Social News 19/10 Cause of missing sailors in Japan still unclear It remains unclear why three Vietnamese sailors went missing from a Taiwanese fishing vessel off the coast of the northern Japanese prefecture of Hokkaido, said Tong Hai Nam, Deputy Head of the Overseas Labour Management under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Society on October 16. Nam said the three sailors are reported to be good at swimming. He also rejected the possibility that the sailors had jumped off the boat in an attempt to quit their job because of ill treatment and low income, saying that on the ship there are 21 Vietnamese sailors in total, many of whom have worked on the ship since 2013. The three missing seamen were among the newcomers.  Taiwan’s ship Hsiang Fur Far reported that on the night of October 8, three Vietnamese crew members – Le Van Thuc, Thieu Dinh Thuong, and Nguyen Dinh Nga – jumped into the sea, about 12 kilometres from Hokkaido’s Shiraoi Port. After being informed of the case, the Japan Coast Guard deployed five ships and two planes to search for the sailors but they have found no hint of the missing sailors. Thousands of Vietnamese seafarers go to work abroad annually, mainly in the Republic of Korea, Japan, and Taiwan (China) with monthly income ranging from 450-1,000 USD. More than 8 mln USD given to fund forest fire control Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has given 15 provinces and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development 185 billion VND (8.3 million USD) to support forest fire prevention and control.  The beneficiary provinces are Yen Bai, Ca Mau, Thanh Hoa, Lao Cai, Ha Giang, Kien Giang, Binh Dinh, Ninh Thuan, Binh Phuoc, Thai Nguyen, Khanh Hoa, Quang Ninh, Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Ninh Binh.  The funds will be disbursed through September 30, 2016.  The Ministry of Planning and Investment was told to determine how much money should be allocated for forest fire prevention and control projects in each locality and only distribute the funding when the projects met all requirements in accordance with current laws.  According to the National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting, Vietnam has suffered the brunt of severe impacts of the El Nino phenomenon, which could last until the end of the year.  The phenomenon has triggered prolonged hot spells and drought in central Vietnam, the Central Highlands and the Mekong Delta, increasing the risk of forest fires. Vietnam elected to World Health body Viet Nam and Fiji have been elected as representatives for the Western Pacific region in the World Health Assembly's Executive Board for a three-year tenure from May 2016 to May 2019. The choice was made at the 66th session of the World Health Organization Regional Committee for the Western Pacific, which concluded in Guam yesterday. The executive board holds an important role in global health policy making as it is responsible for proposing and designing agendas for the World Health Assembly. As a representative for the ASEAN bloc in the Western Pacific region, Viet Nam is expected to add the voices of developing countries. Viet Nam was praised by the international community for its achievements in implementing MDGs. The country was assessed by the WHO as one of the 10 leading nations in reducing mother and child fatalities. It was also hailed for success in ending serious diseases, including SARS, and its efforts for global health security. Viet Nam expressed its willingness to share its experience with other countries and its wish to receive continued support from the international community.  Company fined for building violations The People's Committee of Ha Noi's Ba Dinh District yesterday fined Le Truc Garment Stock Company VND100 million (US$4,500) for violating building regulations. The 69m-tall building complex, which has a trade centre, offices for lease and high-end apartments for sale, rises 53m above the ground and has underground basements that measure 16m in height. The building at 8B Le Truc Street is 16m higher than the height stipulated in the licence issued to the project by the Ha Noi Department of Construction in March 2014, and its gross floor area is 6,900m² more than permitted, a report said. Some floors of the nearly-complete high-rise building, located close to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Ba Dinh District, will now have to be demolished.  Tra breeders told to create value chains The Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta needs to recover declining sales of Pangasius (tra) fish by creating value chains, speakers said at a forum on tra fish production held last week in Dong Thap Province. Speaking at the event, Truong Dinh Hoe, general secretary of the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), said tra fish was exported to 150 countries and territories with total revenue of more than US$1.8 billion a year. The EU is the largest export market for the fish. However, in recent years, exports to the US, EU, the Netherlands, Spain and Germany dropped significantly. The industry faced several challenges, such as weak financial capacity, outdated processing technology, high production costs due to high prices for materials and low survival rate of tra fish. A representative of Dong Thap Advisory Board said the province was creating linkages between tra fish farmers and cooperatives based on planned breeding areas. Nhu Van Can, deputy director of Dong Thap Province's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said Dong Thap had the largest output of tra fish, with nearly 1,500 hectares of breeding area. But farmers who raise tra fish in the province suffered a loss of 1,000 – 2,000 per kg of tra fish over the last three years. To cope with this issue, many models that link farmers with businesses such as Vinh Hoan, Hung