The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has revealed a plan to check 51 solid waste treatment facilities in 25 provinces and cities throughout the country.
The plan is to make a comprehensive assessment on State management over current waste treatment management work, according to the ministry.
Four working groups will be set up to examine these facilities, including those with high capacities, typical technologies or located in places with problems on waste management, the ministry said last week.
Examination will focus on the facilities’ compliance with regulations on environmental protection and environment dossiers approved by State management offices such as the making of environmental protection assessment reports, environmental protection plans and designed capacities in comparison with the real amount of waste they receive.
Treatment methods and technologies of the facilities, along with the origins of the technologies and their efficiency in the protection of the environment will also be checked.
Samples will be collected for testing. To ensure the objectivity and accuracy of the tests, the collection and analysis of the samples will be done by two independent units.
The ministry has asked localities throughout the country to report on their management over solid waste treatment so as to work out measures to intensify the management.
According to a report released late last year by the General Statistics Office of Việt Nam on solid waste collection and treatment, nearly 20 per cent of solid waste in the country was not treated properly following national standards.
In 2017, as many as 37,800 tonnes of solid waste were collected. About 31,600 tonnes were treated after collection. That means more than 6,000 tonnes of waste were left untreated, not to mention large quantity of solid waste being discharged every day without collection and treatment.
The country discharges 19,000 tonnes of rubbish, of which 16 per cent is made up of plastic waste, every day.
Faceoff: The Walking Guests will be released April 19-May 15 in several U.S. and Australian cities.
Directed by Ly Hai, the movie, called Lat Mat 4 in Vietnamese, will premier in U.S. cities of San Francisco, Houston, Garden Grove, Orange, Seattle and Dallas on various dates this month. In May, it will begin screening in the Australian cities of Melbourne and Sydney.
Face off: The Walking Guests is the fourth sequel of a movie series that tells the story of Vy and Huan, a couple visiting Vy’s home village with their friends. Vy learns that her brother suffers from a panic disorder and that her mother has sought a sorcerer’s help to cure her. Vy and her friends are then caught up in some bizarre, terrifying phenomena.
Director Hai said that he has long nurtured a desire to introduce his work to foreign markets, which would also promote Vietnamese culture among international audiences. Apart from several comic horror scenes, the movie highlights stunning scenery in Vietnam, a festival featuring flower garlands and coloured lanterns, as also an ethnic minority market in a mountainous area.
Hai said he is hoping to replicate South Korean success in foreign markets. Several South Korean movies have proved popular in the U.S.
“Since 2010, South Korean movies’ revenues have gone up by up to 40 times. I believe that to reap such benefits, it is essential to have trailblazers. I hope that international audiences will have a positive impression of Vietnamese movies,” he said.
The first flight of Malaysia’s AirAsia Airlines from the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur to Can Tho International Airport in the Mekong Delta landed on the morning of April 8.
Ms. Laddawan Meesupwatana, AirAsia’s Director of Products and Indochina Market, said Can Tho has great potential for tourism development and 8.5 million Vietnamese tourists visited Malaysia in 2018. The direct flights will help push the local economies and tourism sectors of the two cities and connect people living in the Mekong Delta with Southeast Asia and beyond through AirAsia’s extensive network. There will be four flights a week from Can Tho to Kuala Lumpur and return, on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.
According to Ms. Meesupwatana, AirAsia will also open flights connecting Can Tho with Bangkok, starting in May.
To mark the opening of direct flights to Kuala Lumpur, AirAsia is offering promotional fares starting from only VND730,000 ($33) one-way, including taxes and fees. Bookings can be made at http://www.airasia.com or on the AirAsia mobile app from now to April 21, for flights from April 8 to September 30.
AirAsia operates 16 direct routes to Vietnam, connecting Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Nha Trang, Phu Quoc, and Can Tho with six destinations in Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Can Tho is the sixth airport in Vietnam where AirAsia conducts international flights, with this route joining two other international routes to Taiwan and Bangkok.
