Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Phan Thi Thang (R) and Additional Secretary of the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry Rajesh Agrawal (Photo: VNA)New Delhi (VNA) – Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Phan Thi Thang and Additional Secretary of the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry Rajesh Agrawal co-chaired the 5th meeting of the Vietnam-India Joint Sub-Commission on Trade in New Delhi on August 8. He acknowledged the noticeable development trend in trade between the two countries in recent years, highlighting several positive changes since the 4th meeting of the joint sub-committee held in 2019 in Hanoi. For her part, Thang remarked that there are many challenges ahead in the global and regional context, including economic recession, political conflicts, trade tensions, high inflation, and lower demand. India wants to elevate cooperation with Vietnam in terms of pharmaceuticals, processed food, tourism, and information technology, he said. They agreed to bolster investment cooperation in area of joint interest.

Hai Phong, Viet Nam — Every eighth lunar month, Vietnamese people eagerly celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival together. Honouring unique traditions of the full moon festivity, Sheraton Hai Phong introduces the 2023’s Peacock Mooncake Collection to deliver sincere wishes to friends, partners and loved ones. The Peacock Mooncake Collection 2023 is currently on sale at Sheraton Hai Phong, Vinhomes Imperia Metropolitan Area, Thuong Ly Ward, Hong Bang District, Hai Phong City. About Sheraton Hai PhongAs the tallest skyscraper in Hai Phong, Vietnam, Sheraton Hai Phong is regarded as a beacon of development and prosperity. For more information, visit http://sheratonhaiphong.com and stay connected to Sheraton Hai Phong on Facebook.

HÀ NỘI – Starting August 7, Napas cardholders will be able to utilise their Mobile Banking application to perform interbank cash withdrawals from ATMs by scanning the VietQR code, eliminating the need for a physical card. During the launch event on Monday, Nguyễn Quang Minh, the General Director of the National Payment Corporation of Việt Nam (NAPAS), announced that NAPAS has collaborated with member banks to successfully develop an interbank ATM withdrawal service using the VietQR code (VietQRCash). Transaction limits and fees align with the current regulations for ATM withdrawals using NAPAS cards. Minh said: "Upon the successful launch with the initial eight banks, NAPAS is poised to extend the connection of the VietQRCash service across the entire market within this year. Among various electronic payment methods, the utilisation of QR codes demonstrated the most substantial growth, increasing by nearly 136 per cent in terms of transaction volume.

Vietnam ese products introduced at a fair in India (Photo: VNA)– The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) and the Embassy in India and the host country’s PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry jointly organised a business forum between the two countries on the evening of August 7 in New Delhi. MoIT Deputy Minister Phan Thi Thang said that Vietnam and India have a lot of favourable conditions to boost their economic cooperation and trade, as both have good economic growth and stable macroeconomic environment, direct flights link their major cities, and their import-export structures are complementary.She pointed to several challenges and difficulties facing businesses, including negative impacts of world economic fluctuations, the lack of market-related information and business connectivity, and high costs and long transportation times.To address these difficulties and promote economic and trade cooperation, Thang proposed strengthening supply chain connectivity based on the strengths of each country, and applying information technology and digital transformation in trade promotion. She also pointed to increasing direct transportation and establishing more routes between the two countries to save time, costs and take advantage of available resources.Shantuna Srivatava, former Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce in India, emphasised that potential for bilateral cooperation has not been fully exploited. He suggested setting a goal of raising two-way trade to 20 billion USD in the coming time./.

In late July, the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development approved the export of two vaccines produced by the NAVETCO Central Veterinary Medicine Joint Stock Company and AVAC Vietnam JSC. According to local competent agencies, up to 650,000 doses of the vaccines have been tested on pigs in 40 cities and provinces, with an efficacy rate of 95%. Vietnam has become the first country to successfully develop and produce the two vaccines against African swine fever, the disease that first appeared in Africa in 1921 with a mortality rate of up to 100%./.

