French police break Vietnam immigrant trafficking ring; Vietnamese, Laotian forces stop 10.5 kilos of drugs at border; Australia pledges AUD119.8 million in aid to Vietnam

Third “Vietnam Humanity” national awards ceremony held

The third “Vietnam Humanity” national awards ceremony was organised in Hanoi on May 22.

The Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee and Head of the CPVCC’s Commission for Mass Mobilisation, Ha Thi Khiet, and leaders of the central agencies and sectors attended the event.

The award honours individuals and collectives who made significant contributions to social charity activities and community development.

The event is organised by the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA), the Vietnam Red Cross Society, VTV1, the Orphan and Handicapped Children Sponsor Association, and the Thang Long Information and Culture Company.

Since the award was first launched three years ago, thousands of billions of Vietnam dong has been mobilised by individuals and collectives to assist poor families, orphans and old people, helping them to overcome difficulties, eliminate hunger, and reduce poverty.

At the ceremony, the organising board granted “Vietnam Humanity” Cups and certificates of merit to 61 outstanding individuals and collectives.

Vietnamese, Laotian forces stop 10.5 kilos of drugs at border

Border guards in the northern central province of Nghe An on Thursday said they had busted a ring trafficking 10.5 kilograms of heroin from Laos into Vietnam.

The guards said they and Laotian police caught three drug traffickers, one Vietnamese and two Laotian men on Tuesday. The three said the heroin was to be consumed in Vietnam.

One of the arrested, Lau Giong Xu, 42, was from Nghe An but has lived in a neighbouring Laotian province for a while. Two others Va Pha, 28, and Va Thong, 30, both come from Laos’ Xiengkhuang Province.

Forces had been tracking the group for a month. Police said this was the biggest bust by Laotian and Vietnamese forces together, the Ngoi Sao news website said Friday.

Vietnam Border Guard High Command has sent complimentary notes to forces in both countries and has awarded them with cash, the website reported.

Nigerians, Vietnamese to stand trial for drug trafficking

The Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security said on Friday they had suggested to the country’s top prosecutors that eight people including six foreigners be charged with drug trafficking.

The eight that were arrested started operations in late 2008 and trafficked more than 11 kilograms of heroin before being caught in June last year, police said in the indictment sent to the Supreme People’s Procuracy.

Investigators said the drug was transported by air from India, via Ho Chi Minh City, to China for consumption.

Among the accused were five Nigerians: Nnaji David Ete, 32, Okapor Peter Chuma, 35, Chukwuma Obi Remy, 40, Raphael Chika Okafor, around 30 and Nmamdi Aghaji, 32. They lived illegally in HCMC and hired Vietnamese women to hide heroin in shoes, buttons, books or on their body and smuggle it to China for US$300-1,000 a journey, investigators said.

The two Vietnamese involved were Doan Nguyen Minh Chau and Phan Thi Thanh Le, 30, wife of the ring leader Nnaji David Ete. Another member Regina Whing Wiri, 31, was from Zimbabwe.

Since 2008, Ete and Le managed to smuggle heroin from HCMC to China 25 times while Chau had made the journey ten times.

Sometimes the drug was smuggled through Malaysia before it reached China.

The ring owned a factory where the heroine was made more compact, police said.

French police break Vietnam immigrant trafficking ring

French police have broken an illegal immigrant trafficking ring in Europe that was smuggling Vietnamese migrants over to Britain, the French Ministry of Immigration said Friday.

Twelve suspected migrant traffickers were arrested in France, while six other members of the ring were caught in the Czech Republic, the ministry said.

The gang was suspected of having brought over around 100 illegal immigrants and the ringleaders were estimated to have made some 80,000 euros ($100,000) in the month of June 2009 alone, French authorities said.

The arrests come just a few months after European police agency Europol said that it had dismantled an Iraqi-run people smuggling ring that had transported hundreds of illegal immigrants from Belgium into Britain.

Flight linking Da Nang-Da Lat to re-open

The national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines will open flights from Da Nang, a coastal city in the central region, to tourist city of Da Lat in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong in June.

An agreement on re-opening the air service using ATR72 aircraft was signed by the chairman of Lam Dong Province People’s Committee Huynh Duc Hoa, chairman of Da Nang City People’s Committee Tran Van Minh and Mr. Pham Ngoc Minh, director general of Vietnam Airlines in Hanoi on May 20.

There will be four flights between Da Nang and Da Lat a week.

The new air route will speed up the development of the two tourist cities.

Composers encouraged to write songs on AIPA

A campaign was launched in Hanoi on May 22 for composers to write songs on the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA).

The campaign aims to select new songs to welcome Vietnam’s Chairmanship of the 2009-2010 AIPA and host of the 31st AIPA General Assembly in this September, according to President of the Vietnam Musician Association Do Hong Quan and Deputy Head of the AIPA-31 organising committee Ngo Duc Manh.

Vietnamese professional and amateur music composers, at home and abroad, regardless of age, profession, nationality and religion, are eligible to join in the campaign.

The songs are expected to boost solidarity, mutual understanding and cooperation among AIPA’s members and between AIPA and other parliaments in the world.