The Vietnam Competition Authority under the Ministry of Industry and Trade has advised local consumers against ‘prize-winning’ scams where people are notified by fake Facebook pages that they have won valuable prizes from famous brands.
In most cases, gullible consumers would follow the instructions of the con artists, who claim to be representatives from prestigious companies, only to lose their real money attempting to claim the non-existent prizes.
Ngan Tram, a resident in Ho Chi Minh City’s Phu Nhuan District, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that she had recently received a phone call from an unknown number, with the caller telling her that she had won an iPhone from a customer loyalty program of Vietnam’s leading mobile retailer The Gioi Di Dong (Mobile World).
But to claim the prize, Tram had to pay a ten-percent tax on the VND5 million (US$215) phone, or VND500,000 ($21.5), she recalled, citing the con artist.
The consumer took a cautious step by contacting The Gioi Di Dong’s hotline before making any bank transfer, and was told that no such customer loyalty program existed.
Earlier this month, many Facebook users were also notified via the social network’s messaging app Messenger that they had won a free Mazda sedan plus a VND300 million ($12,900) gift voucher.
The consumers were told that they had been randomly selected as winners of a recent Mazda event, and were encouraged to visit a website or call a phone number “for more information” on claiming the gifts.
However, Mazda Vietnam said in an official announcement that these ‘prize winning’ messages were scams.
The automaker advised that people should not provide their personal information to dubious sources and only receive information from official channels such as Mazda’s website or its verified Facebook page.
On top of the ‘prize winning’ frauds, scammers also ran fake websites of local companies and duped people into paying for items that never shipped.
In December 2018, several people visited an outlet in District 5 of mobile retailer FPT, asking to receive the iPhones for which they had placed orders and paid via a website, much to the surprise of the store attendants.
One attendant told Tuoi Tre that the fraudulent website had used the business address of the FPT outlet in District 5 to deceive customers.
“We have called on authorities to look into and handle the matter,” an FPT Shop representative said.
The Vietnam Competition Authority has advised that local consumers be wary of products and services offered at cheap prices or with shocking discounts via dubious websites or social networking accounts.
One of the easiest ways to check the authenticity of a Facebook page that claims to belong to a famous brand is to look for the Blue Verification Badge on its profile, according to the competition watchdog.
The number of followers and post interactions on the pages also matter, it added.
Hanoi plans to spend VND14.5 billion ($625,000) each year on subsidizing tickets for its first metro line.
Capital city authorities said Hanoi plans to give free tickets to people with disabilities, children under six or people who made notable contributions in wartime on the Cat Linh – Ha Dong metro line, which is set to open this month.
A 50 percent discount will be given to students, industrial workers and senior citizens, and a 30 percent discount to businesses that buy tickets in bulk for their employees.
With an average ticket price of VND10,000 (43 cents), and discounts estimated to apply to 12 percent of total passengers, the value of annual subsidies has been estimated at around VND14.5 billion.
The city had earlier proposed that it provides free tickets to all passengers within the first 15 days of commercial operations.
The maximum fare on the first metro line will be VND15,000 (65 cents), and the minimum, VND8,000 (34 cents).
Passengers can also buy monthly season tickets for VND200,000 ($8.61) or daily tickets for VND30,000 ($1.29), both allowing unlimited trips.
These proposed fares are an introductory offer and will be increased later, officials have said.
Work on the Cat Linh-Ha Dong elevated railway began in 2011 and was originally scheduled for completion in 2013. But several hurdles, including loan disbursement issues with China that were only resolved in December 2017, stalled it for years.
The original estimated cost of $553 million also ballooned to more than $868 million, including $670 million in loans from China.
The metro runs 13 kilometers through 12 stations from the Yen Nghia Station in the southwest Ha Dong District to Cat Linh Station downtown. There is a 3-to-5-minute waiting period between each trip.
Realising the abundance of byproducts from factories and mounting pollution concerns, two science-minded students Mai Cao Kỳ Duyên and Ngô Thị Diễm Thúy from the central city of Huế have successfully developed a new type of eco-friendly and waterproof paper that can be used as a viable alternative to plastic.
