from some 700 entries by journalists and freelance nationwide.

To Huy Rua, Party Politburo member, Party Central Committee’s Secretary and Head of the Party Central Committee’s Information and Education Commission, praised the active participation of pressmen.

He said the contest, with its entries published and broadcast on the media over the past year, has helped increase the public’s attention to the Thang Long-Hanoi millennial anniversary.

The contest was co-organised by the Party Central Committee’s Information and Education Commission, the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Hanoi People’s Committee and the Vietnam Journalists’ Association./.

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Golf course zoning to be inspected

A government taskforce will be established to inspect the implementation of golf course planning in provinces and cities nationwide, the government has decided.

The inspectors will report the results to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in December.

Vietnam will have 89 golf courses by 2020, most of which will only be licensed in highland and coastal areas or on land deemed unsuitable for agriculture, according to a zoning plan approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung last year.

The plan has most golf courses located in north central and coastal south central areas of the country.

Golf courses will no longer be licensed on land formerly used for rice cultivation, industrial zones, urban zones and forests, especially protective forests and special-use forests.

Infertile rice-growing land can be considered for development but will only account for less than five percent of the total area licensed to each project.

Each 18-hole golf course will have a maximum area of 100 hectares.

The plan also regulates that golf course developers must not use land licensed for courses to build housing facilities and villas for trading purposes.

Land rentals for golf courses are generally much lower than those for property projects. Investors had previously exploited this loophole to cash in on their investments.

Golf course developers who fail to kick start their projects within 12 months after receiving the licenses will have their licenses revoked.

The investors will also have a deadline of 48 months after receiving license to put the facilities into operation.

Each developer is also required to submit an environmental report before winning approval.

Investors must also draw up measures to employ local laborers, especially those whose land has been cleared to make ways for the projects.

A report by the Ministry of Planning and Investment said Vietnam’s both operational and under construction golf courses cover 45,000 hectares of land – most of which had been used for crops.

The rush to build golf courses started two years ago as Vietnam’s tourism czars were working to position the country as Asia’s next big golf destination.

It has forced farmers off their land to make way for ritzy new clubhouses, and raised concerns over scarce water resources and run-offs from pesticide use.

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