They will also look towards a strong and cooperative ASEAN community.

Each composer may send two songs in Vietnamese or both in Vietnamese and English languages no later than August 22 to the Vietnam Musician Association at 51 Tran Hung Dao street, Hanoi.

Selected songs will be awarded and popularised during the AIPA year in Vietnam.

Winners of UPU letter-writing contest honoured

A total of seventy individuals and organisations winning the 39th Universal Postal Union (UPU) International Letter-Writing Competition were honoured at a ceremony in Hanoi on May 21.

The competition, themed “Write a letter to someone to explain why it is important to understand HIV/AIDS and to protect yourself from the disease”, had been organised by the Ministry of Information and Communications.

According to the deputy head of the organising board, Le Thi Kim Ha, who is also deputy general director of the Vietnam Post Corporation, among the 1.2 million entries, the jury was surprised with many stories and satisfactory solutions.

Ho Thi Hieu Hien from Tay Son junior high school in Hai Chau district, Da Nang city, won first prize with a letter to Zhang Yi Mou, a popular Chinese director.

In her letter, Hien expressed her hope that the Chinese director would produce movies on HIV/AIDS to help raise public awareness of the risks of the epidemic to effectively prevent it from spreading.

Da Nang ’s Tay Son school was also honoured with second, third and consolation prizes.

Along with their peers from Da Nang , contestants from the northern province of Hai Duong were among the most impressive groups at the ceremony. They won a total of seven awards.

The organising board also presented awards to the youngest contestant, five participants from remote areas and three blind students.

WWF helps Vietnam to develop rattan industry

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) will help Vietnam develop a sustainable, environmentally friendly rattan industry by 2011.

Laos and Cambodia are also included in the programme, according to the WWF’s Rattan Programme.

“The aim is to establish a sustainable and environmentally friendly rattan industry in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam by the end of 2011. It will apply Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) rattan forest certification for forest management as well as encourage rattan companies to apply cleaner production techniques,” said the WWF’s Rattan Programme Manager Thibault Ledecq.

Nine Vietnamese rattan companies have recently visited the WWF-supported sustainable rattan management area in Khamkeut district in Borikhamxay province in Laos to learn about rattan processing and trading from the local authorities and Laotian rattan processors.

The visit was part of a EU-funded rattan programme.

According to the WWF, there are 600 varieties of rattan in the world, 54 of which are widely available in forests throughout the Greater Mekong region. The stems are used for a variety of purposes, including cooking, shelter and furniture making. Many village communities in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam rely heavily on the rattan trade.

More than 90 percent of rattan processed in the Greater Mekong originates from natural forest that is being used up at an unsustainable rate.

Vietnam has to import a large volume of unprocessed rattan from Laos and Cambodia every year, said the WWF.

Workshop on climate change opens in Da Nang

A workshop on sharing experiences coping with climate change was held in the central city of Da Nang on May 21 as part of the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN) project funded by the US Rockefeller Foundation.

Participants at the workshop contributed ideas to a draft on sharing information, experiences and measures to strengthen Da Nang city’s resilience to climate change.

The ideas discussed will provide the foundation for the city to complete its climate change resilience strategy and implement activities to deal with the problem in the future.

Climate change has become a global challenge and the more frequent and complicated natural disasters are requiring countries to cooperate in seeking measures to mitigate the negative effects of climate change.

Da Nang joined the ACCCRN in February 2009. With the assistance of the Rockefeller Foundation and the UK’s “Challenge to Change” organisation, the city has implemented a strategy to analyse the impact of climate change and take action against the problem.

The city has also carried out two pilot sub-projects on coastal tree planting and building a ship pulling system in Son Tra district.

Bracing for harsh weather

State President Nguyen Minh Triet has sent a letter to people throughout the country on the Traditional Day for Natural Disaster Control and Mitigation, May 22 in Vietnam.
The letter runs as follows:

“Over the past few years, natural disasters have hit most continents around the world, causing huge losses of human life and property for many nations. Storms and earthquakes with a terrible destructive power have claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands people and destroyed tens thousands of houses.

Vietnam is one of the countries suffering the strongest impacts of natural disasters and climate change. Flash floods, tidal surges and powerful storms have occurred more frequently, causing greater losses and badly affecting the country’s socio-economic life.

In the first quarter of this year, our country has faced abnormal weather with widespread hot spells which have reduced water levels in rivers and streams to very low levels, negatively affecting people’s lives and production, particularly agriculture.

Natural disasters will continue to become more complex with unforeseeable developments. All sectors and all people across the country should be vigilant and active and brace themselves for every possible bad weather situation in order to successfully implement targets for socio-economic development in 2010 and the following years.”

To mark the 64th anniversary of the Traditional Day for Natural Disaster Control and Mitigation, President Nguyen Minh Triet urges all people and local committees tasked with flood and storm prevention and control to work hand in hand to tackle the issue in 2010.

Remains of fallen Vietnamese soldiers in Laos reinterred

The northern mountainous province of Dien Bien on May 21 reburied the remains of six unidentified Vietnamese volunteer soldiers who fell in Laos.

