Tet cake festival held in Nha Trang; Traffic accidents decrease during the Tet holiday; Director apprehended for embezzlement; Tourists in central provinces set to rise 15%
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The Yasaka Saigon Nha Trang Resort Hotel & Spa held its annual Tet Cake festival to welcome the Lunar New Year in Nha Trang City, Khanh Hoa province, on February 15.
At this year’s festival, the hotel made a 35-metre-long Tet cake and 999 smaller ones with various kinds of stuffing such as green beans and small red beans.
To prepare for the festival, the hotel bought hundreds of kilos of sticky rice, beans, pork and dong (phrynium) leaves. As many as 100 people participated in the event.
All the cakes were wrapped at April 2 Square before being cooked at the hotel on the night of February 15.
Some of the giant cake was offered to hotel guests and the rest was sold to raise money for the local “fund for the poor”.
Traffic accidents decrease during the Tet holiday
During the first three days of the Lunar New Year, hospitals in big cities and 31 provinces received 6,302 victims of traffic accidents, down 21 percent compared to the same period last year.
Notably, 650 cases involved persons not wearing helmets, up 19.5 percent, doctors reported.
The doctors said a total of nearly 44,000 people visited hospitals for medical treatment, of whom 14,077 received emergency treatment for injuries due to accidents, a fall of 14 percent.
The hospital death toll was 183, down 14.5 percent compared to the previous Tet holiday.
As this Tet festival lasts for nine days, the Ministry of Health has instructed medical centres to work around the clock to deal immediately with any cases of emergency that occur.
Vietnam increases int’l cooperation in marine environmental management
Vietnam will expand international cooperation in conducting surveys and managing natural resources in territorial waters.
This is one of five tasks the Vietnam Administration of Seas and Islands has put forward in its international marine cooperation programme until 2020.
Since early this year, the administration has sped up modernisation of marine surveying work to meet the requirements of the marine-based economy in the first decades of the 21st century.
It has updated technology, applied new scientific and technological advances, and increased the quality of surveying, observation and forecasting skills to serve socio-economic development and national defence.
The administration is currently working on a project to set up a data bank on the natural resources and environment of seas and islands, which will be used to minimise the effects of climate change and rising sea levels.
The agency has signed and implemented bilateral and multilateral memorandums of understanding on marine environment-related issues with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Republic of Korea’s Coast Guard, Russia’s Pacific Research Institute of Fishery and Oceanography, and the RoK Minerals and Geography Institute.
Hordes of Chinese tourists enter Vietnam in the New Year
About 1,000 Chinese travellers have come to Vietnam on the first two days of the Lunar New Year, according to the Lao Cai provincial border guard.
The number of tourists entering Vietnam through the Lao Cai international border gate is expected to multiply in the coming days.
Chinese visitors waiting in front of the border gate centre for procedure clearance
The border guard is working with relevant agencies to clear administrative procedure for the visitors in the shortest time.
Mrs. Lan Anh, Deputy Director of the Binh Minh international travel agency, says travel companies have also booked sleeping-berth train tickets for 2,400 Chinese visitors to Hanoi and Ha Long Bay.
Poor workers not forgotten for Tet
More than 1,500 poor workers in HCM City’s export-processing zones and industrial parks have received free gifts and food for the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday.
The HCM City Federation of Labour and dozens of labour unions of local environmental protection zones and industrial parks have donated VND50 billion (US$2.63 million) worth of gifts to workers.
The scheme targets workers who are unable to return home for Tet.
Many workers have recently taken part in activities sponsored by the HCM City Federation of Labour, the HCM City Export-Processing and Industrial Zone Authority (HEPZA), and HCM City’s EPZ and IP Labour Union and Workers’ Support Fund.
More than 600 workers participated in a programme on Thursday which featured musical performances, games and sports competitions at Thu Duc District’s Linh Trung EPZ 1.
Nguyen Van Khai, chairman of the HCM City’s EPZ and IP Labour Union, said most workers came from the southwestern region and were not financially able to return home for Tet.
“We hope the Labour Union’s gifts will warm the hearts of migrant workers during the Tet holiday,” said Khai.
The HCM City Federation of Labour has also offered 2,500 free return tickets to low-income workers or workers with sick relatives so they can return home.
HEPZA has given away 5,500 free tickets for workers in the North and some provinces in the South. The HCM City People’s Committee has also offered 4,200 free tickets.
Tran Thanh Hai, vice chairman of the Federation of Labour, said more than 134,100 poor workers had received gifts and free return tickets to their hometowns from company labour unions for the holiday.
Contraband found on Panamanian ship
Border guards at HCM City’s Sai Gon Port searched a Panamanian-registered container ship anchored on the Nha Be River last Thursday and found a large quantity of goods without proper import documents.
Aboard the 12,300-tonne Pacific Grace were cosmetics, washing machines, electric fans, and loud speakers, and officials are making an inventory of the contraband.
The ship, commanded by Captain Nguyen Cong Tam and with a Vietnamese crew, had arrived in HCM City from Singapore early that morning, Tuoi Tre reports.
Director apprehended for embezzlement
Director of the Thanh Dat Trade and Employment Service Ltd Co Dang Thi Xoa and her assistant were apprehended for stealing more than VND2 billion ($106,000), according to police in the northern coastal Quang Ninh Province.
Last January, they took advantage of a labour contract between their company and a coal mining company by collaborating with officials from their partner company to falsify documents about the number of employees and payroll figures.
The case is under further investigation.
Tourists in central provinces set to rise 15%
With the central region set to hold an international firecracker festival after Tet (the Lunar New Year), the number of tourists visiting it during the festival is expected to go up by 15 per cent over last year, according to travel company forecasts.
Tour operators in the region say theyhave each received 500-700 bookings for tours of heritage sites during the firecracker festival, which will be held in central Da Nang City in March.
First oil tanker completes maiden trip
The first Vietnamese oil tanker completed its first trip on Thursday, docking at Van Phong Bay Port in the central province of Khanh Hoa with nearly 100,000 tonnes of diesel oil.
The Viet Nam National Petroleum Corporation (Petrolimex)’s US$47 million Van Phong 1 will make its next trip at the end of March to carry oil from Kuwait to Viet Nam. It is expected to make nine trips in all this year.
More Vietnamese returning home for Tet
The number of overseas visitors arriving in the country via HCM City’s Tan Son Nhat Airport is around 10,000 daily, with 3,000 of them being Viet kieu (overseas Vietnamese), customs said.
This represents a 15 per cent increase in the number of overseas Vietnamese flying into the country for Tet.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Committee for Overseas Vietnamese estimates that around 500,000 of them will arrive for Tet, 300,000 through Tan Son Nhat.
Disabled Youth Association sets up charity fund
The HCM City Disabled Youth Association has instituted a voluntary donation fund called “Friendship rice pot” to collect from members and other philanthropists to help its disadvantaged members, Chairman Vo Van Anh said.
The association, which has 200 members, will gift rice for its poor members throughout the year.
PV
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