Socail News 18/3 15 years of community football program in Thua Thien-Hue   The recent success of Vietnam’s squad at the Asian Football Confederation U23 Championship is expected to attract strong investment to the development of youth football in Vietnam. Funded by the Football Association of Norway, the “Football for All in Vietnam” (FFAV) program has been active for 15 years in Hue.   As its name suggests, the “Football for All in Vietnam” community program promises that anyone who wants to play football will be given an opportunity, regardless gender, ability, or social circumstances. The program has received an investment of US$2 million from the Football Association of Norway. Over the past 15 years, the FFAV has built a network of 200 grassroots football clubs involving 17,000 children between 6 and 15 years old. The program won in the NGO and Individual category at the Dream Asia Awards in 2017. This June, for the second time, the FFAV and 48 other delegations from around the world will come to Moscow to participate in the “Football for Hope” Festival, an official event on the sidelines of World Cup 2018. The FFAV’s first time was at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Nguyen Hoang Phuong, FFAV director, said “As the Norwegian government’s funding will stop at the end of this year, it will be a great challenge for us to maintain and expand the program across Vietnam. Though we focus just on developing an interest in football, many children in Hue have qualified for the Vietnam women’s national football team.” Tran Quoc Tuan, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Football Federation, has encouraged the expansion of Hue’s school football model nationwide. “From this model, we have sent a number of teams to conduct surveys of school football in other provinces like Lang Son, Cao Bang, and Quang Tri,” Tuan added. Vietnam’s football strategy until 2020 with a vision to 2030 defines school football as a key solution to developing football nationally. In 2015 the Ministry of Education and Training signed a joint agreement with the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism to realize the plan. Director of the General Department of Sports and Physical Training Vuong Bich Thang said a comprehensive review of school and community football models will be conducted this year towards formulating the best way to expand the Hue model nationwide. Building Da Nang’s trademark as a gateway to heritages Da Nang city has become a popular tourist destination for having one of the 6 most beautiful beaches in the world. The city is the gateway to world heritages in Vietnam’s central region and received the prestigious title “Asia's Leading Festival & Event Destination” at the World Travel Awards 2016. At a recent conference on tourism development, provincial leaders and businesses agreed that the city should diversify nighttime entertainment. Da Nang’s tourism sector has seen amazing progress over the past decade. The number of hotels has increased 10 folds and tourism has become a spearhead economic sector. Tourists love Da Nang’s long sandy beaches, beautiful Han river, and diverse cuisine. Dang Minh Truong, General Director of SunGroup, says tourists want to know about places to visit, to play, and to eat. He suggested that Da Nang should have more activities at night. “We need to map out a strategy to promote Da Nang’s tourism trademark. As the Prime Minister said, “Da Nang should be a place you must see in your lifetime.” We are ready to finance a fund to hire foreign experts to open communication campaigns on the city’s tourism trademark.” Nguyen Canh Son, General Director of the Ariyana Da Nang Company, said after the APEC Economic Leaders’ Week, that MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events) may bring revenue for Da Nang and does not depend on the tourist higher season.  “Can Da Nang host international trade fairs and exhibitions which will require tens of thousands of hotel rooms like the APEC Economic Leaders’ Week? The city should offer new types of tourism, such as medical tourism and tours for the elderly. The streets should always be as crowded as festivals, not just for a few days”, said Mr Son.  Victims of Son My massacre remembered in US The Vietnam Peace Commemoration Committee (VPCC) organised an array of activities in the US from March 15-17 to commemorate 504 victims of the Son My bloody massacre by US troops 50 years ago. About 70 people gathered at the Lafayette Square on March 16 to read out names of the victims, sang songs for peace and chanted the slogan of “My Lai: Never Again”.  The same day, Professor Howard Jones, a VPCC member from Alabama University, hosted a programme to introduce his book titled “My Lai: Vietnam, 1968, and the Descent into Darkness” at George Washington University, Washington D.C.   At the same time, the 475-page English book was also introduced by the VPCC at Columbia University in New York.  On March 17 afternoon, the VPCC screed a 95-minute film at George Washington University, featuring acceptance of more than 125 US soldiers of the cruelty they committed or witnessed at the massacre.  