☕ Afternoon briefing on May 31

Hanoi (VNA) - The following is a brief review of the day’s events as reported by the Vietnam News Agency on May 31.

- The National Assembly (NA)'s Committee for Culture and Education has submitted to the NA Standing Committee a report affirming that many voters, experts, scientists and teachers disagreed with a plan to make history a selective subject in senior high school curriculum.

The report said that during the implementation of the 2018 general education programme, many voters as well as the public showed concerns about the plan, which is scheduled to be realised in the 2022 – 2023 school year, holding that it will affect the education of national patriotism and historical traditions among students. Read full story

- Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son on May 30 hosted a reception for Secretary (East) of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs Saurabh Kumar, who has been in Vietnam to co-chair the 12th Political Consultation and the 9th Strategic Dialogue between the two foreign ministries.

At the 12th Political Consultation between the foreign ministries of Vietnam and India. (Photo:  VNA)

During the meeting, Son congratulated India on its important achievements in national construction and development, COVID-19 prevention and control, and economic recovery. Read full story

- Commercial banks are expecting to have higher credit growth limits in Q2 2022 as they have already used up most of their assigned quota this year.

A customer at an MB branch (Photo: vncb.vn)

Under the current regulations, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) sets credit growth limits for each commercial bank at the beginning of the year depending on the bank’s health, including capital adequacy ratio, financial strength, risk governance and operational status. This was done to control credit growth of the entire banking system and to ensure money supply and inflation control as targeted by the Government. Read full story

- The last of the 35 cashew nut containers, the original documents of which were claimed by Vietnamese exporters to be missing because of a suspected scam, have been ultimately released under an Italian court rule.

They are among a total of 100 containers of the product shipped to a buyer in Italy. As the containers had been already dispatched, with some having reached Italian ports, the Vietnamese sellers claimed that they had not received any payment as agreed from the buyer and had lost track of the original documents of the consignments. Read full story

- The total tax collection in the first five months of this year is estimated at nearly 673 trillion VND (28.8 million USD), equivalent to 57.3 percent of the projection for the whole year and a year-on-year increase of 16.5 percent, according to the General Department of Taxation.

Notably, the collection from the manufacturing and business sector, the biggest contributor to the domestic revenue, represents 54.7 percent of the estimate for the year, up 11.5 percent from the figure of the last year’s corresponding period.Read full story

- Vietnam Airlines launched online check-in services for passengers departing from Pleiku Airport (Gia Lai province) on May 31 and plans to offer the services at Phu Cat Airport (Binh Dinh province) from June 8, raising the number of airports where its self-services are available to 16.

Vietnam Airlines' online check-in counters. (Photo: VNA)

The national flag carrier is seeking to provide online check-in services at all domestic airports where it operates flights to/from as part of an effort to promote itself as a digital airline and improve customers’ experiences and convenience. Read full story

- Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup on May 31 announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Intel to create a wide range of advanced computing systems.

Under the MoU, the two sides will work to explore opportunities for 5G-enabled smart city and smart building solutions, which can be applied to Vinhomes' Smart City projects. They will also collaborate in creating and deploying smart factory Internet of Things (IOT) solutions for VinES batteries manufacturing and VinFast electric vehicles manufacturing. Read full story

- The Vietnam Farmers' Union (VFU) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on May 31 launched a 7-million-USD project to prevent, combat and respond to violence and other harmful behaviours in the 2022 – 2026 period.

The project is part of the 10th country programme for Vietnam funded by UNFPA in the 2022 – 2026 period./. Read full story