HA NOI

Viet Nam’s mobile operators have prepared good network infrastructure to reduce jamming incidents during peak hours for the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday, according to mobile carriers.
Dinh Viet Hung, chief of MobiFone’s Marketing and Telecom Charge Department, said that the company had completed upgrading network infrastructure to avoid congestion caused by overloads during the season.
MobiPhone’s call centre capacity has been upgraded to meet the rising demand of mobile phone users during this period. The capacity of SMS and GPRS management systems has also been expanded to meet 300 per cent and 400 per cent, respectively, of demand during normal hours.
In addition, MobiFone has also organised a team of information technology experts to give support 24 hours a day during Tet.
Hoang Trung Hai, deputy standing director of VinaPhone, said that VinaPhone had installed 5,000 Basic Tranceiver Stations (BTS) using 3G technology as one solution to avoid jamming over the holidays.
Meanwhile, VinaPhone currently had 17,000 base transceiver stations using 2G technology. It has also arranged 30 mobile base transceiver stations in busy areas.
It had just completed maintenance on its call centre and increased its network capacity to accommodate 50 million users, even though it has only 27 million subscribers at the moment. Its SMS system can also transmit 20 to 30 million SMSs per hour.
Like MobiFone and VinaPhone, the country’s military telecom carrier, Viettel, was also fighting network congestion.
Viettel has been upgrading its call centres to meet the demand of more than 10 million extra subscribers, so the total capacity can now meet more than 50 million subscribers.
Viettel also added 2,700 more BTSs, for a total of 23,000 BTSs. It plans to use 27 mobile BTSs in highly populated areas to meet strong demands this holiday.
However, Vietnamese mobile operators also advised that customers should not make calls or send text messages during peak hours to avoid overloading the systems.
Additionally, customers should turn off delivery reports to reduce burdens for call centres.

VNS

HCM CITY

Supermarkets rather than traditional markets seem to be the preferred destination for HCM City Tet (lunar new year) shoppers this year.
Bui Hanh Thu, deputy director of supermarket chain Saigon Co.op, said sales has risen by half ahead of Tet.
People are flocking to French retail chain Big C to buy clothes, confectionery, and dried foods.
Duong Thi Quynh Trang, director of public relations and foreign affairs at the chain, said Big C is offering discounts of 2 to 50 per cent on 1,400 products and keeping the prices of 200 kinds of fresh foods stable.
Many supermarkets have increased the number of cashiers and expanded parking lots to serve the increasing number of customers.
Ngo Van Hai, deputy director of Citimart, said sales had soared, adding that prices are more stable than in past years.
In contrast, many markets are going through a quiet time.
According to the management of Binh Tay (District 6), An Dong (District 5), and Ben Thanh Markets (District 1), sales have plunged compared to Tet time last year.
This is partly owing to the rash of adverse reports about the safety and quality of products - watermelon seeds having carcinogenic substances, unhygienic production of cakes, jam, and candy, and so on - in recent weeks as a result of which buyers are preferring supermarkets.
At supermarkets products are often carefully packaged and branded, which make consumers feel secure, a Ben Thanh Market management official said. However, despite the poor patronage, prices of many products, especially food, have been gradually increasing at the markets.

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HA NOI

The Security World 2010 conference and showcase will be held in Ha Noi next month under the theme of "building a practical information security strategy in today’s challenging business environment".
The conference will discuss solutions to ensure secure online transactions like digital signatures and digital authentication.
The event is also aimed at promoting the Government’s information security plan, under which VND765 billion (US$41.35 million) will be allocated from the State budget between late this year and 2020 on six major projects involving legal and technical infrastructure.
The showcase planned to take place alongside the conference will introduce information security solutions and technologies, as well as information on IT management, risk management, compliance, standardisation, business continuity, data and storage security, authentication and security monitoring.
The event, to be held March 23-24, is being co-organised by the IT Department, and General Department of Logistics and Technology of the Ministry of Public Security, the Viet Nam Computer Emergency Response Team of the Ministry of Information and Communications, and the International Data Group.

