Officials of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and police officers from 15 southern provinces exchanged experiences in crime prevention at a conference in Ho Chi Minh City on April 21.

Vice Chairwoman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee, Ha Thi Lien, underlined the involvement of people from all strata in ensuring security along with the inter-sectoral coordination required in the work.

Many effective crime prevention models were presented at the conference, for example a hotline for reporting crimes in Long An province and community-based programmes rehabilitating ex-prisoners in HCM City and Binh Duong province.

Senior Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Dinh Trung from the Ministry of Public Security said there were 59,000 criminal cases in Vietnam in 2013, up 5.03 percent from a year before.

The situation is predicted to worsen in 2014, especially in organised drug and economic crime, he said, adding that all authorised agencies need to work more closely and encourage people to join together in the work.-VNA