Red Spring Festival expects to collect over 4,000 blood units Young people donate their blood In his opening remarks, Director of the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion (NIHBT) Bach Quoc Khanh, who is head of the festival’s organizing board, said that the festival has been held annually since 2008 to address blood shortages after the lunar New Year holiday, and gradually changed public awareness of blood donation. After 13 editions, the festival has collected over 85,000 blood units and become the annual biggest blood donation event. Khanh took the occasion to express his gratitude for donators nationwide. The 14th edition is taking place from March 1-7 at the NIHBT headquarters, and three fixed places - 26 Luong Ngoc Quyen in Hoan Kiem district, 132 Quan Nhan in Thanh Xuan district, and Valley 122 of Lang Street in Dong Da district. The organizing board expects to receive over 4,000 blood units during this year’s festival, which then will be allocated to nearly 180 hospitals and medical establishments of 28 provinces and cities in the northern region. It has also made thorough preparations to welcome donors so as to ensure COVID-19 prevention and control as recommended by the World Health Organisation and the Health Ministry./. Fatal coach crash kills three, injures 4 in Dong Thap A serious traffic accident caused by a passenger coach took place on National Highway 54 in Tan Thanh Commune of Dong Thap Province’s Lai Vung District this morning, March 1, killing three and injuring four people. The passenger coach with plate number 51B-17273 driven by Tran Van Nam, aged 41, was heading from Vam Cong Bridge to Vinh Long Province when it plowed into a group of 10 bike riders and killed a rider, identified as Tran Van An, aged 59. The passenger coach continued slamming into two electric poles and a tree on the pavement, damaging the front of the coach. Local residents immediately took some injured passengers …
Human rights groups
Digital economy predicted to reach $43 billion by 2025
Vietnam’s digital economy is expected to reach $43 billion by 2025, according to the e-Conomy Southeast Asia report from Google, Temasek and new partner Bain & Company. A customer uses smart phone to scan code on a product Nguyen Quang Dong, Director of the Institute for Policy Research and Communication Development, said digital service industry is recording the fastest growth and is suitable with Vietnam’s strengths such as a young population who love technology and social networks. Digital technology and the digital economy will be key drivers helping Vietnam increase workplace productivity, escape the “middle-income trap”, and realise the objective of becoming a middle-class developed economy by 2040, Dong said. Vietnam’s internet infrastructure and digital payment services remain limited, however, while the country still lacks a legal framework for digital assets, he said, stressing that the legal model of the 20th century no longer suits the digital economy. Dong also underlined the need to promote international cooperation, especially in joining the building of new regulations and their enforcement through legal frameworks for the region. A study by the Institute for Global Leadership under the US-based Tufts University revealed that Vietnam ranks 48th out of 60 countries and territories globally in terms of rapidly switching to a digital economy, and 22nd in digitisation development. In the last five years, with the boom of smartphones, the internet, and social networks, digital technology and digital transformation have developed rapidly in Vietnam, shaping a fledgling, dynamic digital economy with great potential. Vietnam’s digital economy is made up of four main groups: e-commerce, online tourism, digital communications, and logistics technology. The country, together with Indonesia, holds the lead in digital economy growth in Southeast Asia. The two pacesetters are both posting growth in excess of 40 percent a …
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First Vietnam-Russia Inter-parliamentary Commission discusses new areas of cooperation
The Hanoitimes - The two sides consider inter-parliamentary cooperation an important component of the strategic partnership between the two countries. The first Vietnam-Russia inter-parliament meeting has opened up new areas of cooperation that are poised to foster the comprehensive strategic partnership. Vietnam’s National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and Chairman of the State Duma of Russia Vyacheslav V. Volodin. Photo: VNA Vietnam’s National Assembly (NA) Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and Chairman of the State Duma of Russia Vyacheslav V. Volodin co-chaired the meeting in Moscow last week. “It would be right for us to work more intensively in the economic sphere, developing both foreign economic relations and goods circulation. It is clearly insufficient for the level of our relations. […] For our part, we must do everything to develop cooperation more effectively than today,” the State Duma quoted Viacheslav Volodin. “When we talk about the work of our inter-parliament commission, it should do everything to ensure more dynamical development of foreign economic relations,” he said at the meeting. Viacheslav Volodin supported the idea of creating working groups and said that the adoption of legislative decisions would entail a more active development of relations. Meanwhile, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan said “We will do our best to develop cooperation between our countries, trade and economic relations better. To ensure that these results correspond to good political relations between our countries.” Vietnam’s National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and Chairman of the State Duma of Russia Vyacheslav V. Volodin at the first inter-parliament meeting in Moscow. Photo: Duma.org.ru Economic in focus, oil and gas remain among key pillars Both sides agreed to focus on economic ties. Ngan said that it is necessary to discuss issues of cooperation in the oil and gas sector, agriculture, and …
