Vietnam has won the “Asia’s best golf destination 2018” at the World Golf Awards, announced the Vietnam National Tourism Administration (VNAT) under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on November 22.
The country has earned the title for two consecutive years in a row.
In addition, The Grand-Ho Tram Strip in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau received the “Asia’s best golf hotel” award, while Ba Na Hill Golf Club in central Da Nang city was honoured with the title of “Asia’s best golf course”.
According to the VNAT, the tourism sector needs to devise a long-term strategic development plan and popularise golf tourism, which in turn will bolster tourism growth and investment in Vietnam.
As the country boasts a number of challenging golf courses with spectacular scenery, golf tourism holds huge potential in Vietnam’s tourism development.
The World Golf Awards serves to celebrate and reward excellence in golf tourism, world-class courses, and outstanding golf destinations.
The global voting process lasted seven months this year. Votes are made by professionals working within the golf travel and tourism industry, including senior executives, tour operators, agents, media professionals, and golf tourism consumers.
Earlier, the ministry selected Australian professional golfer Greg Norman as the next ambassador for Vietnamese tourism for the 2018-2021 tenure.
Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Nguyen Ngoc Thien, presented the appointment decision to Norman at a ceremony held in Hanoi on October 31. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc hosted a reception in Hanoi for Norman the same day.
Cycling has become a hobby of Hanoi dwellers in recent years. The beautiful streets around Sword Lake, West Lake, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, and Unification Park are packed with cyclists during the weekend.
Many of the weekend cyclists are women. One of them is banker Minh Anh, who has cycled for several years. At first Anh hired a bicycle every weekend, but when she became passionate about cycling, she bought her own bicycle. Anh eithers cycles alone or with friends and family members.
A lot of cyclists have joined clubs, including Tour de Five, whose members cycle every Thursday, as well as Mountain Bike Hanoi, and Tour the fun. People of different ages and vocations gather there to share their passion.
According to Vu Truong Lam, President of the Tour de Five club, more and more people have registered for his club, and enjoy it as a means to share experience and knowledge of bicycles and cycling. Members now not only cycle around Hanoi but also to neighboring places.
“Once a month, we travel to somewhere 50 to 100 kilometers away from Hanoi. Sometimes when we have a long vacation, we cycle to as far as the northern provinces of Lang Son and Thai Nguyen,” Lam said.
As the cycling hobby has been growing, the bicycle rental service has been booming. There are lots of shops around West Lake, Thanh Nien street, and Hoang Hoa Tham street with bicycles for rent at around 200,000 VND per day. They also offer accessories like locks, lights, and helmets free of charge.
Exercise seems to be the top inspiration for cyclists with the easily recognizable benefits of keeping the body in shape, staying healthy, and relieving stress. The movement of the body while cycling directly effects the thighs and stomach, thus helping to lose weight and gain muscle.
Le Thu Trang of Hanoi told VOV “I choose cycling because it’s a simple exercise. The bicycle is convenient and easy to use.”
Many people have engaged in cycling because they can do it in a group and thus helps to boost the connection between themselves and their loved ones.
Leisurely enjoying the beautiful scenery while cycling is a good way of living more slowly. Cycling, whether around Hanoi or far beyond, relieves them of the stress of modern life.
To some people, like Ung Linh of Hanoi, cycling is synonymous with environmental protection. Linh is still keen on cycling, a habit that she has developed since she studied in Poland.
Linh told VOV “People living in the busy urban areas are likely to exercise less so cycling is a good idea, I think. I often ride my bicycle for a trip of a dozen kilometers. Cycling can reduce environmental pollution. I ride slowly on the streets and enjoy the fragrance of milk flowers, especially these days. I see more people out cycling and more bicycle shops, as well.”
Two Vietnamese have been named among Top 100 security researches in 2018 ranked by Microsoft Security Response Centre.
Tran Tien Hung, 29, and Do Quang Thanh, 23, are both from Viettel Military Industry and Telecoms Group’s Viettel Cyberspace Centre, ranked 88th and 97th on the list respectively.
Hung found three Windows loopholes which could help hackers to take control of computers and steal user information. The problem affected both Windows 7 and Windows 10.
