Police of Đà Lạt City have clarified that information circulating on social media that a Russian singer was arrested for protesting the war in Ukraine was fake news.

Since May 1, many social network sites have published posts saying that Đà Lạt City Police arrested a Russian street singer at Lâm Viên Square because he held a banner protesting Russia’s “invasion of Ukraine”.

Đà Lạt police said that on May 1 they summoned a Russian national named Propisnov Alexander, born in 1981, to request him to strictly comply with the regulations related to passport and visa extensions, as they had expired but he still stayed at accommodation in the city.

His behaviour violated the regulations on exit, entry, transit, residence, and travel specified in Government’s Decree No 144/2021/ NĐ-CP on various administrative fines for violations of social order and security.

After working with the police, Alexander said he was now aware of his mistake and had travelled to HCM City to complete the procedures for passport and visa extension.

The police warned that individuals who post and share unverified and untrue information related to the case will be handled in accordance with the law, and in serious cases could face criminal trial./.

 The WB stated that, the average trade weighted tariff imposed by Viet Nam declines from 0.8 percent to 0.2 percent while the tariffs faced by the country are reduced from 0.6 percent to 0.1 percent between 2000 and 2035.

In the most optimistic scenario, where all benefits are applied, Viet Nam has the highest gains of all RCEP member countries. Viet Nam's income levels increase by 4.9 percent relative to the baseline, higher than other countries, where the income level increases by 2.5 percent.

Trade also increases the most in this scenario, with exports expanding by 11.4 percent and imports by 9.2 percent, relative to the baseline.

All RCEP member countries will see an increase in exports and imports. Viet Nam's exports expand by 11.4 percent and imports by 9.2 percent.

Sectors that recorded the highest growth were motorized vehicles manufacturing with 18.6 percent, followed by textiles and garments 16.2 percent and apparel 14.9 percent, mainly due to the reduction of non-tariff measures.

In the scenario where only the tariff reduction is implemented, the impact on Viet Nam's economy is negligible, with real income close to zero. 

Trade also sees a small reduction relative to the baseline, with both exports and imports declining by 0.3 percent. It is attributed to the fact that Viet Nam enjoys relatively low tax rates thanks to other free trade agreements.

RCEP will help Viet Nam access consumer markets which is twice the size of the markets in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), as RCEP includes China, the Republic of Korea and Japan. 

About 50 percent of the population in RCEP, or 1.1 billion people, contribute US$10 or more per day based on purchasing power. The agreement can help boost the middle class by 27 million people for all member countries by 2035, of which Viet Nam is expected to benefit the most when it has an additional 1.7 million people enter this class, according to the WB.

The WB report said that the simplification of procedures such as customs and rules of origin will help reduce bureaucracy, allowing more small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to participate. 

These enterprises account for 98 percent of the total number of enterprises in Viet Nam, contributing 40 percent of GDP. Thus, RCEP offers a chance for Vietnamese SMEs to increase the value chain.

Viet Nam's economic growth will come from a deeper and more inclusive commitment through RCEP intra-regional trade, common rules of origin and greater openness to goods and services in accessing markets, especially the Chinese market, it said. 

The RCEP was officially signed on November 15, 2020 between 10 ASEAN Member States and five countries including China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia and New Zealand. The RCEP Agreement has entered into force since January 1, 2022.

It has become the largest free trade agreement in the world, covering nearly one third of the population and about 30 percent of the global gross domestic product.

 Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brutal war on Ukraine, along with his implied threats of nuclear weapons use against any who would interfere, has raised the specter of nuclear conflict.

Last month, CIA Director William Burns said that although there is no sign that Russia is preparing to do so, “none of us can take lightly the threat posed by a potential resort to tactical nuclear weapons or low-yield nuclear weapons.”

As the war drags on, it is vital that Russian, NATO, and U.S. leaders maintain lines of communication to prevent direct conflict and avoid rhetoric and actions that increase the risk of nuclear escalation.

Provocations could include deploying tactical nuclear weapons or developing new types of nuclear weapons designed for fighting and “winning” a regional nuclear war.

For these and other reasons, U.S. President Joe Biden was smart to announce in March that he will cancel a proposal by the Trump administration for a new nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM), a weapon last deployed in 1991.

