VNA National target programmes for 2001-2005 The prime minister has issued 'Decision No 71/2001/QD-TTg' to assign the implementation of the national target programmes for the 2001-2005 period. Under the decision, signed on May 4, relevant ministries, agencies, and localities will work out and submit for approval plans to carry out national target programmes. The prime minister will decide annual budget allocation for national target programmes, including costs for infrastructure and administration. Vietnam strives to reduce the poverty rate to under 10% by 2005, a 1.5-2% annual decrease. Its hunger eradication, poverty alleviation, and job creation programme hopes to alleviate chronic hunger and improve basic infrastructure in poor communes. About 1.4-1.5 million jobs are expected to be provided every year, thus reducing the unemployment rate in urban areas to 5-6%, and the employment rate in rural areas will be raised to 80% by 2005. The national programme on population and family planning hopes to reduce the annual average birth rate by 0.04%, and the population growth rate to 1.16% by 2005. The national programme on education and training plans to complete secondary education universalisation in 30 provinces and cities by 2005 and the remaining 31 provinces by 2010. About 30% of working age people are expected to be provided with vocational training by 2005, and 40% by 2010. The decision also refers to other national target programmes, including the programme on safe water supply and environmental hygiene in rural areas by 2020, the programme on epidemics and HIV/AIDS control and the programme on the maintenance and development of national cultural values. (VNA) **** 56th anniversary of victory over fascism marked A big meeting was held in Ho Chi Minh City on May 9 to mark the 56th anniversary of the victory over the fascism on May 9, 1945. Diplomats from the Russian, Hungarian and Polish consulates presided at the meeting. Vietnam-Russia Friendship Association president, Hoang Huu Nghia, and Russian consul general, Yury Grashchenkov, both stressed the significance of the victory, which, they said, saved the whole world from a nightmare of fascism. The event greatly encouraged the national independence movements in Asia, particularly that of the Vietnamese people against French colonialists, they said. Annual celebrations of the event are also an opportunity for people of Vietnam, Russia, other nations in the Commonwealth of Independent States, Eastern Europe, and other parts of the world, to reiterate their time-honoured friendship in the interest of global peace, co-operation, stability, and development. (VNA) **** France helps electrification in south The French Agency for Development, AFD, signed on May 9 a EUR 19-million credit agreement for a rural electrification project for poor communes in southern Vietnam. Signatories were Nguyen Thanh Do, deputy general director of the External Financial Department of the Ministry of Finance, and Luc Bonnamour, resident manager of AFD. French Ambassador to Vietnam Serge Degallaix witnessed the signing ceremony. The French-loaned project will develop medium- and low-voltage transmission lines and transformers for poor rural areas in 15 Mekong delta and south-eastern provinces. This project, a priority in the Vietnamese government's programme on rural electrification, was designed to raise the efficiency of agriculgrural production in the region and make a positive contribution to alleviate poverty in poor rural areas in southern Vietnam. AFD has provided Vietnam with 10 preferential credit loans totalling EUR 245.8 million since it began official operation in Vietnam in 1994. (VNA) **** Vietnamese trade group presents gifts to Russian veterans Vietnamese trade group "To-Gi" (Nice & Rich) on May 8 presented 500 gifts to Russian veterans, who joined the Soviet people's struggle for national defence from 1941-1945, on the occasion of the 56th anniversary of the victory over Fascism, May 9. This was the fifth consecutive year that "To-Gi" gave gifts to Russian veterans. The same day, the Vietnamese Embassy in Russia in co-ordination with "To-Gi" and local authorities held a meeting and laid a wreath at the Donskoi Monument in Moscow. (VNA) **** Vietnam, Kuwait sign air service agreement Vietnam signed an 'Air Service Agreement' with Kuwait, boosting the number of countries and territories which it has established official airlinks with to 50. The new accord serves as a legal basis for the scheduled air services between Vietnam and Kuwait, covering the grant of rights, designation and authorisation, revocation or suspension of operating authorisations, airports and facility charges, exemptions from customs duties and other charges, financial provisions, technical and commercial representation, entry and clearance regulations, flight schedules, tariffs, information and statistics, aviation security, recognition of certificates and licenses, consultations and modifications, and settlement of disputes. The agreement further specifies the routes schedule to be operated by the designated airlines of Vietnam and Kuwait on the agreed services between the territories of the two countries, said a press communique available to Vietnam News Agency on May 9. (VNA) **** RoK finds more oil than expected in Vietnam State-run Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC) and its partners have completed their first appraisal well, offshore Vietnam, finding more oil than forecast, the company said yesterday. The initial test well in the Su Tu Den prospect of block 15-1, located in the Cuu Long basin, was found to have an estimated 400 million barrels of oil in reserves, larger than the 250 million barrels originally forecast, KNOC said in a statement. KNOC said the initial test well, SD-2X, produced 4,809 barrels-per-day (bpd) of oil. It has predicted that after further testing, SD-2X would produce up to 12,621 bpd. "Depending on the result from the second well, we may try to expedite development of Su Tu Den with the first oil targeted for 2003," it said in the statement. KNOC's share in block 15-1 is 14.25% with PetroVietnam holding a 50% stake, Conoco - the No4 US oil company - with 23.25% and South Korea's largest refiner SK Corp with nine percent. (SGT-REUTERS) **** Vietnam wishes to boost bonds with Francophone agency Vietnam attaches importance to the development of co-operation with the Inter-governmental Francophone Agency (AIF), said Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien to visiting AIF general director, Roger Dehaybe, in Hanoi on May 8. The FM stressed that Vietnam wishes to further co-operate with the AIF in economics, culture, education, information technology and youth affairs. The aim of the AIF general director's visit from May 7-10 is to review the co-operation between Vietnam and the AIF in the past two years and to boost relations in the coming years. Mr Dehaybe had working sessions with the Foreign Ministry, the Culture and Information Ministry, the Justice Ministry, the Education and Training Ministry and the Vietnam National Youth Committee. He also visited the Ho Chi Minh City-based French Teaching Centre in the Asia-Pacific region, and met with representatives of Francophone countries and organisations in Hanoi. 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