How are scanners called

Nguyen Quoc-Phuc Van – Translated by Tan Nghia

The two metro lines that will connect downtown areas are among 57 major infrastructure projects that city authorities are calling for investment for the 2020-2025 period.

The city envisages both routes being built under the public-private partnership (PPP) investment form.

The east-west route would run from Nam O 1 residential area in Lien Chieu District through downtown areas to My Khe Beach in Son Tra District, while the south-north route will connect the Son Tra Tinh Vien nature reserve on Son Tra Peninsula, areas around the Da Nang Airport and the Khue Trung area in Cam Le District.

The city also called for investors to build an electric metro train project connecting with the neighboring Hoi An Town, a famous tourist hotspot in Quang Nam Province. This project carries an estimated value of VND7.49 trillion to VND14.99 trillion.

Another project is a 3.7-kilometer tunnel at the Da Nang Airport with six lanes that requires a total investment of VND8.2 trillion. The project’s investment will be raised from the city’s budget, official development assistance (ODA) and the PPP model.

The city of 1.1 million also seeks investment for the Lien Chieu Port, which is expected to use VND3.4 trillion from the state budget and VND3.9 trillion from the private sector.

The 220-hectare port, expected to spearhead Da Nang’s logistics development, will be built below Hai Van Pass in central Vietnam.

City authorities are also seeking investors for other major projects like the 500-bed international standard oncology treatment center at VND11 trillion, the VND5-trillion Opera House, a VND3 trillion waste treatment plant worth up to VND3 trillion and VND4.5 trillion horse racing.

Da Nang, the urban hub of central Vietnam and a popular tourism hotspot, is considered the country’s third most important city after Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Addressing a meeting of standing Government members on March 3 in Hanoi on a draft decision revising regulations for the settlement of debts facing risks at VBSP and a draft resolution on financial regulations for the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam), the PM stressed that policies on poverty reduction, which play a major part in the Party and State’s guidelines, contributed to bringing down the rate of poor households to 2.7% from over 30% in 2000.

The Government leader also underlined that poverty reduction is a requirement for sustainable development, demonstrating Vietnam’s orientation towards socialism. Appropriate amendments and supplements are therefore needed to help VBSP fulfil tasks assigned by the Party and State.

The PM ordered VBSP to improve the quality and efficiency of its operation and pay due regard to the adverse impact of COVID-19 on people’s lives, to identify support measures.

More groups of people have been recently named as eligible for taking out loans from the bank, he said.

The revision of the regulation for the settlement of debts facing risks at VBSP is greatly needed, and standing Government members expressed a high level of consensus on the issue, voicing a hope that amendments will facilitate poverty reduction and the bank’s effective operations.

The PM required that the Ministry of Finance (MoF), the State Bank of Vietnam, and VBSP promptly submit a draft decision for consideration, paying attention to businesses and people facing risks posed by COVID-19.

PetroVietnam, meanwhile, contributed VND83 trillion (US$3.48 billion) to the State budget last year.

The PM highlighted the role and position of the oil and gas sector in the country’s development, not only in terms of economy but also in defence and security.

He called for the best conditions possible for the long-term development of the sector, in an effort to raise efficiency at PetroVietnam.

The MoF is tasked with completing the regulation in line with laws on the management of State capital at enterprises and on the oil and gas industry, as well as current accounting mechanisms, thereby ensuring PetroVietnam’s effective, safe, and sustainable development.

The events were selected from the following areas: policies and mechanisms, natural sciences, social sciences and humanities, applied research, international integration, and prominent scientists.

This is the 15th year of the vote for the top 10 S&T events, attracting the participation of more than 60 journalists who cover the S&T sector from 25 press agencies. The nomination was assessed by prestigious managers and scientists.

Below is a list of notable S&T events in 2020:

1. Prime Minister approves Programme on national digital transformation

The Prime Minister on June 3 issued Decision No.749/QD-TTg approving the National Digital Transformation Programme by 2025, with an orientation toward 2030.

The approved program has the dual goal of developing a digital government, economy and society while establishing Vietnamese digital technology enterprises that have the potential to go global.

The digital transformation in Vietnam has seen more strong developments than ever, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic that has had such a strong impact on the socio-economic situation, trade, education, culture, administration and transport.