The paper is made of bagasse left over from the extraction of sugarcane juice and coated with a thin layer of chitosan, a natural product found in shrimp shell waste that helps to prevent leaking.
The paper is disposable, waterproof, affordable and safe for human health.
“Vietnamese people generally have little idea about environmental protection. In my neighbourhood, not many classify or recycle garbage at home, and people use way too many plastic bags. If our material is widely adopted, it will help to reduce the amount of plastic waste in the environment,” said Duyên.
“We can also make the best use of byproducts from factories,” she added.
BRIGHT FUTURE: High school students Mai Cao Kỳ Duyên (left) and Ngô Thị Diễm Thúy have successfully developed an eco-friendly waterproof paper that can be used to make cups, bags and decorative wallpaper.
The paper can be used to make items for daily use like single use cups, straws, bowls or decorative wallpaper.
It was the sight of abundant bagasse in sugarcane juice shops in her neighbourhood that made Duyên come up with the idea of making the paper.
“As paper can dispose itself in a short time, it is more environmentally friendly compared to plastic but the paper industry destroys trees and also has adverse impact on the environment,” said Duyên.
The pulp and paper industries have been criticised for producing carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and sulphur dioxide, which are key contributors to acid rain.
The girls decided to collect the bagasse from sugarcane juice shops and shrimp shells from restaurants.
The duo then learnt how to make paper from bagasse and produce chitosan from shrimp shells on the internet with support from their chemistry teacher Lê Thị Thu Hồng.
“We tested the antibacterial ability, the chemical reactions, the use of chemicals, calculating the concentration of substances, and did lots of experiments and failed many times,” she added.
After one year of research and experimenting, the duo produced their first successful batch of paper last August.
Since then they have produced paper every month and given it to their friends and families to “make people more environmentally conscious”.
It costs only VNĐ15,000 (60 US cents) to produce one kilogramme of pulp.
The final product – a paper cup – costs VNĐ250 (about US$1.1 for every 100 cups). It would be even cheaper if they were mass produced in a factory, said Duyên.
A normal paper cup of the same size is sold for VNĐ2,000 each (about $8.6 for every 100 cups).
The low production cost and availability of raw material makes this a business with big potential.
“Sugarcane bagasse and shrimp shells are abundant, cheap, easy to find and safe for our health,” said Duyên.
Việt Nam is home to around 40 sugar mills and uses an average of 20 million tonnes of sugarcane which yields about 7 million tonnes of bagasse every year.
Currently bagasse is used for the production of electricity or animal feed.
The demand for eco-friendly products is increasing rapidly due to growing pollution concerns. Many restaurants, hotels and coffee shops have turned to recyclable products like paper cups, paper and metal straws, or paper take-out containers as alternatives for plastic products.
A five-star hotel on Lý Thường Kiệt Street in Hà Nội started using paper products in its café and bar lounge last Saturday.
Manager Nguyễn Tuấn Ngọc said their bar lounge used to use an average of 80 to 100 plastic straws and stirrers every day but they had started replacing them with paper products.
“Many hotels and restaurants around the world and in Việt Nam have turned to eco-friendly products and our hotel wants to follow suit,” he added.
“This initiative not only helps us reduce the amount of plastic waste, which has a bad impact on our living environment, but also promotes the green image of our hotel,” he added.
“Some customers used to refuse plastic straws but now we have turned to paper alternatives, they like it and highly appreciate the idea,” he said.
On 02 April 2019, VinCommerce, a member of Vingroup and the corporation managing VinMart & VinMart Plus, had announced to acquire 87 convenience stores of Shop&Go with a shock price of USD1, which has been a hot topic recently.
According to an announcement released by VinCommerce, this deal was derived directly from the proposal of Shop&Go chain owner, specifically, the owner actively proposed ceding their entire chain of 87 convenience stores for VinCommerce with that symbolic price. “Vietnam’s retail industry has a lot of potential to exploit but its competition is fierce, not as simple as our imaginations, so we decided to withdraw” – The Shop&Go representative said.