Before President Donald Trump, two Democratic and two Republican administrations had agreed that nuclear-armed cruise missiles on Navy ships were redundant and destabilizing and detract from higher-priority conventional missions.

Moreover, re-nuclearizing the fleet would create serious operational burdens. In 2019, Biden called this weapon a “bad idea” and said there is no need for new nuclear weapons. He was right then and is right to cancel the system now.

Nevertheless, some in Congress are pushing to restore funding for a nuclear SLCM to fill what they say is a “deterrence gap” against Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons arsenal and to provide a future president with “more credible” nuclear options in a future war with Russia in Europe or with China over Taiwan. A fight over the project, which would cost at least $9 billion through the end of the decade, is all but certain.

The arguments for reviving the nuclear SLCM program are as flimsy as they are dangerous. Serious policymakers all agree that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. But deploying nuclear-armed cruise missiles at sea would undoubtedly increase the possibility of nuclear war through miscalculation.

By deploying both conventional and nuclear-armed cruise missiles at sea, any launch of a conventional cruise missile inherently would send a nuclear signal and increase the potential for unintended nuclear use in a conflict with a nuclear-armed adversary because the adversary would have no way of knowing if the missile was nuclear or conventional.

Furthermore, even if Russia’s stockpile of 1,000 to 2,000 short-range nuclear warheads is larger in number than the U.S. stockpile of 320, there is no meaningful gap in capabilities. Superficial numerical comparisons ignore the fact that both sides already possess excess tactical nuclear destructive capacity, including multiple options for air and missile delivery of lower-yield nuclear warheads.

Both also store their tactical warheads separately from the delivery systems, meaning preparations for potential use would be detectable in advance.

If one president authorized the use of these weapons under “extreme” circumstances in a conventional war, as the policies of both countries allow, neither side would need or want to use more than a handful of these highly destructive weapons.

Although tactical nuclear bombs may produce relatively smaller explosive yields, from less than 1 kiloton TNT equivalent to 20 kilotons or more, their blast, heat, and radiation effects would be unlike anything seen in warfare since the 21-kiloton-yield atomic bomb that destroyed Nagasaki.

Proponents of the nuclear SLCM claim that if Putin used a tactical nuclear weapon to try to gain a military advantage or simply to intimidate, the U.S. president must have additional options to strike back with tactical nuclear weapons. They further argue that he should strike back even if that results in nuclear devastation within NATO and Russian territory.

Theories that nuclear war can be “limited” are extremely dangerous and ignore the unimaginable human suffering nuclear detonations would produce. In practice, once nuclear weapons are used by nuclear-armed adversaries, there is no guarantee the conflict would not quickly escalate to a catastrophic exchange involving the thousands of long-range strategic nuclear weapons in the U.S. and Russian arsenals.

As Gen. John Hyten, head of U.S. Strategic Command, said in 2018 after the annual Global Thunder wargame, “It ends bad. And the bad, meaning, it ends with global nuclear war.” As the supercomputer in the 1983 movie War Games ultimately calculated, “The only winning move is not to play.”

Adding a new type of tactical nuclear weapon to the U.S. arsenal will not enhance deterrence so much as it would increase the risk of nuclear war, mimic irresponsible Russian nuclear signaling, and prompt Russia and China to build their own sea- or land-based nuclear cruise missile systems. Biden made the right decision to cancel Trump’s proposed nuclear SLCM, and now Congress needs to back the president up.

The Arms Control Association (ACA), founded in 1971, is a national nonpartisan membership organization dedicated to promoting public understanding of and support for effective arms control policies. Through public education and media programs and its flagship journal, Arms Control Today, the ACA provides policymakers, the press, and the interested public with authoritative information, analysis, and commentary on arms control proposals, negotiations and agreements, and related national security issues.

 

The Vietnam Red Cross Society (VNRC), in collaboration with the Thua Thien-Hue People’s Committee, launched a Humanitarian Month 2022 at a ceremony in the central province on April 28.

With the theme “Connecting the community, spreading acts of kindness,” the month aims to call people to connect by doing kind deeds no matter how small.