The killings that occurred on March 16, 1968 in My Lai hamlet (now Son My, Tinh Khe commune), the central province of Quang Ngai, prompted widespread outrage around the world. The massacre is also credited with advancing the end of the American War because it significantly undermined public support in the United States for the war effort.            Some 504 unarmed civilians in Tinh Khe commune were slaughtered, mostly elderly villagers, women and children. Hundreds of houses, along with thousands of heads of cattle and poultry, and all food, were burned and destroyed that day.  Founded in September 2014, the VPCC seeks to tell the truth and learn the lessons of the US war in Indochina, and of the broad, diverse protest movement that ended the war. Vietnamese students surpass Chinese peers to top regional education ranking A new report shows Vietnamese students perform best academically in East Asia and the Pacific and surpass even some from developed countries outside the region. Vietnam beats its Southeast Asian peers, the Republic of Korea (RoK), Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China in terms of scores on PISA and TIMSS tests, the World Bank revealed in its latest report. The “Growing Smarter: Learning and Equitable Development in East Asia and the Pacific” report by the World Bank ranks students according to a weighted average of scores from tests that students have taken since 2000 for Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), and since 2003 for Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). The average performance in Vietnam and China surpassed member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, that includes the US, the UK, France, Germany, Canada and Spain. Vietnam scored above the OECD average on all three sub scores in 2012. These scores indicate mastery of a full range of superior math abilities for complex problems, according to the report. To strengthen its findings, the World Bank cited 2013 data from the Young Lives initiative, which closely follows cohorts from birth through secondary school. It show that when they start primary school, Vietnamese children have cognitive skills and abilities that are similar to peers in three comparator countries. By third grade, however, Vietnamese students are way ahead of their low- and middle-income peers in math. At ages 10 and 12, the average Vietnamese student performs better than all but the top students in Ethiopia, India, and Peru. PISA asseses students in science, mathematics, reading, collaborative problem solving and financial literacy, with science the major domain. TIMSS is a series of international assessments of the mathematics and science knowledge of students around the world. Last year, PISA ranked Vietnamese 15-year-olds eighth out of 72 economies in science performance. Vietnamese students also came 22nd in mathematics and 32nd in reading. The scores puzzled foreign experts as PISA rankings usually correspond with the country’s GDP and prosperity, but Vietnam has been an exceptional case. Floating school built for overseas Vietnamese pupils in Cambodia The Consulate General of Vietnam in Battambang, Cambodia inaugurated a floating school built for children of overseas Vietnamese living on Tonlé Sap Lake in Pursat province on March 16. Funded by the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs under Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry, the wooden facility consists of two classrooms which can accommodate about 100 pupils.  Chairman of the Association of Vietnamese-Cambodians in Pursat Le Hoang said there was no school in the area in the past. He said with delight that now the Vietnamese expats here can send their children to school and use the facility to hold community activities. On the occasion, a Vietnamese company presented four tonnes of rice to disadvantaged overseas Vietnamese and Cambodian families in the locality, while staff at the Consulate General of Vietnam in Battambang supported health check-ups at Long Hai Pagoda, a pagoda of the Vietnamese expats in Tonlé Sap. Victims of Son My massacre remembered in US The Vietnam Peace Commemoration Committee (VPCC) organised an array of activities in the US from March 15-17 to commemorate 504 victims of the Son My bloody massacre by US troops 50 years ago.  About 70 people gathered at the Lafayette Square on March 16 to read out names of the victims, sang songs for peace and chanted the slogan of “My Lai: Never Again”.  The same day, Professor Howard Jones, a VPCC member from Alabama University, hosted a programme to introduce his book titled “My Lai: Vietnam, 1968, and the Descent into Darkness” at George Washington University, Washington D.C.   At the same time, the 475-page English book was also introduced by the VPCC at Columbia University in New York.  On March 17 afternoon, the VPCC screed a 95-minute film at George Washington University, featuring acceptance of more than 125 US soldiers of the cruelty they committed or witnessed at the massacre.  The killings that occurred on March 16, 1968 in My Lai hamlet (now Son My, Tinh Khe commune), the central province of Quang Ngai, prompted widespread outrage around the world. The massacre is also credited with advancing the end of the American War because it significantly undermined public support in the United States for the war effort.            