After completing this M&A, VinCommerce will continue to lead the retail industry by 108 Vinmart stores and about 1,900 convenience stores VinMart Plus nationwide.
The success of Vingroup’s subsidiary in acquiring a number of retail chains such as Vinatexmart, Oceanmart, Maximark, Fivimart and now Shop&Go could show their determination to develop a network to gain market share as their strategy.
Vietnam‘s General Statistics Office reported (05-Apr-2019) estimated foreign visitor arrivals to Vietnam for Mar-2019 and three months ended Mar-2019. In general, Visitor arrivals to Vietnam up 7% in 1Q 2019, arrivals from South Korea up 24%.
Details as below:
Mar-2019:
International visitor arrivals: 1.4 million +5.0% year-on-year;
By market:
China: 391,185, -14.0%;
South Korea: 335,612, +23.0%;
Japan: 82,533, +6.2%;
US: 61,619, +10.3%;
Russia: 68,880, +11.1%;
Taiwan: 65,390, +23.7%;
Malaysia: 52,113, +23.1%;
Thailand: 44,606, +78.3%;
Australia: 27,899, +6.5%;
UK: 29,367, +1.8%;
Arrivals by air: 1.1 million, +2.3%;
Three months ended Mar-2019:
International visitor arrivals: 4.5 million +7.0% year-on-year;
Standard and Poor’s (S&P) has announced that it has raised Vietnam’s sovereign rating to ‘BB’ from ‘BB-‘, with a stable outlook.
The upgrade is a reflection of the Vietnamese economy’s rapid expansion and improvements in the government’s “institutional settings”, S&P said.
The S&P Global Ratings’ raising of the national sovereign credit rating for Vietnam showed that the positive changes of Vietnam’s macro economy are clearly recognized in the eyes of international credit rating organizations.
Accordingly, S&P highly appreciated the direction and administration of the Vietnamese Government. Consistent and strong improvements of the macro economy, along with political stability continue to be a testament to the remarkable institutional reforms.
S&P also believes that these positive results will continue to be improved in the future, positively supporting Vietnam’s national credit profile. The Vietnamese economy is expected to continue its rapid expansion, with improvements in making policies and upgrading ratings.
With many positive judgments, in addition to upgrading long-term national credit for Vietnam to “BB”, S&P will continue to consider raising the national credit rating for Vietnam in the near future if the solid economic and the institutional environment help improve financial results better than expected.
Earlier, Moody’s credit rating for Vietnam was last set at Ba3 with a stable outlook in August, 2018. Fitch’s credit rating for Vietnam was last reported at BB with a stable outlook, in May, 2018.
This is the first time after 9 years (since December 2010) of maintaining the rating level “BB-” that S&P has raised the national sovereign credit rating for Vietnam.
Practical activities in working with international credit rating organizations in providing information of Vietnamese agencies and organizations have helped S&P in particular and international credit rating organizations in general change their outlook on Vietnam in a more positive and regular way, bringing practical effects to the economy in the coming years.
The first base transceiver station (BTS) of fifth generation (5G) has been install be Military-run telecommunications group of Vietnam (Viettel) on the roof of the its building in Hanoi.
According to NDO, a local media report, this is one of three 5G base transceiver stations test broadcasted at this time, according to Viettel. The two other ones are also deployed in Hanoi. The base transceiver stations are expected to be officially broadcasted in May 2019, bringing the first experience of 5G service in Vietnam.
According to a Viettel representative, in June 2019, 70 base transceiver stations of fifth generation 5G will be tested in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, to prepare to deploy a large-scale 5G network.
At the ASEAN Conference on 5G recently held in Vietnam, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam highly appreciated the Ministry of Information and Communications in coordinating with ASEAN countries and international organizations to organize the conference on 5G in Hanoi.
According to the Deputy PM, the conference not only covers technological issues, but also has great significance for Vietnam and ASEAN countries in the cooperation of digital economic development. 5G is scheduled to create a new generation of Internet, with artificial intelligence and blockchain which will fundamentally change the world’s new production methods.
