Vietnam aims to use 100 percent of environmentally-friendly plastic bags and packaging at shopping malls and supermarkets by 2025, according to a project on strengthening management of plastic waste in Vietnam approved by Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh on July 22. More stories at Vietnam Insider’s homepage. Other goals include to collect, reuse, recycle and treat 85 percent of plastic waste; to reduce the volume of plastic waste dumped to ocean by half; to have 100 percent of tourism complexes, hotels and other lodging facilities not use non-biodegradable plastic bags and single-use plastic products by 2025. Additionally, the project…
Author: Miley Selena
The Ministry of Health yesterday announced the use of 70,000 Molnupiravir Covid-19 antiviral pills for pilot treatment of Covid-19 patients at homes. More stories at Vietnam Insider’s homepage. The Ministry said that now, the domestic Molnupiravir drug manufacturers are ready to sponsor the first batches of drugs with 16,000 doses. Additional 100,000 doses will be given by September 5. At the same time, the first imported batch of Molnupiravir with more than 300,000 tablets arrived in Vietnam on August 23. It is expected that an additional 1.7 million tablets will be delivered on August 28. At the same time, the…
The income tax return (ITR) filing deadline for FY 2020-21 for individuals has already been extended to September 30, 2021, from the usual deadline of July 31, 2021. However, the new income tax e-filing portal has been marred by glitches and other problems from inception. The finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has given Infosys (the company which set up the new portal) time till September 15 to fix all the problems. However, this means that an individual is left with only 15 days to file ITR before the expiry of due date and that too with a new unfamiliar system which…
Phan Van Mai, 48, won 87 out of 89 votes cast by the city’s legislature, the People’s Council, at its meeting on Tuesday to become the latest mayor of Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh city (Saigon). Phan Van Mai, Deputy Secretary of HCMC’s Party Committee, has been elected as chairman of the city’s People’s Committee. The election was made after all 89 deputies agreed to end the term of his predecessor Nguyen Thanh Phong, who was named deputy head of the Central Economic Commission by the Politburo last Friday. Mai, a native of the Mekong Delta’s Ben Tre province, holds Bachelor’s…
In his nearly thirty-year career at the US State Department, Ted Osius spent quite some time working with Vietnam, first in the 1990s when he helped open the US Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City and then from 2014 to 2017 as the US ambassador to the country, which, as his website stated, he has fallen in love with since the 1990s. The former diplomat shared with The Hanoi Times some memorable stories during his tenure in Vietnam, as well as his expectations about the relationship between Vietnam and the US, especially in the lead-up to US Vice President…
If you do not have Internet banking access for your savings bank account, then you may find it tedious or cumbersome to issue cheques above Rs 50,000 in value depending on the bank on which it is drawn. This is because some banks, such as Axis Bank, have made positive pay system mandatory for high value cheques whereby customers are required to inform the bank about the cheque details via net/mobile banking or physical visit to the branch. The bank must be so informed prior to the cheque being presented for clearing else the cheque will not be rejected. This…
Singapore-headquartered gaming startup Storms and Southeast Asian digital entertainment firm POPS Worldwide today announced their partnership to bring 35 instantly playable games – ranging from arcade, sports, racing, education to puzzle genres – to the POPS mobile app (Android and iOS). This marks POPS Worldwide’s foray into the instant gaming scene, with millions of users in Thailand and Vietnam now able to play quality instant games provided by Storms within their POPS mobile app (Android and iOS) without having to download the individual mobile game apps. More games including hit games “Fruit Ninja” and “Jetpack Joyride” will also be coming…
Vietnam’s Ministry of Health reported 10,383 new local Covid-19 patients in 39 localities on Monday, taking the national tally in the current outbreak to 354,356. Military personnel and task forces in Covid-19 epicenter HCMC have delivered food to the doorsteps of patients and people in difficulty. Vietnam records 10,383 new Covid cases, three localities recording the most cases were Ho Chi Minh City (4,252), Binh Duong (3,183) and Dong Nai (623). The number of recoveries since the beginning of the pandemic has increased to 154,612 after 6,945 were announced recovered Monday, while the death toll increased by 389 to 8,666.…
I am a 33-year-old professional working in an MNC. Till now, I have only invested in FDs and PPF. Now I want to enhance my investment portfolio because of increase in responsibilities after marriage and childbirth. Please suggest good investment options considering that I have a low to moderate risk appetite. Can I earn 12-15 % returns annually? Is NPS a good option? Dev Ashish, Founder, StableInvestor and Sebi-registered investment advisor replies: Being young, you are now rightly exploring suitable investment options to generate inflation-beating returns. For medium-term goals (5-7 years), you can have 30-40% equity exposure given your low-moderate…
SBI Global Ed-Vantage is an overseas education loan meant for those who want to pursue full time regular courses at foreign colleges and universities. Courses covered under this loan scheme are regular graduate degree, post-graduate degree, diploma, and certificate or doctorate courses. According to a State Bank of India (SBI) press release, students can pursue these courses in any discipline from colleges/universities in US, UK, Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and New Zealand. Aspiring students can avail loan amount in the range of Rs. 7.5 lakh- Rs 1.5 crore. SBI provides interest rate of 8.65% with a special…