Việt Nam News

Việt Nam is one of the most open economies in the world. Trade-led development has contributed to rapid growth, job creation and poverty reduction, helping the country achieve GDP growth of 7.1 per cent in 2018. But linkages between foreign direct investment (FDI) and domestic enterprises are weak and may erode further unless Việt Nam puts the right policies in place to strengthen the competitiveness of domestic enterprises.

Somehow the most basic rule of driving is being ignored. Despite thousands of warnings, drunk and drugged drivers still risk theirs and other’s lives on the roads daily. Public health messaging about the dangers of operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs is falling on deaf ears.

Tết gifts are an age-old tradition in Việt Nam, affording people the chance to pay visits to their seniors to wish them (and themselves) all the best for the New Year.

Public discourse has taken off over Hà Nội’s recent decision to forbid citizens from making audio or video recordings without consent during meetings with officials.

Đinh Bằng My, 57 years old, principal of Thanh Sơn District’s secondary boarding school for ethnic minority students in northern Phú Thọ Province, was allegedly reported to have molested dozens of male students in his office. The horrific truth would have been a secret forever without the involvement of the media.

Two journalists received death threats earlier this week for reporting on an alleged parking racket at Long Biên market, the biggest wholesale market in Hà Nội.

Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates delivered a rousing presentation on the revolution of toilets in China last week, but the thing that grabbed international headlines was the props he used to drive the point home: a clear canister of human excrement. 

There is no doubt that drunk driving is a killer disease. Drunk drivers kill themselves and kill others.

The sinking situation of the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta in the south of Việt Nam—seen in the rising tides and worsening floods affecting the region—is obviously caused by climate change. But the mindset of planners that fostered the building of embankment systems around the delta decades ago has worsened today’s situation.

This is the time that needs active role of trade union and labour organisations in supervising overtime violations in order to protect employee’s rights. Hopefully the more independent organisations truly represent employee’s rights, the better supervising role of these associations will take effect.

For a child, they say their schooldays are the best days of their lives. But for the parents, they are fast becoming the most expensive days of their lives. Every parent wants the best possible education for their children, but at what cost?

Professor Dr. Trần Xuân Nhĩ, talks to Khoa học & Đời sống newspaper about a proposal to waive tuition fees for students from pre-school to the ninth grade in public schools

The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) set the maximum number of students per classroom no more than 35, but overcrowding in schools has been taking place for years, especially at pre-school, primary and even lower secondary education levels in big cities.

It’s a familiar idiom: One’s man trash is another man’s treasure.

Alcohol consumption can harm the drinker, but what’s worse is when it harms an innocent. On August 27, 2017, Hoàng Văn Thuận, 39, went from work to his friend’s house in Nghệ An Province to drink. Getting home after wards, drunk, Thuận raped his own daughter, who was just 14 years old.

The new kind of exam lifted such a burden from the students and their families. That all localities have decent infrastructure to host a national-level exam was one necessary condition for the two-in-one test. But the other, in which localities must ensure the security, secrecy and general quality of the exam, was somehow missing.

TV footage of Hà Giang's students and their parents braving the cold and the angry water during the time made a fine example of dedication and the strength of human spirit in the face of adversity. The country looked north with sympathy and admiration. Fast forward half a month and the province now finds itself at the centre of a national scandal: they were found to have modified the results of more than a hundred students favourably. How did they get there? 

Now all of us have new stories to tell our children when they ask about superheroes, but not Spiderman, Captain America or Iron Man.