Addressing the event, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc stressed that voluntary and humanitarian work is not the sole responsibility of the State or any single organization, community or individual, but the common responsibility of the entire society, in which the State should play a proactive and orienting role.

The President appealed to agencies, organisations, enterprises, philanthropists and people from all walks of life to continue join hands with the VNRC and the Party and State to support the poor and the disadvantaged people, thus building a united community staying healthy and safe amid the pandemic, natural disasters or war.  

VNRC President Bui Thi Hoa said during the Humanitarian Month 2022 from May 1 to 31, the whole VNRC will strive to mobilise 400 billion VND to help one million people in difficult circumstances.

On the occasion, the VNRC launched two key programmes for the next five years, including the "Safety for poor and disadvantaged fishermen" and "Nutrition for poor and disabled children."

Initiated by the VNRC in 2018, the movement has mobilised 1.513 trillion VND, supporting 3.3 million people in difficult circumstances.

At the ceremony, domestic and foreign benefactors donated and committed nearly 400 billion VND to the VNRC./.

 

April international arrivals in Việt Nam soared to 2.4 times that of March and 5.2 per cent higher than the same period last year thanks to the country’s tourism reopening, according to the General Statistics Office of Việt Nam (GSO).

In the first four months of the year, the number of foreigners arriving in Việt Nam neared 192,400, an annual rise of 184.7 per cent. Of the total, 88.6 per cent came by air, increasing close to four times from 2021, while arrivals by road and sea were down by 10.5 and 58.7 per cent, respectively.

Tourism revenue from lodging-food and transport services grew by 5.2 per cent and 10.5 per cent on-year, respectively.

In May, Việt Nam will host the 31st Southeast Asian Games with the participation of all the 11 regional countries that are sending large delegations of athletes, officials and reporters.

Ramping up related communications preparations, the Việt Nam National Administration of Tourism considers the tournament the first big event of the region after two years being impacted by COVID-19.

It has urged the entire sector to spare no efforts toward the overall success of the Games and the regional and global promotion of Việt Nam’s image./.

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Poverty in Vietnam declined substantially between 2010 and 2020, according to a report released by the World Bank (WB) on April 28.

The WB’s Poverty and Equity report, “From the Last Mile to the Next Mile”, says that over the past decade, the poverty rate at the bank’s 3.20 USD per day line for lower-middle income countries declined from 16.8 percent to 5 percent, meaning ten million people were lifted out of poverty.

It assesses Vietnam’s progress in poverty reduction over the decade to 2020 and examines what is needed to sustain the upward economic mobility and economic security of the millions who have left poverty.

In less than half a century since the end of the war and 35 years since the Doi Moi reforms, Vietnam has become a vibrant economy and a sought-after market to the outside world. GDP per capita (2015 US dollar) grew from 481 USD in 1986 to 2,655 USD in 2020, according to the report.

Rapid economic growth was broadly inclusive, and livelihoods in Vietnam improved dramatically. Based on the World Bank’s Lower-Middle Income Class (3.20 USD/day 2011PPP) poverty line, poverty rates declined from 16.8 percent in 2010 to 5.0 percent in 2020. According to preliminary estimates for 2019, 5.7 percent of Vietnamese are considered multidimensionally poor.

Growth over the last decade in Vietnam was broadly inclusive, as welfare improved across the entire economic distribution of households. Pathways out of poverty were widespread across most groups, as many families moved out of poverty within a single generation.

At the same time, Vietnam is a lower-middle-income country facing a challenging and uncharted road ahead to reaching upper-middle and high-income country levels in a shifting global economic and climatic landscape.

Despite remarkable progress, poverty remains a key concern among the population. In a survey of citizens, from 2015 to 2020 poverty/hunger was selected as the main issue that the government must tackle. When asked why poverty was the main concern, while many people worried about falling back into poverty, even more felt that poverty is an overall drag on the economy and reduces national prestige.

To uphold the achievements and address challenges ahead, the WB has offered a number of recommendations to Vietnam.
Supporting agricultural productivity growth is key to maintaining livelihoods for those remaining in the rural economic system in the face of significant structural change, it said.

