Tsunami warning for mexico

February 24, 2021 by en.nhandan.org.vn Leave a Comment

World News in Brief: February 24

* Global airline industry body IATA said it would launch a COVID-19 travel pass at the end of March, bringing into use a digital system for test results and vaccine certificates which will help facilitiate international travel.

* India announced an expansion of its vaccination programme but warned that breaches of coronavirus protocols could worsen an infection surge in many states.

* Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide said Japan would start vaccinating the elderly from April 12.

* Malaysia launched its COVID-19 inoculation programme, with a target of vaccinating at least 80% of its 32 million people by February next year.

* Thai authorities are preparing a plan to ease restrictions for travellers vaccinated against the coronavirus, senior officials said on Wednesday, as the country looks to revive a tourism industry battered by travel curbs.

* Germany still expects to receive a planned 16 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine in the second quarter, despite a report that there would be delivery shortfalls.

* Poland was set to announce tougher restrictions, especially in regions hit particularly hard by the variant of COVID-19 first detected in Britain.

* Greece will not be able to lift lockdown restrictions in the wider Athens area on March 1 as previously planned, following a sharp increase in infections.

* Hungary cannot yet ease its partial lockdown as a third wave of infections has boosted new cases and only a small section of the population has received a vaccine so far, the prime minister said.

* Denmark plans to allow shops and some schools to reopen in March in a much awaited move that could however send hospital coronavirus admissions soaring in coming months.

* COVID-19 vaccine makers told the US Congress that supplies should surge in the coming weeks.

* The presidents of Mexico and Argentina pressed the United Nations and the world’s richest countries to improve poorer nations’ access to vaccines.

* Colombia approved the emergency use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine.

* Hospitals should prepare for a possible second wave of coronavirus and take steps to prevent its spread, health authorities in the government-controlled part of Yemen said.

* The United Arab Emirates is opening field hospitals to increase the health sector’s capacity.

* The European Commission on Wednesday said it would create an arsenal of data tools to anticipate and adapt to the increasing impacts of climate change.

* A unit of Sinopharm and CanSinoBIO has applied for public use of its COVID-19 vaccines in China, which if granted would mean China has four locally developed approved vaccines.

* European shares opened generally higher but world shares remained in the red after a weak Asian session, even after Fed Chair Jerome Powell pushed back against inflation fears.

* Strong exports and solid construction activity helped the German economy to grow by a better-than-expected 0.3% in the final quarter of last year, but stricter lockdown measures at home and abroad are clouding the outlook.

* Spain announced an additional EUR11 billion (US$13.4 billion) package for small and mid-sized companies and the self-employed.

* The Norwegian government will reassess the national measures introduced to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the second half of March, Health Minister Bent Hoeie said on Wednesday.

* It is not yet possible to loosen restrictions on businesses and movement aimed at curbing COVID-19 infections in Italy because of the threat of a surge in cases, Health Minister Roberto Speranza said on Wednesday.

* Egypt has approved Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, becoming the 34th country outside of Russia and third in North Africa to do so, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said in a statement on Wednesday.

* Ukraine started its COVID-19 vaccination campaign on Wednesday, with doctors the first to be inoculated.

* Israel is giving small amounts of surplus vaccines to Palestinian-run territories as well as to several countries.

* The World Bank threatened to suspend its multi-million- dollar financing for Lebanon’s vaccinations over politicians jumping the line.

February 24, 2021 by www.vir.com.vn Leave a Comment

Viettel brand value goes up 32 steps to $6 billion

Viettel brand value increasing by year (unit: billion $)

Viettel has been valued at $6.016 billion (up 3.4 per cent on-year) in the Brand Finance Global 500 2021 Ranking. This is the only Vietnamese brand in the list, ranking 325th in the world, as well as the only Southeast Asian telecommunication brand in the ranking.

According to Brand Finance, there are 34 telecommunication brands in the top 500, however, most of their brands’ value decreased at an average 2 per cent. Viettel did better than numerous well-known global brands like Nescafé (from Switzerland), Qualcomm (US), Spotify (Sweden), Lenovo (China), or Claro (Mexico).

Viettel’s brand value has doubled since transforming from a telecommunication provider to a pioneer in building digital society in 2018. In early 2021, Viettel announced repositioning its brand by forming six key platforms of a digital society including digital infrastructure, digital solutions, digital content, digital finance, cybersecurity, and high-tech research and development, which contribute to boosting Viettel’s brand value.