Meanwhile, Do Quang Thanh discovered problems related to graphical user interface which could offer hackers a chance to break into computers to steal private information, including their social network accounts and banking accounts.
The top 100 security researchers were announced by Microsoft at the annual Black Hat Security Conference. This list recognises the top security researchers who have contributed research to the Microsoft products and services.
The people named in the list were selected from candidates sent to Microsoft from Jul 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018.
Numerous shops sell “organic” meat in the market, but the origin of the products is unclear and they are not certified as organic.
Meanwhile, prestigious meat suppliers and importers have yet to market organic meat.
The manager of a food shop in district 2 in HCM City said that most of the domestic meat products available at high-end shops are pork, chicken and beef from animals farmed in a traditional way. Products still cannot meet the standards set for ‘organic’ food.
However, the meat is still 20 to 100 percent more expensive than the meat of animals farmed on an industrial scale, because consumers believe the meat is ‘cleaner’ and ‘safer’.
Only a few products have certificates on organic meat, such as AusFarm (meeting Canadian standards) and Acres beef imports (Australian standards).
NTK, director of a meat import company in HCM City, said meat products advertised as ‘organic’ now available in the market are probably not organic.
“The organic meat supply is limited. The number of farms which have certificates on organic farming is very small. The supply is short, production costs are high and meat is mostly consumed on the spot,” he explained.
“I asked some retailers about certificates, but they gave ambiguous answers,” he said, warning that the products may be not organic.
Consumers have been well aware of the risk.
Tran Hong Ha, a housewife in Hai Ba Trung district in Hanoi, said she doesn’t intend to buy organic meat available at shops, because ‘no one is sure it is really organic, and it is too expensive’.
Phan Thi Hong Quyen, co-founder of Solomon International in HCM City, which specializes in importing products from organic milk, plans to import organic meat for domestic sale as the demand is high.
However, she said importers will have to follow complicated procedures. The foreign exporters will have to be inspected and licensed by Vietnamese management agencies.
Some domestic investors are running organic farms, but are still seeking certificates. A big enterprise in the livestock industry has been reportedly following organic farming for many years, but has not succeeded.
Vinamit is one of a few companies which have certificates on organic meat in accordance with US and European standards. Vinamit’s CEO Nguyen Lam Vien has confirmed that the company is still in the preparation stage before launching products into the market.
A high-speed craft launched Thursday will cut travel time between Vung Tau beach town and Con Dao Island by half.
Con Dao Express 36, launched Thursday by state-owned shipbuilding 189 Limited Company, will transport passengers between the southern beach city of Vung Tau and Con Dao Island from early next year.
The craft will reduce travel time between the two destinations to three hours, instead of the current six to seven hours.
The vessel has a body length of 46.85 meters (153.7 ft) and a maximum width of 12.2 meters (40 ft). Con Dao Express 36 will have a maximum speed of 35 knots (40 miles per hour), and is said to be the fastest ship in Vietnam.
Officials say the vessel is highly stable and safe, and, combined with its spacious, comfortable passenger cabin, it will induce less seasickness.
It has leather-draped, sound-proofed interiors and chairs that can tilt back 120 degrees. The seating on the double-storied vessel is divided into economy, deluxe and VIP sections.
At the launching ceremony in the northern Hai Phong City, the shipbuilding company said Con Dao Express 36 was the largest, most modern double-storied ship in Vietnam, built following European standards.
The 16-island archipelago Con Dao, once a notorious prison island, is also connected to the mainland by air route, thanks to an airport on Con Son, the largest and only one inhabitated island in the group.
Vietnam’s ongoing coffee harvest and offshore oil exploration are under threat from tropical storm Usagi, which is headed from the South China Sea towards the Southeast Asian country’s coffee-growing region of the Central Highlands.
Vietnam’s long coastline makes it prone to destructive tropical storms. Natural disasters such as floods and landslides triggered by storms killed 389 people in the country last year.
At least 19 people were killed by a tropical storm last week in the southern resort city of Nha Trang.