2. Successful research on SARS-CoV-2 virus

* Successfully cultivating and isolating SARS-CoV-2 virus

The National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology announced on February 2 that it had successfully cultivated and isolated the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the laboratory, enabling quicker tests for the virus.

With the achievement, Vietnam was then able to test thousands of samples a day when necessary. This also served as a basis for the development of a vaccine against the virus.

* Researching and manufacturing quick test kits for the SARS-CoV-2 virus

The Ministry of Science and Technology declared on March 5 the success of a research on a test kit for SARS-CoV-2 virus, making Vietnam among very few countries in the world to have succeeded in the research at that time.

The real-time RT-PCR research was conducted by the Vietnam Military Medical University and the Viet A Corporation as directed by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The project’s success is important at a time when the COVID-19 epidemic remains a global threat. Results also confirmed Vietnamese scientists’ high levels of professional skill and the ministry’s determination to have effective epidemic prevention and control.

3. Successful development of technology for flight control and balloon retrieval in the stratosphere

This is project VT-CN.04/17-20 on ‘Research to Approach the Technology to Use Balloons in the Stratosphere, integrated with Information Transceivers, to Monitor, Give Direction, Rescue, and Calculate Physical Parameters in the Atmosphere’ was carried out under the National Science and Technology Program on Space Technology in the 2016-2020 period.

The project was directed by Associate Prof. Dr. Pham Hong Quang from the Center for Informatics and Computing.

The project uses an IoT network at an affordable cost level for deploying sea and forest rescue tasks, monitoring off-shore fishing boats, floods, landslides, and forest fire data.

4. Science ministry receives draft Vietnamese history

The Ministry of Science and Technology held a ceremony in Hanoi on November 12 to receive a draft of Vietnamese history after five years of its compilation.

The draft history comprises 25 volumes of general history and five volumes of event chronicles.

The project, funded by the National Foundation for Science and Technology Development, was carried out by nearly 300 scientists from research institutes and universities, mostly in Hanoi, Thua Thien-Hue and Ho Chi Minh City.

5. Viettel makes first 5G call with locally produced equipment

Minister of Science and Technology Chu Ngoc Anh (left) and Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hùng make a call on January 17 with a Viettel-made 5G device (Photo courtesy of Viettel)

The Military Telecommunications Industry Group (Viettel) successfully conducted the first call using fifth generation (5G) technology in Vietnam on January 17 with Viettel’s gNodeB transceiver.

The gNodeB transceiver, made by Viettel, includes both software and hardware. The device was developed in six months, starting in June 2019.

In May 2019, the carrier used a foreign-made device to make a call via the 5G network. After 8 months, Viettel has helped Vietnam master 5G technology.

6. Locally-developed tracing app Bluezone launched

Bluezone, a locally-developed app that helps determine if a person has come in contact with a COVID-19 patient, was launched in Hanoi on April 18 by the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) and the Ministry of Health.

Developed by tech firm Bkav, the app uses Bluetooth Low Energy, a wireless personal area network technology, to link smartphones within a two-meter distance.

As of mid-November 2020, more than 23 million Vietnamese people had downloaded the app.

7. Completion of Hoan Kiem Lake’s embankment using advanced technology

On August 20, 2020, the Vietnam Science and Technology Joint Stock Company (Busadco) announced the completion of the 1,500-meter embankment around Hoan Kiem lake in Hanoi. It took 65 days to complete the project, and it was completed 2 months ahead of schedule.

Remarkably, this construction project applies non-metallic reinforcement technology, previously applied in the project on building technical infrastructure systems in rural areas to prevent natural disasters and climate change, which won the Ho Chi Minh Science-Technology Awards in 2016.

8. Vietnamese scientists become affiliates in important physics research published in Nature

For the first time, Vietnamese physicists have become affiliates of a breakthrough research project published in Nature – a prestigious global scientific journal.

The international experiment, named T2K and described in the article ‘Constraint on the Matter–antimatter Symmetry-violating Phase in Neutrino Oscillations’, was published in Nature on April 16, 2020.

It was carried out in Japan with a collaboration between around 600 physicists and engineers across more than 60 organisations from 12 countries worldwide.

Vietnam is the second country in Asia besides Japan to have neutrino research appear in the Nature Journal. This Neutrino group is working at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Education (IFIRSE) – a member of the International Center of Interdisciplinary Science Education (ICISE), located in Quy Nhon City, Binh Dinh Province.

