Workers at a shrimp processing factory in Vietnam (Photo: VNA) Pham Thanh Hai, First Secretary at the Vietnam Trade Office in South Africa, told Vietnam News Agency reporters on the sidelines of a recent consultation on fishery exports to the African market organised by the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT). Nearly three decades after the establishment of diplomatic relations, the Vietnam-South Africa cooperation has flourished with achievements in major fields of politics, diplomacy, national defence, security and trade, among others. Of note, South Africa is currently Vietnam’s largest trade partner in Africa as the average annual growth rate of two-way trade surpassed US$1.2 billion in the 2019-2021. Statistics from the MoIT indicated that the African nation mainly imported shrimp worth $3.17 million and frozen fish of $1.03 million from Vietnam last year. Bilateral trade remained stable despite negative impacts of Covid-19, … [Read more...] about South Africa a potential market for Vietnam’s fishery products: official
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Vietnam chess ace to compete in Prague Masters
The chess festival in Prague, Czech Republic will consist of four groups of different levels. The lowest is the Open and anyone can register for it. The next three levels are Futures, Challengers and Masters. Liem is invited to the Masters group, along with nine other grandmasters, including Czech-Vietnamese player Nguyen Thai Dai Van. The average Elo rating of the 10 grandmasters is 2,693. Liem is the third seed in this tournament. Dai Van is the number three player of Czech Republic. His parents are Vietnamese. Van has a similar style of play as Liem. This is his second time in the Masters group of the tournament. Last year, he drew all seven matches in it. For Liem, this is his first time in the Czech Republic, and also his first standard chess tour since the Gibraltar Masters in January 2020. The lack of standard chess competitions in the last two years has kicked Liem out of FIDE standard chess rankings. His target will be to accumulate more Elo ratings to return to the … [Read more...] about Vietnam chess ace to compete in Prague Masters
Horrors, heroes: night tour of Hanoi prison revisits history
Tran Xuan Bach, an office worker in Hanoi, recently took a night tour of the Hoa Lo Prison built by the French in 1896. Bach learnt about the tour from a post on Facebook fan page of the Management Board of Hoa Lo Prison Relic. He and some of his colleagues registered for the tour of what used to be a scary place and called "Hell on Earth." The facility was also famously dubbed the "Hanoi Hilton" by American POWs incarcerated there. Before starting the tour, each of the visitors were given their own headphones so they could easily follow the instructions. Following their tour guide, they entered the main gate of the prison and made their way to the men's collective detention camp, the male political prison camp and the dungeon. The prison space was dark and stuffy, and it was still a frightening and emotional experience. "Just standing there, I felt suffocated. I really couldn't imagine how Vietnamese soldiers lived and overcame this harshness in the past," Bach said. The … [Read more...] about Horrors, heroes: night tour of Hanoi prison revisits history
N.A. deputies debate draft Law on Implementation of Democracy at Grassroots Level
According to Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra, the bill comprises seven chapters and 74 articles, adding many new contents to existing regulations in the field, including those on the implementation of democracy in agencies. Tra said that in the compilation of the bill, there have been different opinions on regulations on the realization of democracy in enterprises that need further discussion at the N.A. Following the Government’s opinion, the bill gives one chapter on the implementation of democracy in companies, she added. Delivering a verification report on the bill, Chairman of the N.A. Law Committee Hoang Thanh Tung underlined that the committee agrees with the necessity of the law. Tung said the committee proposed that the Government continue to specify the implementation of democracy inside agencies of the Party, N.A., people’s committee at all levels, the Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations, the People’s Courts, People’s Procuracy, … [Read more...] about N.A. deputies debate draft Law on Implementation of Democracy at Grassroots Level