Gov’t lags behind in digital era

During an unprecedented trial between a HCM City taxi firm against Grab, a Uber-type company, for alleged unfair competition, the judge posed a simple but fundemental question: “What field was Grab’s business licence registered in?”

Much work to be done to end violence against women and girls

Last month a Vietnamese woman in Hanoi was attacked and set on fire by her foreign ex-boyfriend, who allegedly threw petrol at her, leaving her in critical condition with life-threatening burns. This shocking news is a painful reminder of the universality of the issue: there is no safe space from gender-based violence. The #MeToo movement around the world has underscored the widespread prevalence of sexual abuse and violence.

Uphold the law, don’t take it into your own hands

It is not for nothing that prostitution has been called the world’s oldest profession. To end it, we have to end male demand for sex and remove the socio-economic constraints that propel women into the profession.

A complex problem we can’t resign ourselves to

On Monday, Deputy Chairman of the District 1 People’s Committee Đoàn Ngọc Hải in HCM City handed in his papers, admitting failure in his efforts to clear pavements of unauthorized vendors and other forms of illegal encroachment.

No rocket science needed to prevent such blasts

In just several hours on Wednesday, two explosions constantly occurred at the same place in a village in the northern Bắc Ninh Province’s Yên Phong District, killing two people, both of whom are children, and injuring eight others, all are nearby locals.

Crony capitalism subverts socialist aspirations

In a Đà Nẵng plot that has thickened steadily over the last several years, police are seeking a 42-year-old real estate tycoon, Phan Văn Anh Vũ, for criminal charges of “revealing State secrets.”

It’s time to spare the rod forever and ever

I am in deep dudgeon and could not hold back tear after seeing the image of a 10-year-old boy in Hà Nội’s Cầu Giấy District covering with serious injuries released earlier this month.

A MAD silver lining in the mushroom cloud

The tension ratcheted up in the Korean peninsula by state actors and the Western media in particular seemed to peak as the isolated country successfully fired an intercontinental ballistic missile less than a week ago. The drama continues, but there has been a decisive shift in the status-quo.

How are monsters getting childcare jobs?

The regularity with which instances of brutality towards their wards by nannies and caretakers at kindergartens are coming to light is as frightening as it is horrific.

9,000 PhDs: just what the doctor did not order

The Ministry of Education Training has revealed a draft plan to spend up to VNĐ12 trillion (US$533 million) to train 9,000 PhD holders for Việt Nam by 2025, which has immediately stirred public outcry for its impracticality and waste of resources.

PhDs in Việt Nam: Just what does the doctor order?

Whatever the merits or demerits of the recent brouhaha over a PhD dissertation, the time is opportune to take a seriously critical look at some post-graduate academic practices and “traditions” in the country.

Expanding role of MSMEs in global sustainable development

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is home to 40 per cent of the world’s population, 50 per cent of global trade, and 60 per cent of global GDP. Over the last quarter century, APEC has shaped and transformed the global economy and supported half a billion people in their rise out of poverty.

Hà Nội’s ’golden’ land needs better oversight

For the second time in two years, a proposal put forward by the Hà Nội Police Department to move Hà Nội Railway Station (HNRS) and all inter-provincial railway tracks to the suburbs has been rejected by many experts and citizens.

For whom do the BOT bells toll in Việt Nam

In what has become a regrettably familiar scenario in the country, authorities have responded belatedly to angry protests by reducing and canceling toll at yet another booth, this time in the Mekong Delta Province of Tiền Giang.

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