Day: May 22, 2023

The Government Office has issued an official document on COVID-19 prevention and control in the new context, mentioning the possibility of announcing the end of the pandemic.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh assigned the Ministry of Health to coordinate with relevant ministries and agencies to prepare a dossier to reclassify COVID-19 from group A to group B infectious disease and announce the end of the pandemic and submit it to the PM for consideration.

According to the document, PM Chinh also assigned the Ministry of Health to coordinate with the Government Office to hold a meeting on May 27, 2023, to announce the completion of work of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

The ministry is requested to, based on the recommendations of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the actual situation of the pandemic in Vietnam, develop a plan for sustainable management and control of COVID-19 in the 2023 – 2025 period.

The document noted that WHO has declared COVID-19 no longer a global health emergency, yet the pandemic is still present and is still a part of everyday life.

Countries still need to improve their response capacity, not let their guard down.

WHO can still restore a global health emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic at any time if the situation is critical, the document said.

According to the health ministry, the death rate from COVID-19 in Vietnam has so far been much lower than the global rate of 0.99%.

This is a figure showing the efforts of Vietnam’s COVID-19 treatment capacity over the past three years, with a very timely shift of prevention and control strategy.

In order to reduce deaths from COVID-19, the ministry has directed health facilities to continue to be vigilant for COVID-19 and early detection of infection cases.

Resuscitation and dialysis facilities, and those with patients in critical conditions must closely examine to detect early and isolate to avoid transmission to other patients.

The ministry also continues to update the plan, mobilise the support of international organisations for training on emergency resuscitation for COVID-19 treatment especially on mechanical ventilation.

Medical facilities are requested to strengthen infection control measures to limit the spread of disease in hospitals./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Ship 20 of the Naval Region 3’s Brigade 172 with a working delegation of the Vietnam People’s Navy on board arrived in Malaysia’s Langkawi to attend the 16th International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition (LIMA) 2023.

Accordingly, from May 23-28, the ship and the working delegation will participate in LIMA 2023 activities, including display of naval vessels, an exhibition to introduce career opportunities in the Malaysian navy, ship parade, LIMA exercise at sea. Ship 20 is a Pohang-class corvette received from the Republic of Korea Navy in October 2018.

This is the third time the Vietnam People’s Navy has sent its ships to LIMA, after 2017 and 2019./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

An inspection team from the European Commission (EC) will visit Vietnam to examine the country’s efforts on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing prevention and control in October instead of May as it announced earlier, Tran Dinh Luan, Director of the Directorate of Fisheries under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) said on May 21.

Luan said that the EC suggested the organisation of online working sessions with Vietnamese authorities in May, June and October before sending the team to Vietnam.

In late May, a MARD delegation will have in-person working sessions with EC representatives to update them on Vietnam’s achievements in IUU fishing prevention and control with the hope of narrowing the EC’s recommendations to Vietnam.

Since the EC’s inspection in last October, Vietnam has worked hard to implement four groups of the EC’s recommendations on IUU fishing prevention and control, including those on legal framework; fishing vessel monitoring and control, and fleet management; seafood output verification and origin traceability; and law enforcement.

The MARD has also set up working groups to inspect the situation in coastal localities and instruct them in rolling out measures against IUU fishing and implementing the EC’s recommendations.

Meanwhile, ministries and central agencies as well as localities have focused on realising their tasks of IUU fishing combat, preventing and settling ships violating foreign waters and IUU fishing activities.

Luan urged ministries, sectors and localities to work harder to fix existing problems, step up communications on regulations against IUU fishing, and prepare to receive the EC inspection team, thus persuading the EC to remove the “yellow card” against Vietnamese seafood exports.

According to the Directorate of Fisheries, as of April 30, up to 28,797 out of 29,489 fishing vessels nationwide had installed the vessel monitoring systema (VMS). The majority of the remaining vessels have been out of service and kept ashore./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

On May 19, China International Culture Exchange Association, Chinese Cultural Centre in Laos, and Culture and Tourism Department of China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region held a cultural exchange event highlighting the tea culture of the Yao people and beautiful Guangxi.

The event drew many Vientiane residents and foreign and domestic visitors.

Si Lufei and Zhuo Liwei, both are representatives of China national intangible cultural heritage inheritors for oil tea tradition of the Yao people, demonstrated the tradition of Liu Bao tea and oil tea of the Yao people to the participants.

The participants enjoyed an exhibition highlighting Guangxi cultural products, books and music.

“Yao oil tea tradition is a food tradition invented in response to the erratic weather with high humidity, dense fog and changing temperature in mountainous areas of southern China. The tradition dates back to Tang Dynasty (618-907). Today, it becomes a key form of social interaction of the Yao people, and an integral part of wedding ceremony, cremation ceremony and hospitality,” said Zhuo Liwei.

“The Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China in cooperation with international organizations, and Chinese diplomatic missions held activities under the theme “Tea for Harmony” in 41 countries around the world on May 21 to celebrate International Tea Day,” said Director of the Chinese Cultural Centre in Laos Li Yiping.

This event also aims to promote relations and mutual understanding between China and the host countries.

Source: Lao News Agency

Lao researchers are optimistic about the growth of the Lao economy, which is projected to expand by 4.5 % this year amid global economic challenges.

According to the latest report from the Macro-economic Research Institute of the Lao Academy of Social and Economic Sciences (LASES), the economic growth will be driven by the services sector in association with the growth of the tourism and processing industries and agricultural production for export.

The agricultural sector is set to see an increase of 3.5% this year following an injection of funds for boosting productivity. Meanwhile, the industrial sector is hoped to see an increase of 4.6% from export related to processing industries in special economic zones.

The construction sector is also set to see growth, although financial hardships faced by the government and reducing capital inflows may affect its growth.

According to Vice President of the LASES, Dr Kikeo Chanthaboury, the launch of the cross border Laos-China railway has contributed to significantly bolstering regional trade and people-to-people exchanges.

Dr Kikeo said the Laos-China railway provides an opportunity to Laos to boost its export, tourism and logistics sectors.

However, there are also pressing challenges facing Laos, such as soaring inflation, high public debt, depreciation of the currency and Lao workers seeking better pay abroad. These challenges are made worse by the problem with regulating the local currency, which directly impacts the cost of goods.

Despite these challenges, the reopening of China’s market with 1.3 billion consumers is beneficial to Laos. This year alone, more than 3 million tonnes of agricultural products were exported to China, Thailand and Vietnam.

Source: Lao News Agency