At the event (Photo: VNA)Ha Nam (VNA) – An exchange between young people from the Republic of Korea (RoK) and Vietnam took place in the northern province of Ha Nam on August 8. They also took part in games to learn about Vietnamese culture, traditional festivals and landmark destinations. The Korean delegation will also visit local tourist destinations and KMW factory – a member of the Korean Business Association - at Dong Van industrial park. Lee Wonseok, deputy head of the Family Support Division at the RoK's Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, hoped that in the future, both sides will enhance youth exchange activities to gain a deeper understanding of the culture, economy, history and people of each country. He expected them to increase the sharing of experience in youth development and entrepreneurship among the youth./.

Both leaders agreed that Vietnam and Iran will continue increasing mutual visits at all levels. They will enhance cooperation between their parliamentary agencies, parliamentary friendship groups, female parliamentarians, and young parliamentarians. They agreed to foster cooperation in customs and Halal product manufacturing. During the talks, the two leaders also looked into measures for augmenting ties in other potential fields like science - technology, digital transformation, education - training, student exchanges, and tourism. Following the talks, the two leaders signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation between parliaments./.

The members of the unit have undergone specialised training in professional and operational skills, military tactics, foreign languages, and pre-deployment training following the UN’s guidelines. They have been fully equipped with knowledge about UN peacekeeping, international humanitarian laws, conflict, foreign relations, survival skills, among others. Vietnam's Engineering Unit Rotation 2, made up of 203 officers, including 19 females, was established in November 2022 under a decision of the Ministry of Defence. In 2022, the first military engineering unit was deployed to the UN mission in Abyei, the first time Vietnam had sent an engineering team to a UN peacekeeping mission./.

The project aims to help poverty-stricken students of universities, colleges and professional intermediate schools in Ho Chi Minh City overcome financial difficulties. Students from poor families can get support from their schools and the Communist Youth Union of Ho Chi Minh City. Colonel Vu Chien Thang said that the number of foreigners entering Vietnam, especially Ho Chi Minh City, is increasing day by day. Recently, the Ho Chi Minh City Police discovered 7 Chinese in District 8 carrying out organized crime collecting more than 1,000 smartphones. He was awarded the First Class Order of Resistance, the First Class Medal of Independence, the Ho Chi Minh Order, and the First Ho Chi Minh Prize for Art and Literature (1996).

Delegates at a ceremony to celebrate the 50th founding anniversary of the Vietnam - Iran diplomatic ties (Photo: VNA)– National Assembly (NA) Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue’s visit to Iran from August 8-10 reflects the importance that the Vietnamese Party, NA, and Government attach to the friendship and cooperation with Iran, Vietnamese Ambassador to Iran Luong Quoc Huy told the Vietnam News Agency.The diplomat underlined the significance of the visit, saying that it offers an occasion to review cooperation achievements between the two countries over the last five decades, and discuss measures and orientations to create breakthroughs in the bilateral relations in the coming years.According to the diplomat, the visit aims to respond to the visit to Vietnam by Speaker of the Parliament of Iran Ali Ardeshir Larijani in 2018, and promote the tradition of high-level delegation exchange between the two countries and their parliaments.During the visit, NA Chairman Hue will have talks with Speaker of the Parliament of Iran Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf; meet with senior Iranian officials, the Chairman of the Iran-Vietnam Friendship Parliamentary Group and the President of the Iran-Vietnam Friendship Association.He will also attend and deliver a speech at a law and policy forum to boost economic, trade and investment cooperation between Vietnam and Iran; make a presentation at the Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS) of Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs; participate in the opening ceremony of a Vietnamese culture week, and visit a number of production, economic, scientific and technological facilities in Tehran and Isfahan.In the framework of the trip, the legislative bodies of Vietnam and Iran will sign many bilateral cooperation agreements to further tighten their ties. The two sides also expect to sign many cooperation agreements in economy, trade, agriculture, justice and sports, as well as cooperation between localities on this occasion.There is great potential for bilateral cooperation in terms of politics, diplomacy, economics, and parliamentary diplomacy, Huy said.The Vietnamese top legislator’s visit will provide a strong impetus to elevate the bilateral relations to anew height, better tapping the existing cooperation potential in various aspects such as politics, diplomacy, economy, trade, culture, and science and technology, the diplomat noted.Parliamentary diplomacy stands out as a highlight in the Vietnam-Iran relationship, he went on.According to the ambassador, the two countries need to effectively implement signed agreements and bolster existing cooperation mechanisms; create favourable conditions for their goods to make inroads into each other's markets; collaborate in organizing trade promotion activities and business forums; expedite the 10th Meeting of the Vietnam-Iran Joint Committee to advance negotiations towards the signing of a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA); and discuss suitable payment methods to ensure smooth trade exchange./.

