☕ Afternoon briefing on January 27

 

Hanoi, (VNA) - The following is a brief review of the day’s events as reported by the Vietnam News Agency.

– Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh offered incense to President Ho Chi Minh and launched the annual New Year tree planting festival at K9-Da Chong relic site, Hanoi’s outlying district of Ba Vi, on January 27, the sixth day of the Year of the Cat.

Co-organised by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ministry of National Defence and Hanoi municipal authorities, the tree planting festival started a series of activities nationwide for the programme “For a green Vietnam” with an aim to plant 22.5 million trees this year.Read full text

– Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended the year-beginning launch of forces for the upgrade of the Nha Trang - Saigon rail route at Thap Cham Station in the south-central province of Ninh Thuan on January 26.

The upgrade of the  411km section, part of a project on renovating the Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh City rail route, has a total investment of nearly 1.1 trillion VND (46.8 million USD) funded by the state budget, and it traverses the provinces of Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan, Dong Nai and Binh Duong, and HCM City.Read full text

- Chairman of the National Assembly (NA) Vuong Dinh Hue made a new-year visit to the State Audit Office of Vietnam (SAV) on January 27, the first working day after the week-long Lunar New Year holiday.

The top legislator praised the efforts and initiatives by the audit sector to fulfil its tasks last year, saying that it contributed importantly to great achievements of the country in general, as well as the NA and the Government in particular.Read full text

- Vietnam supports the expansion of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in terms of both permanent and non-permanent members, with the fair representation of groups of nations, especially underrepresented ones, taken into account, Ambassador Nguyen Phuong Tra, Deputy Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the UN, has said.

Addressing the first meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiations on Security Council reform at the 77th UN General Assembly on January 26, Tra also emphasised improving the working method of the UNSC and limiting the use of veto power.Read full text

– The Paris Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam, signed 50 years ago, came as a result of stressful and protracted negotiations and held extreme importance, said activist Cora Weiss, one of the leaders of the anti-Vietnam-war movement then.

She told the Vietnam News Agency that the Paris Peace Accords, signed on January 27, 1973, helps give the US administration a way out from a 10-year illegitimate and unjust war in which millions of Vietnamese and tens of thousands of American soldiers were killed or exposed to Agent Orange.Read full text

– Germany’s famous travel site reisereporter.de has run an article highlighting the world’s top 25 trending destinations for 2023, including Vietnam’s Hoi An ancient city and Ho Chi Minh City, recently voted by readers of TripAdvisor – the world's largest travel guidance platform.

Specifically, Hoi An in the central province of Quang Nam occupied the second place on the list as part of the annual Travelers' Choice Best of the Best Awards, following Cuba, while the southern metropolis secured 11th place.Read full text

- Furniture products of six Vietnamese businesses were displayed at the January Furniture Show (JFS) 2023, the largest annual furniture show in the UK, at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham from January 22-25.

The Vietnamese booths, featuring interior and exterior wooden and home décor products, handicrafts, hotel furniture, and lighting equipment, attracted many UK wholesalers and retailers, as well as visitors.Read full text/.