From now to 2010, about VND7,000 billion from the State budget will be allocated for vocational training activities. With the fund, vocational training activities will be improved towards practicality.

The Vietnam Peace and Development Foundation and Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin have called on the world people to continue helping Vietnamese AO victims on the occasion of the UN International Day of Victims of Chemical Weapons (April 29).

Vietnamese enterprises in Poland are taking the lead in developing large trading centres. Nguyen Van Thai, an overseas Vietnamese in Poland, shares information in an interview with VOV.

The Lao province of Champasak has repatriated 49 sets of remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and experts who laid down their lives in battlefields in Laos.

Vietnamese people living abroad organized various activities to commemorate the Hung Kings, legendary founders of the Vietnamese nation.

Vietnam does not forbid its citizen to voluntarily get married to foreigners. The concern is how to prevent illegal marriages through match-makers.

According to the Labour and Employment Department under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA), Vietnam now has about 17 million rural young people aged between 16-30, accounting for more than 74 percent of the total number of young people and 50 percent of the labour force involved in agricultural production activities.

On April 26, the friendship associations with Vietnam in Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland issued a statement urging the US to show responsibility towards Vietnam for their spraying of deadly herbicides during the war against this country.

More than 2,500 Buddhist dignitaries, monks and nuns attended the 7th Congress of the Ho Chi Minh City Buddhist Sangha, which was held at Pho Quang Pagoda from April 24-26.

International organisations on April 25 pledged to assist Vietnam in educational development, with a focus on underprivileged pupils.

The French Government handed over 31 million euros as part of a soft loan package to upgrade the Yen Vien-Lao Cai railway line, announced the Ministry of Planning and Investment on April 25.

Priorities should be given to the construction of metro lines in Hanoi because this means of transport has many advantages thanks to its flexibility in station distribution, and is not affected by direction and line like road traffic.

The First Oral Argument before the US Court of Appeals between lawyers who represent Vietnamese Agent Orange (AO) victims as plaintiffs and US chemical companies as defendants is scheduled for June 18.

The Government of Sweden signed an agreement with the Mekong River Commission (MRC) on April 24 to provide US$6.4 million in aid for economic development and social programmes for people living in the MRC member countries.

My Tu district in southern Soc Trang province has provided VND1.1 billion for ethnic Khmer minority people to buy cows, to help improve their living standards. The sum is part of the Government’s Poverty Reduction Programme No135, aimed at supporting 315 Khmer ethnic households in 9 disadvantaged communes with one cow each.

The number of foreign tourists to Vietnam in the first quarter of this year reached more than 1.1 million, up 13.7 percent compared to the same period last year. This is the highest figure in recent years.

Vietnam and Denmark signed a framework agreement on the Danish general credit programme for Vietnam, in Hanoi, on April 23.

An official from the American Red Cross (ARC) has affirmed the association’s interests in establishing long-term cooperation with Vietnam in humanitarian activities.

The Overseas Vietnamese Union in France (UGVF) held a get-together and a concert on April 22 to raise funds in support of help Vietnamese AO/dioxin victims.

Vietnam has launched diverse activities in response to the first Global Road Safety Week from April 23-29 with the aim of raising public awareness of social impacts caused by traffic accidents and warning young people of traffic accident dangers.

The World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced their Global Monitoring Report 2007, praising Vietnam’s achievements in childcare.

The National Traffic Safety Committee will launch a Road Safety Week nationwide on April 23 to resolutely deal with motorbike riders that wear no helmets on roads when need be.

Hanoi is striving to raise families of social policy beneficiaries’ living standards to an equal or higher level than the current average in their residence area, said Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Le Toan Khang at a press briefing held in Hanoi on April 20.

To ensure sustainable development, Vietnam set a target of raising its forest coverage to 42-43 percent, providing clean water for 95 percent of the urban population and 75 percent of the rural population and ensuring the application of clean technology in all new production units by 2010.

Deputy chairwoman of the Vietnam's Women Union (VWU) Truong Thi Khue presented insignia to former chairwoman of the Cuba-Vietnam Friendship Association Melba Hernandez, chairwoman of the Cuban Women's Federation (FMC) Vilma Espin and FMC general secretary Yolanda Ferrer, who is also chairwoman of the Cuba-Vietnam Friendship Association.

The Vietnam Red Cross Society (VNRC) is playing a vital role in the fight against bird flu (H5N1) by raising awareness of the disease in local communities, said VNRC Chairman Nguyen Van Thuong.

The Spanish International Cooperation Agency (SICA) has donated VND700 million to northernmost Ha Giang province to help the local people cope with natural calamities that usually occur during the rainy season.

The World Population Fund (WPF) and the Hanoi-based Xa Dan Secondary School for hearing-impaired children on April 18 signed a commitment to carrying out a two-year project on reproductive health and sex education.

Vietnam's biodiversity and water resources are facing massive environmental pressure, according to a new report by the National Committee on Clean Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation.

The awards ceremony for the first Information Communications Technology (ICT) contest called ICT-Keeping alive hopes was held in Hanoi on April 18.