The fifth international workshop on socialism, themed “Applying Marxism-Leninism Doctrine in socialism building”, took place in Vientiane, Laos on November 22, attracting over 100 delegates from Vietnam, China, Cuba and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

In his opening speech, President of the Lao National Institute for Social Sciences Soukkongseng Sayaleuth affirmed that socialism is a great achievement of Marxism-Leninism, adding that this year marks the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution of Russia and the birth of the first socialist country. Though the Soviet Union and socialist countries in Eastern Europe collapsed, other socialist nations are still consistent with socialist ideals and goals and have further prospered, proved by achievements in reform and socialism building in China, Vietnam and Laos, he said. He urged socialist nations to strengthen solidarity amid complex developments in the world in order to continue reaping successes in socialism building. Vice President of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences Pham Van Duc suggested developing and flexibly applying new concepts and basic principles of Marxism-Leninism in countries in each stage. During the two-day event, delegates will attend four sessions on the role of Marxism-Leninism in building the people’s democratic States, Marxism-Leninism’s leadership role in developing political system and uniting solidarity, Marxism-Leninism theory in developing a socialist-oriented economy in each nation. They will also hear 19 reports to be delivered by delegates from Vietnam, China and Laos.

The Vietnam Red Cross Society (VRCS) has been appreciated by Vietnamese people from all walks of life thanks to its humanitarian initiatives which have provided material and spiritual support for the community, particularly those in living in difficulties and in places being affected by climate change.

The remark was made by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam at a ceremony held in Hanoi on November 22 to mark the 60th anniversary of VRCS’s membership in the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and the 71st founding anniversary of the VRCS. The Government official lauded the fact that throughout its 71 years of development, the VRCS has played a key role in coordinating humanitarian activities in Vietnam, stressing that many programmes and campaigns launched by the VRCS have encouraged underprivileged peoples and vulnerable groups to rise above difficulties in life. He called on the VRCS to closely work with the IFRC and other international humanitarian organisations in a joint effort to build a peaceful world with no war and poverty, where people can live with in happiness. The VRCS was founded on November 23, 1946 by President Ho Chi Minh and was recognised as a member of the IFRC on November 4, 1957. As of June, 2017, it has 8.5 million members and volunteers operating in more than 17,000 local Red Cross associations across the country. According to VRCS Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Xuan Thu, over the past five years, the association has been active with many large-scale humanitarian programmes. It has raised VND 460 billion to support people in disaster-hit areas, provided free health examinations and treatment for 1.4 million needy people, and has given over around 21,600 cows to poor households across the country. The association has also well coordinated with the IFRC and international partners in implementing humanitarian projects in Vietnam.

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs launched a 12-year project on alternative care for disadvantaged children on November 20.

Funded by the UK-based organisation Care for Children (CFC), the project consists of four stages, with the pilot stage running in Hanoi and Thai Nguyen in the north for 2017 – 2020. 

The organisation will collaborate with local agencies at different levels to provide personnel training for public social protection centres to be in charge of alternative care, including the selection of suitable foster families and assessment of fostering process. Care for Children will also design specific materials and training syllabuses for Vietnam.     

Robert Glover, chief executive of Care for Children, said it aims to bring a better life for children.
He noted that childcare centres are often costly, while the cost of fostering children within the community might be high at first, but will gradually decrease.
Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs Dao Hong Lan said the point is to replicate the model nationwide.
The United Nations estimated that approximately 8 million children worldwide live in social centres.

More than half of Vietnam's population of nearly 92 million people are online

Google has been more cooperative on the matter as Vietnam holds on to plans for a home grown social network.

“Google and YouTube have been more cooperative with the Ministry of Information and Communications than Facebook,” said Minister Truong Minh Tuan at a parliamentary Q&A session on Friday.

Tuan has also complained about Facebook to U.S. diplomatic officials in a recent meeting.

The ministry in January issued a circular asking Facebook and similar sites with more than one million Vietnam-based users to collaborate with authorities to block “toxic” content, ranging from ads for banned products to anti-state propaganda.

While Google complied by removing from YouTube over 5,000 videos which slandered and defamed Vietnamese leaders, Facebook has been less cooperative, said Tuan without elaborating further.

The ministry is going to intensify its crackdown of violations on social media and has called on victims of online harassment to come forward as authorities simply cannot monitor all 53 million users.

While the government encourages development of social media, “it has to go hand in hand with political stability, and not distort, defame, divide or disseminate content that goes against the policies of the Party, the State and Vietnamese culture,” deputy prime minister Vu Duc Dam told the legislative National Assembly.

