Addressing the event, which attracted 150 employees from the PetroVietnam Insurance Joint Stock Company (PVI), PVI vice president Ton Thien Viet said donating blood is a regular humanitarian activity of the company.

Viet said PVI employees had previously taken part in three blood donation drives and this is the first of the company's three drives scheduled for 2010.

Nguyen Van Nhu, an NIHBT official said there will be a serious shortage of blood supplies over the upcoming Lunar New Year (Tet) festival because students, the major force in blood donation, will go home for Tet. PVI’s blood donation, therefore, is very significant and demonstrates its responsibilities to the community.

Nhu said 2009 blood supplies could meet just over 30 percent of the demand and he added that this is attributed to ineffective communication programmes. 70 percent of the blood supply comes from students while businesses donated only six percent.