A search team from Military Zone No 2 retrieved these remains with assistance from soldiers and local civilians in the areas of Laos where the remains were found.

A seventh set of remains was identified as Tran Van Bao, born in 1944 in Bac Giang province. He was brought back to his homeland by his family.

Since 1995, Dien Bien province has received and interred the remains of nearly 1,500 Vietnamese volunteer soldiers who died on Lao battlefields.

Sofitel Metropole one of the coolest new hotels

Hanoi-based Sofitel Metropole Hotel has entered the Conde Nast Traveller Hot List 2010, the publication’s annual list of the “66 Coolest New Hotels in the World”.

The 100-year-old hotel was chosen as one of the 500 best hotels in the world by readers of Travel & Leisure and Conde Nast Travel; selected as the best hotel in Hanoi by Hong Kong’s Destin Asian, Asia Money magazine and Vietnam’s VnEconomy.

It was also named 2007’s best hotel for businessmen in a capital city by readers of the Business Traveller Asia Pacific.

Hanoi hosts 2010 manufacturing expo

Creating opportunities for domestic manufacturing enterprises to select advanced products and technologies was the main aim of the international exhibition of electronics and manufacturing technologies, which is currently being held in Hanoi.

“Enterprises need to quickly seize new opportunities to become better equipped, so they can develop when the global economy recovers,” said the Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce Nguyen Thanh Bien at the opening ceremony of the expo in Hanoi on May 20.

He added that in the past, the manufacturing industry had always played a leading role in developing the country’s economy. Some sectors turned out products of high economic value, namely automobile spare parts, electronics and electricity generators, attracting keen interest and investment from overseas.

A member of the organising board, Reed Tradex CEO Nichapa Yoswee, praised the potential and strong growth of Vietnam’s manufacturing industry in the recent past.

She added that Reed Tradex plans to organise more expos to focus on other industries in Vietnam in 2012 to spur the development of Vietnam’s industries, as well as its economy in the future.

The three-day expo, called “The Vietnam Manufacturing Expo”, drew the participation of 450 local and foreign enterprises from 25 countries and territories.

Australia pledges AUD119.8 million in aid to Vietnam

The Australian government will provide an estimated AUD119.8 million (VND1.5 trillion) in development assistance to Vietnam from July 2010 to June 2011.

In a press release issued on May 20, the Hanoi-based Australian Embassy said Australia’s commitment to Vietnam underscores a long-running contribution to Vietnam’s development and progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Australian aid will assist Vietnam’s objectives to improve human resources and infrastructure and support institutional development.

Scholarships are a high priority of the programme to realise Australia’s plan to provide 225 post-graduate scholarships per year to Vietnamese students. The Australian government is likely to provide more than 50 additional scholarships under other programmes, bringing the total to more than 275.

Through ongoing infrastructure initiatives, Australia will donate AUD32.6 million to support major transport projects and regional road building to connect poor rural areas to key regional transport and economic corridors.

Australia’s support will focus on the development of the Central Mekong Delta Connectivity Project, in particular the design of Cao Lanh Bridge.

On institutional reform, the aid budget will fund phase 2 of the Beyond WTO, program to assist Vietnam’s effective integration into the world’s economy.

Australia will continue working with the Vietnamese government to improve the living conditions of the poor through increased access to clean water and sanitation facilities in rural areas.

During 2010-2011 under the Delivering Better Health initiative, Australia will provide funding to improve Vietnam’s health system to ensure quality and cost effective care is accessible to all.

Working with the government of Vietnam and local communities, Australia is helping communities prepare for future disasters, improving their capacity to restore and get on with their lives in the wake of natural disasters.

Funds will also be used to help Vietnam manage cross-border and regional threats such as HIV/AIDS, human and drug trafficking and transnational crime, and address corruption and gender issues.

HCM Communist youth union delegation visits Cuba

The Vietnamese and Cuban youth unions have the common responsibility and mission to provide ideological and political training to young generations and encourage them to get involved in national economic development and defence and building socialism, said the First Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union (HCMCYU) Central Committee.

First Secretary Vo Van Thuong made the statement at a reception given by the Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee (CPCCC), Olga Lidia Tapia, in Havana, Cuba, on May 19.

Olga Lidia Tapia welcomed the visit by the HCMCYU delegation and congratulated the Vietnamese people on their great achievements over recent years.

Cuba is determined to further consolidate and develop the two countries’ friendship, solidarity and cooperation, she affirmed, expressing thanks to the Vietnamese Party, State and people for their solidarity and support to Cuba.

The HCMCYU delegation was also received by the Head of the CPCCC’s Commission for External Relations, Jorge Marti Martinez.

Both host and guest informed each other of their respective countries’ socio-economic situation and discussed regional and international issues of mutual concern as well as measures to further tighten the ties of friendship and comprehensive cooperation between the two countries.

The HCMCYU delegation joined the Cuban host and representatives from the Cuban Foreign Ministry and the Cuba-Vietnam Friendship Association to pay floral tribute to President Ho Chi Minh at his statue in Havana on his 120th birthday.

The delegation also watched a documentary film “Similarity” on the life and achievements of President Ho Chi Minh and Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and national hero Jose Marti.

PV