VNA More investment pledged for higher education
Prime Minister Phan Van Khai has pledged greater investment for educational development, particularly tertiary education, by mobilising all national resources and socialising education. "The government will invest in rebuilding the National University, major universities, and key faculties in other universities and colleges. It will also help in the development of proper technologies to expand distant education," Prime Minister Khai said. Addressing a three-day tertiary education conference which opened in Hanoi on October 1, Mr Khai asked the Ministry of Education and Training to renovate its organisational and managerial work as well as its work style and ensure good salaries for university lecturers. "The Ministry should begin by investing in the design of all-level educational and training programmes and curricula as well as the standardisation of tertiary education programmes," Prime Minister Khai told the conference. "However," he added, "The higher education programmes must ensure the national identity and tradition as well as diversify training forms and professional sectors." Mr Khai also urged the Ministry to raise the quality of tertiary education by improving the quality of university lecturers and combining traditional training methods with the use of advanced technologies to promote regular education and distant education for the majority of people. Vietnam has already devised a plan to increase the percentage of the population engaged in university study from 1.2% to 2%, bring the total number of university and college students to 1.8 million, the number of MA trainees from 11,720 in 2000 to 38,000, and the number of post-graduates from 3,870 in 2001 to 15,000 by 2010, according to a report delivered by Education and Training Minister Nguyen Minh Hien at the conference. "In the coming years, Vietnam's tertiary education will focus on the expansion of training forms, while ensuring a proper training structure and educational quality and efficiency," Mr Hien said. (VNA) **** Zimbabwe's president concludes visit Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, along with his wife and entourage, left Ho Chi Minh City on October 1, concluding a four-day official visit to Vietnam. While in Vietnam, President Mugabe was received by Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh. He had talks with his Vietnamese counterpart Tran Duc Luong and met with Prime Minister Phan Van Khai. On this occasion, Vietnam and Zimbabwe signed two agreements, one on economic, cultural, scientific-technological, and commercial co-operation and another dealing specifically with trade. Concrete measures to boost the bilateral economic and commercial relations were also discussed. In Hanoi, President Mugabe and his entourage paid floral tributes to President Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum, and the Fallen Soldiers' Monument. After visiting Van Mieu-Quoc Tu Giam (The Temple of Literature), he toured Ha Long city in northern coastal Quang Ninh province. The Zimbabwean guests visited Ho Chi Minh City, the Cu Chi tunnels, and the Tan Thuan export processing zone on September 30 and October 1. (VNA) **** Mid-Autumn Festival held for poor children Many activities have been held across the country for poor children on the Mid-Autumn Festival. The Committee for Child Protection and Care of Quang Tri central province held a Mid-Autumn Festival for some 100 children in special difficulties. The provincial authorities also presented gifts and granted scholarships to 70 children of families having war invalids and fallen soldiers, poor and blind children. The Dong Thap administration gave VND 20 million to 11 districts and towns to organise full-moon festivals for poor children in flood-hit areas. The provincial Fund for Support of Children has collected over 1,300 packages of Mid-Autumn gifts worth VND 20 million for children in the communes. The Youth Centre of Vinh Long province held many activities for children in the province, and, particularly, gave 700 lanterns to poor children for the Mid-Autumn Festival. **** Human rights claims distorted: Foreign Ministry The Foreign Ministry on October 1, rejected claims by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch that the Vietnamese government had used closed-door trials to impose prison terms on 14 ethnic minority people in Tay Nguyen (the Central Highlands). Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh responded to queries from Radio Voice of Vietnam by describing the groups' accusations as "a slander." Ms Thanh said the hearing at the Dak Lak and Gia Lai people's courts - in which the defendants were tried on charges of sabotaging public security - were conducted publicly in accordance with the law. The accused had admitted their crimes and offences, expressed their willingness to mend their ways and asked the courts for clemency. She further said that the court verdicts strictly and clearly adhered to Vietnam's laws. Moreover the trials also demonstrated the clemency policy of the Party and State of Vietnam towards convicts who were ready to mend their ways, Ms Thanh said. "Those people present at the court sessions and the local residents of Dak Lak and Gia Lai expressed their satisfaction with the levels of punishment handed down to the convicts by the courts," she said. Answering many correspondents' questions about Vietnam's