Mass mobilizers

During the talks, participants evaluated that the effective coordination among parties has contributed to well maintaining political security and public order, firmly protecting national sovereignty in each country and consolidating the special solidarity between Vietnam and Laos. In realizing their inked memorandum of understanding, the Ha Tinh provincial Border Guard Command and the Borikhamxay and Khammuane provincial Public Security Departments have regularly exchanged information and situational developments and promoted information dissemination to mobilize people along the shared borderline to strictly observe the Protocol on the borderline and border markers and the Agreement on the regulations managing the land border and border gate system signed by the two governments. In addition, the two sides have well managed the import and export activities through border gates and sub-border gates. Over the past years, Cau Treo International Border Gate in Ha Tinh province and … [Read more...] about Ha Tinh’s border guard holds talks with Laos’ public security units

The ministry said it is collecting opinions from other ministries and departments on a draft report on measures to combat Covid-19 in the "new normal" situation for submission to the government. The latest assessment comes more than two months after the PM had asked the health ministry to work on declaring Covid-19 an endemic. The ministry said that from March until now, the number of new Covid-19 cases and deaths has "stably decreased," and the number officially registered with the national database has stayed at fewer than 1,000 cases each day in recent times while the death rate has fallen to 0.06 percent of the total number of infections. Vietnam has covered almost 80 percent of its 96-million population with two vaccine doses; and the group of those from five years old are to receive the second doses within June. Despite this, the ministry said it was not the right time for Vietnam to consider Covid-19 endemic because the novel coronavirus is constantly changing and it is … [Read more...] about Not time yet to declare end of Covid-19: health ministry

Marcel Schröder, Economist, Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department Asian Development Bank At the beginning of the conflict, the crude oil price breached $130 per barrel in March, the highest since 2008. Since then, it retreated to about $100 in April, before rising again to $120 following the European Union’s partial ban on Russian oil in May. Some worry that the oil price could spike to $200 per barrel in the coming months and how such a shock would impact the economic prospects of Asia’s developing countries. While many institutions, including ours, project a significantly higher oil price in 2022 compared with 2021, these predictions do not foresee $200 per barrel because they attach a low probability of a sudden shock to the global oil supply. A sudden shock is unlikely given the EU’s decision to gradually phase out Russian oil imports by the end of 2022, allowing an orderly transition to alternative supplies and keeping prices stable and affordable for … [Read more...] about Additional oil spike impacts cannot be ruled out