Ca, Hoang Long companies had been established, which had shown signs of success. Vo Hung Dung, secretary of the Viet Nam Tra Fish Association, said that as of June 30, the Mekong Delta had an additional 1,959 ha under tra fish breeding, up by 0.21 per cent compared with the same period last year. The catch was estimated at 516,140 tonnes, a year-on-year increase of 1.22 per cent. Total tra fish exports in the first five months were US$616.5 million, down by 7 per cent compared with the same period in 2014. The price of tra fish used as materials for processing plants ranged from VND21,000 to VND24,500 per kilo in the first five months of the year. In June 2015, tra fish prices dropped to VND19,000 – VND20,000, causing losses for farmers. Some 10,000 tonnes of tra fish products are sold in the domestic market annually. Nguyen Van Hung, director of the Dong Thap-based tra fish processor Hung Ca Ltd Company, said to ensure a stable supply of tra fish for the company's processing lines, his firm had collaborated with 306 tra fish breeders in the Mekong Delta for the last nine years. Under this partnership, Hung Ca Company had provided breeders with animal feed and tra fish breeding technical know-how. Hung said the slump in tra fish prices had caused losses for 40 of these tra fish breeders. Some of them had gone bankrupt. Hung Ca Company has provided loans to help the tra fish breeders recover from their losses. He said the banking system would provide a helping hand by suspending or reducing debts incurred by tra fish breeders. He said that tra fish breeders would stop dumping their products onto markets if they could recover from bankruptcy and become part of a tra fish production line.  Ly Son to build desalination plant Ly Son Island, 30km off Quang Ngai Province, will build a desalination plant with non-refundable funds from the Korean International Co-operation Agency (KOICA) later this year. The desalination plant will provide fresh water to 16,000 islanders. Vice-Chairwoman of the island's People's Committee Pham Thi Huong told Viet Nam News the plant would be built with an investment of VND264 billion (US$12.5 million), and would supply 2,000cu.m of fresh water each day. "The plant will ease the serious shortage of fresh water in the dry season (between April and May) on the island, when the 20,000cu.m Thoi Loi reservoir has limited water supply for farming and daily use, and the wells used for farming become saline," she said. "The district used 83 per cent of its total groundwater reserves in the worst drought in the island's history last year," she said. The district has 414 traditional wells and 132 drilled wells to provide water to homes and for more than 100ha of onions and vegetable farms. Ly Son Island has 21,000 inhabitants. They make their living from cultivating garlic and onions, and fishing. The island grows 3,500 tonnes of onions and 2,000 tonnes of garlic each year. The majority of the population lives in An Hai and An Vinh communes, while 500 people live in An Binh Islet, 5km from the island. Three years ago, South Korean heavy industry group Doosan Vina gave $1 million for a desalination plant that would provide 200cu.m of fresh water each day to the inhabitants of An Binh Islet. Ly Son Island got electricity last year. HCM City vocational training lacks students HCM City's vocational training system faces several difficulties, including a lack of students applying to join job-training schools, experts have warned. In the 2014-15 school year only 2,816 junior high school graduates joined vocational schools, or just 3.62 per cent of the total, according to the city Department of Education and Training (DoET). Another 7,797 senior high school graduates enrolled, accounting for 12.3 per cent of the total. The city's target is to enrol 30 per cent of junior high school graduates in vocational schools to even out the excessive supply of university graduates and shortage of technicians and skilled workers. Speaking at a seminar on October 8, To Thi Bich Chau, head of the city People's Council's Culture and Social Affairs, said vocational training and job creation are unlinked. The DoET and the Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs should work together to ensure more junior high school graduates join vocational schools, she said. For accomplishing this, the DoET called on the People's Committee to set up a steering committee and instruct districts to draft appropriate plans and to improve career counselling. The People's Committee should offer incentives to vocational schools, it added. In 2011-15 the city's 433 vocational schools trained nearly 1.85 million students, including 11,000 workers in rural areas, according to the Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs. Almost 80 per cent of trainees have found jobs or set up their own businesses. The rate of skilled workers at companies is 72 per cent, 2.4 per cent higher than the city's target.  $400m needed for student housing A student apartment in My Dinh District, Ha Noi. The Construction Ministry has estimated that about VND9 trillion (US$406.3 million) in funding is needed to build student housing across the country during from 2016-20. — VNA/VNS Photo HA NOI  (VNS) — The Construction Ministry has estimated that about VND9 trillion (US$406.3 million) in funding is needed to build student housing across the country during from 2016-20. Funding from either the State budget or Government bonds is needed as it's difficult to get private sector funding for student housing projects, according to the ministry. Since 2009 the Government has offered incentives to promote housing projects for students. The housing programme for students is one of the country's key housing programmes besides those for low-income earners, workers at industrial zones or people who contributed to national defence and