The public should be central in the process of policy communication to ensure the effectiveness of communication and the implementation of policies, heard an international scientific conference in Hà Nội yesterday.

The Government of Việt Nam spends about VNĐ65 trillion (US$2.79 billion) dealing with the consequences of alcohol each year, while alcoholic beverage firms contribute roughly VNĐ50 trillion ($2.14 billion) to the country’s economy, a health official revealed.

Large-scale vision screening programmes for children are needed for early detection and treatment of visual impairment due to refractive error, experts said at the Việt Nam Ophthalmological Society Congress that opened in HCM City yesterday.

Discussions and forums on the South China Sea (called East Sea by Việt Nam) have become sources of interdisciplinary study among scholars and researchers from the fields of politics, social policy, environment and strategy over the past decade.

The fish ‘belong’ to Phạm Văn Cường, 64, commonly known as Năm Cường, in Vĩnh Ngươn District, Châu Đốc City in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang.

The Hà Nội People’s Committee wants special powers to help restore old buildings. They have asked the Ministry of Construction to put their proposals to the Government in the hope of easing difficulties with building projects.

Deputy Prime Minister Trịnh Đình Dũng has approved a feasibility report on a project of land clearance, compensation and resettlement support related to the construction of Long Thành International Airport in the southern province of Đồng Nai.

One of the main achievements of Việt Nam’s agricultural restructuring plan over the last five years is the formation of three product categories – national key products, local key products and those under the programme “one village, one product”.

Nguyễn Hùng, a paralysed lottery ticket seller in the central province of Thừa Thiên-Huế, has finally got his dream house. Part of funding for construction came from a housing programme run by the UNDP.