If nothing changes, there will be a preferential credit program with hundreds of thousands billion of capital for agriculture and related industries in the coming time. 

Unlike the preferential credit packages before, as proposed by the State Bank Governor Nguyen Van Binh, the capital will be prioritized to invest directly in new models of agricultural production as well as scientific and technical applications in agriculture. 

They have been probably the two biggest weaknesses of agriculture in Vietnam for a long time that make farmers still in poverty, even heaped up debt although they make a million tons of rice, fish, vegetables.

There is a fact in many countries around the world such as Israel, the Netherlands, Japan... that strong investment for scientific applications in agriculture has brought the magic steps for the economy. The Japanese farmers, who specialize in producing lettuce Kawakami (Nagano Province), have revealed with no secret to farmers in Da Lat (Lam Dong) when coming for vegetable cooperation that they only produce lettuce four months a year due to the effects of weather but average income they get in this village about $ 250,000/year/household. Or the example of growing sugar-cane in Laos with  the application of high technology by Hoang Anh Gia Lai group has made productivity double in comparision with the average in Vietnam. 

In the country, farmers and enterprises have tried to apply high technology to models in farming, animal husbandry and achieved respectable results. 

It can be seen that investments in scientific applications to agriculture, especially high technology, biotechnology is the right direction to change the fundamental mode of agricultural development. Especially the current state of agriculture in Vietnam thrives only in quantity without quality. Many products of Vietnam which rank globally among top exports such as coffee, rice... but economic value is not significant, especially for those who live within these products. Obviously, to develop a modern agriculture with highly competitive products, it also depends on many other factors such as land policy, human resources besides scientific and technical factor... But science and technology are two key factors which should be invested in a rush. 

We now correctly identifiy the focus to invest capital in but we must ensure the capital to win favorable addresses as quickly as possible. In the past, many farmers and agricultural businesses heard too much of this type of incentive package. However the access to capital was not simple at all.Not only cumbersome procedural matters but also the binding conditions and criteria always push hard toward the borrower. 

The recent facts have demonstrated that only a few dozen cases accessed capital from the preferential policies for agricultural deployed under a year and falling into oblivion a time after. So many farmers and agricultural businesses expect before launching the program on the credit support, the State Bank and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development should take the survey, assess clearly facts about the borrowers to promote effects immediately.

                                                         Hugo Chavez Frias
On the occasion of the 1^st death anniversary of the Venezuelan President – Hugo Chavez, I and my friends visited a book introduction about this man in Hanoi. The book is titled “Hugo Chavez Frias: Political Thoughts on Socialism in the 21 st Century”. This book is a useful source for everyone who want to find out the thoughts, life and career of the late president, as well as his struggle against oppression and injustice and his aspiration for a peaceful South America free from poverty and misery. Today, I want we spent a little time to look back Chavez’s timelife to see how amazing his life is.

Hugo Chavez was born in 1954 in a working-class family in Sabaneta, Barinas, Chávez became a career military officer, and after becoming dissatisfied with the Venezuelan political system, he founded the secretive Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (MBR-200) in the early 1980s to work towards overthrowing it. Chávez led the MBR-200 in an unsuccessful coup d'état against the Democratic Action government of President Carlos Andrés Pérez in 1992, for which he was imprisoned. Released from prison after two years, he founded a socialist political party, the Fifth Republic Movement, and was elected president of Venezuela in 1998. He was re-elected in 2000. During his second presidential term, he introduced the system of Bolivarian Missions, Communal Councils, and worker-managed cooperatives, as well as a program of land reform, while also nationalizing various key industries. He was re-elected in 2006 with over 60% of the vote. On 7 October 2012, Chávez won his country's presidential election for a fourth time, defeating Henrique Capriles, and was elected for another six-year term.

Following Chavismo, his own political ideology of Bolivarianism and Socialism of the 21st Century, he focused on implementing socialist reforms in the country as a part of a social project known as the Bolivarian Revolution. He implemented the 1999 Venezuelan Constitution, participatory democratic councils, the nationalization of several key industries, and increased government funding of health care and education and made significant reductions in poverty with oil revenues. The Bolivarian Missions have entailed the construction of thousands of free medical clinics for the poor, the institution of educational campaigns that have made more than one million adult Venezuelans literate, and the enactment of food and housing subsidies.

