The Vietnamese Embassy in Bangkok in Thailand held a New Year meeting with Vietnamese office representatives and overseas Vietnamese on January 3.

A wide range of activities will take place in the northern province of Phu Tho to celebrate the death anniversary of Hung Kings and welcome the Hung Temple Festival in 2010.

A chronic shortage of hospital beds is putting the health of the populace at risk, according to the Ministry of Health.

A cold front is moving towards Vietnam and it is expected to affect the northern region on January 6, according to the National Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting Centre.

Ho Chi Minh City’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism organised a ceremony to receive the first 360 foreign tourists in 2010 at Tan Son Nhat international airport on January 1.

The Azamara Quest cruise ship registered in Malta docked at Tien Sa Port in central Da Nang City on January 2, carrying 500 foreign tourists from UK, Japan, the US, Canada.

The Woojung culture and education fund on December 31 granted 30 scholarships to Vietnamese students in the Republic of Korea (RoK), each worth KRW3 million. 

People across the country filled the streets of major cities to enjoy musical performances and other activities to ring in New Year.

As of 6am on January 1, 2010, Hanoi received its first 300 European tourists from Paris, France on flight of the national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines.

Pakistani naval ship Shamsheer arrived in Ho Chi Minh City on January 1, beginning a friendly visit to Vietnam.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) pledges to continue helping Vietnam carry out projects to improve the population’s quality of life and to meet the nation’s socio-economic growth targets.

The Vietnamese Party and State always place science and technology a top priority, seeing the sector as the driving force behind the country’s development.

The number of telephone subscribers in Vietnam, a country of over 80 million-strong population, reached 130.4 million with an average of 152.5 sets of telephones for every 100 citizens.

The environment is a hot global issue these days and Vietnam is joining the rest of the world in raising public awareness of climate change, environmental sanitation, and poverty reduction to improve living conditions and save our planet.

The Prime Minister has decided to assist flood-hit provinces in the central and Central Highland regions with VND329.5 billion.

Six provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta are implementing the second phase of a safe water supply programme to increase the number of people in urban, commercial and industrial zones accessible to safe water to 85 percent.

State Vice-President Nguyen Thi Doan on December 30 presented the Labour Hero title to the Heart Institute under the Bach Mai hospital on the occasion of its 20th anniversary.  

Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan has encouraged Vietnamese students studying in foreign countries to uphold the nation’s traditions to make a greater effort in their studies to contribute to the country’s development.

The Department for Preventive Medicine and the Environment under the Ministry of Health has reported one more death from A/H1N1 influenza, raising the total death toll from the disease in the country to 53 so far.

Vietnam and Cambodia will promote the exchange of professional skills, judicial experiences and related investigation documents between their courts.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung on December 29 gave an order to begin the construction of a general hospital in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang.

The number of overseas Vietnamese returning home for Tet in mid February is expected to be in excess of 500,000, according to the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese.

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) has issued a decision to create a Vietnamese labour management board, under the Vietnamese Embassy in Libya.

The first congress of representatives of ethnic minority groups was held in Dong Hoi City in the central province of Quang Binh on December 29, attracting 200 local delegates.

The Vietnamese Metfone Company signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport in Phnom Penh on December 29 to provide 2,000 free connections to Cambodian schools.

The tourism sector sets a target of welcoming around 4.5 million foreign visitors in 2010, representing an increase of 20 percent over this year, said Nguyen Van Tuan, Head of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT).

Ho Chi Minh City should be able to provide 80,000 jobs in the first quarter of 2010, said Tran Anh Tuan, deputy director of the HCM City Employment Services Center.  

The 11th Sakyadhita International Conference on Buddhist Women (SICBW) opened in Ho Chi Minh City on December 28, attracting the participation of more than 2,000 Buddhist women from more than 47 countries and territories around the world.

Local and foreign experts have discussed a host of proposals to decrease the number of poor households and ensure sustainable development in the 2011-2020 period.

Traffic jams are hindering the economic development of Ho Chi Minh City – the country’s largest economic hub, said Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai.