Project pre feasibility study

A design of the proposed HCM City-Cần Thơ express rail route. Photo courtesy of the Southern Institute for Science and Technology HCM CITY — The Ministry of Transport has instructed the Railway Project Management Board to do a pre-feasibility study for the high-speed HCMC-Cần Thơ railway by 2022. Recently the Southern Institute of Science and Technology (PNSTI), which is in charge of the project, submitted to the HCM City People’s Committee and the Ministry of Transport recommendations for the project after seven years of studies. It will run along the HCM City-Trung Lương and Trung Lương-Mỹ Thuận expressways instead of passing through crowded residential areas and industrial parks to reduce the difficulties related to acquiring lands and cost. The route will be 140km long, start at Tân Kiên Station in HCM City, pass through the provinces of Long An, Tiền Giang and Vĩnh Long and end at Cái Răng Station in Cần Thơ City. It will have nine stations. Passenger trains will run at 200km per hour and freight trains at 120km. It will enable people to travel between Cần Thơ and HCM City in just 45 minutes while it takes three hours by road now. It will reduce the cost of transporting goods from the Mekong Delta to ports in HCM City and Bà Rịa – Vũng Tàu and improve the competitiveness of the country’s exports. According to PNSTI the project has attracted interest from more than 20 international investors in the US, Europe and elsewhere. It is expected to cost US$10 billion. According to the Japan International Cooperation Agency, by 2030 the volume of passenger and freight traffic between HCM City and Cần Thơ will increase by 4.8 and three times compared to 2008. HCM City is the centre of the southern key economic region while Cần Thơ is its Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta counterpart. The rail link is expected to have a positive impact on the socio-economic development of the two cities as well as provinces such as Long An, Tiền Giang and Vĩnh Long. It is …

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Vietnam striving to promote sustainable marine aquaculture development Vietnam striving to promote sustainable marine aquaculture development hinh anh 1 A shrimp farming area in Phu Yen province Vietnam is to have 280,000 ha of marine aquaculture area and 10.5 million cubic metres of farming cages by 2025, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD). Annual marine aquaculture output and export turnover are expected to reach 850,000 tonnes and between 800 million and 1 billion USD, the ministry said. The MARD has taken a series of measures to promote sustainable marine aquaculture in coastal areas nationwide, towards turning the sector into a key part of the country’s maritime economy by 2045. Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien said agencies have coordinated with coastal localities to review and build a plan for aquaculture development in Vietnam to 2030 with a vision to 2045. The plan will focus on improving the output, quality, and economic efficiency of marine aquaculture, protecting the environment and adapting to climate change, restructuring production activities, and building value chains for each group of products, with industrial marine aquaculture to play a key role. Incentive policies will be available to offshore industrial aquaculture enterprises, to encourage them to invest. Attention will be paid to creating business communities in offshore aquaculture in major coastal cities and provinces, including Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Ca Mau, and Kien Giang, as well as others with substantial potential. Marine aquaculture and aquatic processing centres, logistics services, and fisheries infrastructure will be developed in north-central and central coastal localities from Thanh Hoa to Binh Thuan. Priority will be given to developing models of multi-species farming and in supporting establishments …

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Vaccine passports – the future?, illustration photo, source: internet At the end of December, thousands of Europeans received the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine after the company received authorisation in the EU. Since then, other countries such as the US, Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, India, and several Asian countries, including Vietnam, have also started to receive or order vaccines to prepare for mass vaccination programmes. This has awakened optimism about an end to the pandemic and the idea of a vaccine passport. A heated discussion Some parts of the world, such as the Seychelles, Cyprus, and Romania, have begun to remove quarantine requirements for visitors who have been vaccinated. In early January, Denmark also announced that it would issue vaccine passports to citizens within the next three to four months. To get digital vaccine passports, Danish citizens will have to declare their medical and vaccination status on a government-issued app. Owners of such passports will be able to return to Denmark without quarantine and receive access to bars, restaurants, and hotels. Iceland became the first European nation to issue vaccine certificates in late January. While Greece also announced it will unveil a digital vaccination certificate for those who have received two doses of the vaccine, Israel recently announced that a so-called Green Badge will allow vaccinated people to go to restaurants, attend public events, and travel freely. Other countries that are currently issuing or waiting for vaccine passports include the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, and Sweden. Despite being supported by several countries and seen as a necessary condition for freedom of movement, vaccine passports have received mixed reactions in many places. The UK, the first in the world to vaccinate people against COVID-19, had previously denied plans for vaccine passports to allow people to travel abroad, but …

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