Ilo vietnam

The Vietnamese economy is forecast to grow seven percent per annum in 2021-22, largely driven by increased export and investment, Fitch Ratings said in a post on its website on Tuesday.

“Strong export growth and a successful campaign to contain the spread of COVID-19 have supported Vietnam’s economy through the pandemic,” the American credit rating agency remarked.

Other parts of Vietnam’s economy have proved robust despite tourism, one of the country’s main sectors, hit the hardest by the coronavirus crisis.

The government posted 2.9 percent in GDP growth last year, placing Vietnam among a handful of nations globally that reported positive economic growth amid the pandemic stress.

“Growth was buoyed by external demand, with goods exports rising by 6.9 percent,” Fitch Ratings stated.

“Domestic activity was also supported by the limited spread of COVID-19 in the country.

“Just 1,465 cases and 35 deaths from the virus were officially recorded in 2020.

“We expect growth to remain strong, at around seven percent annually, in 2021-2022, buoyed by continued export expansion and higher investment.”

The Southeast Asian country’s COVID-19 tally has reached 2,733, with 2,445 patients having recovered from the respiratory disease, as of Wednesday evening, according to the Ministry of Health’s data.

Growth prospects will be reinforced by a pandemic fiscal package for 2020-21 of about VND292 trillion (US$12.7 billion), or roughly 3.6 percent of the 2020 GDP, Fitch Ratings forecast.

Goods exports rose 23.8 percent year on year in the first quarter of this year, supporting real economic growth in the quarter of 4.5 percent year on year.

Vietnam is benefiting from such new trade agreements as the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, as well as the country’s cost competitiveness.

“Rapid increases in public infrastructure investment and FDI should bolster the sustainability of strong medium-term growth,” Fitch Ratings said.

Vietnam’s generally robust economic outlook remains subject to risks, as its vaccination program has moved slowly, beginning only on March 8, the company observed.

The nation has so far received 928,800 coronavirus vaccine doses from direct purchases or the COVAX scheme, co-led by the World Health Organization, according to the health ministry’s figures.

Over 60,000 people have been vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Wednesday evening.

“Vaccine hesitancy among the public appears low, which is a positive sign, but Vietnam’s confirmed vaccine orders cover a lower proportion of the population than in some neighboring states, such as Indonesia and Malaysia,” Fitch Ratings said.

“Should the country experience a major COVID-19 outbreak before vaccines are widely rolled out – prompting lockdowns – growth prospects and public finances could be affected.”

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!

Nowhere else in Vietnam serves up leftovers like Hue – the country’s ancient capital – where yesterday’s rice is the hottest item on the menu.

In Hue’s city center, where tourists abound, bun bo Hue – a beef and vermicelli soup famous in the ancient capital – may be the most popular dish at local street stalls.

But walk just a few minutes from the city’s famous and attractions and visitors will find themselves immersed in a culinary world centered around a rather peculiar ingredient: leftover rice, known in Vietnamese as com nguoi .

For day laborers, the leftover rice served with bun bo Hue is integral, giving them the extra energy they need to work from dawn till noon.

Arguably, Hue is a city which runs on yesterday’s rice.

An unknown version of bun bo Hue

Hue’s Gia Hoi Islet is a hotbed of bun bo stalls, with the area surrounding Bach Dang, Chi Lang, To Hien Thanh, Nguyen Du, and Chua Ong Streets doubling as the epicenter of the city’s traditional cooking styles.

The close observer will notice that most of the bun bo stalls there have a lunchbox sitting near the service area.

Inside the lunchbox is the stall owner’s leftover rice, an ingredient that many locals agree is necessary in order to enjoy bun bo in true Hue fashion.

Cultural researcher Tran Dinh Son said serving leftover rice with bun bo dates back to the 1950s and 1960s when vendors, after running out of fresh vermicelli, would wander around the city selling their leftover ingredients – chopped pig’s feet, cooked beef, pig blood curd, and meatballs – to those who would have them with leftover rice.

Strange servings

Com va or ‘slurping rice’ is another traditional dish in Hue which has not yet made it on tourists’ radar screen.

This dish consists of large strings of vermicelli, julienned pork ham, banana flowers, herbs, and a spoonful of chicken broth.

Long ago, the people of Hue enjoyed leftover rice in a variety of ways, including by munching on it with shrimp paste and fresh chili, or topping it with fat, shrimp sauce, and hot pepper flakes.

Hue’s famous mam tom chua or sour fermented shrimp paste is made using cooked glutinous rice which adds a sweet taste and thickens the dish.

