VNA
Party leader welcomes Greek communists
General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Nong Duc Manh
received General Secretary of the Greek Communist Party Aleka Papariga and
her entourage in Hanoi on July 6.
The Greek communists are on a week-long working visit to Vietnam from July
2.
Mr Manh described the visit as an important event in the relationship
between the two Parties and a source of encouragement to the Party and
people of Vietnam in their national construction and defence.
He praised the Greek communists and patriotic people's struggle to liberate
their country from the facists during the second World War, their movement
for democracy and social progress, as well as their co-operation with other
leftist and workers' parties in Europe and the world in the new stage.
Mr Manh also thanked the Greek communists and people for their valuable
support to the national liberation and socialist construction cause in
Vietnam.
For her part, Ms Papariga expressed her admiration for the Vietnamese
people's heroic struggle for national independence, re-unification and
socialist construction under the CPV's leadership. She praised the CPV's
revolutionary experience and the Vietnamese people's achievements in the
current national renovation.
The Greek party leader said she wished the friendly and co-operative
relations between the Parties and people of the two countries boosted.
The Greek delegation held talks with a CPV delegation led by Tran Dinh Hoan,
Central Committee's Politburo member and secretary. The two sides briefed
each other on their respectiveParties and countries' situation, exchanged
experience in Party building and national solidarity strengthening. They
also discussed measures to boost the bilateral co-operation in the new
stage.
Earlier, the delegation met with president of the Vietnam Fatherland Front,
Pham The Duyet, chairman of the CPV CC's Commission for External Relations
Nguyen Van Son, president of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour, Cu
Thi Hau, and president of the Vietnam Women's Union Ha Thi Khiet. They also
worked with the Ho Chi Minh National Politics Institute, the Commission for
Organisation and Personnel and the Commission for Ideology and Culture of
the CPV CC. They visited Ho Chi Minh City and northern Quang Ninh province.
(VNA)
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Efforts made to overcome floods
Localities are trying to overcome the aftermath of the recent floods.
Floods and torrential rains, which lashed north Vietnam from typhoon Durian,
have claimed at least 23 lives in Thai Nguyen and nine lives in Tuyen Quang
provinces.
Seventy houses in Thai Nguyen province were pulled down or swept away as of
July 6, 5,500 other houses were submerged and more than 6,500 hectares of
rice and subsidiary crops were under water. The floods have also broken
3,250 metres of canals, swept away ten suspension bridges and 33 power
poles.
The Fatherland Front Central Committee of Thai Nguyen province has launched
a donation campaign for flood victims. The province's military doctors
helped the locals prevent epidemics during the floods and restore their
lives aback to normal.
As many as 8,600 houses in Tuyen Quang town of Tuyen Quang province, were
submerged under water. Thirteen communes of Son Duong district were
inundated due to floods from Pho Day River. Losses were estimated at VND 150
billion.
The floods also killed two people in Phu Tho northern province. About 250
houses collapsed and 1,800 hectares of rice and subsidiary crops were
waterlogged. Losses were put at about VND 3.5 billion.
The local authorities and people in flood-stricken provinces are now pooling
their efforts to minimise the aftermath of the floods.
The unabated downpour has caused water in Pho Day River to spill over three
kilometres of dyke of Tam Duong district, Vinh Phuc province. The local
Committee for Floods and Storms Control has mobilised all rescue means and
people to overcome the situation, protecting hundreds of thousand of
inhabitants from floods. The local armed forces have also helped evacuate
300 people to safer places.
The local authorities in Tuyen Quang province have also carried out rescuing
operation for people in Son Duong district, moving 350 people out of flooded
areas and carrying students to be in time for their university entrance
exams.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Deputy PM urges Hanoi to fully tap advantages
Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has urged Hanoi to fully tap
its advantages that no other localities have.
Hanoi's advantages, according to the Deputy PM, are in the domains of
science and technology, intellect, finance, land and particularly, the
application of a special mechanism defined in an Ordinance on the Capital
City of Hanoi recently promulgated by the National Assembly.
Deputy PM Dung was speaking at a working session with key officials of the
capital on July 5.
He stressed that the task of boosting the capital's socio-economic
development is not only the responsibility of Hanoi but� requires
enthusiastic co-ordination from ministries and other localities in the
country.
In that spirit, Mr Dung said, central and local branches of activities
should find out ways to mobilise resources for the development of the
capital. Hanoi's economic re-structuring should be shifted to industry and
services, the Deputy PM said, advising the capital to approach scientific
and technological advances so as to make active contributions to the
country's international integration.
He asked Hanoi to map out an appropriate mechanism to offer a wide range of
services covering the domains of finance, banking, insurance, science and
technology and consultancy.