“(Usagi) will start hitting our operational oil and gas blocks off the central and southern coast and all units must keep vigilant as the storm develops,” state-run Vietnam Oil and Gas Group, known as PetroVietnam, said in a statement on Friday.
With sustained wind speeds of up to 100 kph, the storm will dump up to 500 millimeters of rain in coastal areas stretching from the central city of Hue, to the southern province of Binh Thuan and the Central Highlands, the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said on Friday.
The Central Highlands is Vietnam’s largest coffee growing area, where the harvest of the 2018/19 crop year is under way.
“We are concerned that the heavy rains triggered by the storm will disrupt the coffee harvest,” said Nguyen Viet Vinh, General Secretary of the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association.
Traders estimate that farmers have harvested nearly 40 percent of the beans and that the harvest will end in late December.
Vietnam’s government said on Friday it had ordered local authorities to get ready to evacuate people from areas prone to floods and landslides and instructed boats to find shelter.
Usagi, known in Vietnam as Storm No. 9, is forecast to weaken to a tropical low pressure system as it hits the southeastern coast of Vietnam on Saturday night, with sustained wind speeds of 60 kph, the meteorological agency said.
A South Korean tourist was caught in Da Nang after robbing a taxi driver at knifepoint.
Park Young Jun, 49, was detained on November 23 by Ngu Hanh Son District police in Da Nang city.
The South Korean got into a taxi driven by Vo Van Duc to travel from Hue City to a hotel in Ngu Hanh Son District, Da Nang.
On Vo Nguyen Giap Street in Da Nang, Park asked Duc to stop the taxi and then forced him at knifepoint to hand over two mobile phones worth around VND1.3 million ($56).
According to the police, when Duc managed to open the door and shout for help, Park fled the scene.
The driver and other residents chased the tourist until the police arrived and caught the suspect.
Park Young Jun had entered Da Nang in August on a 15-day visa exemption, but stayed on illegally.
South Koreans have become one of the biggest groups of visitors to Vietnam in recent years. In 2017, Vietnam welcomed 2.4 million South Korean visitors. In the first ten months of this year, the number was more than 2.8 million, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.
Da Nang has been a major draw for South Koreans visiting Vietnam. The country’s third largest city welcomed 1.35 million South Korean tourists in the first nine months of this year, a 55.89 percent increase year-on-year, according to Da Nang’s Department of Tourism.
Three Vietnamese men have received a one-year flight ban for assaulting a flight attendant in Thanh Hoa Province.
Officials from the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam issued the decision on Sunday, saying they have also asked the police to put the men under criminal investigation.
The violence, captured on video by an eyewitness, sparked a public outcry after it went viral online.
The video shows three men slapping and kicking a woman at the Tho Xuan Airport in the central coastal province of Thanh Hoa, a four hour drive to the south of Hanoi.
The victim was identified as Le Thi Giang, a female employee of the Vietjet Air budget carrier.
At 2:20 p.m. Friday, the three men, Pham Huu An, 28, Le Van Nhi, 41, and Le Trung Dung, 34, went to the airport to see off a friend who boarded a Vietnam Airlines flight for Ho Chi Minh City.
After their friend had completed the check-in procedure, the triple had Giang take a group photo for them at the departure hall. She accepted their request.
When they asked her to join them for another group photo, Giang declined, saying she was on duty.
Following her refusal, the men became agitated and got violent, slapping her and kicking her to the ground. An airport manager witnessed the incident and tried to stop the men’s violent acts but was also slapped in the face.
One of her colleagues who filmed the incident with her mobile phone was threatened, and two security staff at the airport were also reportedly attacked by the gang.
A short while after, airport security officers subdued the gang and took them the local police station.
An airport representative said the men were said to be drunk.
Le Nhu Anh, chief of police in Thanh Hoa’s Tho Xuan District, said they were taking the incident seriously.
Administrative or criminal punishment would have decided on after investigations are completed, he said.
Last year, a Vietnamese man was fined VND7.5 million ($330) for hitting a female staff member of Vietjet Air in the face with his bag after she refused to give him the boarding pass, and offered to move his flight to the next day.
In 2016, an inspector with Hanoi’s transport department was sacked for assaulting a female Vietnam Airlines employee in an incident that also triggered public outcry and prompted Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to call for a thorough investigation.