Closely aligning himself with the communist governments of Fidel and then Raúl Castro in Cuba and the socialist governments of Evo Morales in Bolivia, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, his presidency was seen as a part of the socialist "pink tide" sweeping Latin America. Along with these governments, Chávez described his policies as anti-imperialist, being a prominent adversary of the United States's foreign policy as well as a vocal critic of US-supported neoliberalism and laissez-faire capitalism. He supported Latin American and Caribbean cooperation and was instrumental in setting up the pan-regional Union of South American Nations, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, the Bank of the South, and the regional television network TeleSur. Chávez was a highly controversial and divisive figure both at home and abroad. On occasion he used undiplomatic language towards other world leaders, having compared US president George W. Bush to a donkey and the devil.

Hugo Chavez also had been broadening the relationship between Venezuela and communist countries, including Vietnam. 2014 is an important year for the two nations as they celebrate the 25^th anniversary of their diplomatic ties and 50 years since Venezuelan guerilla arrested a US officer to exchange for the life of Vietnamese hero Nguyen Van Troi.

The Vietnam – Venezuela relationship had been developing beautifully, friendly and closely in Chavez’s president time. President Chavez himself is a “big” friend of Vietnam. He had promoted policies which consolidating the relationship between two nations, especially cooperating in oil and gas area.

Hugo Chavez had been spending his life fighting for freedom and fairness of Venezuelan in particular, working-class people in general. Chavez’s pass-away was a big loss to the international communist movement.

Vietnamese people and international friends never forget Hugo Chavez, a friend a soldier, who had done to inspire everyone to rise against oppression and injustice all over the world.

         Lotta Sylwander meeting with the Deputy President of National Assembly, Mrs Tong Thi Phong
Lotta Sylwander, Chief Representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Vietnam, has been awarded the “For Peace and Friendship among Nations” insignia for her contributions to the country’s humanitarian work and development.

President of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations (VUFO) Vu Xuan Hong presented the reward to the UNICEF Chief Representative in Hanoi on March 3.

With her 20-year working experience, Lotta Sylwander has led the UNICEF in Vietnam to focus on issues related to child protection, social sponsoring, the disabled and ethnic minority groups.

She has also actively took part in high-ranking exchanges and meetings with the Vietnamese Government, multilateral and bilateral partners, and other non-governmental organisations on promoting children’s rights and social policies for them.

Over the past three years, as the Chief Representative of UNICEF in Vietnam, she has teamed up with relevant ministries to make policies and laws on protecting local children as well as enhance legal frameworks on adoption.

Addressing the ceremony, VUFO President Hong thanked Lotta Sylwander for her efforts and contributions to Vietnam’s poverty reduction and development.

The UNICEF official expressed her great honour to receive the award and further said she will continue backing Vietnam’s development and humanitarian work in any capacity.-VNA

       

          Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam has instructed the Vietnam Embassy in Ukraine to implement measures to ensure the safety for the Vietnamese community in Ukraine. So far, there has no information on the Vietnamese people affected by fluctuations in Ukraine.

           On March 3, 2014, representative from the Bureau of Consular Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs answered reporter’s questions about situation of Vietnamese citizens in Ukraine as well as measures to protect them that: There are about 10,000 Vietnamese people are living, studying and doing business in Ukraine currently and mainly in large cities such as Kharkov, Odessa, Kiev, Donesk ...

As soon as the situation in Ukraine has become complicated,  the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam instructed the Vietnam Embassy in Ukraine to closely keep track of the situation and implement measures to ensure the security and safety for Vietnamese communities in Ukraine. So far , there has no information about Vietnamese citizens affected by fluctuations in Ukraine .

Vietnam Embassy in Ukraine has cooperated closely with the Associations of Vietnam at the local level in Ukraine to widely report in the community and propose strengthening solidarity, tradition of love to help each other, reinforcing the safety for persons and property, especially in areas of conflict.

