☀️ Morning digest on August 29

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

- Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on August 27 requested ministries, sectors and northern mountainous and midland provinces to well organise the implementation of policies, and action programmes to promote socio-economic development in the region, as the Party and State have adopted sufficient and sound policies and programmes.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (C) (Photo: VNA)

PM Chinh made the request when chairing a conference announcing the Government’s Action Programme implementing the Politburo’s Resolution No.11-NQ/TW on directions to intensify socio-economic development and ensure national defence and security in the northern midland and mountainous region by 2030, with a vision to 2045, held in Lao Cai province. Read full story

- The domestic paper industry has achieved good growth in the past five years and expects to maintain the momentum until 2025 driven by demand for tissue and packaging paper, according to the industry business group.

Hoang Trung Son, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Paper and Pulp Association, said that from being a country that imported its needs, Vietnam has managed to become an exporter of various kinds of paper, especially for packaging, with exports growing at over 65% a year in the 2015 -2020 period. Read full story

- Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the banking industry are expected to remain high for the rest of the year as the industry continues the digital transformation process, according to experts.

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the financial services (FS) industry’s need for digital capabilities, combined with sustained pressure from regulators and disruption from platforms and fintechs, means M&A will continue to be a driver for transformation. Read full story

- Various actions have been taken to bring a new face for the Vietnamese railway system in the future.

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

According to the Ministry of Transport, an investment policy for the North-South high-speed railway is expected to be announced in September and launched in 2028. Read full story

- More than 339,000 employees affected by the COVID-19 pandemic have received a total of 963 billion VND (41.12 million USD) from the unemployment insurance fund as of 5:30 pm on August 25.

A supporting package for the group has been launched by the Vietnam Social Security (VSS) under the National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee’s Resolution No. 24/2022/UBTVQH15. To date, 90% of the employees registering for the assistance have received payments from the package. Read full story

- Most of the 320,758 Vietnamese speakers in Australia resided in Victoria and New South Wales (NSW) states, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)’s 2021 Census.

Accordingly, Victoria and NSW are respectively home to 118,801 and 117,907 Vietnamese speakers, each accounting for 37% of the total. They were followed by Queensland, where about 10% of the Vietnamese speakers are living. Read full story

- The Vietnam People’s Army (VPA)'s delegation with eight medals finished fifth at the 2022 International Army Games, which was closed with a ceremony held in Moscow, Russia, on August 27.

Illustrative image (Source: VNA)

Vietnam won one gold, two silver and five bronze medals at the Games./. Read full story