According to Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung, 5G is an opportunity for Vietnam to change the rankings in the world. Vietnam has ambitions to be among the world’s first countries to launch 5G networks in 2020, with a testing phase expected in 2019. Viettel is the leading enterprise with the deployment of the base transceiver stations.
Vietnam’s small vendors try new ways to keep old customers as retail sector morphs
Small vendors in Vietnam are pulling out all the stops to counter the onslaught of Western-style supermarkets, convenience stores and the like that are gradually changing the retail sector.
Shopkeepers at traditional markets — still important sales channels in the country — are using social media, building websites, and trying direct sales to restaurants as the country transitions to middle-income status.
Vietnam’s per capita gross domestic product of about $2,600 is nearing the $3,000 threshold, after which spending habits tend to alter drastically.
Still, in the face of a dynamic retail landscape, the number of traditional markets remains largely unchanged from five years ago at about 8,500, according to data from Vietnam’s statistics office.
Bustling Giang Vo Market in central Hanoi is an example of old ways that refuse to die. Live fish and chickens await customers, who receive their orders cleaned and cooked on the spot. The 100 or so shops are popular for the freshness of their products, compared with supermarkets that offer mostly refrigerated meat and fish.
Nguyen Hoai Thu, a 35-year-old bank employee and mother of two, said she shops almost daily at traditional markets, which offer greater variety than supermarkets and are 20-30% cheaper.
On average, Vietnamese visit traditional markets about 19 times a month, according to a survey conducted by research company Nielsen in 2018 — a number that increases if variety stores are included. This compares with the 10 times a month spent shopping at supermarkets and other contemporary retail stores.
Despite old habits, however, consumers are changing. Another survey shows that Vietnamese spend only a third to a half of what they drop at supermarkets and convenience stores, indicating that the country uses traditional markets mainly for small purchases.
Duong Thi Ly, a produce shop owner, said sales have declined about 3% annually over the past five years. Ly says she is now “marketing more aggressively.” In addition to posting fruit-of-the-day photos on Facebook, she messages clients via social media and is promoting delivery services, though she has seen little change to her bottom line.
Butcher shop owner Ngo Thi Chinh, who has no refrigeration, has begun selling meat left unpurchased by noon to restaurants at a discount. Chinh says this has “eased operations” as she can now easily unload the leftover meat.
Ben Thanh Market in the southern city of Ho Chi Minh City is popular with foreign tourists, but they find it hard to haggle with shop owners over prices, which are mystery to the uninitiated. However, since the market began operating a website that lists products and prices, tourists and others have had more leverage when negotiating with shopkeepers.
According to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, there were just under 1,000 supermarkets in Vietnam in 2017, but a rising middle class is creating demand for more. The country’s biggest retailer, Vingroup, plans to double the number of its supermarkets to 200 by 2020 and more than double its convenience stores to about 4,000 over the same period.
The changing retail landscape is attracting outside interest. Japanese trading house Sumitomo last year entered Vietnam’s supermarket business, while compatriot Aeon Mall will increase the number of its shopping malls in the country.
Vietnam’s traditional market @ Credit: Social Media
But despite solid annual growth of 5-10%, the retail business is tough. According to local media, rents in Ho Chi Minh City are among the highest in Southeast Asia, squeezing corporate earnings. Vingroup’s retail unit suffered a loss of tens of hundreds of millions of dollars in fiscal 2017.
Japanese convenience store operator Seven-Eleven, a unit of Seven-I Holdings, feels the pain. The company opened its first store in Ho Chi Minh City in 2017 with a plan to operate about 100. But after three years, there are still fewer than 30 stores scattered across the country.
FujiMart Vietnam Retail CEO Keisuke Hitotsumatsu said, “For the time being, we will be competing with the traditional markets, rather than other supermarkets.”
The Vietnamese automaker is in the process of registering patents for its sedan and SUV models in Russia.
Russian news site Vesti has reported discovering images of VinFast’s sedan and SUV Lux in the database of the Russian Federal Service for Intellectual Property (Rospatent).