The Embassy has also assigned the responsible department for timely handling of requests for assistance from our citizens when there are unexpected developments, urgently resolving these requirements about administrative formalities for who want to return home.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam and the Vietnamese Embassy in Ukraine have reported on the mass media hotline at the Embassy (+380503320535/+380503359097) and the Bureau of Consular Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (+84918370497) for people to contact when necessary.

          

 GENEVA - Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh reiterated Viet Nam's commitment to ensuring and promoting human rights at the 25th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, Switzerland.

This is the first time Viet Nam has attended the event as a member of the UNHRC. Leading the Vietnamese delegation, Minh said that the country was "committed to playing its role with the highest level of responsibility" and would prove a "reliable partner."

Viet Nam was willing to "work constructively on all matters related to human rights," Minh told listeners, "from social security and sustainable development to the rights of ‘vulnerable groups'". He also said the country would "try to attract more attention from the Human Rights Council to the specific needs and circumstances of developing countries facing new challenges such as climate change, environmental degradation and the exhaustion of natural resources."

The Deputy PM noted that Viet Nam pursued a consistent policy of protecting and promoting human rights, considering the well-being of every person as the driving force of the national development process.

"This policy not only reflects the long-cherished aspiration of the Vietnamese people, but also connotes the universality of human rights. Under this policy, the State of Viet Nam has been exerting considerable efforts in protecting and promoting human rights, as demonstrated in laws, policies and actual accomplishments," he said.

Minh added that this was a precious opportunity for Viet Nam to learn good practices and experience from the international community that could help further the cause of doi moi (renewal) as well as the promotion and protection of human rights domestically.

"Viet Nam stands ready to co-operate with all countries on this noble cause," Minh said. — VNS

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence, outside Moscow on February 26, 2014.

Western leaders from President Barack Obama to Chancellor Angela Merkel are telling Russia not to violate Ukraine’s sovereignty. Vladimir Putin’s response as he prepares for military conflict: What about ours?

Putin’s been cautioning the U.S. and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization states for at least six years not to impede Russian interests in Ukraine, particularly in the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, home to its largest overseas naval base.

Putin told a closed NATO summit in Romania in 2008 that the military alliance was threatening Ukraine’s very existence by courting it as a member, according to a secret cable published by Wikileaks. Putin said Ukraine’s borders were “sewn together” after World War II and its claims to Crimea, which belonged to Russia until Nikita Khrushchev gave it to Ukraine in 1954, are legally dubious, Kurt Volker, the U.S. ambassador to NATO at the time, said in the cable.

Four months later, Putin demonstrated his willingness to back up words with actions by sending Russian troops to war against Georgia over two Russian-speaking regions seeking independence.

Now, in Putin’s eyes, it’s the U.S. and the European Union who are pushing Ukraine to the brink of armed conflict by supporting the overthrow of Russia-backed President Viktor Yanukovych. Elected four years ago, Yanukovych was deposed by Ukrainian lawmakers on Feb. 22 after clashes with protesters left at least 82 people dead, the worst violence the country has witnessed since World War II. Russia’s Foreign Ministry called it a “coup” by “fascists” carried out at Russia’s expense.

What pushed Putin to ask Russia’s parliament for approval to use troops in Ukraine was a decision, unnoticed by much of the western media, made by Ukraine’s parliament the next day, according to Sergei Markov, a Kremlin adviser who’s now the director of the Institute for Political Studies in the Russian capital. That’s when lawmakers voted to overturn legislation making Russian an official state language.

For all that acting President Oleksandr Turchynov said he’d veto the change, the move created “major fears” in the mainly Russian-speaking eastern part of the country, Markov said by phone. In Ukraine, “the West is seeking to create an anti-Russia,” Markov said. “Putin doesn’t want to wait and see what happens, so he may engage in a small war now to protect Russia’s interests and avoid a big war in the future.”

