Politics

☀️ Morning digest on March 19

The following is a list of selected news summaries reported last night by the Vietnam News Agency.

☀️ Morning digest on March 19

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

- Vietnam can't keep dragging its feet on developing strategic technologies; it's time for tougher, faster, and more hard-hitting moves, Party General Secretary To Lam told a meeting of the Central Steering Committee for Science and Technology Development, Innovation and Digital Transformation in Hanoi on March 18.

Following the Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW, the Politburo issued a list of 11 groups of strategic technologies and 35 groups of strategic tech products under a decision issued on June 12, 2025, while picking six priority strategic technology products for immediate rollout with detailed roadmaps. However, the progress remains uneven. To date, none of the designated priority products has advanced to a stage where it generates substantial, measurable economic contributions. Read full story

- Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his Algerian counterpart Sifi Ghrieb discussed ways to advance bilateral ties and exchanged views on international issues of mutual concern during their phone talks on March 18.

PM Chinh conveyed regards and invitations from Party General Secretary To Lam and other Vietnamese leaders to the President, the PM, and other high-ranking leaders of Algeria to visit Vietnam at an early date. Read full story

- Vietnam and Belgium are teaming up in a new push to undo some of the nightmare damage from the Vietnam War after the Southeast Asian nation gave the green light to a major cleanup project targeting land poisoned by Agent Orange (AO).

Specifically, the Belgian Government will help Vietnam scrub dioxin, a highly toxic leftover from wartime defoliants, out of contaminated hot spots. Vietnam endorsed a consortium made up of Haemers Technologies and the Aquitara Impact Fund to get the job done, with the goal of slowly healing the environment and giving struggling local communities a better shot at life. Read full story

- The Online Product Safety Summit in Hanoi on March 18, with participation from member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and major e-commerce platforms, helped accelerate the rollout of an product safety portal for the bloc.

Organised by the UK Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) in coordination with the agency for domestic market surveillance and development under the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade, the event went beyond policy discussions to focus on practical enforcement solutions for identifying and removing non-compliant goods from online marketplaces, thereby strengthening consumer protection amid the rapid growth of e-commerce. Read full story

- Vietnamese company Alterno outpaced nearly 500 applicants from 79 countries to crash the top 15 at the SET Award 2026 ceremony in Berlin on March 17, an annual recognition of leading startups driving the sustainable energy transition.

The win is huge for Vietnam as for the first time in the award's 10-year run, a Vietnamese firm has actually made it to the finals. Read full story

- Sixteen out of 18 national “.vn” domain names offered in the first auction session on March 18 were successfully sold. Auctions will continue on March 19 and 20, with 16 domain names available each day.

The starting price was set at 10 million VND (380 USD) per domain name (excluding VAT and other applicable taxes and fees). The highest winning bid reached 217 million VND, while the lowest matched the starting price. One domain attracted up to 85 bidding rounds, the highest recorded in the session. Read full story./.

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