“Clearly, the Vietnamese automobile brand with BMW’s platform is approaching really close to the Russian market,” the news site said, suggesting that VinFast’s plans to sell its products in Russia might have been some time in the making.
According to a VinFast source, the company is in the process of completing necessary procedures to start selling cars in Russia. The source did not reveal a time frame for when it would happen.
Right from the beginning, VinFast had aimed at making cars that meet European standards, so they could be exported, apart from being sold in the domestic market. Russia was one of the first foreign markets targeted.
The sedan and SUV Lux are both equipped with turbocharged 2-liter 4-cylinder engines. The sedan has a 174 horsepower engine and a maximum torque of 300 Nm, while the SUV has a 228 horsepower engine with a maximum torque of 350 Nm.
Currently, the Lux model is scheduled to reach Vietnamese customers in the third quarter of this year, following the Fadil car, which would be introduced to the domestic market in the second quarter.
VinFast is shipping 155 of its cars to 14 countries across Asia, Europe, Africa and Australia to test them for safety and endurance against standards in those countries.
VinFast, the car manufacturing unit of Vietnam’s largest private conglomerate Vingroup, showed off its first two car models, a sedan and an SUV, at the Paris Motor Show in France last October just a year after the company’s incorporation, grabbing the attention of the local and international media.
A Vietnamese woman arrested in France last year for drug trafficking has been declared innocent by a Belgium court.
After the Antwerp Court in Belgium declared her innocence, Pham Thi Tuyet Mai, 34, was given her passport back and a Paris court ordered judicial surveillance lifted.
Mai returned to Hanoi Friday after spending 109 days in France.
Last December, Mai was apprehended by French border police at the Charles de Gaulle airport when she and her boyfriend were traveling from Vietnam to Malta to visit his family.
Her arrest, as per the European Arrest Warrant, was ordered by a judicial court in Antwerpen, Belgium back in 2013, in which it sought to execute a four-year sentence for drug trafficking between October 1, 2010 and May 10, 2011.
She was allowed bail by a Parisian court of appeal a day after her arrest, but was ordered to hand over all identification documents, placed under judicial surveillance and not allowed to leave the country.
Mai denied all drug trafficking and storage charges against her and said she had sufficient evidence to prove her innocence.
She said she studied and worked in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, before returning to Vietnam in March 2010. She only returned to Europe once in November 2011 for work. She also had documents to prove that she was working for a company in Vietnam from May 2010 to May 2012.
She added that she was not in Europe when the case happened in Belgium and proved so through the immigration stamp in her passport.
Mai’s defense lawyer said there were “too many irregularities” in Mai’s 2013 verdict and that her case might have been a case of identity theft instead.
Three people were killed and two others injured after an automobile crashed into a truck in the southern Vietnamese province of Dong Nai on early Sunday morning.
According to preliminary information, the seven-seater car was steered by 31-year-old Nguyen Dac Tam and carrying a total of five people.
The vehicle was traveling on a section of National Highway 20 in Tuc Trung Commune, Dinh Quan District at around 1:40 am, when it slammed into a truck driven by 36-year-old Nguyen Trong Quoc Viet, which was running in the opposite direction.
The crash killed three women in the automobile, namely Tran Thao Vy, 30, Ngo Thi Xuan, 52, and Tran Thi Long, 69.
Viet was admitted to the hospital with severe injuries, while another passenger in the automobile suffered minor wounds.
The car was heavily damaged following the incident.
Meanwhile, the truck went off road and tipped over on a plantation of a local family.
Police officers have examined the crash site and believed that the car was traveling in the wrong lane.
Two kilometres south of Hoan Kiem Lake, this temple was founded in 1142. A statue shows the two Trung sisters (from the 1st century AD) kneeling with their arms raised in the air.
Some say the statue shows the sisters, who had been proclaimed the queens of the Vietnamese, about to dive into a river. They are said to have drowned themselves rather than surrender in the wake of their defeat at the hands of the Chinese.
There is an annual festival held here in January or early February with a colorful procession and cultural activities like wrestling and human-chess displays.
