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.
A study by Google and Temasek, a Singaporean holding company owned by the Government of Singapore, said Vietnam’s internet economy is the largest relative to GDP in terms of gross merchandise volume in Southeast Asia this year. The gross merchandise volume (GMV) traded over the Internet in Vietnam was 4 percent of GDP. The study encompasses ride-hailing, e-commerce, online travel and online media.
In second place was Singapore with 3.2 percent, according to the study which covered Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Indonesia’s digital economy had the fastest absolute growth and looks set to reach $100 billion in 2025.
In the last few years online businesses have been booming in Vietnam, with last year the digital economy growing by more than 25 percent, a rate that can be sustained for the next two or three years, according to the Vietnam E-Commerce Association.
It said online sales are set to hit $10 billion by 2020, accounting for 5 percent of total retail sales.
According to a report by Financial Times last April cited Bain, a U.S.-based global management consulting firm, as estimating that Southeast Asia had 200 million digital consumers, or people who bought goods or services online, out of an adult population of 405 million. Vietnam, with a population of 93.7 million, accounted for 35 million.
Vietnam’s youthful population is among the keenest users of mobile devices in the region, while the country’s consumers spend more time online than most of their neighbors, several studies have found.
Research firm Nikkei has estimated that, Vietnamese spend nearly 25 hours online per week, on a par with or just behind Singapore and the Philippines.
In the ride-hailing sector, many players are expanding investments. Vietnam recently saw new entrants such as local firm FastGo, GoViet, a subsidiary of Indonesia’s Go-Jek, and Aber.
Current market leader Grab has expanded to offer GrabFood and GrabCar Business, the latter targeting the corporate sector.
But experts say Vietnam and many other countries in the world face a slew of challenges in the digital economy such as upgrading the skills of the workforce and adapting to rapidly changing technologies.
Lotte Rental Co. – a South Korea’s leading car rental firm has teamed up with domestic mobility startup Easi6 Inc. to launch a ride-hailing service in Vietnam, a market of high growth potential due to its large population of nearly 100 million.
Easi6 is the operator of the mobility platform TADA. Launched in Singapore in July, TADA has quickly grown to become the city state’s No. 2 ride-hailing service after industry leader Grab. With 18,000 registered drivers, it has reached 100,000 cumulative passengers in just three months of operation.
According to a report by By Yong Hwan-jin and Kim Hyo-jin on Pulse News, Lotte Rental entered Vietnam in 2008 and has established itself as a major player in the country’s car rental market. Under the alliance, Lotte Rental will provide the cars necessary to roll out TADA’s ride-hailing service.
Vietnam is the third-largest market in Southeast Asia, with a population of over 95 million. Lured by the country’s growth potential, Singapore’s Grab and Indonesia’s Go-Jek have also expanded their services in the country.
Lotte Rental plans to leverage its partnership with TADA to spur its business across Southeast Asia. It will also ramp up its car and bus rental services in Thailand, a market it entered last year.
Lotte Rental now commands a full lineup of mobility offerings. With Lotte Rent-a-Car, it boasts the biggest fleet capacity in Asia. It also launched Korea’s first car-sharing service GreenCar and the country’s largest used car auction site Lotte Auto Auction.
Earlier this year, it became the first in the industry to process long-term rental deals entirely online, including the final document signing stages. The company claims the new service now allows customers to review and sign up for rental plans in less than five minutes.
Just few days ago, Enterprise Rent-A-Car – the US’s biggest car rental company has officially offer its services in Vietnam. On the website of Rent-A-Car at https://enterprise.vn/en/ is now opening for rental services, with vehicles of five to 29 seats. The prices range from US$34.19 (VND800,000) a day for a Suzuki Vitara to US$111.33 (VND2.6 million) per day for a Samco bus.
Heavy rains have been forecasted for the southern provinces from tonight, November 23, as a tropical depression off the Philippines has strengthened into a storm that could land in Vietnam during the weekend.