9. Successful operation to separate conjoined twins

The twins, their parents and doctors pose for a photo on October 7, the day they are discharged from hospital (Photo: VNA)

Nearly 100 doctors and nurses from leading hospitals in Ho Chi Minh on July 15 successfully carried out an operation to separate twins born conjoined at the pelvis.

This success of the operation demonstrated the qualification of Vietnamese doctors and advanced development of the Vietnamese healthcare sector.

This is the second complicated operation to separate twins in Vietnam, following the first 32 years ago.

10. Assoc. Prof., Dr. Do Van Manh receives Asian Innovation Award 2020

The Hitachi Global Foundation on October 30 granted the 2020 Asian Innovation Award to Assoc. Prof., Dr. Do Van Manh from the Institute of Environmental Technology (under the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology).

Dr. Manh is highly lauded for his research on the implementations of advanced biogas to exploit sludge from beer and sugar manufacturing plants to produce energy and organic fertiliser. The research contributes to environment protection and sustainable development in the Central Highlands and South Central regions.

The poster for the movie Gái Già Lắm Chiêu V – Những Cuộc Đời Vương Giả (Camellia Sisters – Living Like Royalty). Photo moveek.com

HCM CITY — The fifth edition in a series of chick-flick movies will be released in cinemas nationwide next week, after being delayed due to the COVID-19 resurgence earlier this year.

Gái Già Lắm Chiêu V – Những Cuộc Đời Vương Giả (Camellia Sisters – Living Like Royalty) will premiere on March 12, a month after the original date of February 12, the first lunar day of the Year of the Ox.

With the pandemic controlled in much of Viet Nam , the producer MAR6 Pictures feels ready to release the movie in cinemas safely.

“Changing the film release date was a difficult decision because it disturbed the original plan, but we want to keep the audience safe and decide to delay until the viewers can safely go to the theatre to enjoy the movie,” said director Bảo Nhân.

Gái Già Lắm Chiêu V – Những Cuộc Đời Vương Giả is the fifth edition of the chick-flick series called Gái Già Lắm Chiêu (The Tricky Ladies) that was launched in 2016 by young directors Bảo Nhân and Nam Cito.

The third edition on the relationship between a woman and her mother-in-law, played by Lê Khanh and Lan Ngọc, recorded revenue of VND165 billion (US$7 million) and is one of the top 10 highest-grossing Vietnamese films of all time.

The fifth edition features late actor Hoàng Dũng in the role of wealthy Vĩnh Nghị. The film was the last he took part in before dying on February 14 from blood cancer.

Director Bảo Nhân said during the filming period, Dũng endured pain to complete the scenes. His first segment in the film was on Thiên An Hill, requiring Hoàng Dũng to ride a bicycle for many hours at night. After the filming was done, he gasped due to exhaustion.

The main filming location was a white tea garden within an ancient villa and cost more than VND2 billion ($87,000) to set up the European-style garden.

The movie was also filmed in many famous destinations in Huế in an effort to promote the beauty of local culture, tourism as well as the history of the city.

Lan Ngọc, the main actress of the previous editions, will make a come back in the fifth edition. Photo Facebook Gái Già Lắm Chiêu

Other well-known artists also contributed to the movie, including famous designer Đỗ Mạnh Cường who worked as the fashion director and singer Bùi Lan Hương who performed the soundtrack.

Camellia Sisters – Living Like Royalty focuses on the three Lý sisters belonging to the Huế aristocracy. Three famous actresses, Lê Khanh, Hồng Vân and Kaity Nguyễn, play the three sisters.

People’s Artist Lê Khanh plays Lý Lệ Hà – the scheming eldest sister in the family with a long history of collecting antiques. To look different from her role as the mother-in-law Thái Tuyết Mai in the third edition, she cut her long hair that she had grown for more than 20 years.

People’s Artist Hồng Vân, as the second eldest sister Lý Lệ Hồng is talkative, seemingly carefree but knows a lot of family secrets. She also starred in the third edition.

Kaity Nguyễn, after the big success of Tiệc Trăng Máu (Blood Moon Party) is the youngest sister, Lý Linh.

With such a lineup of big names on the silver screen, the movie is anticipated to be a bit hit and possibly surpass the success of the third edition. — VNS