Improving healthcare services for patients

It is essential to train medical workers in remote areas to meet people’s expectations, said State President Nguyen Minh Triet while visiting the hospital of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy on June 20.

He emphasised the need to socialize the medical sector to increase healthcare services for patients.

President Triet praised the efforts of the hospital’s officials, doctors and other staff, as well as their contributions to caring for of people’s health.

He asked the hospital to upgrade medical equipment and mobilise more resources in order to offer better services for patients from all provinces and cities across the country.

The State leader said that he would continue to work with the Health Ministry and relevant agencies to finalise the programme to expand the hospital.

He stressed that the Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy should continue to increase the effectiveness of the university-hospital model and improve the professional skills of medical workers.

In 2010, the university’s hospital received and provided treatment for more than 1.5 million outpatients. It also organised training courses for 14,000 medical workers and conducted over 100 scientific research projects.

Owners of tallest building to sue over hefty fees

More than 70 apartment owners at the Keangnam Hanoi Landmark Towers are taking legal action against the building’s investor after it charged them excessive fees.

Keangnam Hanoi Landmark Towers. (Photo: VNE)

The owners have authorized Bui Quang Hung and Associates Law Firm to sue Keangnam Vina Co., Ltd, the investor of the apartment blocks, which are located on Pham Hung Street in Hanoi.
Keangnam has charged owners a monthly parking fee of VND1.462 million (US$70.5) per car and VND104,000 ($5) per motorbike, the law firm said.
Such fees exceed the rate of VND875,000 for cars and VND45,000 for motorbikes as set out by the government.
As for a motorbike that parks inside the building in daytime, Keangnam charges VND10,000 while the government-stipulated fee is only VND2,000.
The law office also said that Keengnam’s administration fee of US$0.99, or about VND21,000 per square meter is the highest rate in Hanoi.
At Vincom B, the rate is only VND14,000 and at Sky City, just VND8,000.
According to the plaintiff, since the building is still undergoing completion, such high fees are unreasonable.
On June 10, a fire water pipeline on the 27the floor broke, flooding and damaging this floor and another floor above it, complained Tran Xuan Trach, an apartment owner.

He said the incident also caused 2 elevators to be out of order. Some other lifts inside the building are also badly in need of repair, Trach said.

In a statement about the water leak, Ha Jong Suk, Keangnam Vina’s chairman, apologized to all of the affected households and said his company would pay for the damage.
He also promised to speed up the construction of certain unfinished utility systems.
However, Keangnam Vina and the apartment owners have failed to reach an agreement on how high the former’s service charges should be.
Apartment owners said if the company fails to give a satisfactory explanation about the charges by June 24, they will bring the case to court.
They also said the company had violated a regulation on foreign exchange management as it used US dollar in its contracts with them.
With 70 floors, Keangnam – with an initial investment of over US$1 billion – is now the tallest building in Vietnam.

Border soldiers save 30 fishermen

Border soldiers from central Quang Nam Province’s Naval Zone No.4 have managed to rescue 30 fishermen whose boat became stranded at sea.

According to the provincial Border Guard, the fishing boat, belonging to local fisherman Pham Quyen of Nui Thanh District, broke down at sea near Phu Quy Island last Tuesday.

Border soldiers sent two rescue boats to help the stranded fishermen, but experienced difficulties due to strong winds and rough seas. On Saturday, navy soldiers were sent to again attempt the rescue, and were successful.

All the crew arrived safely ashore in central Khanh Hoa Province’s Cam Ranh Bay today.

Man robs taxi, causes accident killing 2

Northern Hai Phong City police have arrested Dao Dinh Tuan, 29, for robbing a taxi and then causing a serious accident that killed two men and severely injured a woman.
On June 18, Vu Tien Thang, 48, drove a taxi carrying Tuan from Hong Bang District to Thuy Nguyen District.
When the car was travelling on a deserted area, Tuan from the back seat used a rope to strangle Thang’s neck and then threatened him with a knife, forcing him into leaving the car.
Tuan then drove the car at full speed and when he travelled by the Nui Deo town, he crashed into two motorbikes at the same time, causing three people on the vehicles to fall to the ground.
The accident killed Bui Van Hieu, 30, and Tran Van Son, 51, on the spot, and seriously injured Nguyen Thi Van Anh, 27, from Thai Binh province.