Airports seized

Ukraine mobilized its army reserves yesterday and called for foreign observers in Crimea after Russian-speaking forces seized control of government buildings and airports. Russians comprise 59 percent of Crimea’s population of about 2 million people, with 24 percent Ukrainian and 12 percent Tatar, 2001 census data show. Russians make up 17 percent of Ukraine’s total population of 45 million.

Russian-speaking gunmen arrived outside Ukraine’s infantry base in Privolnoye in Crimea yesterday, continuing a pattern of intimidation around key facilities that started last week. Before Yanukovych’s ouster, Russia had about 15,000 sailors and soldiers stationed permanently at bases that support the Black Sea fleet in and around Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea.

Ukraine’s defense minister said Russia sent 6,000 more soldiers into Crimea within a 24-hour period over the weekend and that number is increasing “every hour” according to Yuriy Sergeyev, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Nations. The new government in Kiev said efforts to speak with Russia’s Foreign Ministry were ignored.

While Putin said over the weekend that Russia may take action if it sees unrest in other Russian-speaking regions in eastern Ukraine, the president hasn’t made that decision yet, his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said by phone.

Olympic gold

The uprising coincided with the end of one of Putin’s greatest triumphs -- the Sochi Winter Olympics, where Russian athletes regained the glory of their Soviet predecessors by topping the medals table.

That success helped lift the former KGB colonel’s public approval rating to 67.7 percent on Feb. 23, a 7 percentage point increase from the previous month and the highest since May 2012, when he was inaugurated for a third time, according to a Feb. 22-23 poll by the state-run All-Russia Center for the Study of Public Opinion, known as VTsIOM. With the term extended to six years from four, Putin, first elected in 2000, may stay in power until 2024 if he runs and wins again in 2018.

Putin, 61, who once described the breakup of the Soviet Union as the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century, was named “Person of the Year” in December by the Times of London for helping avert U.S. strikes against Syria. That effort “propelled the president back into the front ranks of effective world statesmen,” the Times said.

Arrests, propaganda

Putin is taking no chances with his legacy at home, where last week seven people were sentenced to as long as four years in prison for violence during a 2012 rally against him. His most vocal opponent, Alexey Navalny, was confined to his home and barred from using the Internet or speaking to the public for two months. Navalny was one of 600 protesters detained at two anti-Putin rallies on Feb. 24.

Russian state television stations, the most popular in the country, are in propaganda overdrive as the Kremlin seeks to rally the population behind Putin’s toughening stance on Ukraine, according to Katri Pynnoniemi, an analyst at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs in Helsinki.

‘Hero-city’

“Sevastopol is a hero-city in Russia’s national consciousness and official Russian media is now exploiting that,” Pynnoniemi said by e-mail, referring to the status awarded the city in Soviet times for its WWII sacrifices. “This is a legacy from Russia’s military victory over the Nazis and it’s being exploited in the Russian official parlance to de-legitimize Ukraine’s newly elected government.”

The road to revolution in Ukraine, which has endured three recessions since 2008, started in Kiev in November, when Yanukovych pulled out of a free-trade deal with the EU, opting instead for $15 billion of Russian aid and cheaper gas. The ousted leader, who is now in Russia, also pursued closer ties with Putin’s customs union with Kazakhstan and Belarus.

Ukraine depends on Russia for 60 percent of its gas and is the main transit route for OAO Gazprom (OGZD)’s shipments to Europe, where the state-run company has a quarter of the market. Russia halted gas flows to Ukraine in 2006 and 2009 -- before Yanukovych’s presidency -- amid disputes over prices and volumes, leading to shortages throughout Europe.

G-8 preparations

The U.S., the U.K. and Canada responded to Russia’s move on Crimea by suspending preparations due to take place in Russia this week for a meeting of the Group of Eight industrial nations in June in Sochi, the Black Sea resort that hosted the Winter Olympics. The U.S. called on Russia to withdraw its forces to bases in Crimea, refrain from interfering elsewhere in Ukraine and conduct “direct engagement” with the new government. The U.K. said it won’t send government ministers to watch the Paralympics.

None of the rhetoric or action announced to date is likely to impress Putin, Amanda Paul, an analyst at the European Policy Center in Brussels, said in an interview.