construction. According to the ministry, between 2009-15, the Prime Minister approved 95 housing projects for students. So far, 85 projects were finished, accommodating about 200,000 students while the other ten projects are ongoing. Almost half of the VND9 trillion funding will be spent to finish the 10 above projects. The rest of the funding will be for more housing projects, expected to accommodate 100,000 students. Under the national housing development Strategy from 2016-20, the country planned to meet housing demand for about 80 per cent of students at universities, colleges and vocational schools nationwide. Tests control hepatitis-B The combination of both serological testing and nucleic acid testing has considerably reduced the risk of hepatitis B viral transmission through blood transfusions, according to the Blood Transfusion Hematology Hospital in HCM City. The prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection was reportedly high in Viet Nam, accounting for 8-25 per cent of the population, Phu Chi Dung, director of the hospital, said at a meeting held yesterday in HCM City. The prevalence rate of HBV infection in blood donors was 11.4 per cent, he said. The prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and HIV-1 was 0.4 per cent and 0.28 per cent of the population, respectively. Given the potential transmission of viruses during the immunological window period (the period of early infectivity when an immunologic test is non-reactive), nucleic acid testing (NAT) has significantly increased sensitivity to detect infected blood components, according to the director. The primary benefit of NAT is a reduction of risk from donations taken during the infectious window period. Thus, this reduces the risk of acquiring transfusion-transmitted infections such as HIV-1 and -2, HCV, HBV. In Viet Nam, NAT testing of donations is rather low compared to other parts of the world, about 10 per cent of total donations. The high cost of equipment and medicine used during the test has contributed to the lack of testing. Both serological testing and NAT have been used at two blood transfusion hematology hospitals in Ha Noi and HCM City since the beginning of the year. HCM City plans to establish four satellite blood banks in the city's gateway areas to collect blood from neighbouring provinces for both serological testing and NAT. The blood bank at the Blood Transfusion Hematology Hospital in HCM City has the largest amount of donated blood in the country. Last year, the hospital collected 250,000 units of donated blood, one-fourth of the country's blood collection.  Viet Nam debuts Korean website Viet Nam Pictorial, a Vietnam News Agency (VNA) publication, hosted a ceremony to launch a Korean-language page on its website, http://vietnam.vnanet.vn, and celebrate the 61st anniversary of the foundation of the magazine on Thursday (October 15, 1954). Speaking at the event, VNA General Director Nguyen Duc Loi stressed that the launch was a step in the right direction, in accordance with the Party and State's goals, and VNA's aim to improve foreign information services and diversify information products. He urged Vietnam Pictorial to maintain the site and update it regularly with high-quality content. He also expressed his hope that the magazine's staff will promote activeness and creativity to make Vietnam Pictorial a strong, effective unit of the VNA. According to Nguyen Thang, Editor-in-Chief of Viet Nam Pictorial, the partnership between Viet Nam and the Republic of Korea (RoK) has developed in many fields. The signing of the Viet Nam-RoK free trade agreement in May this year should help lift two-way trade to US$70 billion by 2020. With an aim of exchanging more information and promoting co-operation between Vietnam and the RoK, Viet Nam Pictorial published the Vietnam-Korea Times, the first and only Korean-language paper in Viet Nam, in December 2013, followed by the online Korean-language page. Thang said he hoped the newly launched Korean online version will serve as a bridge promoting connections between the two countries. Launched in 1954, the Viet Nam Pictorial is an important foreign information channel for the Party and State. It has been around for 670 editions, with approximately 50 million copies issued internationally, featuring the historical and cultural values of Vietnam's 54 ethnic groups. Currently, it publishes print versions in English, Chinese, Spanish and Lao and online versions in 10 languages: Vietnamese, Chinese, Russian, English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Laotian, Khmer and Korean at vietnam.vnanet.vn.  Children injured by drinking chemicals Children can accidentally drink from bottles containing potentially fatal chemicals at home, doctors have warned. Dang Hoang Son, head of the HCM City-based Pediatrics Hospital 1's otorhinolaryngology ward described a 4-year-old girl who suffered from acute atrophy of the oesophagus after drinking a lye water bottle. The patient was moved from the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Dong Thap, 160km from the city, to the hospital at midnight. Her grandmother told the doctor that the little girl was thirsty after playing, so she drank a whole bottle containing lye water (a white liquid like boiled water) on the kitchen stand. "Her injuries make it difficult to eat," the doctor said. Doctor Son said the hospital doctors treated about 15-20 cases of oesophagus injuries every year. Vietnamese people tend to re-use water bottles that contained washing liquid, acid or chemical substances. Children can easily drink these liquids if adults place them within reach of children, the doctor has said. The Pediatrics Hospital 1 has received two child patients who gulped wrist-watch electronic battery acid. They fortunately survived as their parents took them to the hospital quickly. Son said chemical burns were divided into two levels. Level 1: external burns on the lips and mouth. Level 2: gastric mucous membrane and oesophagus injuries. The treatment for level 1-burned patients is to take counter-irritant and gastric medicines. But treatment for level 2-patients is difficult and takes a long time (around one year). "It is a costly treatment. Every month the patient has to be hospitalized for specialist training." Doctor Son warned if children drank acid or alkali liquid or at home, they should drink water as soon as possible. Parents should then take their child and the chemical bottle to hospital immediately. Every year, pediatric hospitals in HCM City receive a considerable number of patients who have drunk chemical bottles.  