Politics:
-- Foreign ministers from Lower Mekong nations and the US convened for their fifth meeting yesterday in Phnom Penh to review the implementation of programmes on the environment, education, health and infrastructure.
-- Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on July 14 hosted separate receptions for Japanese Foreign Minister Gemba Koichiro.
-- The Republic of Korea is set to hold ministerial-level talks with Vietnam soon over a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA), said the RoK Trade Ministry on July 15.
Society:
-- A rage fire broke out in the Ho Chua mountain pass in the central city of Da Nang, destroying more than 10 hectares of forest.
-- 34-year-old patient N.T.P. on Saturday died after undergoing an IV at the Maria Chinese clinic in Hanoi.
-- The Ho Chi Minh City’s People’s Committee has ordered the city’s Department of Information and Communications to cooperate with mobile network operators to launch a program which will send warning messages via SMS to local residents in case of tsunami and earthquakes.
-- An Giang police has recently seized Tran Van Se, 57, who received a wanted 10 years ago for swindling
-- A group of people have been colluding with each other to steal motorbike spare parts and accessories from customers who parked at the parking lot of the Nhi Dong 1 Hospital in HCMC’s District 10.
Business:
-- Eco Pharmaceutical JSC has been found to sending the prices of two of its imported nutritional supplement to skyrocketing, and granting high commissions to hospitals to increase the products’ presence in the prescriptions there.
-- Shrimp farmers in the Mekong Delta are in a painful double-whammy with a large area of shrimp farming died while prices have also slumped dramatically.
-- Nguyen Lam Vien, deputy chairman of the Vietnam High Quality Goods Association, promised that Vietnamese products will be on shelves at supermarkets in China after 60 – 90 days under a new project developed to bring Vietnamese goods to China.
-- Vietnam has stayed safe from the anti-dumping lawsuit on footwear in Brazil, as the Brazilian ministry found no dumping activities from Vietnamese manufacturers after a nine-month review inspection.
-- Vietnam imported a total of $13 billion worth of products from China, or 25 percent of the total import turnover, in the first six month of this year, with machinery and equipment accounting for as much as $2.41 billion, according to the General Customs Department.
Education
-- Vietnamese students snatched 1 silver and 3 bronze medals at the International Biology Olympics Contest 2012 held in Singapore, according to the Ministry of Education and Training.
-- Many colleges saw a very low attendant rate of students who sit for the entrance examination to their facilities at the first day of the exam on Sunday.
Lifestyle:
-- Authorities of the central province of Quang Nam has approved a proposal to earmark VND7.7 billion from the provincial budget to restore the relics with high risks of collapsing in the ancient town of Hoi An.