Low-cost carriers and the rise of middle-income earners have seen rapid growth in Vietnam’s aviation industry. The country served more than 53 million air passengers in the first half of this year, up 14 percent from a year ago.
A falling tree killed a man as heavy rains triggered by storm Usagi caused severe flooding in Saigon.
A big tree with diameter of one meter on Nguyen Van Linh Street in Binh Chanh District to the west of the city was uprooted and fell on a man passing by, knocking him unconscious.
The man, whose name has not been revealed, was hospitalized, but succumbed to his injuries later.
Storm Usagi weakened into tropical depression Sunday afternoon, but HCMC suffered severe flooding and saw big trees uprooted.
Heavy downpours that began Sunday morning lasted several hours and inundated many streets in Saigon.
Nguyen Huu Canh, a flood-prone street in Binh Thanh District, Le Van Viet in District 9, Quoc Huong in District 2 and Huynh Tan Phat in District 7 were submerged under 0.5 meters of water after it began raining heavily Sunday morning.
“I think the storm has weakened and did not affect Saigon much, but the rain was still terrible,” Le Thi Binh, a woman living in District 7 told VnExpress as she walked her bike on Huynh Tan Phat Street.
Experts have blamed rapid urbanization for the frequent flooding and other problems facing the city.
Usagi, the ninth storm of the year to hit Vietnam, devolved into a tropical depression near Sunday noon after making landfall in the Vung Tau beach town in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province.
As of 1 p.m. on Sunday, the tropical depression was moving along the coast from the south central Binh Thuan Province to the southern Ben Tre Province with maxium wind speeds of 60 kilometers per hour. It is expected to continue moving further inland before forming a low-pressure zone over the Cambodia border area at 1 a.m. Monday.
Southern localities including Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Long An, Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Tra Vinh and Ho Chi Minh City will continue to see heavy rainfall until Sunday night at least, Le Dinh Quyet from the Southern Hydrometeorological Center told VnExpress.
As of Sunday evening, rains triggered by Usagi had uprooted around 100 trees in Vung Tau and flooded many places in the central provinces of Ninh Thuan and Khanh Hoa. A part of the North-South Railway line in Ninh Thuan has been damaged by erosion, which has also caused landslides that have paralyzed traffic to Khanh Hoa’s Cam Ranh International Airport.
Below is footage of strong winds in HCMC’s coastal district Can Gio, on Sunday afternoon.
Life insurers are boosting online sales and digitalization to transform and better satisfy customers.
Having three life insurance policies with three different life insurers, Ms. Pham Hoai Thu, a 42-year-old bank officer working in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 3, has never felt it was complicated to follow the policies’ information or pay the monthly premiums. “I’ve never had to contact consultants or insurance agents to ask about my policies over the last five years because almost all life insurers have linked with banks to develop premium payments via internet banking and have periodically sent online information to policy holders,” she said.
Many other customers in Vietnam with insurance policies have been actively taken care of thanks to facilities from fintechs (financial technology providers). Customers can readily go online to access data about policies and premiums or actually take out life insurance policies. Despite the model remaining in its early stages of development, with simple and low-value insurance products, online insurance is bound to become more popular in the near future, according to industry insiders.
Going online
Both local and foreign life insurance companies in Vietnam have been stepping up investment in online business models. Foreign life insurers transferring their transactions to digital platforms include Prudential, Manulife, FWD, Hanwha Life, Chubb Life, and Generali Vietnam.
Manulife Vietnam announced its EasyClaims service in late August, where customers receive support on its website in completing insurance claims. EasyClaims is one of Manulife’s first strategic moves in technology, to affirm its position in the country’s life insurance market. “Our AI efforts are mostly focused on servicing, in order to automate our back-end processes to boost efficiency,” said Mr. Kim Fleming, CEO of Manulife Vietnam.
Since last year, the company has deployed a number of online apps and services on preparing insurance documents or making periodic premium payments. In particular, it initiated online insurance trading services by launching three different types of flexible insurance products priced between $27 and $66, offering exclusive benefits on the online trading platform.