On infrastructure development, the Deputy PM recommended Hanoi to focus on
communications and housing expansion to meet the requirements of the local
inhabitants.
He also reminded local officials to effectively carry out designed
programmes to ensure security and social order and safety for the capital.
Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Hoang Van Nghien reported to the
deputy PM on the capital's major tasks and solutions for the second half of
the year. Hanoi will focus on boosting economic development, strengthening
urban construction management, stepping up investment promotion and
supporting, in parallel with re-adjusting the investment mechanism. It will
remove obstacles to attract more foreign and domestic investment sources and
raise investment efficiency, step up the implementation of the information
technology programme and the labour export strategy, and accelerate
administrative reform so as to improve State management capacity and
efficiency of municipal agencies.
Hanoi registered a gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 9.6% in the
first six months of this year. The capital's six-month industrial production
value rose 6.7% year-on-year while export turnover increased 14.5% over the
same period last year. Investment in Hanoi in the past six months totalled
VND 8,730 billion (US $583 million), up 22% against last year's figure.
The capital successfully maintained political security and social order in
the reviewed period. It placed 28,000 people in employment in the first half
of the year.
However, the capital is required to resolve outstanding problems in urban
management, the spread of social evils and drug addiction and environmental
pollution.
Hanoi will strive to obtain a GDP growth rate of 10.4%, an industrial
production value increase of 23.4%, an agricultural production value rise of
3.5%, and an export turnover growth of 19.5% in the second half of the year.
It also aims to reduce its birth rate by 0.02%; the poverty rate to 5.02%,
and the number of malnourished children to 16.5%; create 32,000 jobs; and
build 256,000 square metres of housing in the remaining months of the year.
(VNA)
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University entrance exams first day goes smoothly
Students taking exams in Hanoi and Central Highlands.
The entrance exams to universities and colleges nationwide started smoothly
on July 6, the first day.
About 677, 430 examinees started their first phase of entrance exams to 50
universities and colleges. The number of examinees in Hanoi was 262,970 and
in Ho Chi Minh City, 161,195.
In Hanoi, the number of examinees to universities and colleges accounter for
68-78% of the registered number. The number of examinees to the Institute of
International Relations was about 64% against the registered number.
This year, voluntary students in Hanoi made great contributions to
maintaining traffic to avoid traffic jam.
In Ho Chi Minh City, the number of examinees to 20 universities and colleges
was 83% of average. During the exams, the city�s traffic police did their
best to keep the traffic moving.
In Thai Nguyen, despite flooding one day before the exam, universities and
colleges and relevant agencies in the province took urgent measures to help
examinees. In the afternoon of July 6, examinees to the Thai Nguyen
university started their entrance exam. The number of examinees was 37,423
compared with a registered number of 77,530.
In Hue, the number of examinees was 26,369, about 86% of the registered
number, an increase of 8% against the figure of last year.
In Da Nang, the number of examinees was about 65,000, an increase of 7,000
examinees against last year.
In Nha Trang, 6,773 out of 8,302 registered examinees attended the exam.
This was the highest number of candidates so far.
This year, 435,750 examinees from 12 Mekong delta provinces registered for
the Can Tho university. Despite rains, 27,159 out of 33,918 registered
examinees attended the exam.
According to the preliminary figures from the Ministry of Education and
Training and reporters of Nhan Dan newspaper on location in provinces, 82
examinees were censured, 103 examinees were warned and 603 were suspended
from their exams for violating exam regulations.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Japan loans for Bai Chay bridge
The government of Japan has agreed to loan JPY 6.804 billion at 0.95% annual
interest rate to help Vietnam build Bai Chay bridge in Quang Ninh province,
according to an agreement signed in Hanoi on July 6.
The loan, about 55 million in US dollars, comes from special credit source
of Japanese government for Vietnam. Vietnam will not have to pay back Japan
the money for forty years.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Religious freedom respected in Vietnam: spokesperson
The freedom of worship and religion and the freedom of non-worship and
non-religion for all citizens in Vietnam are clearly stated in Vietnam's
Constitution and are respected in reality, affirmed Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh in Hanoi on July 6.
Ms Thanh made the affirmation while responding to queries by a Hanoi-based
AFP correspondent on Vietnam's reaction to the European Parliament's
approval of a resolution "asking Vietnam to respect the freedom of religion
and free all prisoners of conscience."
She expressed her regret that the European Parliament (EP) had received
bogus information, leading it to issue a wrong resolution on Vietnam's
situation. Vietnam had time and again rejected such allegations. The
resolution, she added, had harmed the prestige of such a major parliament as
the EP.
On prisoners of conscience, Ms Thanh stressed there are no so-called
'prisoners of conscience' in Vietnam, only law breakers being dealt with
appropriately. (VNA)
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