Vietnamese and Japanese firms receive support to expand operations The Japan Trade Promotion Organisation (JETRO) will host an online scheme on March 3 in Hanoi aimed at connecting Japanese businesses in the field of manufacturing and production, known as Monozukuri in Japanese term to facilitate co-operation amid the negative impacts caused the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a representative from the JETRO, the business matching programme will see the participation of 40 Japanese companies for the purpose of accelerating the development of the country’s supporting industry. At present, the scheme has received registration for 50 negotiations from enterprises from Japan, Vietnam, and Taiwan (China), whilst it is still receiving registration from businesses wishing to purchase and seek Japanese suppliers in the Monozukuri field until March 1. A recent survey conducted by the JETRO unveiled that Japanese businesses remain keen on the Vietnamese market as the country is viewed as an alternative investment destinations for Japanese enterprises looking to move away from China due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey indicates that approximately half of Japanese enterprises in the nation plan to expand their production activities, while roughly 70% of them seek opportunities to increase revenue in the local market. Most notably, 46.8% of Japanese enterprises unveiled that they have initiated plans to expand their business in the nation over the course of the next two years, with the expansion rate ranking fourth, the highest in the Asia-Pacific region. Japanese enterprises have therefore attributed their expansion to an increase in revenue in the domestic market and high growth potential. Furthermore, Japanese firms are also considering re-establishing some supply chains which have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with Vietnam able to capture the attention of suppliers and buyers of materials globally. VN-Index finishes lower as …
Fed to raise interest rates
VIETNAM NEWS HEADLINES MARCH 5 (updated hourly)
Many elderly people join 2nd stage of Nano Covax vaccine trials A total of 367 volunteers, including 30 aged over 60, have been injected with Nano Covax, Vietnam’s first homegrown COVID-19 vaccine candidate, in the second phase of its human trials, according to the Military Medical University. The second stage has been conducted by the university and the Ho Chi Minh City-based Pasteur Institute since February 26. It has been carried out at the university in Hanoi and the medical centre of Ben Luc district in the southern province of Long An, with the participation of 560 volunteers aged from 12-75, including 80 aged over 60. They will receive two doses of either the vaccine or the placebo AIPO4, with an interval of 28 days. Each volunteer will be monitored for 12 months after the first dose. Volunteers receiving shots on the morning of February 26 will receive the second doses in late March. Lieutenant-General Do Quyet, Director of the Military Medical University, said since the trial sees the participation of volunteers with underlying health conditions, competent authorities have been prepared for all scenarios and ensure safety for all volunteers. Results of the trial will be announced in May 2021 before preparing for the third-stage trial during which only one single shot of the vaccine will be administered to 10,000-15,000 people from both domestic and foreign pandemic-hit regions, Quyet added. Developed by the Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology JSC and the Hanoi-based Military Medical University, Nano Covax is Vietnam’s first COVID-19 vaccine to reach the human trial stage. The first-stage trial of the Nano Covax vaccine showed that it is likely to be effective against the B117 variant from the UK. Vietnam is one of 40 countries and territories in the world to have begun human trials of a COVID-19 vaccine, after successfully producing coronavirus test kits early in the pandemic./. National university processes complaint of lecturers in …
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Environmental protection: Pillar of sustainable development
Changes in awareness The key achievement of environmental protection in the past year was passage of the revised draft Law on Environmental Protection, reflecting a comprehensive policy of making environmental protection a backbone of the sustainable development process. In 2020, with the involvement of news outlets, campaigns were implemented to raise awareness and improve environmental protection through waste treatment and other measures to ensure environmental safety and thereby contribute to growth. In addition, information about environmental air quality has been made available on a wide scale through the VN Air application on mobile devices and publication of the air quality index (VNAQI) on a national scale. Management agencies are using the Envisoft application to monitor and manage environmental data across the country. The rate of solid waste collected and treated in inner-city areas has reached about 92 percent, and 66 percent in suburban areas. Many localities have applied waste incineration to generate electricity instead of burying waste in landfills, with 12 such projects in operation with a capacity of nearly 15,000 tonnes a day. The environment sector has protected and developed 172 terrestrial conservation areas and 16 marine conservation zones, preserving genetic resources and endemic flora and fauna. In 2020, local environmental management agencies also coordinated closely with the environmental police forces, the Fatherland Front and the Farmers’ Union to detect and strictly handle 12,000 environmental violation cases (down 4.26 percent from 2019). Information campaigns have created a dramatic change in community awareness of responsibility for environmental protection, receiving enthusiastic public response for the prevention of plastic waste. According to the 2019 Vietnam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI), the state of the environment has remained a significant public concern, the third …
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