Opinion

Nhân dân newspaper talked to some Vietnamese experts about the advantages of the digital economy in the course of applying the fourth industrial revolution. Nguyễn Bá Ân, secretary general of the National Council for Sustainable Development and Competitiveness Improvement At present many countries in the region have carried out their digital strategy including Việt Nam. But China and Singapore are the two leading nations. In our country, an e-Government system was launched several years ago, but the national system still needs further improvements.  More recently, Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc signed a decree on advancing the campaign to bring Industry 4.0 to life. But I’m sorry to say there remain many things to be done. When we talk about the digital economy, for many Vietnamese, that economy seems alien. But in real life, the internet of things has penetrated all corners of our socio-economic life. The foundation for … [Read more...] about Digital economy is the future for Việt Nam

Nguyễn Xuân Cường, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development talks to the newspaper Lao Động (Labour) about his ministry’s resolve to improve the nation’s image abroad. What were some of Việt Nam’s major achievements in 2017? The year 2017 was the most challenging year for our agriculture. For example, 16 storms hit Việt Nam coupled with four low atmospheric pressure drives, heavy rainfall, flash floods and more. According to initial reports the damage caused by natural disasters was estimated at VNĐ 60 trillion (US$2.646 billion). But a bright sight was that in 2017, the growth rate of our country’s primary industry reached 2.9 per cent – double that of 2016. Meanwhile exports of our agro-forestry and aqua products earned some $36.37 billion – an increase of more than $4 billion against 2015. In 2017, some 3,100 communes nationwide became New Rural Areas, accounting for about 34.37 per cent … [Read more...] about Việt Nam sets the target to earn $40 billion in exports

Dr. Phạm Sỹ Liêm, Deputy Director of the Việt Nam Federation of Civil Engineering, speaks to Kinh Tế & Đô Thị (Economy & Urban Affairs) newspaper on how to bring the Construction Law to life. Are project owners to blame for many illegal housing projects? Quite a few construction project owners claim that money can be an effective tool to settle administrative violations at many construction projects. However, administrative fines have not been strong enough to achieve this. Many people say that the fines are small compared to what the owners gain in term of adding square metres to their homes. In real life, the land price per square metre and the construction cost norm in a province is set by the local provincial administration. Such a cost norm is many times lower than the actual price unit in the free market. That’s why the sum collected from fines is much smaller than the profits earned by the project owners … [Read more...] about Fines no deterrent in construction

Phạm Thy Hùng, director of the Public Procurement Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, speaks to the newspaper Thời báo Kinh tế Việt Nam (Việt Nam Economic Times) on the need to further promote online bidding Will you tell us some new points contained in the Circular 04/2017 issued by the Ministry of Planning and Investment on the selection of bidders through online bidding? The Circular 04 has two new salient points. First, applies to the first-stage bidding package with two paper dossiers relating to consultancy services, consultancy fees, goods procurement and others. Second, under the Circular 04, there are seven forms which are classified into three sets of documents. The first set has three forms which are used for online public bidding projects; the second set also has three forms for online bidding packages, but with a guiding principle of one stage - one set of dossier; and the seventh form is … [Read more...] about Online bidding is VN’s future

Children and relatives of officials being promoted at a rapid rate at state agencies are nothing new in Vietnam and it is actually becoming more common. Dong Hoi City Deputy Party Secretary Ha Quoc Phong (left)No one was surprised when Ha Quoc Vuong Anh, Dong Hoi City Deputy Party Secretary's son, was employed and promoted as a member of the standing committee and deputy party secretary of the city youth union for the 2012-2017 period right off the bat. One month later, he was promoted to the city youth union's party secretary.While there was no surprise, it did not mean there was no outrage.The inspection committee of Quang Binh Province People's Committee concluded that both the quality and quantity of candidates for the city youth union's party secretary position were too limited which had badly affected the reputation of Dong Hoi City Deputy Party Secretary Ha Quoc Phong, Anh's father. They asked Phong to take a lesson from this incident and he was just reprimanded.When … [Read more...] about Nepotism mars public life