World Bank approves US$618 million loan for Vietnam; New five-star hotel inaugurated in Hanoi; Another case of cholera reported in HCM City; WHO urges; Bird flu hits Quang Ninh and Bac Kan provinces

World Bank approves US$618 million loan for Vietnam

The World Bank (WB) on April 8 approved a second loan for Vietnam’s poverty alleviation, health care improvement and infrastructure development.

According to the WB Board of Directors, the US$682 million loan covers five projects: the Second Northern Mountains Poverty Reduction Project (US$150 million), the Central North Region Health Support Project (US$65 million), Ho Chi Minh City Environmental Sanitation Project (US$90 million), the Red River Delta Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project (US$ 65 million) and the First Power Sector Reform Development project (US$312 million).

The focus will be on enhancing the local authorities’ capacities for planning, implementing and managing infrastructure development projects.

The WB and other financial institutions admire the effectiveness of poverty alleviation in Vietnam, said WB Country Director for Vietnam Victoria Kwakwa, adding that these efforts have helped the Vietnam reach and sustain Middle Income Country status.

According to statistics compiled by the WB, the first Northern Mountains Poverty Reduction Project helped double annual incomes for participating households from VND 4.3 million (US$226) before the Project was implemented, to VND10.6 million (US$ 557) at completion in 2007. In the first phase of this project, more than 350,000 households benefited from improved health care, and over 118,000 households gained access to clean water, significantly improving local health standards.

New five-star hotel inaugurated in Hanoi

The InterContinental Hanoi Hotel officially opened in Tay Ho district, Hanoi, on April 8.

The hotel is a joint-venture of Hanoi Travel Company (Hanoitourist) and Malaysia’s Berjaya Group.

The five-star hotel, overlooking Westlake (Ho Tay), is designed in a Vietnamese modern style and has 359 rooms, 3 restaurants, 2 bars, a fitness club, a swimming pool, 4 meeting rooms and one up-market conference room.

Since receiving its first guests in 2008, the InterContinental Hanoi Hotel has won many international prizes. It’s the only hotel in Vietnam ranked on the list of the world’s most attractive hotels.

It tops the Golden List of 108 leading hotels and resorts in Vietnam and was voted Vietnam’s best urban hotel in 2008 and 2009.

Education and occupation exhibition in HCM City

The 2010 “Exhibition on Education and Occupation” opened in Ho Chi Minh City, involving more than 100 universities and educational establishments from 12 countries and territories in the world.

The event aims to tighten cooperative ties between Vietnamese educational institutions and those from more developed countries and create more opportunities for Vietnamese students to study abroad.

There are 150 booths introducing educational programmes and scholarships offered by foreign universities.

During the three-day event, there will be 30 seminars on scholarship policies, and conditions for students to study abroad, vocational training guidance, and credit terms for study tours.

The exhibition was jointly held by the Vietnam Trade Fair and Advertising Company (Vinexad) and the Singapore Institute for International Research (IIR) under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Education and Training.

Another case of cholera reported in HCM City

A 2-year-old child who lives in ward 6, district 8, Ho Chi Minh City has tested positive for the bacteria Vibrio cholera, confirmed Deputy Director of the city’s Health Department, Le Truong Giang on April 8.

The patient and his mother, who was also infected and experiencing acute diarrhea, are being treated in the Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

The city’s Health Department has asked other concerned departments to take measures to help prevent the spread of the disease.

Local medical centres are advised to instruct people to eat cooked rice and drink boiled water, pay stricter attention to safe cooking processing and test all water sources for bacteria.

Ho Chi Minh City promotes tourism

To salute the Ho Chi Minh City’s tourism sector, brand names, and tourist destinations, 80 tourism companies will take part in a street parade featuring 12 flower-decorated floats and 1,000 people.

Dubbed “Ho Chi Minh City, an attractive, friendly, and safe tourist destination” the parade is part of the Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Festival which opened in the city’s September 23rd park on April 8.

