☀️ Morning digest January 24

Hanoi (VNA) - The following is a list of selected news summaries reported last night by the Vietnam News Agency.

- President Vo Van Thuong held talks with visiting German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Hanoi on January 23 following a welcome ceremony featuring a resounding 21-gun salute.

Both leaders expressed satisfaction with the robust development of the Vietnam-Germany relationship over the past nearly five decades, particularly after they established a strategic partnership. Read full story

- Phan Thi Thanh Tam, the spouse of President Vo Van Thuong and Elke Büdenbender, the spouse of the German President enjoyed a traditional water puppetry performance at Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre in Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem district on January 23 afternoon.

The two ladies immersed themselves in a diverse array of performances featuring iconic characters, dynamic dragon dances, and serene depictions of rural life. Read full story

- Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang gave a reception in Hanoi on January 23 for Governor of Fukuoka Hattori Seitarom, during which the host highlighted the growing relations between Vietnam and Japan as well as between Vietnam and the prefecture in particular.

The Deputy PM expressed his belief that the two countries will have substantive cooperation activities to deepen the Vietnam-Japan comprehensive strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia and the world. Read full story

- Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee and head of its Commission for External Relations Le Hoai Trung led a CPV delegation to Russia for a working trip from January 20-23.

The delegation held meetings and working sessions with Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko who is also co-chair of the Vietnam-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Economic, Trade, Scientific and Technological Cooperation; Secretary of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, and leaders of major political parties in Russia. Read full story

- The Ministry of Planning and Investment's National Innovation Centre (NIC) on January 23 held an event to review its activities under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Workforce for an Innovation and Start-up Ecosystem (WISE) programme.

In his remarks, NIC Director Vu Quoc Huy revealed that the USAID supported NIC in implementing the programme during 2021-2023, aiming to train and further enhance the quality of Vietnam's human resources serving the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Read full story

- Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Le Cong Thanh on January 23 had a working session with New Zealand Ambassador to Vietnam Trenede Dobson on cooperation between the two sides in the field of climate change response.

At the meeting, the Vietnamese official informed the guest that his ministry is assigned to build a legal framework to certify carbon credit management, towards building a carbon market in Vietnam. Read full story

- Overseas remittances to Ho Chi Minh City in 2023 reached over 9.46 billion USD, marking a year-on-year increase of 43.3% and a record high in the last ten years, Deputy Director of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV)'s Ho Chi Minh City branch Nguyen Duc Lenh said on January 23.

By region, remittances from Asia accounted for the highest proportion with 50.5% while the amount of remittances transferred from Africa and America decreased. Read full story

- Vietnam’s Mobile World Investment Corporation (MWG) opened the 50th store of EraBlue – its joint venture with Indonesia’s leading technology retail provider Erafone – in Tangerang, Indonesia on January 23.

In just over a year, the EraBlue brand has established a retail chain in Indonesia with each store covering an area of approximately 400 square metres and earning monthly revenue of around 4.5 billion VND (183,112 USD). Read full story./.