At least one passenger was dead while 11 others were injured in a bomb explosion inside a bus in Tacurong city in the Philippines Sultan Kudarat province on November 6.Major General Roy Galido, commander of the Filipinos Army's Sixth Infantry Division, said the bomb, believed to be an improvised explosive device, went off while traveling southwest from Kidapawan City to Tacurong City on Mindanao island.Galido added that the military has coordinated with the provincial police to investigate whether the attack was part of an extortion activity of criminal groups in the area.The bus company has been getting bomb threats, Galido said.No group has claimed responsibility for the attack./.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on November 6 suggested adopting new mechanisms and policies on COVID-19 prevention and control, which, he said, should match the new situation.Chairing a meeting of the National Steering Committee for COVID 19 Prevention and Control in Hanoi, the PM stressed that vaccination remains a strategic solution in the pandemic combat.Vigilance should be maintained to prevent pandemic resurgence, he said, urging the harmonious implementation of solutions regarding social welfare, and social safety and order, as well as the programme on socio-economic recovery and development, and the COVID-19 prevention and control programme.The PM asked ministries, agencies and localities to continue keeping a close watch on the pandemic situation, especially the appearance of new variants, and review the materialisation of relevant documents.He urged the steering committees for COVID-19 prevention and control at the provincial level to carry forward their role in accelerating vaccination, preparing drugs, medical equipment and human resources for the fight, and the research and production of vaccines, biological products, medicines and medical equipment.Obstacles relating to mechanisms, policies and procedures, especially administrative procedures in pandemic prevention and control, and socio-economic recovery and development, should be removed, Chinh emphasised.The PM asked press agencies to work harder to reflect Vietnam’s performance in pandemic containment, and socio-economic recovery and development.He said along with the COVID-19 fight, the Ministry of Health and other ministries, agencies and localities need to pay attention to the expanded immunisation programme and step up efforts to combat other diseases like dengue fever, hand-foot-mouth and monkeypox.The Ministry of Health reported that Vietnam has recorded more than 11.5 million COVID-19 cases so far, of whom over 10.6 have recovered. The death toll reached some 43,000.In October alone, the country detected 24,283 cases, down 64,8% from the previous month, with 15 deaths, down 16 cases.As of November 2, the total number of doses of COVID-19 vaccines injected was over 262 million./.

Despite the growing desire for digital transformation, the lack of IT talents and high prices are preventing many businesses from implementing digital strategies. Currently, each enterprise can only solve a narrow corner in the digital transformation of the real estate market. Nguyen Tran Linh, general director of SSLAND Joint Stock Company, said technologies were comprehensively changing the operation of real estate businesses. The digital transformation for the real estate market was a long process, Doanh said, adding that developing an ecosystem was vital for the real estate market to follow the sustainable development trend. Digital transformation, inevitable trend of Vietnamese press: forumVietnam is in the process of digital transformation and the press is no exception.

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam recently signed a decision approving a programme to ensure vaccine supplies for vaccination till 2030. These include the expanded immunisation programme, vaccines used for service immunisation and for epidemic disease prevention and control. By 2025, Vietnam will master technology to produce 10 types of vaccines, produce at least three vaccines, including 5-in-1 vaccine against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, Haemophilus Influenzae (Hib) and either polio or hepatitis B. By the 2030, the country is expected to master production technology for 15 vaccine types and able to produce five types that are comparable to international-standard ones. Other suggestions include improving infrastructure to develop vaccine sci-tech and innovation centres, adopting new technology to produce vaccines against cancer, as well as combination vaccines.

These include dragon fruit, mango, banana, lychee, longan fruit, orange, pomelo, pineapple, rambutan, durian, jackfruit, passion fruit, avocado and custard apple. By 2025, the total fruit farming area nationwide will reach 1.2 million ha with an output of 14 million tonnes. By 2030, the country will have 1.3 million ha for fruit cultivation which will yield more than 16 million tonnes. There will be 1 million ha for growing the above fruits with some 13-14 million tonnes. The General Department of Customs reported that in eight months of this year, dragon fruit was the top currency earner among other fruits with nearly 463 million USD, followed by banana with 237 million USD and durian 158 million USD./.

Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesian Minister of Industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita has said that the country is targeting to produce 2 million electric motorcycles by 2024. Speaking at the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between ION Mobility and State-run electricity provider PLN on November 2, the minister said the Ministry of Industry needs to fulfill certain responsibilities on the supply side, while other ministries and agencies, including PLN, will need to carry out tasks related to infrastructure. Currently, Indonesia has 35 electric motorcycle factories with a production capacity of 1.1 million units per year, and their number is set to increase with Singapore’s ION Mobility planning to also build a factory in Karawang, West Java, he noted. With the efforts made by the government and other stakeholders, he said it is expected that Indonesia will be able to switch from fuel vehicles to electric vehicles as the potential is huge. Under the electric vehicle road map, the Indonesian Government is targeting to put 2 million electric vehicles on the roads by 2025./.

Vietnam, Bulgaria ink judicial cooperation programmeThe Ministry of Justice of Vietnam and the Ministry of Justice of Bulgaria have recently signed a programme on judicial cooperation for the 2023-2024 period. Signatories to the document were Justice Minister Le Thanh Long of Vietnam and his Bulgarian counterpart Krum Zarkov. Vietnam and RoK hold copyright forum 2022Hanoi is set to host a Vietnam-Republic of Korea (RoK) copyright forum on November 9 by the Copyright Office of Vietnam under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Copyright Commission (KCC). As many as 50 delegates from various competent agencies from both Vietnam and the RoK, including Vietnam Television (VTV) and the Vietnam Centre for Protecting Music Copyright (VCPMC), will attend the function. Vietnam and the RoK signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on copyright protection cooperation in September, 2013.

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s import of meat and meat products is not expected to increase dramatically later this year thanks to abundant supply at home that basically meets demand, according to experts from the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Department of Import-Export Management. India, the US, Brazil, the Republic of Korea and Russia were the biggest exporters of meat and meat products to Vietnam in the period. India took the lead with 37,350 tonnes valued at 125.84 million USD, up 164.9% in volume and 180.7% in value year-on-year. In particular, import of pork continued with the downward trend due to slow demand recovery while that of beef, poultry and buffalo meat was on the rise. Brazil topped the list with 11,790 tonnes worth 25.6 million USD, up 8% in volume and down 2.2% in value./.

At the Vietnam-Israel conference on production and trade cooperation (Photo: VNA)Tel Aviv (VNA) – A Vietnamese business delegation made a trip to Israel on November 3-4 during which they attended a Vietnam-Israel conference on production and trade cooperation in Tel Aviv. As part of the national trade promotion programme in 2022, the event was co-hosted by the Vietnamese Embassy in Israel’s Vietnam Trade Office and the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce (FICC), aiming to support Vietnamese firms in technological transfer and export to Israel. Deputy Director of the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Trade Promotion Agency Le Hoang Tai said Vietnam and Israel are negotiating a free trade agreement with 11 rounds of talks held since March 2016. Israel is now the fifth largest trade partner of Vietnam in West Asia. During the trip, the Vietnamese delegation visited and held a working session with Green2000, a leading hi-tech agriculture company in Israel, to explore cooperation opportunities./.

The first-prize winner Ho Ngoc Vinh Nguyen (centre) receive his award from VNA General Director Vu Viet Trang (R) and Tran Thi Mai Yen, acting Chief Representative of the OIF in the Asia-Pacific region. (Photo: VNA)Winners of the 7th “Young Francophone Reporters” competition were announced at an award ceremony in Hanoi on November 4.The annual contest was launched by Le Courrier du Vietnam (CVN), a French language newspaper of the Vietnam News Agency (VNA), under the auspices of the Asia-Pacific Regional Office (RBAP) of the International Organisation of the Francophonie ( OIF ); the Francophone University Agency (AUF); the embassies of France, Morocco, Romania, Switzerland and Canada; and the Wallonie-Bruxelles Delegation to Vietnam.After a month since its launch, this year’s competition received 95 works from 119 contestants. There were one first, one second, one third, and two consolation prizes as well as six other prizes based on readers’ votes, the contestants’ impression and talent, among others.With its theme highlighting the voice of young people, the contest aimed to encourage youth to use the diversity and richness of the French language to share their concerns and dreams about the future of themselves and of the Francophone community.Addressing the award ceremony, VNA General Director Vu Viet Trang lauded the CVN’s efforts to sustain the contest despite COVID-19 and thanked supporters of annual event like the RBAP and the embassies.The success of the competition has confirmed the VNA’s right direction in diversifying communications forms serving foreign relations affairs and in promoting Vietnam's image in the Francophone community and international friends, she affirmed.She stated the VNA will further assist the newspaper in organising this meaningful external contest.Tran Thi Mai Yen, acting Chief Representative of the OIF in the Asia-Pacific region, said with the desire to give young people their rightful place in society and find solutions to the problems they are facing, the OIF has placed them at the center of all actions.The entries this year showcase inspiring initiatives, successful models and role models to follow, she said, adding that the quality of participating articles and illustrations is also remarkable./.

