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A health worker collects swab samples from a man for COVID-19 testing in Hà Nội. — VNA/VNS Photo HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Health reported 9,706 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday evening, in 34 provinces and cities. These include 9,682 domestic infections with 4,377 detected in the community. The number of locally transmitted cases increased by 1,152 compared to yesterday. A further 180 deaths were also reported in HCM City (123), Bình Dương (34), Đồng Nai (7), An Giang (3), Tiền Giang (3), Tây Ninh (3), Bến Tre (2), Đà Nẵng (2), Bình Thuận (1), Kiên Giang (1) and Cần Thơ (1). The total death toll from COVID-19 in Việt Nam now stands at 18,400. Hà Nội recorded only four cases in quarantined in facilities. HCM City reported the highest number of domestic cases today with 4,046, followed by the southern provinces of Bình Dương (3,629), Đồng Nai (996) and Long An (193). Other cases were found in Bình Phước (147), An Giang (117), Kiên Giang …

[Read more...] about 9,706 new COVID-19 cases recorded in Việt Nam on Saturday

Việt Nam reports 9,706 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, including 24 imported cases and 9,682 local cases. The local cases are in HCM City (4,046), Bình Dương (3,629), Đồng Nai (996), Long An (193), Bình Phước (147), An Giang (117), Kiên Giang (91), Tiền Giang (81), Hà Nam (66), Cần Thơ (48), Sóc Trăng (42), Tây Ninh (41), Bình Định (39), Khánh Hòa (25), Bến Tre (13), Ninh Thuận (13), Đà Nẵng (11), Phú Yên (10), Đắk Lắk (9), Bình Thuận (9), Quảng Bình (8 ), Quảng Trị (7), Đồng Tháp (6), Đắk Nông (6), Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu (4), Nghệ An (4), Bạc Liêu (4), Cà Mau (4), Hà Nội (4), Vĩnh Long (3), Quảng Ngãi (2), Thanh Hóa (2), Trà Vinh (1), Thừa Thiên Huế (1). Among these, there are 4,377 cases detected in the community. …

[Read more...] about Việt Nam reports 9,706 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday

A health worker collects swab samples from a man for COVID-19 testing in Hanoi. (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam recorded an additional 8,537 infections , including seven imported cases, in the past 24 hours to 5pm on September 24, according to the Ministry of Health. Ho Chi Minh City, which is the country’s current largest pandemic hotspot, continued to report the highest number of infections with 3,786 cases, down 1,266 cases from the previous day. It was followed by neighbouring Binh Duong province (2,978, up 214 cases), Dong Nai (803, up 43 cases) and Kien Giang (230). The capital city of Hanoi logged five cases during the day. The country has to date logged 736,972 COVID-19 cases. A total of 12,371 patients were given the all-clear on September 24, raising the total number of recoveries to 505,859. The death toll rose to 18,220 after an additional 203 deaths were announced on the same day. As of the end of September 23, over 36.79 million doses of …

[Read more...] about COVID-19: 8,537 new cases added to national tally

A corner of Vinh Phuc (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – The northern province of Vinh Phuc raked in close to 1.15 billion USD in investment during the first three quarters of 2021, a slight increase from the same period last year, despite economic uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. By the end of September, the province has attracted a total of over 5.01 trillion VND (220.46 million USD) in domestic direct investment (DDI) from 10 new projects and two operational ones, 8 percent higher than the plan. It has licensed 24 new foreign direct investment (FDI) projects and allowed 19 others to add capital, with the extra investment worth nearly 929 million USD in total, fulfilling 99 percent of the goal. Vinh Phuc is currently home to 404 valid projects, including 75 DDI projects which have combined registered capital of nearly 19.43 trillion VND. The remainders are FDI projects with total capital of approximately 5.38 billion USD. As of September 15, 41 percent of …

[Read more...] about Investment flows into Vinh Phuc rise in nine months despite COVID-19

Staff at SHB (Photo courtesy of the bank) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) – The Saigon-Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB) was given approval from the State Bank of Vietnam to increase its charter capital from the current 19.2 trillion VND (843.2 million USD) to 26.6 trillion VND (1.16 billion USD). Of which, the bank would add 2 trillion VND by issuing shares to pay dividends with a rate of 10.5 percent from its after-tax profit after setting aside funds in 2020. Another 5.3 trillion VND would be added to the charter capital by issuing shares to existing shareholders with the offering price of 12,500 VND per share. The charter capital increase aims to improve SHB’s financial potential, expand lending scale, and invest in information technology. Especially, it would help promote the bank's digitisation, realising the goal of becoming a modern retail bank with optimal financial products and services according to Industry 4.0 standards. Earlier, SHB successfully issued more than 175 …

