☕ Afternoon briefing on April 15

The following is a brief review of the day’s events as reported by the Vietnam News Agency on April 15.

- Minister of ForeignAffairs Bui Thanh Son had telephone talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yion April 14, during which he affirmed that Vietnam attaches great importance toand hopes to further bolster Vietnam-China ties in a stable and sustainablemanner. Read full story

- Deputy Prime Minister LeMinh Khai has signed a decision approving the public debt strategy until 2030,which sets a target of keeping it at under 60 percent of the GDP and Governmentdebts not exceeding 50 percent of the GDP in 2030. Read full story

Processing tuna for export (Photo: VNA)

- Tuna export has maintained a high growth rate in the firstmonths of 2022 despite strong fluctuations in the world market over the pastmore than one year, partly thanks to free trade agreements that Vietnam hassigned.  

Customs statistics showed tuna export value leaped 108percent year-on-year in January to 88 million USD. The rate slowed down inFebruary but still at a high 57 percent and a value of 67 million USD, almostdouble the figure in February 2019 when the COVID-19 pandemic had not started. Read full story

- Vietnam exported 1.14million tonnes of rice worth 715 million USD in the first quarter of 2022, up24 percent in volume and 10.5 percent in value year-on-year, according to theMinistry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The traditional markets of the Vietnamese food crop such asthe Philippines, Malaysia and China still recorded stable growth in the period. Read full story

Rubber processing at Dau Tieng plantation in the southern province of Binh Duong. (Photo: VNA)

- Bilateral trade betweenVietnam and Australia is growing strongly, reaching 1.38 billion USD in thefirst quarter of 2022, a surge of 32.36 percent against the same period lastyear, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs. Read full story

- The Ministry of Health began to issue vaccine passports on April 15 in line with schedule. Vietnam’svaccine passport follows standards issued by WHO and the EU which are beingapplied by 62 nations. Read full story

- Ho Chi Minh City willbegin vaccinations against COVID-19 for 6th graders in all 23 districts and ThuDuc city and 5th graders in four primary schools on April 16./. Read full story

VNA