Five Vietnamese universities named in Best Global Universities Rankings 2023Five Vietnamese universities have been listed in the 2023 edition of the Best Global Universities Rankings published by the US News & World Report, which includes 2,165 across 95 countries worldwide. Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU) was ranked 970th globally and 258th in Asia in the rankings. Other institutions listed are Ton Duc Thang University (223rd), Duy Tan University (317th), Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City (1,116th), and Hanoi University of Science and Technology (1,570th). Vietnam opposes further embargo on Cuba: diplomatAmbassador Dang Hoang Giang, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the UN, has stressed Vietnam's consistent stance of opposing the economic, trade and financial embargo against Cuba. The patient said that on October 19, the patient took a plane from Vietnam to South Africa to travel.

Malaysia was the first country to host the meeting in-person after it was held online for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Referring to its discussion content, Vietnamese Chief Justice Nguyen Hoa Binh said the focus was on issues of public concern. Many of these regarding the control and prevention of COVID-19 were greatly appreciated by the Council of ASEAN Chief Justices. In an effort to conduct e-court activities through the application of information technology, Vietnam has actively implemented specific steps to improve the quality of its court operations. The 10th Council of ASEAN Chief Justices meeting had 10 working sessions with topics relating to the application of information technology in the court./.

A transaction office of BaoViet Bank (Photo: VNA)– The Hanoi Stock Exchange HNX ) held 30 auctions of Government bonds (G-bonds) in October, with 55.66% of the total G-bonds on offer, worth 31.45 trillion VND (1.26 billion USD) sold.With the latest G-bonds auctions, the amount of capital raised via this channel in the January-October period by the State Treasury came to 139.432 trillion VND, while the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) mobilised 12.3 trillion VND.Compared to the end of September, annual interest rates for 10-year and 15-year bonds issued by the State Treasury increased to 4% and 4.1%.Three-year and five-year bonds issued by the VBSP have annual interest rates of 4.7 and 4.8%, respectively.On the secondary market, trading value of G-bonds during the month dropped by 40.4%, with an average trading value of 3.84 trillion VND per session, down 11.1 percent on-month.The total volume traded via repos decreased by 57.68% while Outright transaction value reduced by 16.49%./.

Head Nguyen Hong Thang of the Vietnam Telecoms Authority (under the Information and Communications Ministry) shared that lately, the state of spam calls in Vietnam has increased significantly and become more complicated. US, Vietnam boost healthcare cooperationDeputy Secretary Andrea Palm of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was in Vietnam this week to meet with CDC Vietnam and CDC Southeast Asia Regional Office staff, US Embassy officials, and partners from the Government of Vietnam. HHS has robust health collaboration with Vietnam both bilaterally and multilaterally through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA). Since normalization of relations in 1995, the US government has contributed over US$1.15 billion in bilateral health programs in Vietnam. First international half marathon scheduled on New Year dayElite Asian athletes will be invited to compete in the 2023 Vietnam International Half Marathon on January 1, 2023 in Hà Nội.

The Question-&-Answer session of the National Assembly on November 3 (Photo: VNA)– The 15th National Assembly began the 12th working day of its fourth sitting on November 3 with group discussions on the draft Land Law (revised) in the morning.In the afternoon, the Question-&-Answer session started with Minister of Construction Nguyen Thanh Nghi the first to take the floor, answering questions of NA deputies on construction issues.Besides Nghi, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung, Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang and Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Nguyen Thi Hong also gave replies on construction-related issues in their fields of management.The Q-&-A session was broadcast live by the national broadcasters and the NA’s television channel.During the session, 36 deputies put questions, focusing on urban planning and management, delays in planning approval; the handling of illegal and unauthorised construction activities, the management of the real estate market, and problems in real estate transactions.Social housing for low income earners and workers, the management of costs and supply of materials for important construction projects were also brought to the spotlight at the Q-&-A session.On November 4, the NA will continue with Q-&-A activities, with issues related to information and communications, and home affairs to be raised./.