According to the Vietnam National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, at 4 am on November 23, the storm was 450km away from the southern region with a wind speed near the eye of the storm of 75km/h. In the next 24 hours, the storm will move in the south-west-west direction at the speed of 10km per hour.
In the following 24-48 hours, it will move to the west and may land in the south-central coast and the southeastern region before weakening into a tropical depression. It is forecasted that the storm will be in the southeastern region with the wind speed of 40km per hour at 4 pm on November 25.
From November 23 to 26, provinces from Thua Thien-Hue to Binh Thuan and the Central Highlands will have up to 50cm of rainfall. Flashflood and landslide warnings have been issued from November 24 to 27 for those who live along the rivers from Quang Tri to Binh Thuan provinces.
Meanwhile, Bui Cao Phap, vice chairman of Phuong Dong Commune, said on November 22 that 20 people had been killed in landslides and flash floods caused in Nha Trang City after heavy rains poured in due to tropical depression Toraji. Dozens of houses have also been destroyed.
Phuong Dong Commune Chairman Dang Loi said they were evacuating 500 households who lived by the hills as the commune might be hit by the new storm and more flash floods and landslides are forecasted.
Khanh Hoa Province has nearly 1,000 vulnerable locations with 280,000 people and 44,000 fish cages. The authorities are also in a hurry to evacuate the locals out of danger zones.
For half his life, Mychal Tu Nguyen, a 44-year-old Vietnamese-American living in Saigon, has been teaching basketball to youth and adults, and since 2010, has been the CEO of the Vietnam Basketball Academy and Vietnam Sports Academy.
“I chose to return to Vietnam because I wanted to learn more about my culture and heritage,” Mychal says. “When I decided to stay and live here about eight years ago, I wanted to give back something that I thought would help in a positive way, and basketball was something that I’m very good at.”
“I have a great deal of knowledge about this kind of sport, and so I can share and pass it on to the people of Vietnam,” he adds.
His goal is to educate parents about the positive benefits of having their children involved in sports and other extracurricular activities. He combines this with academics to develop one of his primary goals: the model student athlete.
Mychal Tu Nguyen
This led to his decision two years ago to launch the Vietnam Youth Basketball League where players learn the value of sportsmanship, teamwork, a positive attitude, and respect for others during competition.
The Vietnam Basketball Academy, also founded by Mychal, provides training at local and international schools with the aim of developing the schools’ basketball programs.
Though participation in the sport has grown over the past decade, more and more Vietnamese, including boys, girls, men and women, have been joining the sport in recent years.
At basketball courts in HCM City, many people can be seen wearing imitation NBA replica jerseys and trying to mimic their favorite player’s moves.
With his desire to give back to the community, Mychal has also developed The Coaching Skills Program to help young players who want to become a coach.
In the program, Mychal shares his coaching experiences and challenges, including dealing with parents, meeting players’ expectations, and managing the passion that many players bring to the game.
Ultimate goal
“With my desire to contribute to society, I want to become a mentor and teacher for the sports community. We’re fortunate to have someone in Vietnam who can help encourage students participate in sports while teaching them the values that go with being a model student athlete,” says Mychal.
“However, I still face some difficulties. It’s easy to understand that when you change your environment of living or working, you have to try to adapt to your surroundings due to differences. I try to immerse myself in the culture and overcome its differences.
“The difficulty I face does not lie in the training of students in sports skills, but rather educating their parents about the benefits of my programs and what my community youth basketball leagues are all about,” he says.
“A lot of parents who have seen foreign coaches or trainers are skeptical about my academy and how I can help their child because of my height,” Mychal says. “I’m an Asian man and not tall, so some may think I’m not an ideal coach for the sport.”
“The parents, however, change their bias after watching our first basketball lesson and seeing how well their child responds to our training. So they feel comfortable that my academy is the perfect fit for their child to flourish and have fun, and help them develop basketball skills.”
Under Mychal’s guidance and leadership, the programs have been very successful. Over the past six years, his teams have won four local championships and one international “friendly” championship.
This year Mychal became the first head coach in Vietnam to lead two international high schools to the championship of two different contests in the same season. In 2014, he was awarded the Junior NBA Vietnam “Coach of the Year” prize.
Basketball’s future
Mychal’s success demonstrates his passion for sports training and desire to help students become more active. But what really drives him is personally witnessing the benefits his students receive when they are physically active.
The students’ stress levels decrease and they develop stronger social skills. They also overcome shyness and anxiety, and become more confident, vibrant and charismatic.
The students, Mychal says, are more able to communicate in a positive manner with their teammates, parents, teachers and coaches.
“I hope that everyone who wants to play will have free access to a basketball court so they can enjoy the game and develop the passion that I have for this wonderful sport. And one day, we hope Vietnam will be able to field a men’s and women’s Olympic basketball team for the Olympic Games.”
To help the growth of the sport in the country, Mychal feels that certain issues need to be addressed.
More basketball facilities across the country should be developed so that people have an opportunity to learn and play the game, he says. In addition, highly qualified coaches, players, skills trainers, and certified strength and conditioning experts are needed.
“We need more professionals who are willing to pass on their basketball knowledge and passion in a positive and patient manner to Vietnamese players,” he said. “We need to continue to develop our local and overseas Vietnamese players who play in the domestic pro leagues, while also welcoming and helping foreign imports adapt to living and playing basketball in Vietnam.”
“Slowly but surely, parents are starting to see the many benefits of having their child participate in sports. Some of those benefits include learning how to work as a team to accomplish a certain goal, being able to socialize with others, learning how to communicate positively while respecting others, knowing what it takes to be a leader, and learning about maintaining an active and healthy lifestyle,” he says.
To improve the professionalism of basketball in Vietnam, Mychal believes that local referees need to continue to take part in domestic and international professional training so they can become internationally certified and recognized in the sport.
After Landslides Kill 13, Leave 4 Missing in South Central Vietnam, 2 storms brewing in the western Pacific.
Why Vietnam should be worried about these 2 storms?
Both storms are forming off the coast of Southeast Asia and which might have an effect on weather conditions.
One of these tropical storms is developing rapidly on the heels of an earlier tropical storm ‘Toraji’ that had killed 13 people in Vietnam last Sunday. Most of the damage and deaths had happened in the resort city of Nha Trang due to landslides. The new storm has formed in a matter of days after Toraji dissipated and formed again in the Gulf of Thailand. It is expected to move towards the Vietnam coast this weekend towards an area where Nha Trang is also situated. This is while Toraji is still active and bringing heavy rainfall in southern Thailand and Malaysia, according to the National Aeronautic and Space Administration’s (NASA) satellite imagery.
The other storm named Man Yi is more massive in its expanse and has wind speeds of up to 160 km/hr. It is developing towards the east, some 500 km southeast of Guam, which is the last territory governed by the United States. The local government of the island has already declared a storm alert for November 22. The current forecasted track of this storm will take it towards the north and north-west away from Southeast Asia but storms are highly unpredictable and it may well move towards the Philippines or even Vietnam in the days to come.
These back-to-back tropical storms in the Southeast Asian region might leave remnants which can cross over to the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal in the coming days and cause storm and cyclonic activity.
Severe Cyclone Gaja, which had hit the Tamil Nadu coast close to Nagapattinam in the early morning hours of November 16, had also formed in the Gulf of Thailand from a remnant of Super Typhoon Yutu. According to scientists, some depressions and cyclones in the Bay of Bengal are formed in this manner. Yutu was the most intense typhoon to ever hit the Northern Mariana Islands, another US territory in the Western Pacific. Many locals had declared that they had never seen anything as intense and scary as Yutu before.
