Political News Headlines 28/4 IPU organising board meets The Steering and Organisation Boards of the 132nd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU –132) convened a plenary session in Ha Noi on Saturday to prepare for the global event. Slated for March 2015, the assembly will gather lawmakers from around the world. National Assembly (NA) Vice Chairwoman Tong Thi Phong, who is also head of the IPU -132 Organisation Board, thanked board members for fulfilling their assigned duties, especially when it came to completing the procedure for signing an agreement between the Vietnamese NA and the IPU regarding the preparations for the IPU Assembly. With regard to financial and logistical work, Phong also urged members of subcommittees to complete the necessary preparations quickly. She asked the IPU –132 Sub-Secretariat and relevant sub-committees to create training content for the NA delegation and members, volunteers and press agencies ahead of the event. Agencies in charge of information and communication at the event were also required to update information on the IPU's official website in line with a signed agreement. Prime Minister pledges to help businesses A conference between Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and representatives of the businesses nationwide opened in Hanoi on April 28, aiming to seek ways to deal with difficulties faced by enterprises.   PM Nguyen Tan Dung chairs the conference (Source: VNA) Deputy PMs Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Hoang Trung Hai and Vu Van Ninh joined leaders of several ministries at the conference. Opening the event, PM Dung said that the conference aims to assess business development and identify obstacles to success, so that the Government can introduce measures enabling companies to thrive, thus benefitting the national economy. According to a business report, during 2011-2013 there were 224,000 newly-established enterprises. In the first quarter of this year, more than 18,000 businesses registered for establishment with a total capital of 98 trillion VND (4.6 billion USD), up 17 percent in number and 23 percent in value from the same period last year. However, difficulties forced nearly 17,000 others to dissolve or temporarily stop operations in the period, representing a year-on-year rise of 9.6 percent. The private sector contributes most to the country’s GDP. From 2009 to 2012 it contributed 48-49 percent, followed by the public sector (over 30 percent) and the FDI sector (17-18 percent). Vietnam, Laos review border marker planting The 14th meeting of the Vietnam-Laos Joint Working Group on Border Marker Planting is taking place in Vientiane, Laos from April 23-28. The meeting aims to assess the remaining workload of the project on building more markers and upgrading existing ones along the Vietnam-Laos land borderline and deliberated how to fulfill the work within this year. Participants also examined and approved 18 topographic maps at a 1/10,000 scale for 16 pairs of border gates and two areas which were depicted with great differences in the two countries’ border maps on a 1/50,000 scale. The two sides compared views on issues related to a new draft agreement on regulations for managing the Vietnam-Laos border line. Preparatory work for upgrading the pair of border gates between Vietnam’s Quang Tri province and Laos’ Salavan province to international border gates and their inaugural ceremony is also on the meeting’s agenda. APF committee convenes in Ha Noi The Committee on Parliamentary Affairs of the Francophone's Parliamentary Assembly (APF) convened in Ha Noi on Sunday Addressing the opening ceremony, Viet Nam's National Assembly Vice Chairman Uong Chu Luu said the three-day meeting offered a chance for Viet Nam to learn from the experience of the committee and other APF members in parliamentary activities. Viet Nam highly values APF's motto and objectives, Luu said, adding that the organisation plays an active part in the Francophone community institution through initiating activities to boost parliamentarian co-operation and solidarity. For his part, APF President Robert Aubin spoke highly of the Viet Nam National Assembly's contributions to the APF's bilateral and multilateral activities. According to the official, the Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, as one of the four standing committees in the APF, plays an important role in implementing the organisation's activities. It is in charge of the study and review of the parliament's common interests as well as inter-parliamentary co-operation and legal issues within the Francophone community. VN-Belarus economic ties promoted A seminar on promoting trade, investment, tourism and labour co-operation between Viet Nam and Belarus was held in the latter's capital city of Minsk on Friday. Vietnamese Ambassador to Belarus Do Van Mai said the two countries were making efforts to boost two-way trade and investment, as well as expand connections in industry, credit and export assistance. In addition to tourism and trade ties, labour export has emerged as a field of significant potential for both sides' businesses. Hoang Kim Ngoc, deputy head of the Overseas Labour Management Department under the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs, suggested Vietnamese companies recruit and train workers carefully in order to gain a firm foothold in the Belarusian labour market. Belarusian Ambassador to Viet Nam Valery Sadokho noted that bilateral economic relations were enjoying stable development, with two-way trade currently approaching US$200 million. The progress of negotiations on a free trade area between the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus and Viet Nam offered a chance to further bolster trade, he