More than 6,000 State employees, staff, students and foreigners working in Ho Chi Minh City joined a walk on May 12 to support Agent Orange victims and disabled people.

The Hanoi job trading floor made its debut in Hanoi on May 12. The new trading floor is considered a new, practical and effective model in employment activities, helping to bridge businesses and job seekers.

Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan were sentenced to five and four years in prison respectively at a trial in Hanoi on May 11 for spreading propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

The People’s Court in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang on May 10 handed down two to four years in prison to five people for “causing public disorder”.

The number of children makes up about 41 percent of Vietnam’s total population, including nearly 32 million children from 16 years old downwards. These children are benefiting from the development of the country. However, many poor children have not yet had access to social services.

This charitable activity will take place in Minh Hoa district, central Quang Binh province from May 13-18 with a total fund of approximately US$40,000.

In the 2007-2010 period, Vietnam aims to ensure jobs for 49.5 million labourers, reduce the urban unemployment rate to below 5 percent, create 6-6.4 million new jobs for domestic workers and send 320,000 workers abroad under time-limit labour contracts.

The European Commission launched a US$1 million project on May 9 to aid Vietnam's disadvantaged people, particularly the elderly, women and ethnic minority groups.

A national seminar on tight control of production, trading, import and export of Safrole-rich oil in the framework of the XAP/163 project opened in Hanoi on May 9. It was the Standing Office on Drug Control (SODC) of the Ministry of Public Security and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

“Vietnam has demonstrated tremendous leadership in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG),” said Ann M. Veneman, Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), at a press briefing in Hanoi on May 8.

Vietnam is striving for better protection and use of water resources, said Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Mai Ai Truc.

By 2010, the vocational training network will focus on training highly skilled workers to meet the requirements of economic sectors and the labour market in general in the integration process.

More than 100 telecoms and broadcasting equipment manufacturers and service providers from Vietnam and around the world have registered to participate in an international exhibition on telecoms, broadcasting and information technology (TBI Vietnam 2007) to be held in Hanoi from May 24-27.

Every year, Vietnam has around 3.5 million people contracting contagious diseases such as flu, tuberculosis, malaria and virus hepatitis but it is facing a serious shortage of preventive medical workers.

Australia will finance a scheme to help Vietnam's women farmers earn more from their crops by switching to more sought-after fruit and vegetable varieties such as spiny cucumber and melons, said Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Bill Tweddell, at a seminar in Hanoi on May 7.

The European Union (EU) has granted over 62,000 euro to help northern Hai Phong port city better control traffic within the metropolis.

A workshop on the implementation of APEC’s action plan to prevent and respond to avian and influenza pandemics: progress review and building capacity for future work opened in Hanoi on May 7.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said it would pump US$900 million into clean energy development projects in 2007, with priority given to China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines and Vietnam.

To date, the country has 77 drug rehabilitation centers which are able to treat between 55,000 and 57,000 drug addicts. Many legal documents have been proposed and approved. Over the past 10 years, nearly 340,900 drug addicts have been detoxified and rehabilitated.

The People’s Committee of central Quang Nam province plans to submit Cu Lao Cham archipelago to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) for recognition as a world biosphere reserve.

A ceremony was held in central Khanh Hoa province on May 6 to award “Den dom dom” (Fire-fly light) scholarships to 120 pairs of good friends and 50 outstanding poor pupils from the districts of Dien Khanh and Ca Ranh in the 2006-2007 academic year.

Building a north-south high-speed railway line in Vietnam that would of course link Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City means a major priority for the Government. The railway line would cost US$33 billion.

Despite facing increasing numbers of children, the allocation of hospital beds for child patients is still the same as in 1999. Additionally, no more pediatricians have been trained at the Hanoi Medical University.

A seminar on road tourism development and co-operation between Vietnam, Laos, China and Thailand was held on May 3 by the Vietnam Administration of Tourism (VNAT), attracting representatives from more than 30 international travel agencies and 150 tourism trading companies from Vietnam, Laos, China and Thailand.

Vietnam is likely to join a vast majority of countries to be seriously affected by global climate change and rising sea levels, the Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology and Environment warned at a national forum on global climate change held in Hanoi on May 3.

Four million Vietnamese or about 5 percent of the country's population suffer from asthma, according to a report released by the Allergy, Asthma and Clinical Immunology Association (AACIA) in Hanoi, on May 3.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has granted US$1.7 million in technical assistance to Ho Chi Minh City to help develop two urban mass rapid transit (MRT) rail lines.

Currently, oil and gas importers lose around VND1,300 from the sale of one litre of petrol, yet, the Price Management Department of the Ministry of Finance has informed enterprises that they may only increase the price of petrol by maximum of VND1,000 per litre.

The documentary “The last ghost of war” featuring the lives of Vietnamese Agent Orange/Dioxin victims was screened in New York on May 1, drawing great attention from its American audience.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has asked the ministries of Public Security, Justice, Foreign Affairs, and Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs to apply the “one-stop shop” policy in granting work permits to guest labourers in Vietnam.