Vaccine passports – the future?, illustration photo, source: internet At the end of December, thousands of Europeans received the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine after the company received authorisation in the EU. Since then, other countries such as the US, Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, India, and several Asian countries, including Vietnam, have also started to receive or order vaccines to prepare for mass vaccination programmes. This has awakened optimism about an end to the pandemic and the idea of a vaccine passport. A heated discussion Some parts of the world, such as the Seychelles, Cyprus, and Romania, have begun to remove quarantine requirements for visitors who have been vaccinated. In early January, Denmark also announced that it would issue vaccine passports to citizens within the next three to four months. To get digital vaccine passports, Danish citizens will have to declare their medical and vaccination status on a government-issued app. Owners of such passports will be able to return to Denmark without quarantine and receive access to bars, restaurants, and hotels. Iceland became the first European nation to issue vaccine certificates in late January. While Greece also announced it will unveil a digital vaccination certificate for those who have received two doses of the vaccine, Israel recently announced that a so-called Green Badge will allow vaccinated people to go to restaurants, attend public events, and travel freely. Other countries that are currently issuing or waiting for vaccine passports include the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, and Sweden. Despite being supported by several countries and seen as a necessary condition for freedom of movement, vaccine passports have received mixed reactions in many places. The UK, the first in the world to vaccinate people against COVID-19, had previously denied plans for vaccine passports to allow people to travel abroad, but …
Eu putin
Agricultural sector urged to devise concrete strategies to utilize RCEP
Dang Phuc Nguyen, general secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association, emphasised that the RCEP is anticipated to facilitate greater penetration for local agricultural products, such as durians and passion fruit, into the Chinese market due to the northern neighbour currently only importing nine types of farm produce from the country. Le Thi Nguyen Thuy, deputy director of MINA Import and Export Joint Stock Company, pointed out that the RCEP will serve to create greater opportunities for the company as it strives to expand its market share in places such as China, along with other ASEAN members. Thuy duly noted that with the firm’s agricultural products penetrating into various demanding markets, it will make it easier for them to meet the necessary requirements relating to product quality when exporting to other countries through the trade deal. Furthermore, the trade deal will help organic products from Vinamit to gain entry to fastidious markets such as Japan and the Republic of Korea in line with the tariff reduction roadmap, according to Vu Quoc Anh Thu, marketing director of Vinamit Joint Stock Company. Whilst also enjoying a number of advantages, the RCEP is anticipated to increase the influx of foreign goods into the nation whilst creating fierce competition in terms of the price in the domestic market. This will therefore encourage local enterprises to devise suitable price strategies in an effort to compete with foreign rivals, noted Thu. Despite numerous challenges, such as congestion of goods at border gates due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic early this year, the agricultural sector raked in approximately US$3.3 billion, said the general secretary of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association, adding that with the benefits brought about by the RCEP, the association is poised to gross an export turnover of US$4 billion next year. …
[Read more...] about Agricultural sector urged to devise concrete strategies to utilize RCEP