VNA
Young people in Ha Tay join Tet tree planting festival.
Localities throughout the country are participating in a tree planting
(Lunar New Year) festival.
A tree planting festival was launched in Linh Dam River Service and
Residential Area in Hanoi's Thanh Tri district on January 29 (the sixth day
of Tet) by the Ministry of Construction and the Corporation for Investment
and Development of Housing and Urban Areas.
Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Cong Tan, Minister of Construction Nguyen Manh
Kiem and Hanoi's People's Committee Chairman Hoang Van Nghien attended the
launching ceremony and, together with 500 cadres and workers, planted the
first trees.
This is the fourth time the Ministry of Construction and the Corporation for
Investment and Development of Houses and Urban Areas have organised tree
planting festival in Linh Dam River Area. This is aimed at making a greener,
cleaner and more beautiful scenery for the capital's southern gate.
To date, there are tens of thousands of trees planted around Linh Dam River
area, contributing to increasing the attraction of the new urban area.
People of ethnic minority groups of Dien Bien district of Lai Chau northern
mountainous province have planted tens of thousands of assorted trees on
each tree planting festival. This year, the province is striving to plant
10% more than the number of trees planted last year.
This year, the northern province of Nam Dinh hopes to grow 300 hectares of
coastal protective forest and five million scattered trees and continues to
tend 7,200 hectares of forest land.
All eight districts and towns of Ninh Binh northern province have launched
tree planting festivals on January 29. According to initial figures, about
9,000 scattered trees were planted on the roadside, in schools and on barren
hills on the first day.
The northern mountainous province of Lao Cai, this year, aims to grow 3,500
hectares of assorted trees with the aim of bringing the forest coverage to
34% of the whole province area.
Ben Tre southern province's agricultural sector has prepared eight million
assorted seedlings in a bid to restore the garden economy for farmers. The
flood, which hit the province last year, damaged thousands of hectares of
orchards.
****
Huong Pagoda festival opens
The Huong (Perfume) Pagoda festival in Huong Son commune, My Duc district,
Ha Tay northern province, was opened on January 29 (the sixth day of Tet).
Local leaders, thousands of Buddhist followers and tourists flocked to the
festival on the first day.
Huong Pagoda festival is a grand one, lasting for three spring months. Each
year, the festival attracts between 350,000 and 450,000 visitors.
An organising board has been set up to maintain safety, law and order. Huong
Son commune has prepared 3,000 ferry boats to carry visitors.
>From January 25 (the second day of Tet) to yesterday, about 5,000 to 6,000
domestic and foreign visitors had come to Huong Pagoda each day.
****
Tet celebrated in Belgium, Sweden
The Vietnamese Embassy in the Kingdom of Sweden held a get-together in
Brussels on January 28 to celebrate Tet (Lunar New Year), according to the
Vietnam News Agency correspondent.
Over one hundred Vietnamese working and studying in Belgium and Belgian
friends attended the event.
Vietnamese ambassador to Belgium, Ton Nu Thi Ninh, wished the participants a
happy new year and expressed her hope that the Vietnamese in Belgium would
make more contributions to the national building.
Earlier, the Vietnamese Embassy in Sweden organised a meeting on the
occasion of the Lunar New Year.
Foreign friends expressed their admiration at the important achievements of
Vietnam in the last year and wished that the Vietnamese people would gain
greater socio-economic achievements in 2001 and the following years.
****
Law reform boosts social progress
Cutting its poverty rate by more than half during the past 15 years can be
attributed to Vietnam's reform of social policy, says Labour, War Invalids
and Social Affairs Minister Nguyen Thi Hang.
Ms Hang says that in addition to increased spending for social development -
25% of last year's budget - the government has devised policies that
encourage individuals to make money in complience with the law, while
encouraging all society and the international community to become involved
in dealing with social problems.
A range of newly-promulgated legal documents and changes to existing laws -
the Labour Code, the Child Care and Protection Law, the Education Law and
the Decree for the Disable - had adjusted the legal system to the new
situation and had served as a lever to social development.
Several social-development programmes - poverty alleviation, job generation
in communities with special difficulties, the supply of safe water,
environmental protection, expanded immunisation for children, illiteracy
eradication and combating social vices - have also been implemented.
As a result, the national poverty rate was reduced from 30% in 1992 to about
11% last year that means about 300,000 families lifting themselves above the
poverty line each year.
Reducing unemployment is difficult for the government because the national
workforce grew to 40.6 million in 2000 from 30.9 million in 1991, a yearly
increase of 2.9%.
However, the country managed to generate 1.2 million jobs each year for the
last ten years.
Population growth dropped by about five per 1,000 every year, helping
partially ordinary people to wider social-services access.
Major achievements included the universalisation of primary education and
providing access to health care services for more than 90% of the population
and safe water for 60% of household.
The government has emphasised development of agriculture and different
crafts, especially export oriented industries and services in rural areas,
so as to generate employment for the rural population which has the highest
unemployment and underemployment rates.
The government has also set out to win overseas labour contracts for 50,000
workers this year.
"Labour exportation is very helpful for national human resource development,
the transfer of technology and increasing hard currency remittances," says
Ms Hang.
Long-term, the country is working to achieve universalisation of junior
secondary education, increase the average lifespan to 72 and reduce
malnourishment among children under five to less than 25% by 2010.
The rate is now more than 30%. (VNA)
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