Vietnam Today

According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Vietnam is among the top five countries most vulnerable to climate change in the world. As the World Resources Institute has noted, the country ranks fourth out of 164 countries surveyed on the damage from floods on the economy, losing 2.3 per cent of GDP each year and causing half of all agricultural land in the Mekong Delta to be submerged and unable to be cultivated in the future.

Speaking at the 5th Plenum of the 13th Party Central Committee on May 4, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong acknowledged the achievements in land law policy reform over the past ten years and asked for clarification as to why land has not become an internal force for socio-economic development and why the development of the real estate market is unsustainable and risky. Discussions on continuing to innovate land law policy are among the important contents of the plenum.

Deputy Prime Ministers Pham Binh Minh, Le Minh Khai, Vu Duc Dam, and Le Van Thanh, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung, and Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc will lead six working groups on the disbursement of public investment capital that Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh established on May 2. The working groups are tasked with conducting inspections, removing difficulties and obstacles, and accelerating disbursement this year, especially in projects using ODA capital and concessional loans from foreign donors through ministries and central and local agencies.

Many new policies are to come into effect during May, such as increasing the monthly allowance for demobilized soldiers and others on transportation, wood processing and exporting enterprises, imported cultural products, and the use of radio frequencies, etc.

On May 1, in the presence of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his visiting Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida, the Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VPBank) and the Japanese financial group Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) signed an MoU on business cooperation to provide customers in Vietnam with high-quality products and services to contribute to the development of Vietnam’s financial market.

Speaking at the Vietnam - Japan cooperation seminar on technology innovation, digital transformation, and supply chain diversification on May 1, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, who visited Vietnam from April 30 to May 1, said that Vietnam holds an increasingly important position in the global supply chain. Out of a total of 92 projects to diversify supply chains supported by Japan in ASEAN, Vietnam ranks first with 39 projects. He also emphasized that the possibility of cooperation between Vietnam and Japan is unlimited.