Access to new knowledge and innovations, including application of appropriate digital technologies, would support productivity growth by substituting for labour intensity.

To improve the participation of ethnic minorities in the labour market, laws protecting the rights of ethnic minorities can be further strengthened./.

                                                                  Vietnamese youth

The Ministry of Home Affairs and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Vietnam launched a new project on April 29 to support the implementation and monitoring of laws and policies for comprehensive youth development and youth participation, including during natural disasters and pandemics.

Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra said one of the objectives of Project VNM10P01 is to create a favourable environment to support youth development, in which focus on life skills, gender education and a mechanism promoting youth participation in policies and programmes responding to emergencies, natural disasters and epidemics. The project follows UNFPA priorities, as well as the country’s socio-economic development and the current situation and the needs of Vietnamese youth in the coming years, she added.

The minister appreciated the UNFPA’s assistance, which will help care for and develop the youth and support Vietnam to achieve its Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Naomi Kitahara, UNFPA Representative in Vietnam cited the 2019 population and housing census as showing the country has the highest proportion of young people in its history, creating the potential for a demographic dividend to accelerate socio-economic growth. The 20.4 million young people, aged 10 - 24, account for 21 percent of the total population.

“The demographic window of opportunity, first identified in 2007, is projected to last until 2041, presenting Vietnam with a unique opportunity to advance sustainable development,” she said, adding that UNFPA Vietnam acknowledges and appreciates the Government’s effort in investing in adolescents and youth and promoting their participation in the socio-economic development of the country.

According to Kitahara, the availability of life skills education and comprehensive sex education for in-school adolescents, including vocational training centres, colleges, and universities, must be there, and out-of-school adolescents and youths must be categorically targeted to ensure that Vietnam’s young people are able to make informed and wise decisions about their health, and about their lives, including when and with whom they can start a family, while balancing it with educational and professional career paths.

With a total budget of 3.1 million USD, the project will be implemented from 2022 to 2026.

It will focus on implementing the Youth Law, the Vietnamese Youth Development Strategy, and other policies and programmes related to youth; strengthening the monitoring of the implementation of the Youth Law, youth development policies and programmes, including in humanitarian crises such as natural disasters and pandemics; developing platforms/mechanisms and policies to enhance the active participation of young people, especially vulnerable youths, in the development and monitoring of laws, programmes./.

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Experts have recommended Vietnam work to expand the coverage of social insurance and limit the number of people claiming lump-sum payments.

Addressing a seminar in Hanoi on April 27, Le Hung Son, Deputy General Director of the Vietnam Social Security, said the 7th meeting of the 12th-tenure Party Central Committee issued Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW on reforming the social insurance policy so as to turn social insurance into a truly main pillar of the country’s social security system and gradually expand its coverage towards universal social insurance coverage.

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), this resolution features many progressive regulations that approach the social security standards in international conventions and the ILO’s recommendations. Therefore, to institutionalise the Party and State’s viewpoints stated in the resolution, it is necessary to amend and supplement many relevant legal documents, including the Social Insurance Law, in a road map matching the country’s socio-economic conditions.

Robert J. Palacios, a social security expert for East Asia and the Pacific at the World Bank, said amending the Social Insurance Law is highly important, noting that Vietnam has the fastest population aging speed in Asia, and that is why social insurance coverage needs to be expanded and the law revised.

Vietnam should increase measures for raising the rate of participants in the social insurance system, he noted.

Christophe Lemiere, Programme Leader for Human Development for Vietnam at the WB, attributed the modest participation in compulsory social insurance in the country partly to the long minimum time of insurance contribution needed to claim pensions (20 years).

Vietnam is also the only country to allow workers to claim lump sums, which has boosted pressure on the social security system, he said, pointing out that the State has also had to provide income support for a large number of elder people not taking part in the system.

If the Social Insurance Law expands the groups subject to compulsory social insurance to all salary earners (the public sector, private companies, and business households), the number of participants in social insurance will also grow.

The Government should also limit the number of people claiming lump-sum payments while covering 30 - 50 percent of voluntary insurance premiums for low-income earners. Only by doing so can Vietnam reach the target of 60 percent of its workforce participating in social insurance by 2030, Lemiere added./.