“President Putin doesn’t really care what the rest of the world thinks about his foreign policy,” Paul said by phone. “Ukraine is a neighbor country that Russia views as indivisible from itself. Russia is prepared to go to any length to stop Ukraine’s deeper integration with Europe.”

Bloomberg

At the Ministerial Meeting to launch the Global Health Security Program in the United States, Vietnam and Uganda were selected as the two pilot conuntries for this program. Talking to the press, Vietnamese Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien stressed that the Program will help Vietnam strengthen the capacity of monitoring, early detection and treatment of diseases in order to reduce the impact of diseases on the people’s economic situation and health.

The general objective of the Global Health Security Program proposed by the United States moves towards a safer world without the risk of infectious diseases, preventing and reducing the impact of dangerous epidemics, early detecting diseases, transpiring and sharing information with the international community to respond effectively to the epidemic in humans and animals. Thus, participation in this program will help Vietnam to further strengthen the monitoring capacity, early detection and treatment of disease in order to reduce the impact of diseases on the people's economy and  health, as well as enhancing the role and responsibilities of our country to the internationsl community.

In the period of 2013-2014, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (USCDC) through this program has supported Vietnam Ministry of Health in enhancing capacity to test on emerging epidemics at the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology and the Pasteur Institute of Ho Chi Minh City. The two institutes have sufficient capacity to test on emerging and dangerous viral pathogens such as influenza A (H7N9) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus. USCDC also supported in developing and gradually improving an Office of Emergency Operations Center (EOC Office) in the Agency of Preventive Medicine. Initially, EOC office in Vietnam will focus on response to the epidemic situation. In long-term, this is the focal unit for information sharing and close coordination with the relevant units of ministries, agencies and international organizations to handle the public health problems affecting human health in Vietnam, such as flood problems, natural disasters and other catastrophes caused by humans .

In recent years, the international organizations have helped Vietnam to enhance supervising capacity to detect influenza outbreaks in poultry and in humans, actively implementing measures to prevent and treat disease outbreak. With the support of international organizations, Vietnam has received technical and financial assistance for supervising and testing activities on poultry and specimens from patients suspected of having strains of influenza virus.

Along with assistance in the supervision, the international organizations such as WHO, FAO, OIE also organize regular workshops to share information and provide Vietnam with recommendations on prevention of disease at the border and for people in accordance with reality in Vietnam and the world.

In 2013, the two countries signed the Agreement on Cooperation of Health, the result opened the practical cooperation between the health sector of the two countrie with special emphasis to collaboration of global health security. This is the result of efforts by both countries to cooperate in the prevention of diseases particularly in the difficult context of Vietnam, mainly models of disease includes infectious diseases. However, Vietnam has proven to the world ability of successful and well control over SARS, influenza A (H5N1) and influenza A  (H1N1) in the past years.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam (Source: VNA)

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam has instructed authorities and localities to continue implementing the Law on the Elderly and other relevant policies in order to provide better care to the aged.

The official made the request while chairing a conference held by the National Committee on Aging in Hanoi on March 1, during which he underlined the need to raise public awareness of the work.

Regarding the National Plan of Action on Older Persons during the 2012-2020 period, Deputy PM Dam assigned the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs to exert more efforts in building and adjusting policies on the elderly.

The Ministry of Health was asked to increase health check-ups and treatment for older citizens through a range of projects.

The Deputy Prime Minister also highlighted the coordination between relevant ministries, agencies and localities in promoting the role of the elderly.

According to the committee, many policies have helped raise old people’s living standards and heightened awareness of Party Committees and authorities at all levels of the work.

All people aged 80 and above, and those belonging poor households, ethnic groups and disadvantaged regions nationwide receive monthly social allowances and free health insurance cards, it said.

The Vietnam Association of the Elderly has also partnered with the health ministry to provide health check-ups and treatment to more than 1.5 million old people with eye-related diseases.

Participants at the event also pointed out several bottlenecks hindering the caring of the elderly, especially those in remote, far-flung, border and island areas.-VNA.