“Countries with the right legal tools have tried to establish their own providers to prevent monopolies, or they resort to technical measures to block, filter, slow down [toxic content] and educate [users],” he said.

The information ministry is currently reviewing legislation on social media, learning from the likes of China, who has “its own internet”, as well as Russia, Japan and South Korea where Facebook is only the fifth, sixth and seventh most popular social network respectively.

Meanwhile, Vietnam’s internet market is dominated by foreign providers like Google, Facebook and Yahoo, which account for 80 percent of the market share, according to the deputy prime minister.

Vietnam’s attempts to develop an alternative platform to Facebook and Google have, however, consistently failed, analysts say, because the country lacks the financial wherewithal and leverage over the tech giants to simply block them.

Additionally, Facebook’s popularity stems partly from why the government wants to go after it in the first place: content that is sensationalistic, inflammatory or outright untrue.

So if Vietnam seeks to curb such elements by creating a new social network, “people will simply not use it,” said Tri Phuong, a researcher at Yale University who is studying new media technologies, urban youth cultures, and digital communities in Vietnam.

But minister Tuan believes home grown social media would be able to compete with Facebook and Google in the next five to seven years if local firms are supported by preferential policies, including lower taxes and levies, and a strong enough digital ecosystem.

To succeed, Tuan argues, telecoms companies, social networks, advertisers and content creators have to work together.

Earlier this year, he also called on all companies doing business in the country to stop advertising on YouTube, Facebook and other social media until they find a way to halt the publication of "toxic" anti-government information.

Facebook and Google earned more than $100 million from advertisements of businesses in Vietnam last year, but did not pay taxes, he said.

Around 60 percent of the country’s population of nearly 92 million is online. Vietnam is in the top 10 countries for Facebook users by numbers and Google's YouTube is also a popular platform.

Leaders of the ASEAN member countries have signed the ASEAN Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers following 10 years of negotiations.

The agreement was signed following the 31st ASEAN Summit and related meetings that concluded in Manila, the Philippines, on November 14. Through the document, the leaders committed to ensuring that migrant workers enjoy all fundamental rights and interests, as well as their access to social welfare, justice and humanitarian treatment. The consensus will serve as a guideline for the operations of the ASEAN Committee on Migrant Workers, looking towards international standards being applied in the ASEAN activities related to preserving and facilitating the rights of migrant workers, and further increasing the responsibility of states sending and receiving the labourers. The signing of the deal demonstrates the strong efforts of ASEAN in building a people-centred community. Concluding the 31st ASEAN Summit and related meetings, the Philippines handed over the ASEAN Chair in 2018 to Singapore who announced the planned concentration of ASEAN cooperation for next year of “Embracing the future, towards a resilient and innovative ASEAN Community”. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and the Vietnamese delegation left Manila for Hanoi, on November 14, successfully concluding their Philippines visit to attend the 31st ASEAN Summit and related meetings.

Publishing and circulating news, articles and documents containing distortions of the truth to undermine Vietnam’s prestige in the international area represent main methods of operation by hostile forces, with a focus on undermining the ideological base of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Therefore, combating and preventing those malevolent, wicked activities serve as a task of urgency at the present time.

To abolish Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh’s thought, the Party’s leadership and socialist regime in our country as well, the hostile forces have stepped up their sabotage via malevolent methods and artifices. Accordingly, they have attached special importance to publishing and circulating articles and documents to distort our country’s reality; to allege that Vietnam violates democracy, human rights, and suppress ethnic groups and religions; to divide great unity between the people and the Party and authority as well as social consensus; to undermine the people’s faith in the Party’s leadership, the State’s management and the preeminence of the socialist regime; to incite opportunists and malcontents within the country and induce the masses to take part in political riots when the time comes. According to studies, we could categorize those publications and documents as follows.

First, resolutions and acts of Parliaments and Congresses of the U.S., Australia, and Western countries such as the UK and Switzerland, etc. Those documents frequently contain wrongful, biased judgments on democracy and human rights of other countries, including Vietnam, with a view to making claims in bilateral and multilateral diplomatic ties and deeply intervening in Vietnam’s internal affairs. Typical examples include the International Religious Freedom Annual Reports by the US Department of State,  annual Reports and Resolutions on the situation of international human rights by the European and UK Parliaments.

Second, legal documents of international organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGO) submitted to the UN Human Rights Council, Vietnam’s Party and State leadership as well as our functional agencies attached by erroneous information about our country’s situation, i.e. Press Releases of the Amnesty International (AI), Letters of Protest by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), and so on.