Hanwha Life Vietnam is also investing in technology and infrastructure. It recently launched JetClaims, an automated claims authorization program that allows customers to receive insurance benefits immediately. The unique feature of the program is “fast, simple and convenient”, as all procedures are completely automated, providing instant results, and customers can receive instant cash compensation in its customer service center.
Previously, Generali Vietnam in April introduced its new application, GenClaims, which pares down the duration of the claim process and in turn reduces the notoriously long waiting time. Once claim requests are lodged, customers will receive a response from the insurer within 30 minutes. In most cases, insurance claims will be accepted and paid within a day. The Italian life insurer in early September launched a new cancer insurance product, Vita – La Chan Vang, and targets selling online soon. Customers need only answer some questions and the policy will be automatically issued rather than months later, as before.
Prior to selling insurance online, Generali prepared internal operational support platforms and improved its customer communications. It introduced a customer satisfaction survey system called GENPS last year, allowing it to provide the most hassle-free customer experience possible. At the same time, it also deployed the GENOVA system, supporting agencies to provide benefits to customers quickly. “More than 80 per cent of new insurance contracts have been signed via this system,” said Ms. Tina Nguyen, CEO of Generali Vietnam. “All these steps were prepared for the birth of Genvita in July, our most up-to-date and complete ecosystem integrating all previous technologies.”
A newcomer in Vietnam’s life insurance market, FWD is nonetheless one of the first life insurers to offer online sales and issue online contracts, cutting out insurance agents. “Our digital focus helps us be 100 per cent paperless and 100 per cent cashless,” said Mr. Anantharaman Sridharan, CEO of FWD Vietnam. It recently launched an online purchasing option for “FWD cancer care”, a life insurance package that promises customers are paid the entire sum for cancer diagnosis at any stage.
Technological adventure
A recent survey on life and non-life insurers in Vietnam conducted by Vietnam Report and released in June revealed that 82.4 per cent of insurance companies said they were building a Mobile Internet development strategy, and 67 per cent have adopted strategies based on two key factors in Industry 4.0: the Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data.
The current trend is that the insurance industry develops in parallel with the advent of new technologies. “The emergence of Industry 4.0 helps traditional insurance providers pay close attention to the technological tools available to help them change the way they operate,” Mr. Back Jong Kook, Chairman and CEO of Hanwha Life Vietnam, told VET. “The next few years will see a boom in fintech and insurtech [insurance technology], and Hanwha is not an outsider and is focusing on building systems and infrastructure. We are also researching many breakthrough products to apply in the digital age.”
Along with its claims program, Hanwha Life is also investing in building an e-submission system, enabling agents to apply for insurance online. The system is also a tool to handle pre-insurance assessments and also supports the finding of potential customers. In the future, e-submission will not only be deployed for agents but also for customers. Mr. Kook also revealed that the insurer is now building and developing the sales channel and we will soon introduce it to the market to meet the needs of users.
As the first life insurer selling insurance products online, in addition to bancassurance and wholesale distribution channels, the US-invested insurer Prudential has been the first and only life insurance company in the market to publish its own e-commerce website, ePrudential, with only four simple steps needed to access and pay online. At ePrudential, the company has introduced a cancer insurance product, Pru-iProtect, which is completely online and with a single underwriting question. According to Prudential, insurance firms will also be required to consider strategic partnerships with e-commerce firms in order to digitalize their conventional insurance business.
“Insurance product development is a very unique, heavily regulated and tough process, in which we are mostly leveraging big data analysis to understand what is more suitable for our customers,” said Manulife CEO Mr. Fleming. “Manulife Vietnam goes for both offline and online, depending on product complexity and customer readiness. Other insurers on the other hand have not developed any digital product – products distributed online only – and some others are still focused on more traditional channels. In our case we envision that digital distribution is here to stay and Manulife is ready to lead that change.”
