The intensity of COVID-19 has initially “cooled down” in many nations around the world after the vaccination campaign has been deployed on a large scale. However, in some EU member states the situation remains serious and the EU is struggling to overcome the third wave of the pandemic. Contrary to the trend of easing social distancing, Hungary, France and the Czech Republic are the European countries tending to tighten prevention and control measures as the number of infections has increased recently. Statistics show that, while most Western European countries have recorded a declining or stable number of cases, about 100-200 per one million people per day, the figure is at around 300 in France and more than 600 in the Czech Republic. French Health Minister Olivier Véran stated that in the next four to six weeks, France will maintain a nightly curfew and lockdown measures such as closing pubs, restaurants and museums, in a bid to protect the pandemic prevention and control efforts. Meanwhile, Gergely Gulyas, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff, said that Hungary has decided to extend a partial lockdown with infections expected to rise in the next two weeks. He highlighted that the next two weeks will be particularly difficult as the country must cope with the third COVID-19 wave. The Czech Republic and Hungary have taken measures to increase vaccine availability for the COVID-19 vaccination campaign amidst many opinions arguing that the EU’s licensing process is too slow. Relatively strict control measures in response to the pandemic have also been maintained in Germany. German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently emphasised that Germany is still in the third wave of the pandemic, while a local health official warned that without the maintenance of current measures, the third wave will be extremely difficult, and even uncontrollable. A major problem currently facing the EU countries is that despite the complicated development of the pandemic, the …
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Facebook launches #SheForVietnam programme to empower Vietnamese women
A poster of #SheForVietnam, a facebook's programme for Vietnamese women. — Photo Facebook HÀ NỘI — Facebook will launch #SheForVietnam - a programme for Vietnamese women who are creating miracles every day on social networks on March 6 in efforts to affirm its commitment to supporting Vietnamese women in the digital era. #SheForVietnam is designed to connect and inspire women's communities, encourage and empower them to dream big and live life to the fullest. The programme’s first pillar - #SheInspires is an online roundtable to honour and inspire women that stand up to help others and spread positive energy. There will be some popular faces in the event, those represent millions of other Vietnamese women creating magic every day thanks to the power of social networks: singer Thủy Tiên, Miss Universe Vietnam H'Hen Niê, actress Sam, social activist Chung Vũ Thanh Uyên - Mina Chung, CEO of Ru9 Company Limited Đặng Thùy Trang, Founder - CEO of the Women's Initiative for Startups and Entrepreneurship (WISE) Từ Thu Hiền and Nam Nguyễn, Entertainment Partnership Lead, Vietnam, Facebook. “In Việt Nam, women contributed 62 per cent of the total amount fundraised on Facebook in 2020. We have seen the positive impact that women have been able to create in their communities by sharing their voices across our platform, which becomes our motivation to continue our commitment to support women in Việt Nam. We hope #SheForVietnam can empower Vietnamese women to pursue their dreams and improve their life’s value, making more impact for the community,” said Nam Nguyen, Entertainment Partnership Lead, Vietnam, Facebook. Hosted by Actress Sam, the event will unveil stories about how those successful women leverage the power of a social network to inspire people, especially the women's community. The live roundtable #SheInspires will take place at 20:00 on March 6, 2021 on Facebook app Vietnam and Yeah1’s page system as well as a series of other popular pages from Đất Việt, …
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Government shows urgency in climate change battle
As Vietnam is among the most threatened countries by climate change, the state and people take decisive action, photo Le Toan The government has promulgated Resolution No.06/NQ-CP on the Action Programme on continuing the implementation of Resolution No.24-NQ/TW by the 11th Party Central Committee on active response to climate change, improvement of natural resource management, and environmental protection. The action programme, to be implemented until 2025, lays a foundation for ministries, agencies, and localities to formulate and implement their own plans on responding to climate change while strengthening natural resource management and environmental protection. Under the programme, efforts are to be made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 7.3 per cent below the business-as-usual scenario by 2025, and achieve 5-7 per cent in energy conservation out of gross energy consumption. To this end, some key solutions are to be taken. Specifically, the government orders ministries and agencies to formulate and implement sturdy policies on shifting to digital economy, and development and expansion of models on circular economy, green economy, and low-carbon economy. In addition to an increase in state budget in investing into responding to climate change, and managing natural resources and the environment, the government will have a flexible mechanism on allocating the use of natural resources under a market mechanism. Notably, the government will “develop markets for environmental goods and services, the carbon market, public-private partnership models, and green credits and green bonds, as well as mobilise investment capital from non-state sources,” according to Resolution 06. To enable investors, Resolution 06 stressed that a number of related laws will be revised soon, including the Law on Land 2013, the Law on Minerals 2010, and the Law on Efficient Use and Saving Energy, as well as many other related documents. Championing the cause Disaster …
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