Third, printed documents, such as books, newspapers, magazines, booklets, leaflets, and so forth, from reactionary organizations and exile dissidents, submitted to the UN Human Rights Council and NOGs as well as Vietnam’s Party and State leadership, containing distortions of Vietnam’s human rights and situation of religion and ethnicity.

 Fourth, broadcasting programs in Vietnamese language by VOA, RFA, RFI which update on the dark side of Vietnam’s democracy and human rights, highlight and hype up weaknesses and mistakes of governments at levels in handling complicated cases related to religion and ethnicity as well as in dealing with those who take advantage of press freedom and speech freedom to falsely accuse Vietnam of violating human rights and suppressing religions.

Furthermore, external forces have founded broadcasters, websites, blogs, forums, taking advantage of mass media and Internet to sabotage Vietnam’s ideological base. They make use of cooperation in the realms of post and telecommunications, domestic press and publishing, international cooperation programs, press training projects and workshops to effectuate transformation in ideology. Also, they exploit postal service, diplomatic delegations and foreign tourists to circulate publications, reports and documents to the people, thereby making people from all walks of life, particularly young people diverge from the Party’s goals and ideal, gradually forming separatism, gathering forces for the establishment of opposition party, and accelerating “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” within our country.

To that end, the hostile forces frantically publish and circulate documents to our country via hundreds of websites, blogs, online newspapers, forums on the Internet  as well as hundreds of newspapers, magazines and broadcasting programs in Vietnamese language. They make the most of important political events and complicated incidents to circulate reactionary publications and documents in support of dissidents to sessions of the UN Human Rights Council with the participation of Vietnam delegations to lower Vietnam’s prestige in the international arena. Exile dissidents and reactionary groups also induce US, Western extreme politicians (such as L.Sanchez, Tremosa I.Balcells, etc.) to put pressure on the US House of Representatives, UK House of Commons, and European Parliament to issue resolutions and enact bills slandering Vietnam’s situation of democracy and human rights as a pretext to make claims and intervene in Vietnam’s internal affairs. They capitalize on conferences and hearings of the UN Human Rights Council and the UN Economic and Social Council to prompt “reports”, statements, and resolutions distorting Vietnam’s democracy and human rights. Since 1999, the US Department of State has released the so-called “the International Religious Freedom Annual Reports” with biased judgments about Vietnam’s religious situation, putting Vietnam on the CPC list for many times and adopting sanctions against Vietnam for the reason that “Vietnam seriously violates the freedom of religion”. To fight against and prevent those activities, our Party and State have promulgated directives, resolutions, laws, documents for directing and managing this field. Functional agencies have proactively employed various measures to combat and prevent publishing and circulation of documents distorting our country’s situation, while opportunely detecting weaknesses and inappropriateness of law regarding management of information and communications to amend, supplement and complete. Through channels of bilateral, multilateral cooperation, people-to-people diplomacy, and meetings with foreign delegations interested in Vietnam’s human rights, we have conveyed policies towards and achievements in ensuring human rights to international friends, contributing to combating and refuting distortions of our country’s democracy and human rights.

However, prevention of distorted publications and documents on Vietnam is still limited. Grasping the situation is sometimes sluggish. State management of press, publishing, internet is not effective yet. Legal system in this area has yet to be completed, thus exposing weaknesses that the enemy could exploit. Coordination between functional agencies in combat and prevention has yet to be regular. Violations of directions for propaganda and regulations on disclosure of sensitive information and writings via mass media are on the increase and accompanied by complex developments. The apparatus in this area is still insufficient; technical and professional competence of the staff has yet to be high.

To improve the efficiency of preventing the hostile forces’ circulation of publications and documents against Vietnam, it is necessary to focus on the following measures.

First, functional agencies shall continue to closely cooperate with one another in grasping the situation and opportunely detecting violations to fight against. Coordination in conducting the work of propagation and raising awareness of cadres, party members and people towards the hostile forces’ schemes and artifices, particularly their circulation of publications and documents against the Vietnamese revolution shall be facilitated on a regular basis, particularly on the point of circulating publications and launching campaigns aimed at circulating documents against Vietnam. As an important task deciding the effectiveness of preventing and combat these operations, we need to proactively grasp the situation and keep a close watch on the hostile forces’ focuses of ideological sabotage to take timely measures against.

Second, it is necessary to build and complete regulations of law on information and communications, publishing, press and Internet. This is an objective requirement set by the process of development and integration into the world. Therefore, we should proactively review the current legal system and identify arising social relationships that haven’t regulated by law yet to counsel the State to build and promulgate new legal documents, making contribution to promoting the total power of the whole political system in preventing and combating the hostile forces’ circulation of publications and documents containing evil information. It is important to build and complete the legal system opportunely, sufficiently in accordance with the Party’s guidelines. Moreover, it is crucial thoroughly comprehend basic principles of socialist law and create favourable legal conditions for combating and preventing acts of sabotage against Vietnam.

