The Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) and Cho Ray Hospital have signed a three-year contract to help the hospital improve its medical rehabilitation services.

Despite achieving positive results in drug control, functional ministries and sectors should come up with stronger measures to ensure effective detoxification and treatment, said Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong.

Senator Alberto Anaya, General Secretary of the Mexican Labour Party, has visited a working group of the Central Acupuncture Hospital which is implementing the acupuncture co-operative project in Monterrey City.

The Nam Cong and Nam Soi hydroelectric power plants will be put into operation by June 2010 to contribute to the socio-economic development of Son La’s border districts Song Ma and Sop Cop.

Saigontourist Travel Services (Saigontourist) on March 1 received 800 cruise passengers and crew members of the Portuguese cruise ship Athena, raising the number of cruise travellers received by the company so far this year to over 14,000.

Thousands of Vietnamese in Vientiane, Laos gathered on February 28 at the Vietnamese of Bang Long and Phat Tich to welcome Tet Nguyen Tieu, the festival of the 15th day of the first lunar month.

The Central Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union in coordination with the Hanoi Youth Union launched Youth Month 2010 at Thong Nhat Park in Hanoi on February 28 with the participation of nearly 4,000 young people.

The Economic College, under Hanoi National University, has become the first school in Vietnam to receive US$40,000 from the WTO Chairs Programme (WCP), Sai Gon Giai Phong newspaper said on February 27.

The TH Milk Joint Stock Company in the central province of Nghe An received 16,000 dairy cows from New Zealand on February 27.

Vietnam has collaborated with Birdlife and IUCN to organise a meeting to respond to World Wetlands Day in Hanoi on February 27.

A delegation of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (VBS) will travel to India to receive a sari, said to be that of the Lord Buddha, to be brought back to Vietnam early next month.

Due attention should be paid to developing human resources for the natural resources and environment sector in the next 10 years, said Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan.

Vietnam will allocate almost VND2,000 billion for the national target programme to cope with climate change.  

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) will complete a draft decree on Payments for Forest Environment Services (PES) Policy in June for the Government’s approval.

A teacher of English in southern Ben Tre province was one of five winners world-wide in an English for Schools competition held by the UK’s Cambridge University.

A programme themed “Vietnamese businesses with Hoa Lu-Thang Long-Hanoi: 1,000 years of construction and development” will concurrently take place in Ninh Binh Province and Hanoi on March 4.

On February 26 the Preventive Healthcare and Environment Department under the Ministry of Health officially confirmed the death of a female H5N1 patient in Tien Giang – the first fatality of the disease in 2010.

Japan’s international retailing group AEON Co., Ltd. has donated nearly US$3.1 million to help the central province of Thua Thien-Hue build schools and plant forests.

Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) will continue helping Vietnamese researchers improve their capacity for addressing new challenges during the development process and boost science, technology and innovation.

The online job market continued to recover with a 5.2 percent increase in labour demand indexes in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to Vietnam’s largest online job services website VietnamWorks.com.

Hanoi is seeking to enlarge the green space of the capital region with 70 percent of its area designated as green corridors and the remaining 30 percent to be turned into central and satellite urban areas.

The Ha Tinh provincial People’s Committee has approved a beachside eco-resort project on an area of 1,557 ha at the province’s Thien Cam national tourism site .

On February 25, the Tien Giang provincial People’s Committee held a press briefing to promote the annual first Vietnam Fruit Festival, which is slated April 19-24.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is helping prevent illegal trading of wildlife through a project, which is being carried out in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong and the southern province of Dong Nai.

Prolonged dry weather has raised forest fire risks to extremely high levels across the country, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Department for Forest Protection.

Half of the businesses in Vietnam, mainly in the southern provinces and cities, are now facing a shortage of workers, according to the Ministry of Labour - Invalids and Social Affairs (Molisa).

The central province of Quang Ngai has submitted to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism a proposal to host a Vietnamese sea and island festival in 2012.

The Ho Chi Minh City Union of Friendship Organisations on February 24 presented an insignia “for Peace and Friendship among Nations” to Luon Kim Khuon, Cambodian Consul General.

A Vietnamese tourist was killed and 20 others injured in a bus accident in Thailand on February 19.

Herbalist Tran Van Hay, the man with longest locks, died of natural causes at his home in Kien Giang province on February 25.