According to many mam tom chua enthusiasts, the dish must be prepared with leftover rice rather than glutinous rice in order to embody the true Hue spirit.

Worker’s food for royalty

It would not be right to talk about leftover rice without mentioning com hen or baby mussel rice.

Hoang Tung De – a cousin of Vietnam’s last emperor Bao Dai – loved eating at street stalls outside of the citadel despite knowing it might ruin his royal status, according to cultural researcher Son.

When Bao Dai was asked about it, the emperor said he “would like to do the same thing but could not.”

There is no official record of whether com hen was served to royals, yet many former servants said the emperor often asked to have vendors cook the dish at the palace.

Leftover rice accounts for much of the food in com hen so it would have been carried along with the vendors in order to serve the royalty.

Later, when Emperor Bao Dai built his palace in Central Highlands city of Da Lat, to cook his favorite dish of com hen , servants released baby mussel breeds in several springs nearby.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!

Some 221 practitioners and staffers of Hanoi’s Bach Mai Hospital, one of the largest public health facilities in Vietnam, have turned in their resignation over the past year.

Discussing this issue with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, Nguyen Quang Tuan, director of Bach Mai Hospital, confirmed the mass departure.

Some are highly qualified medical workers who switched to better paying jobs, while a majority are less skilled staffers who became dissatisfied with the hospital’s decision to go fully self-funded instead of relying on state subsidies, or displeased at their job rotation at the facility, Tuan said.

Pressure from the COVID-19 workload is also a possible reason for the mass departure, added Do Van Thanh, head of human resources at Bach Mai Hospital.

While 221 had departed, the facility has also recruited 506 new practitioners and officers, many of whom hold senior medical titles.

“Our hospital is striving for a change in service quality,” Thanh stated.

“Pressures of changes might be the reason for many staffers to leave.”

The Ministry of Health, the immediate managing body of Bach Mai Hospital, demanded a full list of resigned staffers along with an explanation from the hospital management after being informed of the situation in February.

“The hospital is responsible for the administration and usage of human resources in their facility,” a Ministry of Health official stated.

In a responding report submitted on March 22, the hospital leaders cited the reduced benefit package, which stems from the poor revenue that the institution reported during the pandemic, as the reason for the mass resignation.

Bach Mai Hospital also requested the Ministry of Health to raise the price ceiling for medical services to improve its returns, which will help uplift the income of personnel.

The report also mentioned tempting job offers from private hospitals that target highly-skilled practitioners in public facilities, which may cause a ‘brain drain’ from the public sector.

Bach Mai is a central-level hospital in Hanoi under the management of the Ministry of Health.

It receives some 6,000-7,000 visiting patients per day, with an outstanding reputation for many of its departments, including emergency, poison control, rehabilitation, cardiovascular medicine, cancer treatment, and orthopedics.

The hospital faced multiple mishaps in 2020, as it was placed on lockdown for over one month due to a coronavirus outbreak in the facility, plus two of its former executives were detained over allegations of inflating prices of medical equipment .

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!

Guitar duo Robert Guzik and Adam Woch (Poland) will perform at the concert celebrating the 45th anniversary of the Italy-Vietnam friendship.

The show is being organised within the framework of celebrations for the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Young, talented musicians from Italy and other countries, who have been awarded the prestigious IBLA Grand Prize, will perform a selection of iconic pieces from Italian and European classical composers, such as Rossini, Cimarosa, Schubert, Brahms, Liszt and many others.

Piano, flute, guitar and accordion will guide us along an original journey through the beauty of music in order to celebrate the Italian – Vietnamese friendship.

The artists include guitar duo Robert Guzik and Adam Woch (Poland), pianist Kai Han (the US), pianist Tamara Licheli (Georgia), accordionist Ghenadie Rotari (Moldova) and pianist Valentina Vargiu (Italy).

Ibla is the name of an ancient baroque enclave, in the hilltop UNESCO World Heritage site that sits below the more modern centre of Ragusa.

The IBLA Grand Prize International Music Competition is an annual music competition open to all instruments, vocalists and composers with a focus on classical music.

The competition aims to nourish the career of the winners by offering a large international performance experience.

This competition is different from most other music competitions in a way that there are no rounds or prizes such as a first and second prize, and competitors are judged against the international standard of high quality performances rather than competing against each other. From that perspective, there could be one, or many winners, depending on the performance quality level expressed by contestants.

Free tickets can be collected at the Hanoi Youth Theatre, 10 Ngo Thi Nham street from today.

VNA