Cancer awareness campaign starts A campaign for controlling the incidence of breast cancer was launched today in Ha Noi by the health ministry, the Supportive Fund for Cancer Patients-Bright Future Fund and Roche Company. The campaign, entitled "Controlling breast cancer by the age of 40," has been launched in response to the Vietnamese Women's Day next Tuesday. It is one of the activities under the project "We care for her", which has been running for three years since 2013. Under the new month-long campaign, the Supportive Fund for Cancer Patients-Bright Future Fund will join hands with hospitals having cancer wards in Ha Noi and HCM City to give free breast screening to more than 12,000 women over the age of 40. Women, 40 years old and above, reportedly face a high risk of breast cancer.  Viet Nam farmers seek out technology, markets Vietnamese farmers want more co-operation with international partners in applying modern technology and expanding the market, said the chairman of the Viet Nam Farmers' Union (VNFU), Nguyen Quoc Cuong. The official made the appeal at a union conference to review the effectiveness of previous co-operation between farmers and international partners this week in Ha Noi. Cuong offered analysis on VNFU's current capacity to handle external relations and international co-operation. He said that the union had established relations with nearly 50 farmers' organisations, international partners and non-government organisations and sent hundreds of Vietnamese farmer delegates abroad for research, workshops and training. The Union helped mobilise more than US$17 million for the implementation of agricultural development projects, he said. However, Cuong pointed out that while the union's handling of external relations was developing at central authority levels, it proved ineffective and stagnant at lower levels. He also said the development had focused mainly on building friendly relations and not securing or promoting direct partnerships or donations. Thus, the official said, the VNFU would make turning international partnerships into committed co-operation one of its core tasks. Speaking on the importance of international relations to the country's agriculture sector, Vu Thi Anh Phuong from the Party Central Committee's Commission for External Relations urged the VNUF to focus on improving staff capabilities. She said qualified staff would be needed to meet the demands of the TPP and the ASEAN Community. She promised to urge the Government to give more support to all of the union's international co-operation activities. National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung has urged farmers nationwide to exploit all development opportunities brought about by the integration process to promote the national agricultural sector. Addressing a prog-ramme to honour outstanding farmers in 2015 held in Ha Noi this week the NA Chairman highlighted the contributions of farmers to the national revolutionary cause. He stressed the important role played by farmers in agricultural successes, affirming that agriculture is one of the leading fields in the country's reform process. He called on farmers to enhance the application of advanced science and technologies, step up agricultural industrialisation and innovate production processes in order to create highly-competitive products and promote the development of the national agricultural sector. Tthe annual prog-ramme was organised by the Central Committee of the Vietnam Farmer's Association, the Party Central Committee's Commission for Publicity and Education and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Recognition was also given to 60 farmers who made outstanding achievements in production and business and new-style rural area building. Vietnam attends meeting on migration in Turkey A Vietnamese delegation led by Assistant to the Foreign Minister Nguen Quoc Dung attended the 8th Meeting of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD 8) from October 14-16 in Istanbul, Turkey, which discussed ways to bolster cooperation to ensure right of migrants. Themed “ Strengthening Partnerships: Human Mobility for Sustainable Development ”, the meeting brought together over 1,000 participants from 150 countries and territories over the world. In his speech at the event the Vietnamese official emphasised Vietnam’s support to the GFMD and shared the country’s experience in managing immigrant for development target. On the sidelines of the event, Dung had bilateral meetings with the General Director of the International Organisation for Migration (IMO) and the Director General for Consular Affairs under the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Programme launched to promote disease prevention Over 3,600 representatives from ministries, sectors, organisations and students attended a ceremony in Hanoi on October 17 to launch the hand in hand against infection programme in response to the Global Hand-washing Day. Speaking at the ceremony held by the Ministry of Health and Unilever Vietnam Fund, Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long highlighted that pollution and climate change have led to the emergence of epidemic diseases, such as SARS, MERS-CoV, Ebola and viral hemorrhagic fever, leaving great damage to people’s health, security, economy, politics and society. The programme aims to mobilise authorities, organisations and individuals to proactively participate in disease prevention activities while asking the public to respond to the programme through hand-washing with soaps and good personal and environmental hygiene, he said. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), diarrhea kills around 2.2 million people globally each year, mostly children under five years old. However, the infectious agents can be stove off by a simple and effective solution- washing hands with soaps, which can reduce instances of diarrhea by 35 percent and prevent other contagious illnesses. The Unilever Vietnam Fund has implemented the programme “Hand-washing with soap for a healthier Vietnam” during 2011-2015 period to raise public awareness of disease prevention to improve health and hygiene as well as better off livelihoods for Vietnamese people. Mosquito larva killing campaign launched The Ministry of Health launched a mosquito larva killing campaign in Vietnam’s southern central and southern provinces and cities on October 16 in an effort to fight increasing dengue fever.  At the launch in An Phu ward of Binh Duong southern province’s Thuan An Town, Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien urged local authorities and mass organisation to join the campaign while continuing to spread information on how to prevent dengue outbreaks.  According to the minister, dengue fever is spreading in the southern central southern provinces – with Binh Duong being a “dengue hot spot” with the highest number of fatalities from dengue fever in the country so far this year, as it is now the rainy season in the regions. She said there is no vaccine for the disease, so people should take preventive measures like periodically cleaning water containers to remove mosquito larvae and prevent the spread of the disease .  The disease is currently at its peak in Vietnam, with 25 deaths and 40,000 confirmed dengue cases.  According to the World Health Organisation, dengue fever is contracted through bites from dengue-infected mosquitoes, causing headaches, fever, exhaustion, severe muscle and joint pain, swollen glands, vomiting and rashes. There is no medication to treat the disease – only to ease the symptoms.  Dengue has been present in more than 100 countries and territories worldwide over the past 50 years, and an estimated 50-100 million cases occur each year. Salinity intrusion prevention measures proposed for southern region A number of measures to cope with salinity intrusions in the 2015-2016 dry season in the southern region were presented at a conference recently held in the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre. According to Le Manh Hung, Deputy General Director of the Irrigation General Department, the southern provinces should switch to suitable crop and animal varieties, actively dredge canals and build temporary water reservoirs to ensure water supply for production and daily use. Agencies under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) were asked to make timely and accurate forecast for weather, salinity intrusion and the water flows on Mekong River in order to help farmers arrange their timetable for cultivation.  The provincial authorities also need to raise people’s awareness of water resource use and protection. The Irrigation General Department supported requests for additional investments in desalination and water supply projects in Ben Tre, Tien Giang, Long An, and Hau Giang provinces in anticipation of water shortage in the next 5-10 years. According to the Southern Region Meteorological and Hydrological Station and the Southern Irrigation Science Institute, the rainy season in the South will last until the end of this month, and salty intrusion will begin in December. The salinity causing by droughts in the dry season this year will be severe as the total rainfall in the region is forecast to be 20-50 percent lower than annual average level.  The water levels on Mekong River have also stayed below the average since May. Environmental protection – a priority of agriculture ministry Environmental protection continues to be a leading important task of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in the time ahead as pollution remains serious in the agricultural sector, said Minister Cao Duc Phat.  The minister made the statement at a conference to review agricultural and rural environment protection during 2011-2015 in Hanoi on October 16.  In agriculture, the abuse of inorganic fertilisers has degraded cultivated land and reduced crop productivity. Vietnamese farmers use around 2.4 million tonnes of chemical fertilisers each year, which means that more than 200 tonnes of packaging materials are discarded to the environment.  In the animal husbandry industry, over 82 million tonnes of solid waste are discharged annually, causing serious pollution to the environment.  Meanwhile, deforestation, and weak planning and lack of advanced waste treatment technologies in the aquaculture and forestry sectors also add to pollution.  As such, Minister Phat urged the agricultural sector to exert efforts to make all farmers and businesses fully aware of environmental protection requirements in agriculture and rural development.  The whole sector, localities and enterprises should carry out specific measures to protect the environment, while transferring to farmers environmentally-friendly production technologies that help increase productivity, he suggested.  Developing hi-tech agriculture has been proved an effective solution to pollution, as heard at the conference. 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