Tuan then fled away.

The taxi cab was heavily damaged.

Local residents called police to the scene who took Anh along with the two dead bodies to a hospital nearby.
After three hours of investigation, the police seized Tuan at a room he rented in Hong Bang District.
Tuan, from Khoai Chau District, Hung Yen Province, would be prosecuted for robbery causing serious consequences, said the police.

Hanoi utility pole ignites, burns like a torch

An electricity pole in Hanoi suddenly ignited, caught fire and burnt like a torch at 3pm Monday in Ba Dinh district.

The fire in front of the house at No 29 Pho Duc Chinh Street burnt down electricity wires messily wrapped around the pole.

Only the bare concrete pole remains.

The incident sent residents into a panic and caused a local blackout.

Witnesses said they first heard small crackling noises from the wires, followed by blue sparks.

A little while later, the wires caught fire and “burnt like a torch”, they told Dan Tri.

The house owner at No 29 Pho Duc Chinh in time put out the fire before firefighters arrived at the scene.

Locals said that before the fire, the pole had to bear five electricity-meter boxes and diverse electricity, cable, and telecom wires.

The shocking truth about illegal telecom poles

Two people in Binh Duong Province suffered severe burns yesterday, June 20, after being electrocuted while trying to erect an unauthorized telecom pole near a medium-voltage line.
Thai Long Truong, 28, of Binh Duong and Dinh Ngoc Hau, 40, of Tien Giang Province have been admitted to hospital.
The accident occurred at 11 am in Ben Cat District after the local utility failed to turn off the power since it had not been informed about the work.
The two men passed out and have severe burns in many places, especially in the head, face, shoulders, back, and arms, Dr Trinh Viet Hiep of My Phuoc General Hospital’s emergency department said.
After intensive treatment, their condition began to improve at 2 pm.
The local police said they found at the scene two telecom poles measuring 8.4 meters, which had been transported by Nguyen Minh Hung, 52.
Hung refused to tell the police who had hired him to truck the poles there, saying merely he did it for a local telecom company.
The Ben Cat District Power Company said the installation may have been attempted without authorization from a competent authority.
The accident caused a blackout for several hours in the district.
There have recently been many cases in Binh Duong of installing telecom poles without permission, the power company said.

Support of lodgings for candidates

Students and their relatives can contact two hot lines on 097 927 8888 and 098 864 4005 for information about free and cheap lodgings when coming to the city for university entrance exams, according to Ha Noi Youth Union.

67,000 lodgings are available at university dormitories and residencies, including more than 1,200 free lodgings for poor and disadvantaged students. The price of the remainder ranges from VND20,000 (US$1) to VND70,000 ($3.5) per person per day.

Information about lodgings can also be found online at http://www.thanhdoanhanoi.gov.vn and http://www.thapluatraitim.vn.

Wildlife, bush meat confiscated

More than 136 kilograms of illegal wildlife and frozen bush meat were confiscated at a restaurant in Phu Rieng Commune, in southern Binh Phuoc Province’s Bu Gia Map District during a spot check, according to the provincial police.

The restaurant’s owner could not provide legal certificates of origin for the 10 living and 66 dead animals and 50 kilograms of frozen meet at his premises. The confiscated goods have been transferred to the province’s Department of Forest Management for handling.

The restaurant’s operations have been suspended while police carry out further investigations.

Dockworker dies after falling into ship hold

A Vietnamese dockworker for Korean joint-venture Hyundai-Vinashin Shipyard Co Ltd died in a central Vietnamese town yesterday after falling into the cargo hold of a berthed vessel while unloading it.
The accident occurred at 3:30 pm when Tran Ba Luong was working aboard South Korean ship Oriental Treasure which had anchored at an HVS wharf in Ninh Hoa town, Khanh Hoa Province.
The local police, following a preliminary investigation, blamed the accident on Luong’s recklessness.
Linh was taken to hospital but he died on the way, they said.
The accident was the second to occur at HVS in the last two weeks.
On June 7, when a number of construction workers from Dongsun company were working in HVS, a crank suddenly broke and fell on them, killing two workers and injuring two others.
The dead were identified as Le Bao Toan, 34, a local, and Hoang Quang Thao, 40, of Ha Tinh Province.
Nguyen Huu Vien of Quang Ngai Province and Nguyen Huu Huynh of Khanh Hoa were injured.

