VINH PHUC

Spirited performance: A medium communes with the spirits as part of the celebrations in honour of Tay Thien Goddess at the Zen Monastery.  VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Ha

The annual Tay Thien Festival opened yesterday, the 15th of the second lunar month, at the Truc Lam (Bamboo Forest) Tay Thien Zen Monastery in the northern province of Vinh Phuc.

Located in Dai Dinh Commune, Tam Dao District on Tay Thien Mountain, 85km west of Ha Noi, it is considered one of the most impressive and peaceful monasteries in Viet Nam together with the Zen Monastery in Da Lat in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong and the Yen Tu Monastery in the northern province of Quang Ninh.

This year the festival was welcomed by a van (spiritual) singing festival featuring troupes from ten northern provinces that started last Friday.

Various other traditional festivities and rituals were held to honour the Goddess of Tay Thien, observed by 30 researchers.

Legend has it that the Goddess of Tay Thien is Lang Thi Tieu, Hung Chieu Vuong’s Queen (2450 BCE), who helped the king defeat invaders and teach the people how to grow rice and develop handicrafts. Apart from the Tay Thien Monastery, she is also thought to have worshipped at 71 other temples and pagodas in the local area.

Dang Van Bai, former director of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s Heritage Department, said that worshipping the Goddess of Tay Thien was part of the Holy Mother Religion of the Vietnamese, a long-standing religion that has a powerful influence over a large area. He also emphasised two intangible features of the religion including van singing and hau dong (mediumship).

During the three-day festival, various activities will be held such as displays by the San Diu ethnic group, folk singing contests, cooking rice and folk games.

Built on the ruins of an ancient pagoda, Truc Lam Tay Thien Zen Monastery sits majestically on the apex of the mountain, where from below the red tips of its tile-covered roof can be seen peaking through the pine trees. The Zen Monastery was officially inaugurated on November 27, 2005. It is very ornate, from the carved pictures on the doors to the embossed works on the walls, ceilings, and pillars, every detail was considered.

In addition to the monastery, there are support buildings constructed in the ancient architectural style including a library, museum, meditation house for monks, and temples in honour of the three founders of Truc Lam Zen.

Walking around the buildings, visitors can almost taste the tranquillity that is in the air of the mountainous landscape and holy temples.

VNS

HCM CITY

The Khanh Hoi Bridge in HCM City. The city announced a GDP totalling US$3.9 billion in the first quarter.  VNA/VNS Photo Kim Phuong

 

The city has turned in a robust first quarter economic performance with a GDP growth of 11 per cent, People’s Committee Chairman Le Hoang Quan said at a meeting with related agencies on Monday.

All leading sectors of the economy posted impressive growth towards a GDP of VND74.197 trillion (US$3.9 billion) in the first quarter, he said.

Industry and construction grew by 11.7 per cent over the same period last year, followed by the services sector at 10.5 per cent and agriculture at 6.2 per cent.

Export turnover over the last three months reached $4.153 billion, a decrease of 23.4 per cent compared with the same period last year.

The decrease would be 26.8 per cent if crude oil exports were excluded.

Meanwhile, import turnover went up 20.5 per cent over the same period last year to reach $4.094 billion.

The city leads the country in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), registering 3,604 new projects with a total investment of $27.8 billion. The city People’s Committee has approved 68 of these projects so far.

Most of the registered projects are in the high-tech, healthcare and education sectors.

FDI capital inflows have helped boost socio-economic development, including the unemployment situation, Quan said.

While the city appreciates the significance of FDI for the local economy, it plans to give priority to projects in the hi-tech industry and those that engage in environmentally friendly production.

Projects that are likely to pollute the environment will be denied licenses, Quan said.

VNS

HA NOI

Elderly people perform at a festival in Ha Noi. Healthcare services for the older generations remain increasingly inadequate. — VNA/VNS Photo Dinh Tran

As the population ages, demand rises for elderly care. In Viet Nam, this highligh a severe lack of healthcare services for older generations, according to head of the Ha Noi Office for Population and Family Planning Nguyen Thi Thu Huong.

As of now, senior citizens stand at about 62,000, accounting for 10 per cent of the population. Although the life expectancy of Ha Noi residents is 74—higher than the national number of 72.8—older people tend to begin losing their health around the age of 60.

"It seems like a paradox, because the quality of life has improved so much in some ways," Huong said.

As much as 60 per cent of Ha Noi’s population lives in rural areas. With relatively low incomes from farming and other agricultural work, few people, particular the elderly, regularly receive health checks.

On the other hand, healthcare services for the elderly are very limited. According to National Geriatric Hospital statistics, only 22.4 per cent of provincial-level hospitals have geriatric departments. There are only five long-term care facilities nationwide and two institutes that provide training on geriatrics.

Head of the Population and Social Affairs Institute Nguyen Dinh Cu said, "The expense to cover elderly care services is seven to eight times higher than those for children."

As of now, in Ha Noi there are several nursing centres for the elderly, but beneficiaries are mainly those who contributed to the revolution and the disabled. There are also a number of centres funded by private organisations.

"Such centres can meet only a small portion of the total demand," said Cu, whose department comes under the National Economics University.