[Read more...] about SHB approved to increase charter capital to 1.16 billion USD

Many banks plan to pay dividends in shares (Photo: Vietnam+) Hanoi (VNA) - Many banks have announced their dividend payout plan in shares to raise capital and improve competitiveness amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. The shareholders of Vietnam International Bank (VIB) have approved the proposal to issue 40 bonus shares at the rate of 40 percent at its 2021 Annual General Meeting late last month. According to VIB, by the end of 2020, the bank had more than 4.8 trillion VND (about 207.8 million USD) of remaining profit after the provision for funds. It plans to distribute bonus shares to increase capital from 11.09 trillion VND currently to over 15.53 trillion VND. The distribution is expected to be completed before September 30 this year. "The bank is in a good growth period so it needs capital to invest in technology, networks, credit extension, meeting capital adequacy ratios as prescribed," said a representative of VIB. VIB is one of the banks that always take …

[Read more...] about Banks face challenge of raising capital

Illustrative photo. (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – Currently, more than 20 commercial banks are adopting the standard version of Basel II , of which 12 have completed all three Basel II pillars ahead the deadline, namely VIB, Vietcombank, SeABank, VPBank, TPBank, MSB, VietCapitalBank, Shinhan Vietnam, SHB , LienVietPost Bank, HDBank, and Viet Capital Bank. VIB is the first bank in Vietnam piloting a system measuring the Net Stable Funding Ratio (NFSR) – one of the Basel III indexes. (Photo: VietnamPlus) According to VIB general director Han Ngoc Vu, the bank has become the first in Vietnam piloting a system measuring the Net Stable Funding Ratio (NFSR) – one of the Basel III indexes. Basel III , a healthy and sustainably developing bank must have a NFSR higher than 100 percent, Vu said, the VIB’s was 120 percent at the end of October 2020, equivalent to Singapore’s DBS Bank and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). VNA …

[Read more...] about Commercial banks take steps towards Basel III

The price of live pigs is from VND47,000 to VND49,000/kg in some northern provinces and VND48,000 to VND52,000/kg in the central and southern regions, a strong drop compared to the previous months. Many large-scale pig farms are suffering heavy losses. (photo: TL) "This morning, I just sold 800 pigs for 42,000 VND/kg. For each pig, I had a loss of 1.5-1.8 million VND," said Nguyen Cong Bac, owner of a pig farm in Son La province. Bac told VietNamNet that he had VND1 billion in losses in August and about VND2 billion so far this month (September). According to Bac, small pig farmers who have to buy baby pigs and animal feed will suffer higher losses ranging from VND2.2-2.4 million/pig. The more pigs they breed, the bigger losses they will suffer, he said. Bac is worried that the price of pigs is still on a strong downward trend, which may last until the end of October. It is expected that in early November, when the demand increases according to the market …

[Read more...] about Pork prices plummet, breeders bemoan heavy losses

Authorities of many big cities and provinces in Vietnam have apparently ignored a call by medical experts to stop mass COVID-19 testing, since the strategy is expensive and almost helpless in the current developments of the disease. The administration of Ho Chi Minh City has completed three campaigns of citywide COVID-19 testing since a new wave of infections hit Vietnam on April 27 and is going on with a fourth testing phase through September 30. So far, the city’s health workers, divided into 1,533 teams, have collected a total of two million real-time RT-PCR samples and over 9.5 million others using the rapid antigen testing method. In the fourth stage, residents of areas at very high and high risk in the southern city are tested every two days in one week, while people living in the remaining areas are subject to testing every four days during an eight-day period, from September 20. To facilitate the testing drive, the city has sought reinforcements of 1,000 medical …

[Read more...] about In Vietnam, COVID-19 testing remains on large scale despite experts calling for a stop

Ashley Griffith, an English teacher from Manchester, England, who currently works in Vietnam, runs a Tik Tok channel showcasing what he truly loves about living in Vietnam. Griffith first began documenting his life in Vietnam after a student shared that he wanted to move to England. “[My student] said ‘I want to move there because everything is better in England and people say Vietnam isn’t a good country’,” he said. “Hearing those words made me upset because I’m an Englishman who wholeheartedly loves Vietnam. After that, I decided to dedicate my Tik Tok to showcasing everything that I love about Vietnam, including the food, landscape, people, and even fashion. The list is endless. “Now, I hope that student can see how magnificent Vietnam truly is, and how many amazing opportunities there are on offer here,” he added. In the year since he’s launched his @ashlongvn on Tik Tok, Ashley Griffith has earned a fandom of more than 223,000 followers. 97 percent of his views come …

[Read more...] about Englishman’s viral videos show ‘how magnificent Vietnam truly is’