150 booths set up by travel companies will provide visitors with tourist information, advertise prestigious service companies, and introduce the specialities of nearby tourist attractions.

There will also be a southern food and drink festival, a tourist photo exhibition called “Ho Chi Minh City – the City I Love” and nightly musical performances during the event, jointly sponsored by the city’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Tourism Association.

The festival aims to give travel agencies an opportunity to share experience and get feedback from consumers in order to improve their service quality.

The festival, loosely synchronized with the anniversary of the South Vietnam’s Liberation Day and the millennium anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi (October 10), is expected to attract as many as 100,000 visitors.

Khmer gathering for festival celebration

A meeting was held on April 8 for nearly 200 Khmers representing the families of war invalids and revolutionary martyrs, heroic mothers, workers, pensioners, and monks in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang.

The meeting to celebrate the Chol Chnam Thmey festival was attended by various senior officials from the Party Central Committee, the National Ethnic Committee, and local state and party agencies.

Since 2009, the province has provided capital to assist almost 26,000 Khmer households, and new houses for more than 6,600 households, said Lam Ren, Head of the provincial Ethnic Committee.

More than 5,000 households have received land to build houses and loans to do farming and animal husbandry. As a result, the rate of poor Khmer households has dropped from 34 percent in 2006 to below 18 percent in 2010, with more than 80 percent of the households having access to electricity, and 87 percent to clean water.

Bird flu fully under control in Dien Bien

The Dien Bien Provincial People’s Committee announced on April 8 that the three communes of Thanh Yen, Noong Luong and Thanh Hung are freed of bird flu infection.

As the province has relaxed its animal transport controls, healthy and approved animals are now on sale in the local markets.

The last bird flu outbreak was discovered in Thanh Yen and then the disease continued spreading to Noong Luong and Thanh Hung where nearly 8,000 birds and 7,500 eggs have been destroyed over the past 3 months.

Festival to promote education investment

The second HCM City Education Development Festival will showcase advanced schooling models in Vietnam and abroad and promote investment in education.

The four-day event would be larger than last year since the city Department of Education would coordinate with various Ministry of Education agencies to organize it, Huynh Cong Minh, director of the former, said.

“The event will encourage renovation of the education system and seek investment from international organizations,” Minh told the media yesterday.

Representatives from various departments and agencies would participate in an investment promotion forum, he added.

Text books and learning aids will be on sale at the exhibition which will also provide students and their parents with information about overseas educational institutions.

Russian tertiary education displayed in Hanoi

Twenty-one leading Russian universities showcased their tertiary education opportunities at an exhibition in Hanoi on April 7.

The three-day exhibition on ‘Today’s Russian tertiary education’ covers natural sciences, oil and gas, civil construction, bionomics, economics, light industry, architecture, civil aviation, law, arts and technology.

Representatives of Russian universities said that for pre-tertiary education, foreign students can use Russian after 10 months of study.

Foreign students can acquire information on tuition fees and studying conditions as well as insurance and security issues at the websites http://russia.edu.ru or http://vi.russsia.edu.ru/edu/inostr.

Each year, Russia receives around 800,000 foreign students, with those from Vietnam and Mongolia accounting for the largest number, said Bazuleva Inna Igorevna from Russia ’s Ministry of Education and Science.

Vietnam helps Laos produce clean water

Vietnam’s Mai Dong Water Company and Laos’s Vientiane Water Supply Company have signed an investment agreement worth US$5 million to build a water purification and bottling plant in the Laotian capital of Vientiane.

The project aims to address the lack of clean water in the capital and also provide water for the traditional festival of Bunpimay which will be held from April 14-16.

The Mai Dong Water Company will contribute 80 percent of the capital for the project to run for 30 years. The plant will increase the amount of water, it can process by 1.5 times in 2015.

Laos’ authorities are calling on the public to save as much water as possible because water levels in the Mekong River have dropped to a record low.

The Director of the Vientiane Water Supply Company, Daophet Buapha, said the city is seriously short of clean water as the company can only provide about 160,000cu.m per day, far less than the required volume.