Skill evaluation system gets lift

The Korean International Co-operation Agency (KOICA) has granted US$1.5million to the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs for improving the national professional skills evaluation system.

“Improving the national system for professional skills evaluation would greatly contribute to Vietnam ’s socio-economic development,” said the KOICA Chief Representative in Vietnam , Lee Wook Heon.

Project activities will focus on helping Vietnam implement better legal policies for training human resources in professional skills evaluation.

The project is aimed at helping Vietnam effectively evaluate the professional skills of around 8 million people by 2020, using 200 sets of criteria.

Six arrested for stealing email passwords

This is the first time in Vietnam that police have busted this kind of crime.
In recent months, many people in various localities, especially in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, reported to local police that they had lost their passwords after using them to log into a number of websites.
Some companies also complained they had lost confidential information when their employees lost email accounts.
With the support of network security experts, police of Quang Tri Province, Da Nang City and HCM City have successfully tracked down and arrested the culprits.
Among them is Phan Thanh Phat, 19, who has studied Information Technology in Da Nang.
Phat told police that he set up many attractive websites, including those that offer free gifts to users who registered for membership.
Phat then posted such phishing websites on many blogs and forums on the Internet.
After users logged in such sites, their passwords would be stolen and sent to 4 overseas servers Phat rented.

Phat then logged in his victims’ email accounts and read mails in their inboxes and outboxes to learn about the victims and their social relationships.
He then used these email addresses to send mails to the victims’ relatives or friends to borrow money from them by asking them buy him recharge cards for his cell phone. Phat then offered to sell those cards on the Internet at cheap prices.
From Phat’s testimonies, the police have detained 5 youngsters, all under 18, who confessed they had bought Phat’s “technology” to swindle since May 2010.
They said they could not remember how many people had been their victims.
They said they swindled each victim out of VND200,000 - VND2 million (US$9.6- US$96).
The police are continuing investigation and hunting down three other suspects.

Protestants mark centennial in Hanoi

The Evangelical Church of Vietnam North (ECVN) on June 20 hosted a celebration of 100 years of Protestantism in Vietnam in Hanoi, drawing the participation of almost 3,500 domestic and foreign dignitaries and followers.

Ha Van Nui, Deputy Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee affirmed that since the establishment of ECVN 100 years ago with the motto of “Love nation, defend peace, do justice, humanity, freedom, equality and labour”, it had closely attached to the great national unity, striving to defend the homeland and fight for national independence with all the people.

ECVN also encouraged followers to participate in patriotic emulation movements, especially a campaign to build a cultural life in residential areas and the “Day for the Poor” campaign launched by the VFF, he said.

Nui underlined that the Vietnamese Party, State and Fatherland Front always highly valued active contributions of the Protestants and ECVN to the great national unity; concurrently taking care of lives of religious compatriots, including the Protestants, as well as consistently carrying out policies on respecting and ensuring religious freedom of the people.

He added that the promulgation and implementation of legal policies on religion and beliefs basically met the legitimate aspirations of followers and Protestants in particular, saying that the expansion of exchanges on religion, culture and social charity with regional and global partners contribute to raising Vietnam’s prestige and image to international friends.

He said he hoped the ECVN would make more active contributions to build an increasingly strong, great national unity as well as respond to patriotic emulation movements and campaigns launched by the VFF to promote democracy, build a socialist rule of law State of the people, by the people and for the people, raising the national spirit and civil responsibilities of each follower.

Pastor Phung Quang Huyen, ECVN Deputy Head said that Protestantism was introduced to Vietnam in the late 19 th century, however, its first foundation was based in the central city of Da Nang in 1911, which marks a milestone in the missionary history of Protestantism in Vietnam .

In 1958, ECVN was officially recognised by the Vietnamese State as a church organisation and a member of VFF, which operated in the guideline of “ Worship of God and Love of Nation”.

Generating 1.52 million jobs in 2011

Vietnam expects to generate jobs for an estimated 1.52 million labourers in 2011, fulfilling 95 percent of the yearly target of 1.6 million.

The information was released by Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Ngoc Phi at a discussion on the sector’s plans in the last six months of the year in Hanoi on June 17.

According to localities’ reports, around 720,000 labourers nationwide were placed in the first six months of the year, of whom, 676,000 found jobs domestically while the remaining were sent overseas.

