Pandemic to cause migrant workers to stay back in hcmc for tet vnexpress international

In a proposal submitted to the city, the metro operator, the HCMC Management Authority for Urban Railways (MAUR), said it has agreed with the metro consultancy, NJPT, a consortium led by Japan's Nippon Koei, that the chief expert would be paid 2.5 million yen a month and the rest 2.35 million yen. It said these are the lowest salaries for the jobs as set in the contract. They are comparable with the salaries agreed for the mass rapid transit project in Jakarta, it said. Vietnamese experts involved in training engineers will be paid differently, but the details have not been disclosed. In January a school that was training 58 engineers for the metro announced it had put the course on hold citing non-payment of its fees by MAUR. The 15-month training, at Hanoi's Vietnam Railway College in collaboration with NJPT, had begun last July. The trainees, including one woman, are aged 21-35. It appears that payments to teachers and the school can only be made if appendix No.19 to a 2007 contract between MAUR and NJPT is signed, and that requires the city to approve the engineers’ salaries. The contract envisaged completion of the line in 2015. Numerous setbacks that caused delays have pushed the project’s completion to next year. The long delay also forced the two parties to add 19 appendixes to the contract. The 19.7-kilometer route from Ben Thanh Market in District 1 to Suoi Tien Theme Park in District 9 will have 17 Japanese-made trains operating. To cost VND43.7 trillion ($1.89 billion), it has seen 82 percent of the work completed against a targeted 85 percent. MAUR has blamed the delay on Japanese and European engineers installing the tracks being unable to enter Vietnam last year after international flights were suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. …

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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 …

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Vietnam racks up $1.29 billion in trade surplus in two months The country’s trade turnover during January-February topped some 95.81 billion USD, a year-on-year surge of 25.4 percent. Vietnam’s trade balance posted positive, 1.29 billion USD, in the first two months of the year, the General Department of Customs said on December 28. The country’s trade turnover during January-February topped some 95.81 billion USD, a year-on-year surge of 25.4 percent. Of the total, exports amounted to 48.55 billion USD, a yearly hike of 23.2 percent, while imports were estimated at 47.26 billion USD, or 25.9 percent higher than the same time last year. Foreign-invested companies accounted for 76.4 percent, or 37.07 billion USD, of Vietnam’s total export turnover. Meanwhile, the domestic sector shipped abroad 11.48 billion USD worth of products. There were nine commodities joining the billion-USD export club, including telephones and parts (9.3 billion USD, up 22.8 percent year-on-year); electronics, computers and parts (6.9 billion USD, up 27.3 percent); equipment, machines and parts (5.5 billion USD, up 72.6 percent); footwear (3.2 billion USD, up 15.4 percent); and wood and wooden products (2.4 billion USD, up 51 percent). They made up 73 percent of the country’s export turnover. The US was Vietnam’s biggest importer as it splashed out 14.2 billion USD on Vietnamese products, or 38.2 percent higher than the amount it spent the same time last year. China came second with 8.5 billion USD, followed by the EU with 6.3 billion USD, ASEAN 4.2 billion USD, the Republic of Korea 3.4 billion USD, and Japan 3.2 billion USD. Meanwhile, the country spent big (47.26 billion USD) on imports, with foreign-invested sector purchasing 31.64 billion USD worth of products from abroad for production, up 31.4 percent, while that of the domestic sector surged 16 percent to 15.62 billion USD. In the two-month period, China was the largest exporter of Vietnam, with revenue …

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