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The Consular Department under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed there may be two flights from Japan and Taiwan on March 5, with each carrying 343 passengers, Giao Thong newspaper reported. On March 6, two flights from the Philippines and Malaysia are expected to carry 240 passengers home each. A day later, one flight from Singapore with 360 passengers is scheduled to arrive in Vietnam. On March 8, there will be two flights from the U.S. and France, returning a total of over 700 passengers. From March 9 to 14, a total six flights will bring over 2,000 Vietnamese from UAE, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Russia home. Vietnam has suspended all inbound international commercial flights since March 2020, though the government has been operating repatriation flights to bring home Vietnamese citizens stuck abroad amid the pandemic, and has allowed special flights to carry foreign experts and investors to the country. The government in late January limited inbound flights in light of new variants of the novel coronavirus spreading fast in many countries. Only special cases approved by the government can enter the country. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said Thursday the ministry is mapping out a plan to bring stranded Vietnamese home in line with the global pandemic situation, as well as domestic isolation capacity. Over 75,000 Vietnamese were repatriated last year. …

[Read more...] about Vietnam plans 13 repatriation flights for next month

A swift’s-nest farming place in Kiên Giang Province. — VNS Photo Văn Châu HCM CITY — Việt Nam's bird-nest exports are expected to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars when the world's largest market, China, opens up this year. Chinese demand for bird’s nest is growing, but Vietnamese firms need to take new measures to officially export to that country rather than involve in informal border trade, the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development (MARD) said. Đỗ Tú Quân, head of the Việt Nam Swiftlet Farming Association, said Vietnamese exporters hope the two countries would quickly reach agreement and the first order to China could be delivered this quarter. Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phùng Đức Tiến said the industry has been developing rapidly in the country, mostly in the south, but the unofficial border trade has been resulting in low value and profits. There are 20,000 nests farmed in 42 of the country’s 63 provinces and cities with approximately 120 tonnes worth US$450 million harvested annually, according to Tiến. But exports to China account for only 8 per cent. China banned import of bird’s nests of unclear origin from Việt Nam in 2011 following a fake products scandal. It lifted the ban in 2015 and replaced it with tough rules aimed at improving safety and traceability. Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand have all completed legal procedures to export bird’s nest to China, but Việt Nam cannot export officially due to several reasons, including the lack of quality standards for the product and export standards. In recent years MARD has sought to promote exports to foreign markets, including China. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, negotiations to export the product to China have mainly been conducted through online meetings but are almost complete, deputy director of MARD's department of livestock breeding, Nguyễn Văn Trọng, said. Many swift breeding places are unhygienic, …

[Read more...] about Vietnamese salangane nests headed for China

* China and India should firmly follow the right path of mutual trust and cooperation between neighboring major countries, and not go astray with suspicion and distrust nor fall back on a road of negative retrogression, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Thursday. Wang made the remarks in a telephone conversation with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, stressing that the two sides should maintain the strategic consensuses reached by their leaders. * As COVID-19 transmission rates seemingly decline across the European Region, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge expressed health concerns over "long-COVID" or "post-COVID" symptoms at a virtual press conference on Thursday. * Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in Armenia in a telephone conversation with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday, the Kremlin said. * The Pentagon confirmed on Thursday that the US military had conducted airstrikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed militant groups in eastern Syria. The Pentagon called the operation a "proportionate military response" carried out after consultations with coalition partners. * China approved two more vaccines for public use, raising the number of domestically produced vaccines that can be used in China to four. * Japan on Friday is preparing to lift the state of emergency over COVID-19 for five prefectures where the situation has improved, although the Greater Tokyo metropolitan area will likely be kept under the emergency period for the time being, according to government sources. * The Department of Health (DOH) of the Philippines reported on Friday 2,651 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily increase since Oct. 17 last year, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 571,327. * Leaders of the European Union (EU) called for an accelerated production and delivery of COVID-19 …

[Read more...] about World News in Brief: February 26