Lockdown

The initiative launched by UNESCO and GreenHub aims at inspiring Vietnamese people to reduce the dumping of plastic waste. With the objective of alerting people to the harmfulness of plastic waste, the UNESCO in Vietnam and the Centre for Supporting Green Development (GreenHub) are launching a communication campaign on plastic waste named “Plastic-19 Lockdown" Challenge via social media from 16 October to 15 November 2021. The poster of the Plastic-19 Lockdown" Challenge. Photo courtesy of UNESCO Vietnam Everyone regardless of nationality who are aged between 18 to 35 in Vietnam is invited to join the challenge at https://plastic19lockdownchallenge.wbc.vn/ According to the statistic, there are about eight million metric tons of plastic discarded into the ocean annually, the equivalent of one garbage truck of waste every minute, with a significant amount originating in Asia, including Vietnam. At this rate, by 2050, the oceans would contain more plastic …

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Bảo Hoa & Minh Phương HÀ NỘI — Buses on the roads, cafes open for customers and taxis scouring the streets for business, Hà Nội is looking a lot more like its old self once again. After months of strict social distancing regulations, sweeping changes came into play at 6am Thursday morning. But although restrictions were drastically eased, safety is still paramount. Customers at a coffee shop on Lý Thường Kiệt Street in Hà Nội on Thursday morning, the first day dine-in services are allowed again after being banned for more than two months. VNS Photos Bảo Hoa Capacity on buses and at food and drink establishments must not exceed 50 per cent, and health declarations remain mandatory for customers and passengers. Despite these guidelines, many people were delighted Hà Nội is easing into the new normal way of life. “Today is a wonderful day,” said 63-year-old Phạm Huy Thông. “It’s the first time I’m taking a bus after nearly 100 days staying at home and …

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All businesses have to struggle hard to survive the pandemic. However, they are keeping calm and optimistic, because the ‘alluvium will come after the floods’. Tran Tien Phat and his workers in 2019 (Photo: Datalogic) Having worked for Datalogic Vietnam, an Italian invested enterprise, for 13 years, CEO Tran Tien Phat said the last four months have been the most stressful time for businesses as they have faced unprecedented problems. One of the problems is how to ensure safety and maintain production for 500 workers. Phat said running production under the ‘three on-the-site’ model costs a lot of money. Workers have to be paid higher for overtime work. They also need special care to ensure the best health conditions. The enterprise has to pay for periodic health examinations for workers. The policy puts the task of ensuring workers’ health as the top priority, above business efficiency, which helps the enterprise retain hundreds of workers who, together with the …

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Passengers from HCM City arriving at Nôi Bài International Airport in Hà Nội on the first flight to Hà Nội under the transport ministry's plan for resumption of domestic air routes. — VNA/VNS Photo Huy Hùng Trần Trọng Kiên HÀ NỘI — The Government of Việt Nam late Tuesday issued its highly-anticipated Resolution No.128 on the adoption of provisional guidelines on safe and flexible living with COVID-19, after a few weeks of what presumed to be much haggling between invited stakeholders. The temporary framework, applicable nationwide, is a landmark in Việt Nam’s COVID-19 response as it officially pulls our country out of the group of what's left of the world’s few pursuers of ‘zero COVID-19 strategy,’ following the footsteps of Australia and New Zealand, leaving China, Hong Kong and Taiwan as lone holdouts. To be perfectly clear, low caseload, minimal fatalities, robust economic growth, and pretty much a resemblance of normal life throughout much of 2020 and early 2021, can …

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Hanoi said it prepares for vaccinating children right after the vaccines arrive in Vietnam. Hanoi will resume from Oct 14 after three months lots of activities namely dine-in services, taxi, public transport, hospitality, group activities in the park and in public, among others. A takeaway restaurant in Hanoi in mid-September. Photo: Ngoc Tu/ The Hanoi Times Dining and lodging facilities work with 50% of capacity while service providers need to be double dosed and customers are required to check with QR Code. Under the document signed on Oct 13 by Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Chu Ngoc Anh, State agencies and businesses will resume operations as normal from Oct 14 with imposing safety measures themselves. In addition, the 5K (masking – disinfection – distance – no gathering – and medical declaration) message will be maintained together with other precautionary measures. The document mentioned neither maintaining nor removing 22 checkpoints at …

