Low productivity growth Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), said Vietnam reached an annual labor productivity growth of 4.8 and 4.3 percent and a yearly economic growth of 7.3 and 6.7 percent in 1990-2000 and 2000-2012, respectively. The country’s labor productivity was unstable in recent years, falling to its lowest level – 3.8 percent – in 2013 and rising to 6.5 percent in 2015, leading to an annual economic growth of only 5.96 percent in the 2011-2016 period. According to Minister of Planning and Investment, Nguyen Chi Dung, 2017 was a successful year of Vietnam, which fulfilled or exceeded all of the 13 socioeconomic development targets set by the National Assembly, including gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 6.7 percent. However, Vietnam’s growth quality remains modest, which is mainly attributed to modest labor productivity. Ousmane Dione, Country Director of the World Bank in Vietnam, said Vietnam’s average labor productivity growth is about four percent, much lower than the seven and five percent that China and the Republic of Korea (RoK) reached when they were at the same level of development as Vietnam. If Vietnam continues with its current rate of productivity growth, it won’t be able to keep pace with such countries the RoK and Singapore, he warned. Economists say that if Vietnam doesn’t improve its labor productivity, it won’t be able to lure large, quality investment projects. Education is key Forum participants said Vietnam needs a skilled workforce, noting that currently, only… [Read full story]
Medical experts warned of hospital-acquired infection (HAI) — also known as nosocomial infection — is an infection that is contracted from the environment or staff of a health-care facility which not only caused higher treatment cost and longer stay in hospital but also drug resistance.Meantime awareness and controlling nosocomial infection are low even doctors neglect washing their hand after and before examining patients.At a meeting to implement the national action plan on hospital-acquired infection in medical clinics in the period 2016-2020 lately, Deputy Head of the Health Ministry’s Department for Medical Examination and Treatment Dr. Hoang Van Thanh fretted upon…... [read more]
Financial experts warn many investors are making risky investments as they are trying to make profit from lending brokerages, which are hardly to have money management policies as safe as banks.As the return rate of brokerage services was getting low during the bearish stock market, some securities firms are trying to make profits from borrowing money from investors with high interest rates.Thang Long Securities JSC early this year released a financial service named “securities investment cooperation” offering an interest rate of 17.5 percent per annum to every investment worth VND5 billion (US$250,000) or more.The Hanoi-based brokerage also announced a similar…... [read more]
Health experts warned on Wednesday that Norway is facing an outbreak of influenza A, which is caused by a new strain of virus known as H3N2. More and more people were visiting doctors in recent days, with complains of having flu-like symptoms, said researchers with Norway's Public Health Institute. Among all patients who saw their doctors last week, 1.4 percent was diagnosed with flu, with the cases of the influenza A occupying a dominating position, which indicates the threshold of outbreak is reached, according to Norwegian health experts. The Southern and Western coastal areas of Norway are most affected while…... [read more]
Workers at a motorbike components manufacturing factory in Noi Bai Industrial Park, Ha Noi. Viet Nam's productivity was reportedly one of the lowest in the 10 ASEAN nations. — VNA/VNS Photo Huy Hung. HA NOI (VNS) — Viet Nam's productivity was one of the lowest in the 10 ASEAN nations, said Nguyen Ba Ngoc, deputy director of the Institute of Labour Science and Social Affairs at a forum for Labour productivity on Thursday.Ngoc said this indicated that the Government needed to improve its policies.He said there were nearly 54 million labourers in 2013, and only 18.4 per cent of them…... [read more]
Singaporean police (Photo: AFP/VNA)Singapore (VNA) – Supporters of the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq andSyria have named Singapore as part of its “East Asia wilayah”, a move thatanalysts say could embolden foreign fighters to carry out attacks here,according to Singapore’s English language daily newspaper Strait Times.In a paper recently published by the S.Rajaratnam School of InternationalStudies, senior analyst Jasminder Singh believed that together with Malaysia,Indonesia, the Philippines and southern Thailand, Singapore is singled out onsocial media as part of the wilayah.Singh said that this will suggest targets for foreign gunmen who are flocking tothe region.Other security analysts say this could…... [read more]
