Ttntag official

Hanoi (VNA) – United Nations Special Envoy on Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener is set to arrive in Jakarta, Indonesia, on April 22 to meet senior Southeast Asian officials to seek a roadmap to ending instability in Myanmar.

Burgener will not attend the ASEAN Summit in Jakarta scheduled for April 24 via a video conference. However, she will hold sideline meetings with ASEAN leaders and discuss the situation in Myanmar, Reuters cited its sources as saying.

Earlier on April 17, spokesperson of the Thai Foreign Ministry Tanee Sangrat said leader of the Myanmar army Min Aung Hlaing will attend the summit.

During a recent Arria-formula online meeting, Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, head of the Vietnamese Mission to the UN, stressed that the current top priority is ensuring life, security and safety of all people and unobstructed humanitarian aid for those in need of support, especially vulnerable groups in society.

He called on parties concerned in Myanmar to refrain from acts of violence, conduct dialogues and reconciliation according to people’s will and aspirations, for the sake of peace and stability in the region.

Quy called on the international community to make constructive contributions to help Myanmar prevent violence, promote an environment conducive to dialogue and reconciliation while respecting the country’s principles of independence, national sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity.

The ambassador affirmed that Myanmar is a member state of the ASEAN family and the bloc is ready to help the country in a constructive and peaceful manner via related mechanisms.

ASEAN member states, including Vietnam, have been working with parties concerned in Myanmar to promote dialogue and seek solutions to the issue, he said. He also called on the international community to support ASEAN’s efforts and stance, and wished that discussions at the UN and relevant important issues need consultations with ASEAN member countries and others in the region./.

VNA

In an interview given to the People’s Army Newspaper’s reporters, General Thai stressed that the two countries’ efforts and close cooperation have helped maintain the system of border markers and security and order along the shared borderline.

The Vietnamese border chief also highlighted the results of the border defense friendship exchanges and related activities engaged in by the Party committees, authorities and people of seven border provinces in Northern Vietnam and the Chinese provinces of Guangxi and Yunnan. He noted that the two sides’ economic-trade cooperation via border and border gates has been constantly growing with trade turnover accounting for nearly 85 per cent of the total turnover of goods via border between Vietnam and neighboring countries. Moreover, the development of many busy cities and border areas along the shared borderline together with the opening and upgrading of border gates have met the increasing trade demand between the two nations.

According to General Thai, the two sides have worked closely to effectively implement three legal documents on border, the agreement on protection and exploitation of tourism resources in Ban Gioc waterfall, and the agreement on free navigation at Beilun estuary. Attentively, the friendship and solidarity between the Vietnamese border guard force and Chinese border protection force and between the people living on both sides of the shared borderline have developed. In addition, achievements have been seen in exchange activities, such as the twinning model connecting residential areas on both sides of the shared borderline, between border guard stations, cultural exchanges, and economic development assistance.

“We can confirm that the Vietnam-China land border not only plays a role in defining the territorial boundaries of each country, but also is a space for cooperation, development, and a bridge of solidarity, and friendship between the two countries, especially among border people,” said Chief of the Vietnam Border Guard Command.

Recalling the success of the first Vietnam-China border defense friendship exchange in March 2014 in the Vietnamese province of Quang Ninh and the Chinese province of Guangxi, General Thai stressed that this important event opened a new page and laid a good foundation for the bilateral border defense cooperation. Thai added that after each exchange, the cooperative mechanism between the two countries’ border protection forces has been very effective. He also highly valued the good outcomes in border management and protection, cross-border immigration control and cross-border crime prevention and control. Thanks to the good coordination in monitoring borders, the two border protection forces have effectively carried out COVID-19 prevention and control and prevented illegal immigration across borders.

General Thai also emphasized the outcomes of the five previous exchanges, including the signing of numerous important cooperation agreements on border and border gate management, settlement of newly arising border issues, handling of non-traditional security challenges, and the successful organization of anti-terrorism exercises, to name but a few. According to General Thai, these have made important contribution to enhancing friendship, mutual trust and understanding between the two countries militaries and people.

Regarding this year’s Vietnam-China border defense friendship exchange, the sixth of its kind, slated for April 24, General Thai spoke highly of the thorough preparations for the event of relevant bodies of the two defense ministries and the support from the Party committees, authorities, and people of Quang Ninh (Vietnam) and Guangxi (China) provinces. He informed that apart from the exchange, the seventh Vietnam-China Defense Strategic Dialogue and the Chinese Minister of National Defense’s official visit to Vietnam will take place.

