Open 30 presbyo

Demand for workers in HCM City and other manufacturing hubs in the south has been high and rising after the Tet (Lunar New Year) holidays driven by a business recovery as COVID-19 recedes. A company in the southern province of Binh Duong advertises job openings. Photo laodong.vn Companies in the city’s industrial parks and export processing zones need around 12,000 workers, including 2,540 with a university degree, according to the HCM City Export Processing and Industrial Zones Authority (HEPZA). Another 4,700 jobs are available for applicants with college and vocational education, and the rest are for manual workers, Hung Hua Quoc Hung, head of HEPZA, said. The textile and footwear sectors have the largest demand, he added. The HCM City Centre for Forecasting Manpower Needs and Labour Market Information said the city overall is expected to need 30,000 workers after the Tet holiday. Do Thanh Van, deputy director of the centre, said trade, services, textile and footwear, food processing, logistics, IT, plastics, and chemicals are among the industries with the highest recruitment demand. PouYuen Việt Nam Co. Ltd in Tan Binh District, one of the companies with the largest demand, needs more than 2,000 workers for various positions such as IT technicians, office and purchase staff, secretaries, quality management staff, and manual workers. Le Minh Tan, director of the city Department of Labour, Invalid and Social Affairs, said all businesses have resumed operations after Tet with around 96 per cent of workers returning to work. In Binh Duong Province, a manufacturing hub, more than 95 per cent of workers have returned, according to its Federation of Labour. The federation also said 916 enterprises require 95,983 workers after Tet. Dong Nai Province, another manufacturing hub, too needs thousands of workers to meet the expected increase in production this year. Cao Duy Thai, head of the wage office at the province Department of …

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With an orchestra spread out across the entire parterre, audiences limited to the balconies, and no breaks but plenty of disinfectant, the Sofia Opera is one of the few music venues still hosting live performances in Europe. Across the continent, a third wave of COVID-19 infections is keeping opera houses and other cultural venues closed -- loud singing poses a particular risk as the virus spreads through droplets -- but in Bulgaria, classical music plays on, from "Tosca" to "La Traviata". "I am hungry for music. And the risk, why think about it? It's not riskier here than in the supermarket or the subway," says 81-year-old Petya Petkova, who attended Verdi's "La Traviata" with her daughter last week. Despite the disinfectant, social-distancing and staff taking people's temperature, a festive spirit reigns at the historic opera house in the Bulgarian capital, a stark contrast to its silenced counterparts in Paris, Vienna or Milan. Bulgaria first eased pandemic restrictions in June and allowed operas, concert halls and cinemas to reopen at 30 percent capacity, leading the Sofia Opera to arrange plastic and fabric flower bouquets as placeholders on the majority of the crimson plush seats. "We perform in front of 250 spectators, but it's better than not playing or performing," Sofia Opera director Plamen Kartaloff says. Even as Europe struggles with a third wave of infections, in part due to a number of mutations that spread more easily, Kartaloff expects the opera to remain open. Acoustic challenges Tragedy has touched the operatic community, and not just on stage: In November, Bulgarian tenor Kamen Chanev died of COVID-19, three weeks after he debuted Otello in the central Bulgarian city of Stara Zagora. Remembering him, soprano Stanislava Momekova, 36, becomes serious. "That's the risk of this profession -- it holds us like a drug, it's stronger than fear," Momekova says. For American conductor Evan-Alexis Christ, who saw his performances in …

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The Hanoitimes - Hanoi hopes trade link will support its export-driven economy while London is trying to secure trade deals ahead of the transition period after Brexit. Vietnam and the UK have agreed refresh and strengthen their strategic partnership and set the framework for forging ahead in the next decade. Vietnam and the UK look to forge ahead the partnership in the next decade. Photo: MOFA The two sides adopted a joint declaration at a meeting between Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh and UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on September 30 during the British diplomat’s visit to Hanoi, the first by a European politician to Vietnam since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The declaration, which marks a milestone of 10 years of the Vietnam-UK Strategic Partnership, outlines the UK and Vietnam’s commitment to further strengthening the bilateral partnership. It includes (1) deepening bilateral trade and investment, and pursuing more open trade through global and regional economic integration; (2) co-operating to support sustainable economic growth, and to combat the urgent challenges presented by climate change; (3) working together on shared security challenges through peace-keeping operations, military healthcare and training and maritime security; (4) enhancing ties in education, vocational training, higher education, particularly in the field of science and technology; (5) enhancing bilateral cooperation in defense and security and to combat serious and organized crime; (6) promoting people-to-people links, equal rights, including promoting gender equality and tackling modern slavery; and (7) committing to a closer coordination through multilateral fora, including the United Nations and within the framework of ASEAN. Trade deal dominates the visit To prepare for partnership in the next 10 years, the two sides highlighted the importance of a bilateral trade agreement that dominates …

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