Third, the efficiency of state management in the realms of information and communications, publishing, press and Internet shall be enhanced. It is necessary to counsel the Party and the State to promulgate directives and resolutions on continued acceleration of coordination among committees, ministries, sectors in this task. There should be mechanisms of inspection and supervision of this task. Management of cooperation projects on post and telecommunications, export and import of cultural products shall be enhanced. It is necessary to opportunely detect and rectify faults and distorted information of websites and blogs; while taking advantage of support of foreign politicians and organizations to transform dissidents into positive direction, contributing to weakening support for the issuance of resolutions and the enactment of bills that distort Vietnam’s democracy and human rights. Conferences on reviewing the implementation of this work should be organized on a regular basis to lay down more effective measures.

Fourth, new achievements in science and technology shall be applied regularly, and modern means and equipment shall be equipped to effectively serve the work of management and inspection of press, information and communications, publishing and Internet to prevent the hostile forces’ exploitation of science and technology to circulate publications and documents against Vietnam. Agencies in charge of press, information, communications and publishing should regularly consolidate their organizational structure and improve knowledge and professional competence of their staff, meeting the task requirements.

Fifth, favourable conditions shall be created, and dark sides in the country shall be alleviated so that the hostile forces couldn’t exploit those to sabotage. First and foremost, it is necessary to build politically, ideologically, morally strong Party; to perfect rule of law socialist State of the people, by the people and for the people; to heighten the role of sociopolitical organizations in national management and construction. Besides, it is vital to foster socioeconomic development, guarantee social welfare, eradicate hunger, reduce poverty and improve people’s living condition. Land disputes and lawsuits, workers’ strikes, requests for places of worship shall be opportunely and completely handled and prevented from becoming “flashpoints” for the hostile forces and political opportunists to hype up and distort the situation, propose claims and further complicate political security and social order in the areas.

Synchronous adoption of the above-mentioned measures will help prevent and repel circulation of publications and documents against our country, making contribution to thwarting the hostile forces’ schemes, maintaining political stability, protecting the Party, socialist regime and Vietnam’s Homeland.

Tomorrow marks 20 year of Internet in Vietnam. Vietnam was officially connected to the global internet on November 19, 1997. Over the past 20 years, the internet has rapidly developed in the country. Vietnam now has about 50 million internet users, 60% of its population. The world average is 47%. Starting with few dozen domains at .vn in 1997, Vietnam now has more than 400,000 domains whose names contain no Vietnamese special characters and 1 million domains in Vietnamese.

Minister of Information and Communications Truong Minh Tuan said: “The internet has become widespread in Vietnam in the last 20 years. The rate of connection to the internet protocol version 6 in Vietnam ranks 2nd in ASEAN and 4th in Asia. We have supported broadband and cable service providers and implemented 4G to upgrade the internet infrastructure and diversify telecommunications and IT services.”

The internet has been accessible nationwide. The cable system is capable of providing services at hundreds of Mbps. Vietnam is upgrading its broadband cable infrastructure and promoting added services on this platform to keep pace with the 4.0 technology. Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said: “The government has directed ministries and sectors to review all regulations and create optimal conditions for ICT development. It’s important to enable enterprises to use the IT infrastructure to develop their business. We should take advantage of IT and the economy to give the public better access to resources.”

Since 2010, Vietnam has been continuously among the 20 countries with the most internet users. Top 20 Internet User Statistics were updated in June 30, 2017. Vietnam ranked 12th, above The United Kingdom and France, South Korea. Thanks to shrinking internet fees, the number of internet users in Vietnam is forecast to increase in the near future.

In addition, to meet the increasing demand of the digital economy, Việt Nam has been gradually moving to IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) since 2008 in accordance with national plans on IPv6 transition for the period 2008 to 2020. Currently, more than six per cent of internet users in Việt Nam are using IPv6 and Việt Nam is among the countries with the highest rate of IPv6 usage in the region.
The Internet has quickly become the most dynamic and important medium for modern discourse and freedom of expression in most countries around the world. The right to Internet access, also known as the right to broadband or freedom to connect, is the view that all people must be able to access the Internet in order to exercise and enjoy their rights to freedom of expression and opinion and other fundamental human rights, that states have a responsibility to ensure that Internet access is broadly available.