In the long term, to respond to the rapidly ageing population in Viet Nam, developing a professional elderly care system would be necessary, he said.

"The elderly are normally dependent on their children, but in a modern society, they may not be able to live together and no one will take care of them. That’s when caregivers can step in."

According to Cu, it will be difficult, because social security policies are still limited.

In Ha Noi, the Office for Population and Family Planning is running a pilot project to implement a model that provides care to the elderly in Hoan Kiem District since 2009.

As many as 400 senior citizens in Tran Hung Dao Ward received free health checks and consultations, including eye examinations, ultrasounds and scans.

Huong said, "We understand that the elderly need to be cared both physically and spiritually. That’s why we co-operate with local authorities to organise many cultural and sports activities for the seniors to take part in."

According to Huong, after the successful implementation of this model in Hoan Kiem District, it would be introduced to six other districts across Ha Noi.

"The model is just a framework. In each district, based on socio-economic development levels, we will have to make proper adjustments."

VNS

HA NOI

An accelarated sell-off of shares caused the HCM City Stock Exchange to undergo a correction yesterday, with the VN-Index closing off by nearly 1 per cent to 500.72.

But, following Monday’s sluggish pace, the overall value of the day’s trades returned to a more active VND2.22 trillion (US$116.8 million), on a total volume of 58.8 million shares.

Sai Gon Cable and Telecommunications Materials Co (SAM) became the most active share, with a volume of 4.8 million, after the company’s shareholders on Sunday voted to approve a target for this year of VND1.31 trillion in earnings and VND282.6 billion in profit. They also approved proposals to increase its charter capital this year and to rename the company SACOM Development and Investment Corporation.

Dai Viet Securities Co analysts noted that penny stocks continued to attract the greatest investor attention, while foreign investors continued to largely sit out the market.

However, they said, increased buy orders for shares of Eximbank (EIB) and Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) in the final minutes of yesterday’s session was a sign of a possible shift in the market today.

Meanwhile, analysts of Thang Long Securities Co pointed to technical signs which suggested a short-term rally was possible. However, Thang Long analyst Quach Manh Hao added that "concerns over cautious monetary policies mean that there could be no such run."

Nguyen Thi Minh Hang of Royal International Securities Co said that the few investors remaining active on the floors seemed discouraged by the tough market, and she suggested that a significant amount of capital was shifting towards the real estate market.

The Ha Noi Stock Exchange yesterday saw its fourth session of declines, and the HNX-Index closed down by 0.84 per cent to 162.37. Volume reached 27.7 million shares, worth a combined VND906.84 billion ($47.7 million), with Kim Long Securities Co (KLS) reclaming the spot as the most-active share, with a volume of 2.6 million changing hands.

Foreign investors turned to be net sellers on the southern market by a net volume of about a million shares yesterday, worth a net of VND36.9 billion ($1.94 million), but they were net buyers on the Ha Noi market, picking up a meagre 97,600 shares.

VNS

HA NOI

The "Viet Nam-China Friendship Year 2010" was a good opportunity for the two nations to lift their comprehensive strategic co-operative partnership to a new height, To Huy Rua, Politburo member and Secretary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam’s Central Committee, said yesterday.

Welcoming Zhao Leji, Shaanxi Province’s Party Committee Secretary, who is on a four-day working visit to Viet Nam, Rua said he believed that the visit would diversify the activities of the Friendship Year and enhance the close exchange between the Parties, States and localities of the two countries.

The Chinese guest informed his host of the main contents of the third session of the 11th National People’s Congress of China, and spoke of the recent socio-economic development of his province and its economic and commercial ties with Viet Nam.

Zhao emphasised his wish to increase all-round co-operation with Viet Nam, covering science and technology, culture, education, tourism, industry and agriculture.

Viet Nam, Laos, Cambodia hold high-level conference

HA NOI

Representatives from Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam yesterday joined the fourth high-level conference to review the implementation of a support package for the development of the three nations.

The US$20 million package, funded by the Japanese Government, was designed to help develop the agricultural sectors and social security in the region. Representatives from the three sides acknowledged the good progress of the project implementation and exchanged more ideas about how to promote co-operative relations between the countries.

The Japanese Government proposed the fund at the second conference in 2007. Viet Nam has received $3.5 million from the package for seven projects to develop the nation’s agriculture.

VNS

HCM CITY

Viet Nam and Australia have set up an agency to combat transnational crimes like terrorism, drugs and weapons trafficking, and economic crimes.

The agency, which opened in HCM City yesterday, has been formed by the Ministry of Public Security and the Australian State Police.

Deputy Minister of Public Security Lt Gen Le The Tiem said the agency had been set up with deep understanding between the two sides and followed agreements between the countries on crime prevention in Ha Noi in 2006 and in Australia last year.

Its main functions are to collect, analyse and process information on crimes like terrorism, smuggling, trafficking of drugs and weapons, human trafficking, and trans-border economic offences.

It has to set up close co-operation with border guards, coast guards and customs to deal with crimes at borders.

Tony Negus, commander of the State Police, said the new agency would help combat trans-border drug smuggling and other crimes across regions.

VNS