Changing local mindsets
The “Vietnam’s Life Insurance Industry – Digitalization Trends” report released last year by the research, consulting and education firm Fintelekt found that life insurance companies in the country are still in the early stages of digital adoption and are contemplating a planned and cautious approach to digitalization. After some two decades of availability, the proportion of Vietnamese people with life insurance products is still low, according to the Insurance Association of Vietnam (IAV). The total number of valid main contracts is around 7.8 million, or only 1 per cent of GDP. Meanwhile, the rate is 2.4 per cent and 4 per cent in Indonesia and Thailand, respectively.
From Mr. Fleming’s perspective, it takes several interactions to let customers understand the need for life insurances and financial saving products. “In developed markets like Hong Kong, more than 90 per cent of people are insured compared to 9-10 per cent in Vietnam,” he said. “This is basically telling us that we need to work, not only in converting customer needs but also in promoting the benefits of financial planning and its impact on customers and their loved ones. One more factor is the fact that the traditional target segments of insurance tend to be people in their 30-40s, and while internet penetration is not as high among this group as in younger generations, that is changing quickly in Vietnam.”
Nevertheless, Mr. Kook believes that some insurers have done their best to make online products simpler but customer trust is still to come. “The challenge is how life insurers convince customers to change their habits from offline to online when purchasing insurance,” he said. “Finally, but just as importantly, the legal corridor supporting online insurance needs to be transparent. Nevertheless, I believe that authorities will adopt the right policies if this sales channel is developed.”
In the context of Industry 4.0 and the expansion of e-commerce, insurance companies cannot stay out of the race. Online insurance investment is long-term, not an overnight game, and is for those who have strong resources and consistency in their strategies to promote digital solutions, improve the customer experience, and make long-term commitment to customer excellence.
The Hanoi Inspectorate has published the list of projects that were found to violate the fire code and ordered them to complete documentation and rectify violations.
The Hanoi Inspectorate has just issued the conclusions of its inspection of fire code violations in high-rise buildings in the city.
According to statistics, all inspected projects lack the minutes of acceptance on fire protection by the Fire Prevention and Fighting Police Department due to 52 violations of fire prevention in construction.
At three of these buildings the investor is an individual who has not been issued a fire prevention and fighting appraisal certificate.
According to the Hanoi Inspectorate, the reason for not granting certificates of fire prevention and fighting appraisal for three projects is that their construction significantly diverted from the approved design.
Accordingly, the Hanoi Inspectorate proposed the Hanoi People’s Committee to assign the Fire Prevention and Fighting Police Department, in collaboration with the district and ward people’s committees, to order developers to ensure compliance with the law.
Breeding imported dogs as pets has been now becoming a trend in many in big cities such as Hanoi and HCM City.
But there has been an increase in the number of owners attacked, and in some cases even killed, according to Hà Nội Mới (New Hà Nội) Newspaper.
Since earlier this year, there were many cases that the people were bitten by their dogs and died of rabies in Hanoi, the newspaper reported.
In earlier August this year, a man living in Thanh Xuân District was bitten in the neck by a 30kg Malinois dog owned by his neighbour. The dog was not wearing a muzzle.
The tragic story is just the one in a series of recent fatalities caused by dog bites.
In the middle of July, an eight-month old baby girl living on Đội Cấn Street in Hanoi died from bites by her own family’s 40kg dog.
Another case occurred in Thường Tín District.
According to the paper, the owner was attacked by his pitbull as he feed it. Witnessing the incident, his neighbor rushed to rescue the dog owner but the kind-hearted neighbour was also attacked by the dog.
The two men needed hospital treatment for their injuries.
Dog owners and people living close to dogs are not the only victims. Veterinarians are also vulnerable.
In June, a 24-year-old vet had her arm bitten by a dog who was being treated at a private clinic in Hanoi.
Despite sterilising the bite, the doctor, who had not been vaccinated against rabies, gradually felt the pain from the bite spread through her whole body. Six weeks after being bitten, she died en route to the hospital.
Many dog and cat bite and scratch victims didn’t receive the right medical treatment and died as a result of their injuries.
Dangerous trend
Dương Xuân Tĩnh, head of veterinary centre of Thường Tín District, said: “At present, breeding imported savage dogs seemed to boom in many localities in general and in the district in particular”.
“Most of dog owners did not inform authorities and did not get the pets vaccinated”, Tĩnh told the paper.