Thua Thien-Hue city responds to World Health Day

Hue city in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue held a meeting and a parade on April 7 to mark the World Health Day.

Representatives from the Health Ministry, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and over 1,000 young people, officials and workers from the medical sector in the locality attended the event.

The city has mapped out a 13-point action plan to encourage people of all social strata to ensure food safety and hygiene, build a smoke-free environment and build a healthy lifestyle.

At the meeting, the city authority presented awards to winners of the painting contest “Hue-city of children-a healthy and smoke-free city” to primary and secondary school students.

Border liaison offices assist anti-drug trafficking efforts

The border liaison offices (BLO) between Vietnam and Cambodia have effectively helped functional agencies from the two countries discover and arrest drugs smugglers at the border.

This information was given by Senior Lieutenant Colonel Hoang Anh Tuyen, Vice Head of the Vietnam Standing Office for Fighting Drugs and Related Crimes, at a conference held in Ho Chi Minh City on April 7.

It’s reported that there are currently two BLOs in the provinces of Tay Ninh and An Giang. They are tasked with receiving, collecting, and processing information on drug-related crimes along the border and providing efficient consultancy for anti-drug forces stationed there.

Under a memorandum of understanding inked in September 2009, Vietnam and Cambodia are expected to open more BLOs in border provinces and conduct a pilot project for drug-free hamlets, communities and schools.

Higher taxes on cigarette, WHO urges

Raising cigarette taxes could be the most effective way of reducing the high smoking rate in Vietnam, according to participants at a seminar on smoking prevention held in Binh Duong province last week.

A recent survey conducted by Nguyen Tuan Lam, a World Health Organization (WHO) official, and other experts, found that higher incomes and low cigarette taxes had helped keep the smoking rate high, despite education about the hazards of smoking.

Every year, 40,000 people in Vietnam die from diseases related to smoking, and the medical expenses related to lung and heart diseases caused by smoking is estimated at VND1.1 trillion (US$61 million ) each year, according to the WHO.

Half of the men in the country smoke, with 65 percent of them between 25 and 45 years old. The WHO said if prevention measures were not taken soon, annual fatalities due to smoking would rise to 70,000 by 2030.

Lam said if the Government imposed a tax of VND1,750 for each cigarette package, about 30 percent of smokers would quit. He said tax revenues would be deposited in the Government’s health insurance fund and added that the WHO and the World Bank had proposed raising the tax rate from 66 to 80 percent for one package of cigarettes.

Bird flu hits Quang Ninh and Bac Kan provinces

Quang Ninh province has officially confirmed a new outbreak of the bird flu epidemic in Tien Phong commune, Yen Hung district.

The information was released on April 7 by the Chairman of the Yen Hung district People’s Committee, who also called for urgent measures to prevent the spread of the fatal disease.

Earlier on March 19, Quang Ninh province also declared bird flu recurrence in Dong Mai commune, Yen Hung district.

Local farmers claimed that although their poultry had been vaccinated they were still infected by bird flu virus.

The provincial Veterinary Department has introduced urgent measures to quarantine infected areas and sterilize breeding farms. The Department has also banned the transport and trading of sick poultry.

Meanwhile, the Director of the Bac Kan provincial Health Department, Nong Quoc Chi, confirmed an A/H5N1-infection case on April 5.

Nguyen Tai Thu re-elected president of acupuncture association

The Vietnam Acupuncture Association (VAA) held its 7th congress in Hanoi on April 7 to devise working activities for the 2010-2015 period.

The 116 member association re-elected professor Nguyen Tai Thu its president and seven others vice presidents.

During the past 6 terms, the association has achieved significant results and helped to cure common diseases, such as paralysis, amblyopis, deaf-muteness and has also carried out drug detoxification. It has provided free medical check-ups to poor people and disabled children and sent doctors to local clinics.

Over the past 30 years, many countries in the world, such as Sweden, Spain, Italy and France have sent their doctors to learn acupuncture from the association.

PV