Assignment: Process Innovation Pilot for Closed-Loop Polyester Textile Recycling in Viet NamAs a federally owned enterprise, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH supports the German Government in achieving its objectives in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development. Go Circular works in three priority areas: i) Promoting innovation (technologies and business models), ii) Scaling up solutions and iii) Action in global alliances. IGS is currently being implemented in Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and Serbia within the garment and textile and electronics sectors. Business license (for firm) or Decision of establishment (for association), Tax code registration, organisational chart, summary of experience in for textile and garment sector)3. In case the total volume of your bids is above 10 MB, the files must be sent via GIZ filetransfer system.

Vietnam and Iran officially established diplomatic relations in 1973, but ties only began to flourish in the early 1990s when Vietnam accelerated its process of national renewal, expanding economic cooperation with many countries around the world. With similarities in history and culture, visits by leaders from the two countries over recent years express the political determination of both sides to strengthen and promote bilateral cooperation in all fields. Statistics show that, two-trade turnover between Vietnam and Iran has only averaged a mere 100 million USD a year over recent times. Iran is located in the region known as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), where there has been research conducted on Vietnam’s development. While Vietnam was previously mentioned more often from a historical perspective, it is now mentioned in regard to current success stories./.

State Bank of Vietnam sets daily reference exchange rate at 23,815 VND/USD on August 7 (Photo: VNA)- The State Bank of Vietnam set the daily reference exchange rate at 23,815 VND/USD on August 7, down 10 VND from the last working day of previous week (August 4).With the current trading band of +/- 5%, the ceiling rate applicable for commercial banks during the day is 25,005 VND/USD and the floor rate 22,624 VND/USD.At commercial banks, the opening-hour rates decreased.At 8:30 am, Vietcombank listed the rates at 23,525 VND/USD (buying) and 23,895 VND/USD (selling), both down 35 VND from the end of August 4.Meanwhile, BIDV cut 25 VND from both rates, listing the buying rate at 23,580 VND/USD and the selling rate at 23,880 VND/USD.During the week from July 31 to August 4, the daily reference exchange rate was adjusted up on most days except for Tuesday. It ended the week up 67 VND./.

JAKARTA — National Assembly (NA) Chairman Vương Đình Huệ held a meeting with Speaker of the House of Representatives of Thailand Wan Muhamad Noor Matha in Jakarta on Monday, during which Huệ affirmed that Việt Nam highly values the strengthened strategic partnership with Thailand. The two sides shared delight at the sound friendship and expanding cooperation between the two countries. They noted that bilateral economic partnership is growing strongly, with Thailand being Việt Nam's largest trade partner and the second biggest investors among ASEAN members. He said the parliament and Government of Thailand would continue to give optimal conditions for the community. They agreed that the two legislatures should increase the exchange of delegations at all levels, while strengthening cooperation among their specialised agencies.

Many collectives and outstanding individuals who have made significant contributions to the development of the summer volunteer programmes and campaigns are awarded certificates of merit. (Photo: VNA)HCM City (VNA) – A ceremony to launch the 16th National Volunteer Day and to celebrate 30 years of summer volunteer programmes and campaigns of the youth in Ho Chi Minh City (1994-2023) was held on August 6, with the participation of nearly 2,500 young volunteers. By 2009, the campaign had been renamed "Summer volunteer youth campaign". On the occasion, many collectives and outstanding individuals who have made significant contributions to the development of the summer volunteer programmes and campaigns were awarded certificates of merit. Deputy Secretary of the municipal Party Committee Nguyen Ho Hai stressed that the city’s youth should inherit and develop the achievements, thus further expanding youth volunteer activities./.