Many people now bought the adult dogs which were bred by many owners previously so the dogs may not distinguish the current owners. They became fierce and agitated to easily attack people, said Tĩnh.
According to the Veterinary Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, about 350 dogs were imported to Việt Nam every year mainly from Europe, the US, Japan and Australia.
Notably, some breeds such as dobermans, rottweilers and pitbulls were banned in some countries because of their violent nature, the department said.
Just one click on the internet, a number of species of dogs are easily available.
Lack of knowledge from breeders is also an issue when raising the animal as this might cause difficulties in the management of imported pet dogs.
Nguyễn Thanh Dung in Hà Đông District said when she saw her neighbours raising dogs, she liked the dogs and decided to buy a doberman and a poodle online.
When buying the dogs, Dung had no idea about the animals’ characteristics and bought them simply because she liked the breed.
Many pet owners have thought that their pets were healthy so they did not get the pets vaccinated against rabies.
According to the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, every year about 500,000 people were bitten and then got vaccinated and 67 people died of rabies nationwide in the first nine months of this year.
Awareness enhancement
Phạm Văn Đông, head of the Veterinary Department said the Government had issued a decree on animal rabies prevention and regulations on imported pet animals.
The regulation requires importers to show quarantine certificates of exporting countries which certified the animals has no clinical signals of rabies.
“But, in Việt Nam, there were many cases where people brought animals from abroad to raise without reporting to the local authorities”, said Đông.
In order to prevent and fight against rabies, provinces and cities needed to disseminate information and raise awareness to people of raising dogs of unknown origins, Đông said.
“At the same time, people were advised to carefully find out dog breeds, especially savage dogs before buying to raise as pets”, he added.
Under the National Programme on Controlling and Eradicating Rabies in Hanoi, the city has asked authority to provide rabies vaccines to dogs and cats as well as raise people’s awareness of the danger of rabies and signs of identification of dogs and cats infected with rabies, according to Nguyễn Ngọc Sơn, head of Hanoi Veterinary Department.
Regarding this issue, Vice Chairman of Thường Tín District People’s Committee Nguyễn Tuấn Thịnh said the district had asked the communes to review and accurately count the number of households raising pets and support the vaccination against rabies to the animals.
It was necessary to require the dog breeders to inform and register the dog breeds and strictly observe the regulations on keeping the dog in the family to ensure the safety of life for other people, Thịnh said.
Brewer picks up award in Programme on Benchmarking and Announcing Sustainable Companies in Vietnam for second consecutive year.
Heineken Vietnam has been recognized as the most sustainable company in Vietnam’s manufacturing sector for the second consecutive year.
The honor, presented at an awards ceremony held in Hanoi of the Programme on Benchmarking and Announcing Sustainable Companies in Vietnam 2018, marks the third year Heineken Vietnam has been named in the top three since the program’s launch in 2016.
The ceremony was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue, Mr. Vu Tien Loc, Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), and government officials from the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA), the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE), the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor (VGCL), and other government agencies, and nearly 400 representatives from national and international organizations and the business community.
The Programme on Benchmarking and Ranking Sustainable Companies in Vietnam was initiated by the Vietnam Business Council for Sustainable Development (VBCSD), with guidance from VCCI, in 2016.
To promote sustainable development within Vietnam’s business community, the program uses the Corporate Sustainability Index (CSI) as the base criteria for rankings and celebrates the most sustainable companies in the country. These are organizations making the most significant contributions to supporting the National Sustainability Agenda and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Vietnam.
The CSI was further aligned this year with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards and other international practices. The CSI can be applied by any member of the business community, regardless of their scale or sector, and is a form of sustainability reporting.
The Programme on Benchmarking and Ranking Sustainable Companies in Vietnam and the CSI stem from Resolution No. 19-2018/NQ-CP, which aims at continuously improving the business climate and enhancing national productivity and competitiveness.
This year’s program received almost 500 applications from the business community. Despite the significantly higher number of applications this year, Heineken Vietnam maintained its position as the most sustainable manufacturing company in Vietnam.
Heineken was also recognized on stage as one of the few organizations in the top ten for three consecutive years.
