Southern provinces honour top students

Southern provinces honour top students

The Hoa Trang Nguyen (Top Laureate) awards were given on Sunday to 608 students from 26 southern provinces and cities who had the highest exam scores in their high schools, won prizes in national competitions and medals in international academic Olympic competitions, or were top scorers on the 2009 university entrance exams. At least 1,655 students were given Hoa Trang Nguyen awards this year.

Nhan Dan (The People)

Needy Vinh Long students to get scholarships

The Vo Van Kiet Scholarship Fund, named after the late Prime Minister, will award 300 first scholarships to needy students in Vinh Long Province during the fourth quarter of the year. The fund will grant scholarships worth VND1 million each to university students, VND800,000 to high school students and VND600,000 to secondary students.

Tuoi Tre (Youth)

Information security day to be organised

The Viet Nam Information Security Association and the Viet Nam Computer Emergency Response Team will organise the second Day of Information Security in mid-November, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology. The programme aims to link the Government, society and businesses.

Thoi Bao Kinh Te Viet Nam (Viet Nam Economic Times)

Dong Thap province to upgrade infrastructure

The Dong Thap People’s Committee will issue Government bonds worth VND137 billion (US$7.61 million) to build the province’s infrastructure. Of that amount, VND74 billion ($4.1 million) will be used for transport projects, VND25 billion ($1.39 million) for irrigation projects, VND20 billion ($1.1 million) to upgrade hospitals and clinics, and VND18 billion ($1 million) to upgrade classrooms and teachers’ houses.

Dau Tu (Viet Nam Investment Review)

First wound treatment centre opens

Viet Nam and HCM City’s first Wound Treatment Centre has begun operation at the Medicine University’s Hospital in District 5. The centre will offer treatment for non-healing wounds because of diabetes, ulcers, burns or injury. The centre will also train doctors and medical orderlies in wound treatment.

Thanh Nien (Young People)

Source: vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn

Ha Noi steel firm lists on southern bourse

HCM CITY — Ha Noi-headquartered steel manufacturer Phuc Tien (PHT) company yesterday became the 198th firm to list on the HCM City Stock Exchange.

It hopes the move will provide greater liquidity to its shares and enable it to raise funds for future projects. The company has a charter capital of VND110 billion (US$6.1 million) with foreign investors having a stake of just 0.45 per cent. It runs a factory in northern Hung Yen Province that produces rolled steel, roofing sheets, pre-fabricated structures and coated steel pipe with an annual output of 300,000 tonnes, according to chairman Nguyen Manh Ha.

Another factory with a capacity of 100,000 tonnes per year will begin operations later this year in Hai Phong.

Ha said the company was planning a new plant in Hai Duong Province in co-operation with a foreign and a domestic partner.

His company would contribute 50 per cent of the total $40 million investment in this project, which is expected to kick off construction in early 2010 and completed in nine months. PHT is also expanding into the real estate business. Apart from an 18-storeyed headoffice building now under construction in Ha Noi, the company is working on procedures to develop an urban area in Hai Duong Province that could cover up to 100ha. —

Source: vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn

Southern province plans 1,500 bridges

Southern province plans 1,500 bridges

Ca Mau Province authorities have approved a plan to build 1,588 rural bridges at a total cost of VND453 billion (US$26.7 million) in 2009-10.

The bridges will help provide overland access to rural roads, residential areas, schools and health clinics, limiting waterway traffic and gradually eliminating the need for students to travel to school by river.

Nhan Dan (The People)

Just 1% of contraband cigarettes nabbed

Only seven million packs of cigarettes smuggled into Viet Nam are being seized and destroyed each year, accounting for a mere 1 per cent, it is estimated.

A recent study by WHO said around 5 million people in the world are killed by smoking every year, and the number is expected to rise to 8 million by 2020. In Viet Nam, around 40,000 fatalities are thought to result from smoking annually.

Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberated sai Gon)

Crackdown on petrol adulteration

HCM City is drafting regulations to slap severe penalties on petrol stations that sell adulterated fuel.

The penalties will include increased fines and suspension of licences for up to six months.

Tuoi Tre (Youth)

Youth Union to enlarge talent fund

The HCM City unit of the Communist Youth Union plans to enlarge its Talented Youth Fund to provide more assistance to talented people up to age 35.

