Vietnam Today

A draft decision from the Prime Minister on encouraging the development of domestic waterway transport introduces many new mechanisms and policies, most notably a regulation on not charging seaport infrastructure fees, which will remove difficulties facing enterprises. The draft also proposes giving priority to preferential international loans for investment in waterway infrastructure, connecting waterways with major seaports.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh signed Official Dispatch No. 1082/CD-TTg on August 16 on speeding up the implementation and disbursement of the 2021 public investment capital plan. Disbursement reached just 36.71 per cent of the plan in the first seven months of the year, with many agencies not yet disbursing anything and the disbursement of ODA and concessional loans from foreign donors being particularly low, at 7.52 per cent.

Under a cooperation program signed recently by leaders from northern Hai Phong city and Quang Ninh province, the two will become a marine economic center and a gateway and driving force for the development of key economic areas in Vietnam’s north.

Switzerland has shipped 30 ventilators, 500,000 antigen tests, and 300,000 surgical masks worth a total of CHF4.9 million ($5.32 million) to help Vietnam as it continues to fight Covid-19.

The Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) is collecting comments from citizens on a draft decree amending and supplementing Decree No. 25/2011/ND-CP from the government on regulations and guidelines for the implementation of a number of telecommunications laws. In particular, for the retail services market, two services, including fixed internet access services and terrestrial mobile communication services, have been proposed.

Vietnam is Russia’s largest supplier of coffee but its coffee brands are hard to find on the shelves of Russian supermarket chains because 99 per cent of exports are raw coffee. Vietnam’s rice exports to Russia have also fallen due to rising prices. Some agricultural products and processed agricultural products from Vietnam have reached Russia’s retail network, such as mangos, chili sauce, dipping sauce, pomelos, and dragon fruit, but in limited quantities.