“Being named the most sustainable manufacturing company in Vietnam for the second consecutive year is a wonderful honor for everyone at Heineken Vietnam,” said Mr. Matt Wilson, Corporate Affairs Director at Heineken Vietnam. “It is also a great challenge for us to uphold this high standard and raise the bar further, but we are up for the challenge.”
“We want to continue to push ourselves and inspire other businesses in Vietnam to create more sustainable value. We believe that with significant support from the Vietnamese Government and increasing dedication from members of the business community, together we can build a better future for Vietnam.”
Both Heineken’s global and local Vietnamese sustainability strategy are designed to support the UN’s SDGs. Heineken’s approach covers their entire value chain, from manufacturing to distribution and consumption.
Heineken Vietnam’s sustainability strategy focuses on six key areas and supports the implementation of eight of the 17 SDGs where the company believes it can have the greatest impact in Vietnam: Advocating Responsible Consumption, Promoting Health and Safety, Protecting Water Resources, Reducing CO2 Emissions, Growing with Communities, and Sourcing Sustainably.
Heineken Vietnam has contributed to protecting the planet by using renewable energy, reducing water consumption, and moving towards zero waste to landfill in production. Its breweries are the most water-efficient across the Heineken Asia Pacific Region. Ninety-nine per cent of its waste and by-products from production are reused or recycled, creating virtually zero waste.
In terms of economic impact, Heineken Vietnam contributes 0.88 per cent of Vietnam’s total GDP and supported 158,000 jobs in 2017, both directly through its operations and indirectly through its value chain.
Heineken Vietnam is also committed to working with both the Vietnamese Government and other members of the business community in Vietnam to further encourage sustainable development.
At the National Conference on Sustainable Development 2018, held earlier this year in Hanoi and chaired by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and with the participation of Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, Heineken Vietnam was recognized by representatives from the government and the business community as an excellent example of implementing innovative sustainability initiatives, enhancing competitiveness, and providing long-term socioeconomic benefits in Vietnam.
Vietnam will head into semifinals after winning Cambodia in Hanoi’s Hang Day Stadium Saturday night.
Vietnam has earned the top group spot at the ASEAN Football Federation Championship with a convincing victory over Cambodia on Saturday night.
Nguyen Tien Linh opened the score in the 39th minute, which was doubled just two minutes later by Nguyen Quang Hai. Phan Van Duc secured the win with the third goal in the 61th minute.
Vietnam possessed almost the entire game as Cambodia made no serious threats against the host team, which were being cheered up by thousands of fans at Hanoi’s Hang Day Stadium.
Coach Park Hang-seo said he is satisfied with Vietnam’s position. “We have won 3-0 and the most important thing is we top the group now,” Park told the press after the game.
But the final result did not say it all, he said. “It was actually not an easy game.”
Cambodia’s assistant coach Felix Dalmas, who guids the team through the game as head coach Keisuke Honda plays for an Australian club, yet said that it was hard for Cambodia to play against a top contender for the championship.
“We tried our best to contain Vietnam but the opponent were so strong,” Dalmas said.
Cambodia was already out of the game before this match. Vietnam will continue its AFF run with group A’s second-placed Malaysia, who won Myanmar 2-0 also on Saturday night.
Vietnam will play its semifinal match on December 2.
Authorities in the coastal district of Can Gio are planning to evacuate over 100,000 local households to safe areas as tropical typhoon Usagi nears.
HCM City authorities have issued a ban on fishing boats and ships from setting sail from 1 pm Friday. Fishing boats owners have brought valuable equipment ashore to keep safe.
Preparations are being made to evacuate over 100,000 households, including 500,000 people in Can Gio District, to safe areas.The evacuation is expected to be finished 24 hours before the storm hits the city.People have also been provided with frequent storm updates to protect their property.Coastal homes have been prepared for the impact of the storm.Natural disaster control and prevention, search and rescue boards of Can Gio District’s localities have arranged staff to be on duty around the clock to respond to the typhoon.By Saturday morning the storm is expected to reach around 80 kilometres to the east of Phu Quy Island in the central province of Binh Thuan with winds of 100 kilometres per hour.
