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Red Spring Festival expects to collect over 4,000 blood units Young people donate their blood In his opening remarks, Director of the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion (NIHBT) Bach Quoc Khanh, who is head of the festival’s organizing board, said that the festival has been held annually since 2008 to address blood shortages after the lunar New Year holiday, and gradually changed public awareness of blood donation. After 13 editions, the festival has collected over 85,000 blood units and become the annual biggest blood donation event. Khanh took the occasion to express his gratitude for donators nationwide. The 14th edition is taking place from March 1-7 at the NIHBT headquarters, and three fixed places - 26 Luong Ngoc Quyen in Hoan Kiem district, 132 Quan Nhan in Thanh Xuan district, and Valley 122 of Lang Street in Dong Da district. The organizing board expects to receive over 4,000 blood units during this year’s festival, which then will … [Read more...] about VIETNAM NEWS HEADLINES MARCH 2

The revenue is almost twice the sum it has been assigned for per day this year, municipal vice chairman Vo Van Hoan said at an online meeting Tuesday. He said the government has tasked HCMC with earning VN365 trillion in budget revenues this year, which means it has to earn VND1.5 trillion each day. As of now, the city has collected VND74.5 trillion, up 10.5 percent against the same period last year. "Given what has been happening, the city will be able to complete the mission assigned by the central government," Hoan said. HCMC earned budget revenues of VND410 trillion in 2019, roughly 27 percent of the national figure and 3.3 percent higher than the target. Last year, due to the pandemic impact, it achieved just 91.5 percent of the target, earning VND371 trillion. HCMC’s population makes up 9.5 percent of the nation’s 96 million, its labor force accounts for 8.2 percent of the nation’s, but for several years now, it has repeatedly been the biggest money maker, … [Read more...] about In pandemic times, HCMC overachieves state budget collection target

Vietnam’s digital economy is expected to reach $43 billion by 2025, according to the e-Conomy Southeast Asia report from Google, Temasek and new partner Bain & Company. A customer uses smart phone to scan code on a product Nguyen Quang Dong, Director of the Institute for Policy Research and Communication Development, said digital service industry is recording the fastest growth and is suitable with Vietnam’s strengths such as a young population who love technology and social networks. Digital technology and the digital economy will be key drivers helping Vietnam increase workplace productivity, escape the “middle-income trap”, and realise the objective of becoming a middle-class developed economy by 2040, Dong said. Vietnam’s internet infrastructure and digital payment services remain limited, however, while the country still lacks a legal framework for digital assets, he said, stressing that the legal model of the 20th century no longer suits the digital … [Read more...] about Digital economy predicted to reach $43 billion by 2025

Streets in Vinh Long (Source: baovinhlong.com.vn) Vinh Long (VNA) - The Vinh Long Provincial People’s Committee in the Mekong Delta has issued a plan to implement the national action programme on sustainable production and consumption for 2021-2030. By 2030, 90 percent of industrial parks in the province are set to apply clean and environmentally-friendly technologies. All supermarkets and shopping centres are to use eco-packaging instead of single-use plastics, and the use of slowly-degrading packaging at wet markets will be cut by 80 percent. The province also hopes to have 100 percent of its enterprises joining production and distribution chains for safe farm produce and it also targets the widespread use of QR codes for product origin tracing. Local business invests in machinery to increase productivity and product quality (Photo: VNA) Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Van Liet said local authorities will assist businesses in … [Read more...] about Vinh Long presses ahead with sustainable production, consumption

Pharmaceutical sector riding high on back of pandemic. Source: freepik.com Swiss pharma giant Novartis delivered a solid performance in 2020 across strategic priorities. Net sales reached over $48 billion in the fiscal year, up 2.5 per cent on-year. Its core net income hit $13.15 billion, up 8.67 per cent. Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan said, “Operationally, we grew sales and continued to improve core operating margins for innovative medicines. We advanced our next wave of medicines, achieving a number of new approvals highlighted by Kesimpta in the US, and Leqvio and Zolgensma in the EU, and progressed our broad and deep mid-stage pipeline of first-in-class medicines.” Last year Novartis continued to focus on its status as a leading medicines company powered by advanced therapy platforms and data science. It also continued to advance transformative innovation for patients, including treatments for hyperlipidemia and multiple sclerosis. Coronavirus-related lockdowns in several … [Read more...] about Pharmaceutical sector riding high on back of pandemic