The assistance will be provided to students, teachers, and those involved in arts and culture, sports and physical culture, and science and technology. The fund, established in 1993, has funded 500 young talents, so far.

Nguoi Lao Dong (The Labourer)

Quang Nam EZ promoted in Seoul

A seminar on promoting investment in Quang Nam Province and its Chu Lai Open Economic Zone held in Seoul, South Korea, earlier this week saw more than 60 businesses participating. It aimed to provide information to Korean investors and businesses about opportunities for investing in the central province.

Thoi Bao Kinh Te Viet Nam (Vietnam Economic Times)

Source: vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn

Southern province plans 1,500 bridges

Southern province plans 1,500 bridges

Ca Mau Province authorities have approved a plan to build 1,588 rural bridges at a total cost of VND453 billion (US$26.7 million) in 2009-10.

The bridges will help provide overland access to rural roads, residential areas, schools and health clinics, limiting waterway traffic and gradually eliminating the need for students to travel to school by river.

Nhan Dan (The People)

Just 1% of contraband cigarettes nabbed

Only seven million packs of cigarettes smuggled into Viet Nam are being seized and destroyed each year, accounting for a mere 1 per cent, it is estimated.

A recent study by WHO said around 5 million people in the world are killed by smoking every year, and the number is expected to rise to 8 million by 2020. In Viet Nam, around 40,000 fatalities are thought to result from smoking annually.

Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberated sai Gon)

Crackdown on petrol adulteration

HCM City is drafting regulations to slap severe penalties on petrol stations that sell adulterated fuel.

The penalties will include increased fines and suspension of licences for up to six months.

Tuoi Tre (Youth)

Youth Union to enlarge talent fund

The HCM City unit of the Communist Youth Union plans to enlarge its Talented Youth Fund to provide more assistance to talented people up to age 35.

The assistance will be provided to students, teachers, and those involved in arts and culture, sports and physical culture, and science and technology. The fund, established in 1993, has funded 500 young talents, so far.

Nguoi Lao Dong (The Labourer)

Quang Nam EZ promoted in Seoul

A seminar on promoting investment in Quang Nam Province and its Chu Lai Open Economic Zone held in Seoul, South Korea, earlier this week saw more than 60 businesses participating. It aimed to provide information to Korean investors and businesses about opportunities for investing in the central province.

Thoi Bao Kinh Te Viet Nam (Vietnam Economic Times)

Source: vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn

Typhoon Hagupit kills 10 in southern China

– Typhoon Hagupit has killed 10 people after making landfall in southern China’s Guangdong province early on September 24, Xinhua news agency reported.

The typhoon forced the closure of schools in at least two cities in south China, the cancellation of flights and left many urban streets deserted.

The Guangdong Provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters estimated that direct economic losses in the coastal province have totalled 6 billion yuan (about 770 million USD) so far.

The strong typhoon made landfall in the city of Maoming, Dianbai County at 6:45 am with winds of more than 200 km per hour at its centre, the Guangdong Provincial Meteorological Bureau said.

Strong gales uprooted many trees and billboards in Maoming when the storm landed. The high winds destroyed a gas station along the Zhanjiang section of State Highway No. 325 and a factory under construction.

Hagupit has triggered a once-in-a-century storm tide, a high flood period in which water levels can rise to more than 5 meters above the normal tide, in several coastal cities including Guangzhou, Foshan, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Jiangmen and Yangjiang.

The province recalled more than 50,000 vessels at sea with almost 200,000 fishermen and crew members on September 23, according to Xinhua. –

Philippines, MILF agree on southern Muslim area

– The Philippines government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have agreed to hold a referendum in the area that MILF calls the “ancestral domain”.

Under the agreement, which was reached at a negotiation mediated by Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur on July 27, the referendum will be held in 712 villages in the above area within next 12 months, according to news agencies.

Additionally, the two sides also agreed on how to form the administration in the area, and how to share benefits earned from natural resources.

Philippines presidential advisor Hermogenes Esperon said in a statement the agreement was a “breakthrough” between the Philippines and the MILF.

The conflict between the Filipino government and the MILF has lasted for more than four decades, killing more than 120,000 and making about two million others homeless.–