Vietnam at the olympics

Vietnam's track athletes pulled off a stunning display at the Southeast Asian Games in the Philippines on Sunday evening, bagging five out of the six individual golds on offer. The hosts of the next SEA Games in 2021 shot up the medal table to 65 golds, level with Indonesia in second, although they were well off the host nation's haul of 111 with just two more days of competition to go. Vietnam's 1,500m runners set the pace at the brand new 20,000-seater athletics stadium in the main Games hub at Clark, with Nguyen Thi Oanh winning the women's race in 4min 17.31sec and Duong Van Thai taking gold in the men's final in a time of 4min 06.63sec. There was another double in the 400m as Nguyen Thi Huyen won the women's final and Tran Nhat Hoang clinched the men's gold by just 0.1 seconds in a time of 46.56 seconds. And Le Tu Chinh defended her 2017 100m title, beating Filipina sprinter Kristina Marie Knott in a reversal of Saturday night's 200m result. In the nearby aquatics centre Singapore … [Read more...] about Vietnam track stars run away with golds at SEA Games

Origin frauds will negatively affect Vietnamese exports. Vietnamese authorities are keeping close watch on investment shift from foreign countries, especially China, into Vietnam to prevent product origin fraud and illegal transshipment. According to Au Anh Tuan, director of Customs Control and Supervision Department under the General Department of Vietnam Customs (GDVC), the move was made after investment inflow from mainland China and Hong Kong to Vietnam has surged sharply this year, but the value of investment projects is insignificant. Reports from the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Foreign Investment Agency showed that in the January-October period, investment from mainland China in Vietnam skyrocketed by 200% against the figure in 2018, while inflows from Hong Kong jumped 400%. However, each foreign-invested project this year has a value of only some US$1 million. According to Tuan, with such small investment capital, the projects pose high risks of origin fraud … [Read more...] about Vietnam tightens supervision on foreign investment to prevent origin frauds

"Vietnam has full legal basis and historical evidence to affirm its sovereignty over the Spratly and Paracel Islands. Vietnam requests that relevant parties respect the sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction rights of Vietnam," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said at a press meet. She said Vietnam also asks all parties to seriously obey international law and make responsible contributions to maintaining security, safety, peace and stability in the East Sea, she said. The waters is also known as the South China Sea. Hang was responding to an inquiry regarding China's suspected illegal deployment of an aerostat on Mischief Reef in Vietnam’s Spratly Islands. A satellite image of November 18 showing an aerostat-shaped object flying above the Mischief Reef was posted on the Twitter account of Israel’s geospatial data firm ImageSat International (ISI) on November 24. China has started building an early warning system utilizing aerostats since 2017, according … [Read more...] about Vietnam reiterates sovereignty over Spratly, Paracel archipelagoes

The government's Standing Committee on promoting cooperation with Laos approved the increase at a meeting on Saturday.  With the country expected to suffer from power shortages from 2020, the electricity import from Laos is expected to increase beyond 5,000 MW in the next 10 years. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has estimated there will be a shortage of 3.7 billion kWh in 2021, which will peak at around 15 billion kWh in 2023 before halving each year and falling to 3.5 billion kWh in 2025. Since the country could save at most 5-8 percent of electricity, the only short-term solution to offset the increasing shortage is importing more from Laos, ministry officials said.  For a long-term solution, they stressed the need to speed up work on major power projects. The World Bank has estimated that with electricity demand growing by 8 percent a year Vietnam needs $150 billion for its energy sector by 2030. … [Read more...] about Vietnam to import more electricity from Laos

South Korea will provide $20 million in aid to support the removal of landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Vietnam under a project launched on Monday. The Korea-Vietnam Mine Action Project aims to identify contaminated areas and remove landmines and UXOs in the central provinces of Binh Dinh and Quang Binh. Official data showed 40 percent of the land in Binh Dinh is contaminated with explosives left from wartime and nearly 28 percent of Quang Binh's area is affected. Money will also be spent on supporting victims and raising people’s awareness of the risks of mines, officials said at the meeting in Quang Binh. The project is a collaboration between the Korea International Cooperation Agency and the United Nations Development Program. Lee Miyon from the Korean embassy said the project is hoped to bring "real changes in the lives of many people in central Vietnam." Phung Ngoc Son, general director of the Vietnam National Mine Action Center, said the project is one the largest … [Read more...] about South Korea commits $20 mln to landmine clearance in Vietnam