Additionally, the 2020 business performance of Viettel was quite good with VND264 trillion ($11.5 billion), up 4.4 per cent on-year, reaching 102.4 per cent of the yearly plan. The revenue of digital services increased by 27.7 per cent, doubling the average growth of the local IT industries (14.7 per cent). The company has also provided market-leading platforms for digital services, as well as for the government, ministries, and agencies.

By Nguyen Huong

July 17, 2020 by hanoitimes.vn Leave a Comment

Vietnam repatriates more than 13,000 citizens so far: Spokesperson

The Hanoitimes – The repatriation has started from April 10 and all returnees need to undergo mandatory quarantine upon arrival.

Vietnam has brought home more than 13,300 citizens who were in need in different parts of the world amid the global health crisis.

Vietnamese people on way home. Photo: Vietnam Airlines

“As many as 13,323 returnees who were stranded in many countries and territories have been back to homeland on 55 repatriation flights since April 10,” Spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said at a press conference on July 16.

Hang said that since the spread of Covid-19 from the beginning of the year, many countries have imposed movement restrictions and suspended commercial flights, leaving a number of Vietnamese people stranded across the world.

For that reason, Vietnamese authorities have cooperated with foreign countries’ agencies and airlines to make repatriation flights possible. The repatriation has closely followed requirements on temperature screening and mandatory quarantine, Hang said in a statement.

She added that Vietnam would continue operating repatriation flights basing on demand and domestic quarantine capacity.

Spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Photo: MOFA

Regarding cheats that may happen online to Vietnamese people who need to return home, the spokesperson said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Consular Department and overseas Vietnamese missions have publicized news and ticket buying procedures to provide official information on the repatriation.

With the registration for flights home, authorized agencies have a list of people in deed and the authorities themselves email each person involved.

“We advise Vietnamese people to closely follow instructions by the Vietnamese missions abroad and proceed with the ticket buying only when receiving email from those agencies,” Hang warned.

Earlier this month, Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked government agencies to bring home another 14,000 Vietnamese citizens in the course of rising global infections of coronavirus.

The returnees will be those in the priority list: Children under 18, the elderly, the sick, laborers with expired contracts or no accommodation, students without dormitories, stranded tourists, and others of special cases.

In addition, the repatriation needs to meet requirements on safety and quarantine capacity.

All expenses for the 14-day quarantine in Vietnam are free of charge.

February 25, 2021 by en.nhandan.org.vn Leave a Comment

World News in Brief: February 25

* The militaries of India and Pakistan said in a rare joint statement on Thursday that they had agreed to observe a ceasefire along the disputed border in Kashmir, having exchanged fire hundreds of times in recent months.

* Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Bahrain’s Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa on Thursday about the Gulf state’s possible involvement in establishing a vaccine plant in Israel, a statement from the Israeli leader’s office said .

* Rescue teams in Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi province searched for survivors on Thursday after a landslide in an illegal gold mining area killed six people, the search and rescue agency said. At least 15 survivors had been found as of Thursday.

* Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan warned of an attempted military coup against him on Thursday after the army demanded he and his government resign.

* Australia’s parliament passed a law on Thursday to make Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc pay media companies for content on their platforms in reforms that countries such as Britain and Canada are looking to replicate.

* India reported 16,738 new coronavirus infections, health ministry data showed on Thursday, for the highest daily jump since January 29, according to a Reuters tally. India’s tally of 11.05 million infections is the world’s second highest after the United States, and daily numbers are rising again after a lull in the last few months.

* Russia on Thursday reported 11,198 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, including 1,406 in Moscow, pushing the national case tally to 4,212,100 since the pandemic began. The coronavirus taskforce said that 446 people had died in the last 24 hours, taking the official death toll to 84,876.

* The Philippines will take delivery of its first COVID-19 vaccines at the weekend, allowing it to kick off its inoculation programme from next week, a senior official said on Thursday.

* Indonesia will receive at least two million doses of a coronavirus vaccine produced by China’s Sinopharm for use in a private vaccination scheme due to run alongside a national inoculation programme, a minister said on Thursday.

* The Biden administration will deliver more than 25 million masks to community health centers, food pantries and soup kitchens this spring, the White House said.

* The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 11,869 to 2,414,687, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Thursday. The reported death toll rose by 385 to 69,125, the tally showed.

* India announced an expansion of its vaccination programme but warned that breaches of coronavirus protocols could worsen an infection surge in many states.

* France said on Thursday it would bring in new COVID-19 restrictions for the area around its common border with Germany, as President Emmanuel Macron’s government tries to contain a surge of coronavirus variants in the French region of Moselle.