reaction to the death of former Sai Gon regime President Nguyen Van Thieu in the United States, Ms Thanh said: "Everybody knows well Nguyen Van Thieu's past in Vietnam. We Vietnamese have a saying 'Let the deceased rest in peace.'" Ms Thanh also responded to a Reuters correspondent's query about the US Senate's delay in ratifying the Vietnam-America Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) due to the concerns of some American congressmen about Vietnam's basa catfish exports to the US. She said those concerns about the fish exports were likely to have come from erroneous information sources that lacked scientific foundation. Vietnam Fisheries Ministry figures show that the volume of Vietnam's catfish exports to the US remains very small, estimated at just US $10 million and accounting for just 1-2% of the US market. Vietnam's exported catfish met all international standards in terms of product quality, hygiene, and food safety, Ms Thanh said, and were not at all affected by environmental conditions. She said the US Quality Administration had never detected any violations of US food safety regulations involving Vietnam's catfish exports, nor had Vietnam breached US trademark regulations. Furthermore, Vietnam had already devised very clear trademark rules requiring all catfish exported from Vietnam to carry a label including the words 'Product of Vietnam.' The Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said trade ties between Vietnam and the US have made fine progress in the recent past. The BTA, which is the result of joint efforts from both sides, had been signed on the basis of respect for each other's national independence, sovereignty, equality, and mutual benefits. "We believe that the ratification of the BTA will not be prevented by the catfish import issue which has been raised by some individuals in the US for personal reasons," Ms Thanh said. She added that their efforts were out of keeping with the development of trade ties between the two countries, and contrary to the spirit of free commerce around the world. (VNA) **** Protest against human rights act Mass organisations throughout the country continued to condemn the US House of Representatives' passing of the so-called 'Vietnam Human Rights Act.' At a meeting of 200 monks and nuns in Nam Dinh province on September 26, the provincial Executive Council of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha issued a statement, saying the Act distorted the Party and State's religious policy. It said: "In fact, religious activities in Vietnam are ensured by the Party and State. Almost all pagodas, temples and other worship places have been repaired and upgraded and new ones built. Authorised agencies at all levels have created favourable conditions for organising religious services." The provincial Sangha asked the US administration to annul the Act, helping to improve the relations between the two countries. The executive board of the War Veterans' Association in central Quang Binh province, representing more than 30,000 members has protested against the US House of Representatives' passing of the Act. In a statement at a recent meeting, the association called on the people to be vigilant to foil hostile forces' manoeuvres and activities to protect the revolutionary achievements and the socialist regime. People from all walks of life and youths in the northern Nam Dinh city, central Nghe An province and central highlands Kon Tum province have rallied to protest the Act, which they said has trampled on the relations between the two nations, and hurt the national dignity and sovereignty of Vietnam. They called upon progressive people around the world, including those in the US to denounce and prevent the passing of this erroneous Act. (VNA) **** Government moves to reduce poverty rate The Prime Minister on September 27 approved a national programme to reduce the poverty rate by between 1.5 and 2% and generate between 1.4 and 1.5 million jobs every year in the next five years. By so doing, the government expected to bring the poverty rate down below 10% by 2005 and eventually eliminate chronic hunger. The 'national programme for hunger elimination, poverty alleviation and job generation for 2001-05' is expected to generate VND 22.5 trillion from various financial sources, including the State budget and the society. With an estimated VND 16.24 trillion for poverty alleviation, the measure is to help furnish poor communities with basic infrastructure facilities consisting of small-scale irrigation projects, schools, medical stations, electricity and safe water supply networks, markets and roads. Under the programme, poor families will be exempt from agricultural land use taxes, provided with social welfare policies, housing, farming tools and sufficient land for cultivation as well as training in life skills. Target populations in mountainous, border and remote Mekong Delta areas and on islands will benefit from pilot models. The measure is also aimed at reducing the urban unemployment rate to less than 6% while increasing the production rate of the rural workforce to 80% by 2005. Efforts will focus on the export of labour, loans to boost small-sized businesses, improvement and modernisation of facilities at employment centres, building up an information network on the labour market, and personnel training on labour management. (VNA) _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