Some 504 unarmed civilians in Tinh Khe commune were slaughtered, mostly elderly villagers, women and children. Hundreds of houses, along with thousands of heads of cattle and poultry, and all food, were burned and destroyed that day.  Founded in September 2014, the VPCC seeks to tell the truth and learn the lessons of the US war in Indochina, and of the broad, diverse protest movement that ended the war. Foreign lands, people through Vietnamese photographers’ eyes An exhibition showcasing the lands and people in foreign countries through the lens of Vietnamese photographers opened in Hanoi, on March 17 by the Vietnam Association of Photographic Artists (VAPA). Works on display include 140 photos taken by 80 Vietnamese photographers in 35 different countries and territories throughout the world. The photos, selected from nearly 1,770 entries sent to the VAPA, capture the natural beauty, architectural sites, daily lives, cultural practices and portraits of people in foreign countries. The event is among the VAPA’s efforts to create a photo database of countries around the world, while tightening the solidarity among Vietnamese people and their international friends. At the ceremony, the VAPA presented certificates of merit to its outstanding members in acknowledgement of their excellent work performance in 2017, as well as their significant contributions to the development of Vietnamese photography. Ban Flower Festival 2018 honours traditional cultural values The Ban Flower Festival 2018 kicked off in the northern mountainous province of Dien Bien on March 17, attracting thousands of people in the province and surrounding localities. Speaking at the opening ceremony, Nguyen Van Binh Chairman of the Communist Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission and head of the Steering Committee for Northwestern Region, said the annual festival bolsters the cultural development in the region, thus helping the province become a key destination on the northwestern tourism route.  The festival aims to honour and preserve traditional cultural values of ethnic groups and strengthen national unity, as well as promote local landscapes and people to international friends, he added. Aside from the opening ceremony held in the May 7 Square, the festival will feature a number of activities including art performances and exhibitions on local tourism products, among others. The highlight of this year will be a fashion show on traditional costumes of Dien Bien’s ethnic groups, which is expected to draw the participation of many local artisans, in a bid to introduce traditional culture of ethnic groups in Vietnam and Dien Bien in particular. There will also be a pack-bike competition where participants push pack-bikes carrying food from the Dien Bien Phu Victory Monument to the Hill D relic site. This activity aims to re-enact Dien Bien Phu Operation of the Vietnamese people and army in 1954. The annual Ban Flower Festival helps affirm the tourism trademark of Dien Bien and promote ban flower (scientifically known as Bauhinia Variegata), which has become a symbol of the land and people of Dien Bien and the northwest region in general. The flower often blossoms in March-April. President Ho Chi Minh’s stay in Russia’s Petrograd recalled A seminar was held in Russia’s St. Petersburg city on March 16 to mark 95 years since Nguyen Ai Quoc, an alias of President Ho Chi Minh, set foot in Petrograd, the former name of St. Petersburg.  The seminar attracted nearly 200 delegates who are Vietnamese and Russian scientists, scholars, activists, representatives of social organisations and students.  Speeches delivered at the event recalled the life and career of President Ho Chi Minh, especially the period when he lived in Russia, while looking into the present Vietnam-Russia cooperation in such areas as youth policy, education, culture and humanitarian, along with Ho Chi Minh’s thoughts and security issues in Southeast Asia.  Vietnamese Ambassador to Russia Ngo Duc Manh stressed that President Ho Chi Minh selected Petrograd to begin his path for national salvation, creating a foundation for the fruitful relations between Vietnam and the former Soviet Union and present-day Russia.   St. Petersburg’s Vice Governor Oleg Markov held that the Russia-Vietnam cooperation has been consolidated and expanded in various realms, from humanitarian and culture to economy, science and education.  The seminar helps bring young people of the two countries closer and educate them about the friendship, he said.  The seminar also featured an exhibition displaying objects on President Ho Chi Minh and other Vietnamese leaders. Requiem for Vietnamese fallen soldiers held in Thailand A requiem to commemorate Vietnamese soldiers who laid down their lives to defend national sovereignty was held at Khanh An pagoda in Thailand’s northeastern province of Udon Thani on March 18. At the ceremony, overseas Vietnamese (OVs) recalled the nation’s glorious history and paid tribute to those who sacrificed their lives to safeguard the country, especially 64 naval soldiers who were killed while protecting Gac Ma (Johnson South) Reef in Vietnam’s Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago on March 14, 1988.  