Tet wishes

The Hanoitimes - The number of tourists to Hanoi dropped 91.2% from April 30 to May 2 compared to the same period of 2019. During this year’s holiday season, Hanoi welcomed just 1,123 international tourists, a decrease of 97.7% compared to the same period of last year, data of the municipal Department of Tourism showed. Most of them have been stranded in the city due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Immigration Management Division of the Hanoi Municipal Police Department. They came from 50 countries and territories in Asia, Europe, the Americas and Oceania. International tourists in Temple of Literature before the order of closure for tourist destinations. Photo: Lai Tan From April 30 to May 2, tourist arrivals to Hanoi plunged 91.2% over the same period in 2019 to 21,123. Total revenue from tourism reached VND68 billion (US$2.9 million) during the three days, down 84.4% inter-annually. From April 30 to May 3, the prices of hospitality services remained unchanged. The average occupancy of three- to five-star hotels reached about 13.4%. It's noteworthy that hospitality businesses around Hanoi, especially those in Son Tay and Ba Vi, saw demand for their services increase on the national holidays of April 30 and May 1, according to the Hanoi Tourism Department. As the social distancing order was loosened, many local residents wished to spend their leisure time at facilities near Hanoi. Some resorts in the city's outskirt reached occupancy rate of 65%, in the case of Asean Resort, or 60% of Tan Da and 30% of Khoang Xanh, the vacation spots nearby. Despite reopening before the holiday season of April 30 and May 1, shopping malls and catering facilities witnessed experienced a 90% drop in visitors from the same period of 2019. The number of tourists coming to the places of interest including the Hanoi Old Quarter Cultural Exchange Center, Hanoi Ancient House at 87 Ma May street, Hanoi Book Street, Bao Son Paradise Park, Ba …

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Loading rice for export at Sai Gon port (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNA) - Increasing global demand , stable domestic production , and better rice quality count among the reasons Vietnam can be confident its rice exports will prosper again in 2021 and surpass the 3.1 billion USD in revenue posted in 2020, despite a significant decline in the first two months of this year. According to figures from Vietnam Customs , Vietnam earned 192 million USD from shipping nearly 348,000 tonnes of rice overseas in January, down 34.2 percent in value and 36.4 percent in volume against December and 2.4 percent and 15.4 percent, respectively, year-on-year. As the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday fell in February, the month’s export turnover is expected to be down. Nguyen Van Don, Director of Tien Giang province’s Viet Hung Limited Company, said the beginning of the year is never the peak time for trade, as consumers have already purchased rice for the long holiday period at the end of the previous year. Rice prices in the Mekong Delta are also at a high level, so purchasing businesses and foreign customers are all waiting for them to fall. General Director of the Trung An Hi-tech Farming JSC Pham Thai Binh said that transportation problems have also hampered rice exports in recent times. He pointed out that the country is facing a serious shortage of empty containers and cargo ships for exports. According to the Vietnam Food Association (VFA), there are high hopes being pinned on Vietnam’s rice exports in 2021, with major export markets such as the Philippines and Africa continuing to sign contracts, while many others have significant demand for fragrant rice and sticky rice, in which Vietnamese enterprises hold an advantage. Packaging rice for export (Photo: VNA) VFA Vice President and General Secretary Nguyen Trung Kien said that bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) such as the EU-Vietnam FTA and the UK-Vietnam FTA, which contain …

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During the reception at the headquarters of the Ministry of National Defense, General Minh emphasized that together with the Vietnam-US comprehensive partnership, the bilateral defense ties have been developing fruitfully. This has been vividly demonstrated in several areas of cooperation, such as humanitarian aid, natural disaster relief, personnel training and experience-sharing in joining United Nations peacekeeping operations, and overcoming the aftermaths of war. General Minh also voiced a wish that the two militaries would further their cooperation in the coming time on the basis of equality, mutual respect for the benefit of each country and for peace and stability in the region. Echoing the Vietnamese officer’s opinion, Admiral Scott Swift held that there remains much room for the development of the US-Vietnam defense ties and confirmed that in his position, he would do his utmost to develop the bilateral defense ties in an intensive, practical and effective manner. Translated by Mai Huong …

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