Vietnam has potential to develop New Generation Network (NGN) technology, said Vice President of China's ZTE Telecommunication Group Chen Jie at a recent working session with the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Corporation (VNPT).

Private vocational training schools have greatly contributed to training and supplying highly skilled workers, so they should be developed and encouraged further. Vocational training is more effective and less expensive in enterprises as trainees are given a chance to get used to the on-the-job training environment as well as new production methods.

Vietnam has implemented over 925,000 clean water projects nationwide since the "National week for clean water and environmental hygiene" was launched in late April.

Representatives of the Overseas Labour Management Board have flown to Malaysia to deal with labour disputes between six Vietnamese workers at Supreme Healthy Vegetarian Food factory and their employer to protect the legitimate rights of Vietnamese workers.

The Republic of Korean community in Ho Chi Minh City raised more than US$6,000 for Vietnamese Agent Orange/Dioxin victims during an art programme marking Day for the Vietnamese AO Victims held at the Hoa Binh Theatre on August 10.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) will closely cooperate with the Vietnamese Government to provide reproductive health-related information for young people, said Ian Howie, chief representative of the organisation in Vietnam.

Dozens of people have been killed and injured after heavy rains triggered flash floods and mudslides in the northern provinces of Quang Ninh, Yen Bai, Cao bang, Lao Cai and Lai Chau over the past few days, according to the National Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Prevention and Control.

On the occasion of the National Day for Vietnamese AO/dioxin Victims, the Toxicology magazine has officially launched its first edition in Hanoi.

Foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and international organisations have pledged to provide more assistance for the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap at a meeting with the provincial authorities in Cao Lanh town on August 10.

On August 10, 1961, the US army first began to spray toxic chemicals over southern Vietnam. At a conference in Hanoi in 2004, the Vietnam Fatherland Front decided to observe August 10 as the National Day for Vietnamese AO/dioxin Victims.

Delegates from northern provinces and international experts gathered in Hanoi on August 10-11 for a seminar to improve the quality of Vietnamese population in the 2006-2010 period.

More than VND500 million was raised for Agent Orange/Dioxin victims at a special art programme called “Justice of the Heart” held in Hanoi on August 9.

Tourism executives in the Vietnamese capital city of Hanoi have confirmed the logistic preparations underway for meetings within the framework of the APEC Leaders' Meeting 2006, scheduled for later this year.

Vietnam is prepared to set up a task force to enforce environmental protection rules, said officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE).

A project funded by Denmark’s CARE organisation has helped improve the farming skills and family care of poor Khmer ethnic women in Long Phu district, in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang.

The Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union (HCYU) and the Movement of Communist Youth of France (MJCF) shared their experiences in launching campaigns for young people in Hanoi on August 8.

Two delegates from Hanoi Medical University and the Army Medical Institute will represent Vietnam at an international conference on Agent Orange/Dioxin, slated for some time in August in Norway.

The Clean Water and Environmental Sanitation Centre of southern Vinh Long province is proceeding with the third phase of a VND24-billion project funded by the World Bank (WB) to provide clean water and good sanitary conditions for rural people.

The Hanoi Department of Architecture and Planning has revealed master plans for two major construction complexes in the north-eastern outlying districts of Soc Son and Dong Anh.

A cultural programme is planned to call on the local and international communities to extend material support for Agent Orange (A/O) victims in Vietnam, said Deputy President of the Vietnam Agent Orange Victims Association (VAVA) Nguyen Trong Nhan on August 5.

The APEC Youth Forum has recognised Vietnam's initiative in establishing a cooperation network among young people from APEC member economies.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed with the Vietnamese Government a non-refundable technical assistance project worth US$900,000 funded by the Japanese Government.

The UNDP is making efforts to raise US$10 million for Vietnam to clean dioxin-polluted hotbeds, said Tran Xuan Thu, Deputy President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Agent Orange/dioxin Victims Association, at a press briefing in Hanoi on August 4.

First 20 Vietnamese guest workers returned to Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on August 4 safely after a long trip from the war-ravaged Lebanon.

Typhoon Prapiroon struck the Chinese province of Guangxi on August 3 and weakened into a tropical low depression, but still had a heavy impact on Hai Phong and Quang Ninh coasts.

The Ministry of Health on August 4 sent a document of the project “H5N1 prevention and control for 2006-2007 period” to the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC).

Ha Long Bay in northern Quang Ninh province has not been regarded as a world heritage site affected by environmental pollution.

According to latest information from the National Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting Centre, at 16 pm on August 3, the centre of Typhoon Prapiroon, the third of its kind in Vietnam this year, was some 440 km far from the coastline of the north-eastern provinces of Quang Ninh and Hai Phong.

Singapore's new trade counselor in Vietnam Chiong Woan Shin has announced an "infrastructure road show" to introduce its expertise in urban planning to Vietnamese authorities and enterprises.

Twenty-seven young Viet kieu (overseas Vietnamese) from six countries and territories on August 2 laid flowers at President Ho Chi Minh’s Statue in downtown HCM City during the opening of a Viet kieu youth camp.