According to a report on Dow to Earth, after forming in the Gulf of Thailand, Gaja had moved into the Andaman Sea and then intensified into a deep depression. It had collected water vapor over the Bay of Bengal and further intensified into a cyclone. It finally made landfall as a severe cyclone much later than predicted by the India Meteorological Department (IMD). Gaja killed 45 people in its wake and destroyed crops over an area of over 88,000 hectares, according to a statement from the chief minister of Tamil Nadu. It also uprooted 1.7 lakh trees and damaged 1.17 lakh houses in the state. Gaja, after causing all this damage had reduced in intensity initially and then re-intensified again. Then, it had moved into the Arabian Sea and gained strength to become a cyclone again. On November 19, it lay as a deep depression in the south eastern part of the Arabian Sea.
Immediately after Gaja, on November 19, another low pressure area had formed over south eastern Bay of Bengal and moved towards the Tamil Nadu coast, intensifying into a depression. This is the 14th depression this year in the North Indian Ocean region and has broken a 26-year- old record for the most depressions in a single year. Climate science predicts an increase in the intensity of storms in general because of warmer waters which can feed them with water vapor. A lot of storm activity is currently underway in the North Indian Ocean region or its neighborhood, the exact causes of which can only be known after detailed study.
Visitors to Hoi An can now learn about the ancient town more easily by using a new audio guide system.
The system has been introduced at major tourist destinations in Hoi An by the Hoi An Center for Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation in cooperation with the Viet-Phap (Vietnam-France) Trade Promotion Company.
It is part of a range of activities to mark the 19th anniversary of UNESCO’s recognition of Hoi An as a world cultural heritage site in 1999 and Vietnam’s Heritage Day (November 23).
The audio system has been installed at the Japanese Covered Bridge, the Museum of Trade Ceramics, the Sa Huynh Culture Museum, and the Hoi An Museum, to improve the quality of the sites for tourists.
The guide is a new technological product manufactured in France and comes in six languages: Vietnamese, English, French, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. It replaces tour guides, as visitors are provided an audio device to listen to and a map of the sites and artifacts.
It is already available at famous tourist sites all over the world but this is the first time it has been introduced in Hoi An, and aims to provide a better way for visitors, ranging from researchers to local and foreign tourists, to gain a better insight into the history and culture of the ancient town and discover the land and its people through objects and stories relating to the objects. It also improves the quality of tourism in the city.
Hoi An welcomed 2.7 million visitors, including 2 million international arrivals, in the first half of this year, up 70 per cent and 230 per cent against the same period last year. The figure in 2017 was 3.2 million, including 1.8 million international arrivals, up 27 per cent and 31 per cent against 2016.
A man in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho has been sentenced to two years in prison for insulting state and government leaders on Facebook.
Nguyen Hong Nguyen, 38, from Can Tho City was accused of abuse of democratic freedom to infringe on the legitimate interests of the state, individuals and organisations by Cai Rang District People’s Court in September this year. The court proposed a two-year imprisonment for Nguyen.
After that, Nguyen filed an appeal citing his family’s contributions to the country’s revolutions in the past and his regret.
However, the court turned down Nguyen’s appeal to the two-year sentence.
Since 2017, Nguyen used Facebook to make friends and follow many pages with anti-government information. He then posted statues as well as shared photos and information to defame state and government leaders, including Late President Ho Chi Minh, and distorted the communist party’s guidelines.
Over a hundred Japanese cherry blossom trees were planted in Da Lat in Vietnam’s Central Highlands on Wednesday to mark a series of important events.
The planting of 125 sakura trees at the local flower park near the iconic Xuan Huong Lake is to honor the city’s 125th birthday and celebrate the 45-year-old Vietnam-Japan diplomatic relationship.
The cherries, 100 of which were donated by Japan’s Himeji Flower Auction Company, are 2.2 meters tall on average.
One thousand sakura trees were cultivated in Da Lat in a trial period last year and they seemed to adapt well to the chilly local climate.
Sakura trees grow in Da Lat City during the 2017 trial period. Photo: Tuoi Tre