General Thai also mentioned the participation of the high-ranking Vietnamese and Chinese military delegations in various activities within the framework of the exchange and emphasized that these demonstrated the thoughtfulness of the two Parties, States, and militaries concerning the border areas, and socio-economic and cultural life of the people living along both sides of the shared borderline.

About the future cooperation between the border protection forces of the two countries, General Thai said that they will continue to realize agreements reached by the two defense ministers during the exchange. They will boost coordination to ensure law enforcement and the protection of the shared borderline and border markers and consolidate trust and promote cooperation for mutual benefits in a substantive, friendly, harmonious, and sustainable manner.

Additionally, they will invest in upgrading border gates and apply IT to immigration control. Especially, once the COVID-19 pandemic is controlled, the two sides will organize more talks, joint patrols, anti-terrorism and disease prevention and control exercises, cultural exchanges, and military sports festivals.

Translated by Mai Huong

The two sides shared their experience at the meeting and discussed how to effectively coordinate together in containing the spread of COVID-19.

Long highly valued Cambodia’s efforts and measures to respond to the pandemic, saying that if Buncheng agrees, Cambodia’s pandemic-related health facilities will be connected to Vietnam’s.

Remote consultation proved an effective and successful tool for Vietnam during its first two waves of COVID-19, he said, adding that it was also successful in treating infections during its third outbreak, when no fatalities were recorded.

The Vietnamese Prime Minister has decided to present Cambodia with 800 breathing machines, 2 million medical face masks and 300,000 N95 face masks, as well as other medical equipment given the complex developments of the pandemic in Cambodia, Long said.

This is one of the largest support packages Vietnam has given to another country to help it prevent and control the pandemic, he noted, saying that if the Cambodian side agrees, the Ministry of Health will transport the equipment from Tan Son Nhat International Airport to Cambodia as soon as possible.

Long proposed the Cambodian side enhance COVID-19 prevention measures in border areas amid an increasing number of illegal border crossings, while affirming that Vietnam will also perform this task well.

He thanked the Cambodian side for the support and health care offered to Vietnamese people living in the country, and expressed his hope that it will swiftly overcome the difficulties and challenges in fighting the pandemic.

For his part, Buncheng expressed his gratitude for Vietnam’s assistance in preventing the health crisis, saying that the Cambodian side will officially discuss with Vietnam the receipt of the support through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Source: VNA

Hanoi (VNA) – For the time ahead, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) will keep a proactive and flexible monetary policy basing on market developments and forecasts for the macro-economy, SBV Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu told a meeting on April 22.

This monetary policy is meant to control this year’s inflation within the targeted ceiling of about 4 percent, support macroeconomic stabilisation, assist economic recovery, ensure liquidity, maintain the stability in the monetary and forex market s, and create conditions to reduce capital expenses for people, businesses, and the economy as a whole, the official said.

The SBV will maintain a close watch on domestic and foreign macro-economic and monetary changes, foreign exchange rate developments, as well as foreign currency demand and supply to set appropriate exchange rates , he noted, adding that it will uniformly carry out measures and policy tools to stabilise exchange rates and the forex market to help ensure macro-economic stability.

Besides, credit provision will be boosted, especially for priority fields to match economic restructuring and help fuel growth and stabilise the macro-economy.

Tu also stressed the need to tighten control over credit for high-risk areas like real estate, transport projects in build-operate-transfer (BOT) and build-transfer (BT) formats, and securities while at the same time taking synchronous solutions to tackle difficulties facing those hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters.

The central bank will order credit institutions to facilitate people and enterprises’ access to credit to help minimise loan-sharking, he said.

Pham Thanh Ha, Director of the SBV’s Monetary Policy Department, reported a credit growth rate of 3.34 percent as of April 16, compared to the end of 2020, pointing out that the credit growth has begun stagnating as credit has increased by just 0.41 percent in half a month though the rise was 0.76 percent in January, eased slightly to 0.66 percent in February due to the COVID-19 resurgence, and surged by 2.93 percent in March.

The SBV affirmed that since the year’s beginning, it has flexibly and synchronously used monetary policy tools to ensure liquidity for the banking system, stabilise the monetary market, and help reduce input cost for credit organisations, thereby easing the pressure on deposit and lending interest rates./.

VNA