Young volunteers join Hanoi’s millennium anniversary
Around 1,000 youth volunteers will be selected to take part in the grand celebration of the 1,000th year of Thang Long-Hanoi, said Hanoi’s Youth Union at the ceremony introducing the 2010 Youth Summer Volunteer Campaign on June 19.
The volunteers will act as tourist guides, engage in protect environmental protection, ensure public transport safety, and provide medical care. So far, around 10,000 young people have registered for the grand celebration.
Volunteers will also participate in sprucing up urban areas this summer by cleaning polluted areas, and removing illegal advertisements.
They are expected to participate in activities around the upcoming university entrance exam. More than 7,000 volunteers are expected to get involved in these activities at bus and railway stations.
Currently, the Youth Union and the Hanoi Student Association have asked provincial youth unions to provide them with a list of students, especially outstanding students living in difficult circumstances for timely support.
Vietnam in the top 4 for tourism development
Over the first five months of this year, the country’s tourism industry has grown by more than 30 percent, said Nguyen Manh Cuong, Deputy Head of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism at a press conference for the Vietnam Tourism Awards on June 18.
With this positive result, Vietnam is now considered to be in the top 4 countries with the most rapid tourism growth.
This year, the country is expected to welcome 4.2 million visitors and earn US$4 billion.
The Tourism Awards will be granted to 30 hotels and 20 international and domestic travel agencies at an awards ceremony to be held in Hanoi on June 29.
Biogas project reaches Global Green Energy final
The Vietnamese biogas project is selected to compete in the final round of the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy to be held June 28-July 3.
The other projects qualified for the final belong to India, Brazil Nicaragua, Kenya and the sub- Sahara region.
The final stage will feature an interview, an introduction and a film about the project. The award winner will receive a cash prize of nearly VND4 billion.
The Vietnamese project was jointly initiated by the country’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Holland’s Development Organisation (SNV) in 2003 with the ambitious target to transform waste into green energy using biogas technology.
Da Nang launches tourism programme
A tourism programme called Da Nang-Summer Destination 2010 opened at the Pham Van Dong beach in the central coastal city of Da Nang on June 19.
The programme features interesting cultural and sport events including balloon flying, dragon boat racing on the seas and a painting contest for children to promote the image of Da Nang with exciting sea and forest discoveries.
The highlight of the programme is the 2010 Tourism in the Central Region festival with a number of competitions for hotel staff from the cities along the central region including Da Nang, Hoi An, Hue city as well as others in Laos and Cambodia.
Tourism operators in the province will offer new tours including scuba diving, fishing with local fishermen and exploring the natural beauty of Son Tra, Ba Na and Suoi Hoa. Other sea sport activities like canoeing, parasailing, surfing and swimming also promise a dynamic atmosphere for visitors to Da Nang in the summer.
According to the organising board, most of the hotels are fully booked during this time.
To attract visitors to the city this year and ensure sustainable development of the city’s tourism industry in the next years, Da Nang has launched a promotion programme aiming to welcome 350,000 foreign and 1.1 million domestic visitors. The programme includes a promotion campaign called Impressive Vietnam- Grand Sale 2010, and a tourism promotion with preferential offers for tourists in many hotels and restaurants. It also introduces new tourism services and organises various cultural, sport and tourism events.
This programme is part of the country’s tourism promotion programme Vietnam-Your Destination 2010 , that focuses on further promoting the potential of major tourism destinations like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Lat and the Mekong Deltal and penetrate international markets such as Thailand, Singapore, China and Japan.
The national programme runs training courses for tourist drivers, shop assistants and staff in hotels and restaurants across the country as well as conducting campaigns to make the cities and beaches clean and tidy.
Students urged to stay away from drug addiction
Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong has called on the education sector to take action to ensure teachers and students are not hooked on drugs.
Addressing a ceremony to respond to a national anti-drug action programme in schools on June 19, Mr Trong noted that students must be aware of the scourge of drug addiction and the threat it poses to society and how it can lead to family break-ups.
He quoted statistics saying by the end of 2009 Vietnam had more than 146,000 drug addicts, of whom 70 percent were young people. About 60 percent of the new HIV cases were associated with drug addiction, and around 80 out of 160 HIV/AIDS cases were aged between 20-29.
The Deputy PM asked the Youth Union and student organisations to work closely with schools, diversify activities and replicate anti-drug models amongst students. He said schools should collaborate closely with local Party organisations, administrations and anti-drug forces to prevent drugs from penetrating schools.
Currently, Vietnam has more than 20 million students, making up one fourth of the country’s total population, and who are the most vulnerable to drug addiction.
Gov’t provides VND100 billion to drought-hit localities
The Prime Minister has decided to allocate VND100.1 billion from the State budget reserve to 12 provinces and cities and two irrigation companies to overcome the consequences of the severe drought during the 2009-2010 winter-spring rice crop.
Beneficiaries are Yen Bai, Ha Giang, Thai Nguyen, Phu Tho, Hai Phong, Bac Ninh, Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Binh Dinh, and Bac Hung Hai and Bac Hung Ha irrigation companies.
This is the third time this year the government has provided capital to drought-hit localities.
Earlier, the government allocated VND46.6 billion to six northern provinces and VND144.6 billion to 13 Mekong delta provinces to combat drought.
Vietnamese-Greek veteran presents gifts to AO/dioxin victims
Nguyen Van Lap, a Vietnamese of Greek origin, donated nearly VND70 million to Agent Orange (AO)/Dioxin victims in the central city of Da Nang on June 18.
Mr Lap had raised the money by selling books about Vietnamese AO/Dioxin victims published in Greek.
He had been enlisted in the French army to be garrisoned in Mui Ne in the southern province of Binh Thuan, but later joined the Vietnam People’s Army to fight foreign invaders.
He has become a member of both the Communist Party of Greece and the Communist Party of Vietnam.
The same day, AO/Dioxin victims in Da Nang also received VND10 million from the Women’s Union of Military Zone 5.
18th century tomb excavated in Nha Trang school
Vietnamese archaeologists on Wednesday began excavating an ancient tomb found at a primary school in the central coastal town of Nha Trang.
The 2.3 by 1.34 meter tomb was found at a depth of more than a meter.
Nguyen Lan Cuong, deputy general secretary of the Vietnam Archaeology Institute, said chances are that the tomb belongs to the Chinese Ming Xiang people of the 18th century.
Experts from the institute and the Khanh Hoa Museum will open the tomb this week and figure out ways to bury the corpse inside, if any.
The tomb was found on June 5 when work was going on to build more classrooms at the school.
Woman sentenced to 12 years for attempt to kill baby
A court in the northern province of Thai Nguyen on Wednesday sentenced a woman to 12 years’ imprisonment for attempting to murder the baby of her husband’s mistress last year, VnExpress reported.
According to the indictment, Nguyen Thi Kim Duan, 36, from Hanoi went to meet Nguyen Thi Thanh in Thai Nguyen last November, after her husband admitted having an affair with Thanh when he was working at a construction site in the area.
Duan’s sister-in-law accompanied her to Thanh’s house where the mistress, who was under the impression that Duan had forgiven her after they had a talk, let Duan carry her 40-day-old baby in her arms, the court heard.
Thanh then went to buy some cooking and while she was away, Duan pierced a needle, eight to 10 centimeters long, into the top of the baby’s head.
Duan then ran away, but was arrested ten days later.
Nhat Minh, the baby, was rescued after a one-hour operation, but doctors said any impact of the incident will only show at age five or six.
PV