* New variants of COVID-19 risk a third wave in Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Germany has administered only 15% of the AstraZeneca vaccines it has available.

* Britain said it was confident in manufacturers’ timely supply of vaccines to keep fuelling one of the world’s fastest rollouts despite a slowdown this week.

* The Czech Republic must tighten measures to combat the pandemic and prevent a “catastrophe” in hospitals in the coming weeks, Prime Minister Andrej Babis said.

* Sweden stepped up pandemic restrictions to avoid a third wave, while France’s government ordered a weekend lockdown in the Dunkirk area to arrest an “alarming” rise in cases.

* Italy’s government will extend restrictions already in place until after Easter, while Switzerland announced the first phase in a cautious easing from restrictions.

* Greece will not be able to lift lockdown restrictions in the wider Athens area next Monday as planned.

* The United States expects to roll out three to four million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine next week, pending authorization from the FDA, White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said.

* Moderna is working with US government scientists to study an experimental booster shot that targets a concerning new variant of the coronavirus.

* Asian stocks jumped after US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reaffirmed interest rates would stay low for a long time, calming market fears that higher inflation might prompt the central bank to tighten the monetary spigot.

* Finland will go into a three-week lockdown starting on March 8 and is prepared to declare a state of emergency, the prime minister said on Thursday, to try to stem a rising number of coronavirus cases.

* Hospitals should prepare for a possible second wave and take steps to prevent the disease spreading, health authorities in the government-controlled part of Yemen said.

* South Africa could spend up to ZAR19.3 billion over the next three years to vaccinate most of its population, the Treasury said.

February 24, 2021 by en.vietnamplus.vn Leave a Comment

Q1 GDP growth likely lower than target

Producing earphone components at JEP Company in Kim Dong Industrial Park, Hung Yen province (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s GDP growth in the first quarter of 2021 is forecast to come in at 4.46 percent; 0.66 percentage points below the target set in the Government’s Resolution No 01 in a scenario where the COVID-19 pandemic is controlled during the quarter.

Resolution No 01/NQ-CP on key measures to carry out the 2021 socio-economic development plan and State budget estimates outlines growth scenarios for each quarter and for each sector throughout the year.

The Government set a goal of posting growth of 6.5 percent and increasing workplace productivity by nearly 4.8 percent and health insurance participation to around 91 percent. The rate of multi-dimensionally poor households is expected to fall by 1-1.5 percent.

With the results in the first quarter, if the growth targets in the Resolution for subsequent quarters are reached, 2021’s GDP growth is estimated to come in at 6.37 percent; exceeding the 6 percent target set by the National Assembly but still lower than the target set in the Resolution.

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said it is necessary to urgently implement the Resolution to achieve objectives in the socio-economic development plan in the 2021-2030 and 2021-2025 periods.

In a report submitted to the Government in January, the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) proposed that priority be given to disease prevention and control in order to ensure the health of the citizenry and minimise the impact of the pandemic on the national economy.

It also proposed measures to promote economic growth through the “three-horse carriage” of investment, exports, and consumption.

The banking and finance sector continues to implement sensible fiscal and monetary policies to ensure macro-economic stability and stimulate economic growth, cut unnecessary expenses, especially regular spending, maintain a reasonable interest rate level and improve credit quality for priority areas, and strictly control credit in areas of potential risk.

Monetary and fiscal policies need to be assessed carefully towards developing support policies for those affected by COVID-19, especially services, tourism, and transport.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) is responsible for urgently building and implementing policies to stimulate domestic consumption, improve links between production and consumption in the supply chain, and promote the development of distribution networks associated with the “Vietnamese give priority to Vietnamese goods” campaign, to boost sustainable consumption demand.

It is also working to improve institutions and create favourable conditions for the development of e-commerce and e-payments as well as supporting export enterprises to expand markets through cross-border e-commerce.

Meanwhile, the MPI also proposed continued improvements to the quality of institutions, thus creating an open and favourable business and investment environment for enterprises.

Regarding the management, disbursement, and use of overseas development assistance (ODA), ministries, sectors, and localities must determine project priorities in association with ensuring reciprocal capital, and promote investment projects in the form of public-private partnerships, to attract investment capital from the private sector, especially for transport infrastructure projects.

Localities have been urged to focus on promoting international cooperation, diversifying import and export markets, taking full advantage of free trade agreements (FTA) Vietnam has signed, strengthening defence measures, and building early warning systems to protect domestic production and support businesses responding to trade defence lawsuits./.

VNA