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At a time when large cities are gradually resuming social and economic activities, foreigners are cautiously getting back to their daily routines. Charlotte Brown, an Australian living in District 1, HCMC, says she went out walking and shopping and caught up with her friends after months of lockdowns. She visited various places around the city without any fear of being infected since everyone around her was wearing masks. Also, security guards at places where she showed up systematically checked people’s temperature and scanned QR codes at the entrance. To protect herself, Brown wears a mask and sanitizes her hands religiously. "I am ready to live with the pandemic and do not want it to control my life." Indian man Radhakrishnan MB, also of HCMC, has been as excited as his employees to return to office. Though a bit wary of possibly spreading the infection, he is not afraid he will fall sick thanks to the vaccination, and plans to return to the gym. He says he feels a …

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Terence D. Jones - Resident representative a.i. UN Development Programme The government has taken timely action to reduce the suffering of households that are without income due to loss of employment or earnings from self-employment. However, there is evidence that the support package is neither large enough, nor broad enough in scope to protect vulnerable households from income loss resulting from lockdowns and social distancing. A recent survey carried out by the Centre for Analysis and Forecasting of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences found that the rate of transient income poverty surged from under 10 per cent pre-crisis to 33.4 per cent in August 2021, based on the 2021-2025 poverty line issued by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs (MoLISA). According to this report, 90 per cent of respondents had not received support since the July 2021 package was approved, and that migrants, the self-employed, and the homeless were not eligible for benefits. …

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As many as 500,000 workers have left the labor market in the last five months, while a high number of workers have left HCM City for their hometowns, resulting in a serious labor shortage. Many workers want to return to their hometowns Bidrico needs 200 workers for its production line, but now has 80 only. The labor shortage is a problem for the business which plans to increase production capacity in the year-end season. Bidrico’s General Director Nguyen Dang Hien said it’s difficult to recruit workers now because of the problems related to safety. Ho Thi Quynh Chau from Master Sofa International in Binh Duong said the factory is running under the regulations set by the provincial authorities and the number of workers working under the ‘three on-the-site’ mode is just 20 percent of total. It’s estimated that when the factory runs in the new normal, the figure will be just 60 percent, which means a shortage of 40 percent of workers. Tran Thanh Son from Song Ngoc …

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Nguyen Minh Thao, head of Research Department of Business Environment and Competitiveness under the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM). — VNA/VNS Photo Businesses globally have become worn out due to the prolonged pandemic over the past two years, alongside severe restrictions. In Viet Nam, the business community is craving breakthrough rescue policies which can pull them through this crisis rapidly. On Vietnamese Entrepreneurs’ Day (October 13), Vietnam News Agency spoke to Nguyen Minh Thao, head of Research Department of Business Environment and Competitiveness under the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) about the issues facing Vietnamese enterprises. Could you tell us about the major difficulties businesses are facing? The fourth wave of COVID-19 infections along with prolonged lockdowns and restrictions have severely impacted business and production activities, especially in the southern regions, which are home to the country’s production …

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New Zealand reported on Thursday its biggest rise in COVID-19 infections in six weeks, with all cases detected in Auckland, raising prospects of a further extension of lockdown restrictions in the country's largest city beyond next week. Some 1.7 million people in Auckland are under strict stay-home orders until Monday as officials look to stamp out the highly infectious Delta outbreak, the first major spate of community cases in the country since early in the pandemic. Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson said the surge in case numbers in Auckland was not unexpected "but they are rising more quickly," and blamed illegal home gatherings for the spike. "Now is not the time for complacency," Robertson said during a media conference in Wellington, urging residents in Auckland to strictly follow the level-three rules, under which most people are required to stay at home unless they have urgent reasons to go out. A total of 71 new local cases were reported in the country, all …

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