The requiem for Vietnamese martyrs in Udon Thani province is held annually by OVs in Thailand. This is part of activities to help OVs gain more understanding of the country’s history, sea and island sovereignty and national protection. This is the third time the OVs in Thailand has held the activity to commemorate fallen soldiers. Việt Nam female team lose to US embassy Việt Nam’s national female football team lost to the male team from the US Embassy in Hà Nội 1-2 in a friendly match on Saturday. The game was held at the Việt Nam Youth Football Training Centre in Hà Nội. This was the last test of coach Mai Đức Chung before leaving for Germany on March 22. The team will undertake intensive training to prepare for the final of the 2018 AFC Women’s Asian Cup to be held in Jordan in April. In Germany, the team will play three friendly matches with leading female clubs of Europe. Earlier, Chung and his players honed their skills in a four-side international tournament in China. Int’l Francophone Day marked in Hanoi Deputy Foreign Minister Ha Kim Ngoc highlighted Vietnam’s efforts and practical contributions to the development of the French-speaking community and promoting the French language in the region at a function to mark the International Francophone Day in Hanoi on March 16. The Vietnamese official praised the community’s achievements in various cooperation fields, contributing to addressing global challenges in terms of security and development. He underlined the closed-knit relationship between Vietnam and the French-speaking community, saying that Vietnam will continue actively participating in and contributing to the solidarity and cooperation within the community for peace, stability and sustainable development in the world. The country is willing to serve as a bridge for the strong development of the French language in Asia – Pacific region, Ngoc said. Adama Ouane, Director of the International Organisation of the Francophonie (OIF), expressed his delight at the continuously growing relationship between the OIF and Vietnam and spoke highly of Vietnam’s role as a driving force, a pillar and a bridge between the French-speaking community and Asia – Pacific region. The OIF treasures and continues fostering cooperation with Vietnam, particularly in French teaching, promoting cultural diversity, and implementing the Francophonie Economic Strategy via triangular cooperation, digital technology application, participation in the UN’s peacekeeping force, and climate change adaptation. During the event, Belgian Ambassador to Vietnam Jehanne Roccas, Chairman of the Group of Francophone Embassies, Delegations and Institutions (GADIF), presented awards to Associate Professor Dr. Trinh Van Minh from the Vietnam National University – Hanoi; and Dr. Tran Thi Nguyen Ny from the Ho Chi Minh City Medicine and Pharmacy University for their outstanding contributions to the development of the French language in Vietnam as well as the cooperation between Vietnam and the OIF. VNA, VFF join hands in producing TV programme The Vietnam News Agency (VNA) and the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee on March 16 signed a cooperation agreement to produce and air a television programme entitled “Strength of Great Solidarity” on the VNA’s TV Channel Vnews in the 2018-2021 period. Addressing the signing ceremony, VFF President Tran Thanh Man noted with pleasure the close coordination between the VNA and VFF over the past years, contributing to popularising the Party and State’s policies and laws among the community, thus strengthening the national solidarity bloc. The launching of the “Strength of Great Solidarity” programme is expected to help enhance communications on fostering the national solidarity bloc and give more information about the Party and State’s policies and laws as well as VFF plans to the public. Man proposed that the VNA, especially the Vnews channel, to focus on issues such as the voice of people from all walks of life, outstanding figures in various fields, new-style rural area building and smart city, and activities to support the poor. For his part, VNA General Director Nguyen Duc Loi said that the VNA is the official organ of the Party and State, providing source news to the domestic press and 40 news agencies around the world, and supplying reference reports and information to Party and State leaders. With 60 different press products, the VNA’s coverage and capacity meet information demands in all fields, including activities of the VFF, he said. The general director also suggested that the VFF provide timely and full information for the VNA, especially Vnews channel, to help it produce high quality press products. According to its 2018 plan, the VNA will produce 2-4 editions for the programme each month with a duration of 15 minutes each. The VNA currently boasts a network of 63 representative offices nationwide and 30 representative bureaus worldwide. With more than 60 media products by more than 1,000 reporters and editors out of its 2,400-strong staff, the VNA is now the media office having the largest number of products and forms in the country: bulletins, photos, TV programmes, dailies, weeklies, monthlies, magazines, pictorials, books, e-newspapers and information programmes on mobile platforms. VNN