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HCM CITY

Consumer demand for electronic goods in major cities in the run-up to Tet has failed to meet retailers expectations, despite enticing promotional campaigns.
Consumers have more electronic goods such as LCD televisions and mobile phones to choose from than ever before, yet sales have been disappointing, said Nguyen Thi Quyen, deputy marketing director of the Thien Hoa centre.
Nguyen Quoc Bao, chairman of Thanh Cong Mobile, said sales of mobile phones were down by 30 per cent on the same period last year.
Despite sluggish sales in most major urban centres, Ha Noi, has faked slightly better - a factor attributed to well-targeted promotional campaigns and enticing discounts.
Pico Plaza forked out VND20 billion (US$11 million) on marketing its products over the last few months and reduced prices of electronic goods by 8-12 per cent.
"Sales in my centre this Tet are double last year’s figure. However, we don’t expect sales this month to be anything like last October, which was also a promotional month," said Nguyen Thanh Dat, who works at Pico Plaza.
Dat said consumers were no longer waiting for the Lunar New Year, when they receive their annual bonuses, to buy goods because prices had fallen markedly last year.

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HAI PHONG

The northern port city of Hai Phong has set a target to attract US$300 million in foreign investment this year, said Vu Xuan Minh, head of the Investment Promotion Division of the municipal Department of Planning and Investment.
"The goal is within our reach as two important infrastructure projects, the Ha Noi - Hai Phong Highway, which is already under construction, and the Hai Phong International Seaport, will be under construction this year and will help attract the atttention of more foreign investors to the city," Minh said.
Recognising the significant role of foreign investment in the city’s process of industrialisation and modernisation, the municipal authorities have taken steps to facilitate foreign investment by streamlining administrative procedures and improving the quality of human resources.
"Hai Phong plans to cut 30 per cent of its administrative procedures and speed up land clearance this year in order to improve the investment climate," Minh said, outlining clean industries, hi-tech, export processing, services and training as the city’s most encouraging areas.
In addition to perfecting infrastructure in the city’s existing industrial zones and complexes, the city would invest in an industrial complex with complete infrastructure this year, covering a total area of 200ha, Minh said.
"Overseas investment promotion will also be enhanced, with a focus on Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and North America," he noted.
Hai Phong lured only $126 million in FDI in 2009, or just 10 per cent of the previous year’s figure, due to the influence of the global economic crisis. Of the total, $46 million was in 18 new projects while the remainder was adding capital in 13 projects already underway. The industrial sector attracted the lion’s share of investment, at 54.3 per cent, followed by real estate and infrastructure construction for industrial zones.

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HA NOI

Seven patients in five weeks have gone down with cholera in the Mekong delta province of An Giang, putting the provincial health department on high alert to prevent an epidemic.
"The cholera patients were all from Cambodian provinces that have borders with Viet Nam," said Vo Huy Danh, deputy director of An Giang’s Preventive Medicine Centre.
"Cholera could spread fast - if we don’t prevent it - as trading in border zones increases with the approach of Tet."
An Phu District hospital director Tran Van Sang said the fkst cholera patient was a nine-year-old girl named Nit from Takeo Province in Cambodia.
When Nit was hospitalised, she was in cardiovascuar collapse and had extremely low blood pressure.
Two days later, Nit’s sister was also hospitalised in the same condition. Three other patients who lived in the same neighbourhood were later hospitalised with cholera.
Family members of the patients said they had used water from the same river to cook and drink and had eaten raw fresh water clams. One hour after eating, they started vomiting continuously and had diarrhoea.
Doctor Sang said the patients with cholera had been taken care of and they were all in good condition. Four had returned home.
Cholera transmission occurs when eating food and drinking water that is contaminated with vibrio cholera from other cholera patients.
An Phu district of An Giang has a border gate with Cambodia where cross-border trading happens frequently, which can cause cholera to spread very fast.
"After the first cholera patient was found we took swift action, including sterilising the districts on the border and distributing cloramin bleach for residents who live in those areas," Danh said.
The province’s Health Department also had intensified its inspections of food stands in local markets.
"Samples of the food from some stores was taken for testing but we haven’t found the cholera virus yet," Danh said.
Nguyen Huy Nga, head of the Preventive Medicine and Environment Department said there was the fear that cholera could spread widely in the Mekong Delta.
"There are still many people in the Delta who defecate directly into the streams near their homes, which means someone with cholera would put the bacteria into the stream," Nga said.
"Children swim and bathe in the streams so they could be infected."
Nguyen Thi Thanh Tam, head of the department of, infectious disease of Can Tho hospital, said no cases off cholera have been found since the beginning of the, year in Can Tho, another province in the Mekong Delta.
Tam said cholera could spread very quickly, especially during Tet when people got together to party.
Last year, there were 471 cases of cholera notified in 15 provinces and cities throughout the country. One person in the northern province of Ninh Binh died of the disease.

VNS