Reports by job placement centres showed that over 146,500 people registered as unemployed by May 20, a year-on-year increase of 131 percent. Of whom, 119,100 applied for unemployment benefits, up 179 percent compared to the same period last year.

The number of people who join in unemployment insurance in the year’s first months climbed to 7.4 million, exceeding the figure of 6.5 million forecast for 2011.

Dead man with head wrapped in bag found on canal

A male body was found floating on the Thi Nghe Canal in Ho Chi Minh City at 4pm Monday with his head tightly covered in a sack bag.

The location is near Truong Sa Street in Binh Thanh district’s ward 17.

The man is suspected to be around 30 years old. His body is decomposing.

A big bat was tattooed on his back.

Police suspect he could have been killed by an underworld gang.

His identity has not been identified

Police are investigating.

Disabled children to learn integration skills

Disabled children would stand a better chance of community integration if they were equipped with the appropriate skills at an early age, a conference heard last Saturday.

Speaking at the conference, Deputy Minister Nguyen Vinh Hien said that policies based on educating disabled children for better integration had already been chalked out in 1996 and officially applied in 2002 throughout Viet Nam.

Policies proved relatively ineffective until the Ministry of Education and Training conducted pilot projects at nine schools in northern Ninh Binh and central Quang Nam Provinces in 2008.

The projects focused on disabled and disadvantaged students at secondary and high school levels, at which it was believed that studying pressure and psychological changes affected the students in efficient integration.

As part of the projects, the students were equipped with life skills, health care and career orientation while being given an additional opportunity to make friends.

The projects attracted 553 disabled and disadvantages students in total, among which 37 suffered from serious handicaps including mental development illnesses, hearing impairments and Agent Orange/Dioxin infections.

Deputy Minister Hien said that the projects had had remarkable effects on teachers, educational staff and had helped raise community awareness and behaviour towards the students.

Nguyen Hai Chau, deputy head of the ministry’s High School Training Department, said that educating disabled students in order to better integrate into their communities would take place at 63 secondary schools nation-wide by 2015.

Top-listed schools would be kitted out with supportive rooms set to include studying tools worth US$20,000.

According to Chau, the ministry has given priority to disabled students starting school at older ages than usual, reducing or exempting school fees, cancelling subjects unsuitable to disabled students and supporting studying tools.

Experts would be mobilised in order to supply assistance when needed.

Chau added that the Law on People with Disabilities, which took effect at the start of the year, would further help people integrate into their communities.

Bad pesticides ruin Delta rice crop

Farmers in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, already hit by topsy-turvy weather, are in danger of losing their rice crop to fake pesticides, Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper reported.

The Chau Phu District Plant Protection Station in An Giang Province, for instance, reported strange signs like the unusual length of the internode and leaf (15cm) after a farmer used Asia Biochemical Co Ltd’s pesticide known as BIM downy 75WP.

The province Plant Protection Department earlier reported 13 cases of production and distribution of fake pesticides, mostly of popular brands like Oshin 20WP, Chess 50WG, Atonik 1.8DD, Clincher 10 EC.

“Many [of them] had anti-counterfeit stamps,” Bui Van Khai, the department’s chief inspector, said.

Plant protection departments in Kien Giang and Dong Thap Provinces have also reported that many fake pesticide products are being sold.

“The producers do not focus on expensive pesticides that are easily detected [in case of fakes],” Nguyen Van Thien, director of the Dong Thap Plant Protection Department, said.

Agriculturists warn that the rampant sale of fake products is likely to be the last straw for farmers who are already grappling with unseasonable weather since planting their summer-autumn crop.

Nguyen Phuoc Tuyen, head of scientific research at the Dong Thap Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said: “Farmers spray plant protection chemicals when they find their paddy diseased.

“Most of them will spray again and again if they see no improvement.”

“Most active elements and solvents in these fake medicines are toxic compounds which do not decompose, and are toxic for the environment,” Tuyen said.

“They also exterminate fish and shrimp, and threaten the health of the sprayers.”

Inspectors should intensify oversight of manufacturing points, he said.

They have for long focused on inspecting outlets selling pesticides, while the root of the problem – places where the spurious chemicals are manufactured – has not received attention, he said.

Inspection of manufacturing places should not be difficult, and fakes could be “easily discovered” in the transportation phase, he said

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre