France helps Mekong Delta improve urban water supply

France helps Mekong Delta improve urban water supply

QĐND – Thursday, December 31, 2009, 22:23 (GMT+7)

Six provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta are implementing the second phase of a safe water supply programme to increase the number of people in urban, commercial and industrial zones accessible to safe water to 85 percent.

The programme, costing 32 million Euros, will be funded by the French Development Agency (AFD) in 3 years starting in 2009. About 5 to 15 projects to be carried out in these provinces and cities can get direct access to the programme’s credit.

Earlier, the European Union (EU) sponsored Euro3 million to help Mekong Delta provinces protect the environment with projects designed to train staff and buy equipment for environmental management, observation, forecast and protection.

Water supply in the region does not meet the demand of sdaily activities and commercial production. Annually, the urban areas discharge nearly 102 million cubic metres of waste water, 600,000 tonnes of solid waste and 47 million litres of liquid waste.

Source: CPV

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SGGP reader helps poor student cover university fees

A Sai Gon Giai Phong reader, the owner of a textile and garment business in Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Binh Industrial Zone, said that after reading an article about a struggling underprivileged student, they felt compelled to help.
 

Dang Minh Tung (2nd, L) with his grandmother and brothers. (Photo: SGGP)

The reader has paid a year’s worth of school fees for 21-year-old student Dang Minh Tung, so that he can attend the Ho Chi Minh University of Finance and Marketing where he was recently admitted.

Tung grew up in a poor family, raised by his grandmother after his parents divorced when he was one month old. He has struggled all his life to eke out a living and was forced to drop out of school when he couldn’t afford the tuition.

He says he asked his father for money, but was refused. His grandmother eventually borrowed enough money to help him return to his education and he recently passed the university entrance exam.

The SGGP reader has promised to fund Tung’s studies for the next four years.

Source: SGGP Bookmark & Share

Ca Mau helps young people train for jobs

Source: vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn

Backhand helps Thien survive

Prince of tennis: Nguyen Hoang Thien beat Pham Minh Tuan 7-5, 6-1 in the second round of the National Tennis Championship yesterday in Ha Noi. — VNA/VNS Photo Quang Nhut

HA NOI — Asian U-14 champion Nguyen Hoang Thien beat Pham Minh Tuan 7-5, 6-1 in the second round of the National Tennis Championship, yesterday in Ha Noi.

Thien, who plays for Tanimex HCM City, struggled to break his opponent’s serve in the first set, but his strong backhand eventually came through.

The second set was an easier affair for Tuan, 16, whose opponent seemed exhausted from his first-set encounter.

Thien, who took part in an intensive training course with leading American coach Roy Coopersmith, will next meet Huynh Chi Khuong of the Army team. Khuong was awarded a 3-0 over Ngo Quang Huy of Tanimex HCM City yesterday after his opponent retired with a leg injury when the match was at one set all.

Hanoian Vu Hoan was also forced to retire after sustaining a hand injury when leading 5-2 in the second set after losing the first set 6-7 to Bui Tri Nguyen of Becamex Binh Duong.

Defending champion Do Minh Quan of Tanimex HCM City defeated Tran Hoang Anh Khoa of Army 6-1, 6-1 yesterday.

Earlier, Ngo Duc Duong from Binh Duong defeated teammate Ta Quoc Bao 6-2, 6-2, while Van Huu Nguyen Vu beat Truong Quoc Bao 6-3, 6-4 in all-Army clash.

Quang Huy was later paired with Lam Quang Tri in the doubles quarterfinals against Chi Khuong and Le Quoc Khanh.

The pair took the first set 6-3. However, the pair went down 1-6 in the second set.

After going behind 0-3 in the third set, Tri injured his arm and was forced to retire.

In the women’s competition, Tanimex’s Tran Lam Anh beat Do Dan Thi of Da Nang 6-1, 6-0, while teammate Nguyen Ai Ngoc Van beat Le Thi Thanh Thuy of Kien Giang 6-1, 6-2.

The tournament is being held at the Sao Mai Tennis Club.

The finals take place on Friday. —

Source: vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn

Wall Street helps lift domestic share prices

An investor monitors market trading at the offices of SME Securities Co. — VNA/VNS Photo Truong Vi

HA NOI — Buoyed by good news from Wall Street, the VN-index ended the day on Friday up 7.8 points to close at 547.99, as volume on the HCM City Stock Exchange rose nearly 20 per cent over Thursday’s trading to 60.7 million shares.

Trades totaled a substantial VND2.73 trillion (US$152 million) on the day.

Blue chips came on strongly in early trading but began to lose points later in the session on strong sales. Leading banking and financial shares like Vietcombank (VCB), Sacombank (STB) and VietinBank (CTG) saw slight decreases, but PetroVietnam Finance (PVF) and FPT closed higher.

Meanwhile, shares in real estate, construction materials and food products all posted gains. By the end of the day, advancers had outnumbered decliners overall by 111 to 38, with 25 codes closing unchanged.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index also closed yesterday up slightly to 169.18 points, with trades topping VND1 trillion ($55.5 million) on a volume of 31.8 million shares.

Vietcombank Securities Co analysts said that investors had become familiar with the regular ups and downs of the market and predicted the pattern would continue as investors waited for clearer signals from the economy.

Analysts of Au Viet Securities Co said the general trend was toward a more active market, with stable capital flows. Investors were confident of a market recovery, resulting in large buy volumes.

More points

VNDirect Securities Co, however, predicted the VN-Index would likely recede to around 500-510 points and would be unable to gain further until financial shares stabilised.