said. The seminar also offered a chance for the two countries' businesses to meet and seek partners. The countries aim to raise trade turnover to US$500 million by 2015. Can Tho should be more dynamic: PM Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung asked Can Tho city to be more creative and dynamic when it came to economic structural reforms and reaching out to new export markets. Such changes would make the city a leading driver of development in the Mekong Delta region, the PM said while working with local top-ranking officials on Saturday. At the session, Dung suggested the city pay more attention to the processing industry, as well as applying technology to production, adding that officials must also effectively implement policies to attract and promote investment. He underlined the need for Can Tho to combine the building of new-style rural areas with poverty reduction and vocational training in order to improve the living conditions of rural residents. During the working session, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said that as a hub of the Mekong Delta region, Can Tho needed to proactively put forth its own policies and methods. This would enable the city to reach a greater level of development in health, science-technology, education and training. Dam spoke highly of the city's proposal to pilot the application of power-point lectures, a move to address the shortcomings of current textbooks. So far, 16 localities have registered to apply this model at their schools, he said. In the first quarter of 2014, Can Tho posted GDP growth of 8.32 percent. This year, the city will focus on solving difficulties for enterprises, boosting production, increasing business competitiveness and calling for investment in advantageous fields. On the same day, Dung also attended a working session with Bac Lieu provincial authorities in which he asked the southern province to use its abundant land resources to its advantage, focusing on farming and aquaculture. He said more attention should be directed to zoning off aquaculture areas and processing food and aquatic products for export using advanced technology. Going into more detail, he suggested Bac Lieu help farmers buy seedlings, capital and facilities in order to create a value chain that would make it easier to churn out competitive products. At the same time, the province should focus more on education, especially vocational training for skilled workers, he said, and should pay attention to the potential of the tourism and services sector to generate more earnings for the local economy. The Prime Minister asked Bac Lieu to work harder to ensure that new rural community residents had high-quality health care services and stable incomes. Responding to the province's request for more State budget allocation to key projects, the government leader demanded that the funds be spent on building hospitals, schools, university dormitories and roads. At the session, secretary of the provincial Party Committee Vo Van Dung reported that the local economy had expanded by 11.3 percent year-on-year and more and more residents were enjoying comfortable lives. He informed the leader that the province had implemented the Bac Lieu wind power plant project, one of the first of its kind in Viet Nam, in addition to ramping up transport and aquaculture infrastructure, human resources training and social welfare policies. Earlier, Dung toured the wind power plant, located in Vinh Trach Dong commune, and offered incense at a memorial dedicated to war heroes. Quang Binh province marks 410th founding anniversary The central province of Quang Binh on April 27 held a ceremony to celebrate its 410 th founding anniversary (1604-2014) and receive the Ho Chi Minh Order recognising its contributions to the country. Addressing the ceremony, Luong Ngoc Binh, Secretary of the provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the People’s Council, reviewed the locality’s foundation and development process. Quang Binh has a distinctive place in Vietnam’s history, as it is a converge venue for many of Vietnam’s great cultures, including Viet Muong-Champa, Dong Son-Sa Huynh, and Thang Long-Phu Xuan. The province is the birthplace of many Vietnamese heroes and geniuses, such as Ly Thuong Kiet, Dao Duy Tu and Vo Nguyen Giap, to name just a few. In addition, Quang Binh is also blessed with beautiful landscape with many tourist attractions, including the Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park which has been recognised as a World’s Natural Heritage Site by UNESCO. On the occasion, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc presented the Ho Chi Minh Order to the province. Visit to Cuba’s Ben Tre village marks Liberation Day The Cuban Institute of Friendship with the People and the Vietnamese Embassy on April 25 visited residents of Ben Tre village in Cuba’s Artemisa province to celebrate the 39th anniversary of Vietnam’s Liberation Day (April 30). Talking to locals, Vietnamese Ambassador Duong Minh hailed the support of Cuban people, including Ben Tre villagers, to Vietnam during the Southeast Asian country’s struggle for the national freedom. He described the visit of former Cuban President Fidel Castro to a liberated area in central Quang Tri province in 1973 as a landmark in the two countries’ solidarity. On this occasion, the embassy presented gifts to pupils of the Mártires de Tarará primary school and the Amiguitos de los Vietnamitas (Little friends of Vietnam) kindergarten. Ben Tre village is a member of the Cuba-Vietnam Friendship Association. In 1969, a group of Vietnamese students in Cuba named the village after Vietnam’s Ben Tre province, which was the first southern locality to be free in the US war in 1975. Source: VNN/VOV/VNS/VNA