The right to Internet access is closely linked to the right of freedom of speech which can be seen to encompass freedom of expression as well. Two key facets of the Internet are highlighted by Stephanie Borg Psaila - the Internet's content and the Internet's infrastructure. The right to freedom of expression must be universal including the technology which will enable it. The right to development is a third generation right recognized by the UN General Assembly. The Internet's role in securing this right has been noted by human rights scholars and activists in several ways.

Yes, base on these, with over 20 years of development, Việt Nam’s internet has made sustainable contributions to society, especially for promoting human rights and democracy in the country./.

Once again, in the 2017 Global Terrorism Index (GTI) last updated on November of 2017, Vietnam remained unchanged at 0 as the safest and the most peace country in the world.

The 2017 report highlights how terrorism remains unevenly spread throughout the world. Central America and the Caribbean continues to be the least affected region. There were only 12 deaths recorded in 2016, which accounts for less than 0.4 per cent of all terrorism deaths. Meanwhile, 94 per cent of all terrorist deaths are located in the Middle-East and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

The Global Terrorism Index measures the direct and indirect impact of terrorism, including its effects on lives lost, injuries, property damage and the psychological aftereffects. It is a composite score that ranks countries according to the impact of terrorism from 0 (no impact) to 10 (highest impact).

The report, which is officially launched at the Royal United Services Institute in London today, is a comprehensive summary of the key global trends and patterns in terrorism over the last 17 years. The report includes:

– Global results and trends

– Terrorism trends in Europe and other developed countries

– Characteristics driving terrorism recruitment

– Profiles of the four most deadly terrorist groups

– Economics of terrorism

Measuring 163 countries, and covering 99% of the world’s population, one of the principle aims of the Global Terrorism Index is to help us to understand the global, regional and local impact of terrorism. With this understanding we can inform a positive practical debate about the future of terrorism and importantly, how we respond.

 This year, the number of people killed in extremist attacks declined for the second successive year in 2016 but more countries were affected. Its report, produced by Australia's Institute for Economics & Peace, found there were 25,673 deaths last year due to terror attacks - down 22 per cent from a 2014 peak. The intensity of global terrorism has decreased yet it continues to spread to an increasing number of countries.

The 2017 GTI report highlights a turning point in the fight against radical Islamist extremism. The main positive finding shows a global decline in the number of deaths from terrorist attacks to 25,673 people, which is a 22 per cent improvement from the peak in 2014. Terrorism has fallen significantly in the epicenters of Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria, which are four of the five countries most affected by terrorism. The ten countries with the largest improvements experienced 7,348 fewer deaths while the 10 countries with the largest deteriorations experienced only 1,389 terrorism deaths. This highlights the strength of the positive trend with the number of people killed by terrorism decreasing for the second successive year. 

The Asia Pacific region ranked third lowest in terms of the impact from terrorism. But the authors said there was a large variation within the region.

According to the report, the Philippines is in 12th position while Mongolia, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Timor-Leste and Vietnam are at 134 having not experienced a terrorist incident in the last five years.

Since 2002, the region has seen an increase in terrorist activity with an increase in both the number of attacks and fatalities resulting from these attacks, the report said.

The Philippines, China and Thailand have suffered the highest numbers of fatalities from terrorism since 2002 in accounting for 85 per cent of the total deaths in the region, the report added.

Since 2002, the Philippines, Thailand and Myanmar have seen the largest increases in terrorist activity.

In Europe and other developed countries, it was the deadliest year for terrorism since 1988, excluding the Sep 11 attacks in 2001, according to the GTI.

The global economic impact of terrorism in 2016 was slightly lower than 2015 although it still cost the global economy US$84 billion. While this is a significant number in its own right, it is important to note that the economic impact of terrorism is small compared to other major forms of violence. This amount is only one per cent of the total global economic impact of violence, which reached $14.3 trillion in 2016. However, the figures for terrorism are conservative as they do not account for the indirect impacts on business, investment and the costs associated with security agencies in countering terrorism. As a result, terrorism is one of the few categories of violence where the costs associated with containment likely exceed its consequential costs. However, while the economic impact of terrorism is small it is still critical to contain it as it has the potential to spread quickly and with major social ramifications. 

The GTI is produced by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) and is based on data from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD). Data for the GTD is collected and collated by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START); a Department of Homeland Security Centre of Excellence led by the University of Maryland. The GTD is considered to be the most comprehensive global dataset on terrorist activity and has now codified over 170,000 terrorist incidents.

This means Vietnam has done very well to keep the country and people safe from terrorist attacks, and peace is first and foremost foundation to promote other humankind values such as human rights, democracy, freedom of speech, press and etc. Does it mean anything to you?./.