On the HCM City Stock Exchange yesterday, foreign investors were net buyers of 3.2 million shares, accounting for about 5.2 per cent of the total market volume. In Ha Noi, foreign investors bought 714,900 shares but sold 466,400 shares. —

Source: vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn

Australia helps Vietnam improve its judicial system

Hanoi (VNA) – Australia has pledged to provide 600,000 AUD to help improve Vietnam’s judicial system in 2009.

A project to update the Vietnamese Judiciary’s Benchbook (phase II) was signed off in Hanoi on December 3 by the Australian ambassador to Vietnam Allaster Cox and standing deputy chief of justice of the Supreme People’s Court of Vietnam Dang Quang Phuong.

The Australian government-funded assistance is to be chanelled via the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID). The Supreme People’s Court of Vietnam (SPC) will act as the implementing agency and the Federal Court of Australia will act as a co-managing agency.

Under the terms of the project, the SPC will draft new sections of the Benchbook reflecting the recent significant legislative programme undertaken in Vietnam .

In addition, several existing chapters of the Benchbook will be revised, based on comments and suggestions made by the law community.

According to the Australian Embassy, the project is expected to be completed by October 2009. It will be the first Benchbook for Vietnamese judges.

Phase I of the project was carried out between 2004 and 2006 with a similar level of investment.-

US Embassy helps to empower local women

The US embassy in Vietnam announced two projects worth more than 38,000 USD on November 26, designed to help boost democracy at a grassroots level and increase the involvement of women in the policy-making process.

These grants have been provided as part of the US Department of State’s Small Grants Programme.

The first project, worth 18,750 USD will be executed by the Centre Development Assistance (CDA), with the aim of strengthening the Grassroots Democracy Ordinance in the Nam Bung and Nghia Tam communes in Van Chan district, in the northern mountainous province of Yen Bai .

CDA will organise training workshops and carry out marketing and communication campaigns to raise help raise the awareness of both local authorities and the public of the Ordinance’s work. The funding will also be used to promote local residents’ participation in the local decision making process and to develop the information exchange mechanisms between the regional authorities and local residents.

The other project, worth close to 20,000 USD has been awarded to the Centre for the Education, Promotion and Empowerment of Women (CEPEW) to fund a project aimed at increasing female participation in the policy-making process.

CEPEW will conduct training courses, group discussions and information programmes to raise the awareness of gender equality issues, women’s rights and the implementation of grassroots democracy for both local authorities and residents in the area.

The project will also help to raise local leaders’ capacity to further the incorporation of democratic principles in the policy-making process, and increasing the capacities for participation and advocacy of members of the communal Women’s Union’s standing and executive committees.-

Denmark helps Vietnam develop event management skills

Hanoi (VNA) – The Danish Embassy, in conjunction with the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music are to host a Music Management training course from December 1-12 in a bid to help Vietnamese art managers to further their management skills in art development.

The course is part of the Vietnam – Denmark Development Cooperation in Culture Programme 2006 – 2010, according to a statement made by the Danish Embassy in Vietnam on November 17.

Participants in the course will receive an introduction to creative business design, planning and a host of decision-making tools necessary for event management. They will also become familiar with a range of analytical methodologies, the development of business plans, marketing and financial management, and tools for the quantitative evaluation of events.

The training course will feature course input from teachers and coordinators from the Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus, Denmark (RAMA) Denmark’s support to cultural development in Vietnam is based on strategy set out in the Danish Strategy for Development Cooperation 2006-2010 with Vietnam.

The strategy is aimed at promoting increased creativity, people’s access and participation as well as diversity in the Vietnamese society.-

WB helps develop northern waterways

Hanoi (VNA) – The World Bank (WB) will provide 170 million USD for Vietnam to implement a project to develop waterway transport in the Northern Delta.

Under an agreement signed by representatives from the WB and the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) in Hanoi on November 10, the project has a total investment capital of 200 million USD, with 30 million USD funded by the Vietnamese government.

The project will be carried out from May 2009 to June 2012 in 14 cities and provinces, including Hanoi , Ha Nam , Hai Phong, Ninh Binh , Nam Dinh, Thai Binh, Hung Yen, Hai Duong, Bac Ninh, Bac Giang, Vinh Phuc, Phu Tho, Tuyen Quang and Quang Ninh.

It aims to help Vietnam to upgrade its waterway transport infrastructure through the development of a multi-vehicle transport corridor and a system of ferries, as well as improving the management capacity for the Ministry of Transport, the Inland Waterways Department and target provinces.

WB’s Acting Director in Vietnam Martin Rama stressed that the project will not only help to increase waterway transport safety but also to reduce road traffic jams and accidents.

This will be the WB’s second waterway transport project to be carried out in Vietnam , following the one in the Mekong Delta, he added.

As a result of poor-quality infrastructure, waterway transport in the northern region is yet to operate at full capacity, even though it is a low-cost and extremely safe mode of transport.

Under the country’s recently-amended plan outlining waterway transport development until 2020, more than 40 trillion VND is expected to be poured into infrastructure development during the 2010-2020 period.

Vietnam has over 5,600 ports and wharfs, with 91 percent of them being involved in the handling of goods.-

Oxfam UK helps build infrastructures in Tien Giang

Tien Giang (VNA) – Oxfam UK has financed over 1.68 billion VND to build welfare infrastructures including a school, a pumping station and rural roads in disaster-hit localities of southern Tien Giang province.

The provincial districts of Cai Be, Cai Lay and Tan Phuoc which are usually hit by disasters are launching the construction of a kindergarten, a power pumping station and three rural routes with estimated costs of 626 million VND, 560 million VND and 883 million VND, respectively.

Once completed, the works will help local people overcome aftermaths of natural disaters, develop production and return to stable life.

In 2009, Oxfam UK plans to finance 1.5 billion VND to upgrade infrastructures and public works in 10 poor communes of the three districts.-