People who need people

/ July 28, 2020

Hanoi on alert as 20,000 people return from pandemic-hit city

The Hanoi mayor urged all local residents to imperatively apply anti-epidemic measures in face of the reappearance of the novel coronavirus in other localities. Some 15,000 to 20,000 people are set to return to Hanoi from the popular Vietnamese beach city of Danang after more than a dozen people there were confirmed to have Covid-19, Kinh Te & Do Thi quoted Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Nguyen Duc Chung as saying at a meeting on July 27. The Hanoi mayor, therefore, urged all local residents to imperatively apply anti-epidemic measures to avoid the virus from spreading to the capital city. Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Nguyen Duc Chung speaks at the meeting. Photo: Kinhtedothi.vn "People need to stay calm as the capital city has gone 105 days without any new Covid-19 cases in the community," Chung said. He stressed that Covid-19 cases detected in Danang city and Quang Ngai province imply the risk of Covid-19 transmission to other localities, including Hanoi. The mayor requested all people who have been to Danang C Hospital, Danang Orthopedic Hospital, Danang General Hospital, districts of Ngu Hanh Son, Lien Chieu and Hai Chau make medical declarations, be sampled for Covid-19 testing and self-isolate at home. For people who arrived in Danang but did not go to the above-mentioned six places must also declare their health status, monitor health and practice social distancing in their neighborhoods, Chung added. He also asked relevant agencies to keep reviewing, managing and supervising cases of people returning from pandemic-hit regions. "People should voluntarily apply safety measures, because the municipal government cannot take care of them all," Chung stressed. Earlier, Chairman of the Bac Tu Liem district People's Committee Tran The Cuong said that on July 26 a suspected case residing in the district returned home from Danang and was put under quarantine at a hospital, four other relatives of …

/ May 1, 2021

Ministry encourages people to make donations by bank account transfer

The Ministry of Finance has announced a draft circular encouraging the public to make their social and charitable donations by bank account transfer or electronic payment methods. After over one year of fielding suggestions on management of such contributions, the Finance Ministry on Wednesday released its draft circular providing guidance for collection, management and expenditure of social and charitable donations as well as grants to relic sites and festive activities. Regarding charitable donations or funding for relic site protection, donors should directly put their cash contributions into boxes for kindness, transfer their grants to the bank accounts of relic management agencies at commercial banks or state treasuries, or hand over their valuable papers to those agencies. In case valuable papers are certificates carrying their owners’ names, donors are required to get through the transfer procedures as prescribed by current regulations. For donations in forms of precious metals or stones, relic management agencies are allowed to put them up for auctions or sell them to commercial banks, with proceeds from the sale recognized as cash contributions. In the draft circular, the Finance Ministry also set forth many principles on fund-raising and receipts of charitable donations. Accordingly, the ministry strictly prohibits taking unfair advantage of any festivals or using relic sites for individual or group interests. All receipts and expenditures of charitable donations must be recorded fully, correctly, publicly and transparently. Certificates of donation must be issued at the donors’ requests. In case a relic management agency receives a donation of VND100 million (US$4,300) or more, the agency must put it into its account at a commercial bank or a state treasury branch. With respect to management of charity boxes, relic management agencies must regularly check and count the money inside such box on the daily, weekly or monthly basis. …

/ May 4, 2021

Banks to serve with soaring capital needs of businesses

Businesses need more capital to recover their production activities this year. — Photo cafef.vn Strong increase in capital demand has been seen as production activities of enterprises gradually showed signs of recovery, forcing banks to reschedule their lending plans. According to the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV), deposit and lending interest rates continued to decline compared to the end of last year. The central bank required commercial banks to strictly control credit flow in risky areas such as real estate and securities to accumulate capital for production and business of priority sectors. As of April 16, the economy's credit increased by 3.34 per cent compared to the end of last year. In the first quarter of 2020, the credit of the economy only increased by 1.47 per cent. Nguyen Hoang Minh, Deputy Director of the State Bank in charge of HCM City Branch, said capital mobilisation increased only 0.7 per cent while outstanding credit increased by 3.5 per cent compared to the end of last year. Leaders at some commercial banks told media demand for capital from businesses and the market is increasing as the economy recovers from the COVID-19. The deputy general director of one plastic company, which could borrow with the lowest interest rate in the industry at about 5.4 per cent per year, said: "Production and business activities recovered quite strongly compared to last year, and the company's capital demand is large. Our enterprises are also classified as high credit, so they are given priority by the bank." Talking at the recent 2021 annual shareholder meeting, Nguyen Duc Thach Diem, General Director of Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank), said that by mid-April this year, the bank's capital mobilisation increased by just 3.5 per cent while lending increased to 5.8 per cent. Previously, the general director of Sacombank also said that many individual and corporate customers contacted the bank for loans. As credit growth …