VIETNAM TODAY

Five potential bidders, including Vietnam, have signed up to bid on an 800,000 tonnerice contract withthe Philippines, according to the Philippines website Inquirer.net.

Lienviet Post Bank will represent Vietnam at the coming Asian Women's Volleyball Clubs Championship in Thailand.

Visiting Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and Hanoi Party Committee Secretary Pham Quang Nghi on April 4 cut the ribbon to inaugurate the Yen So Park, built by Malaysian group Gamuda in Hanoi’s Hoang Mai district.

Long before campaigning for the April 5 poll began, Afghan President Hamid Karzai promised he would not endorse any presidential candidate. He did not break his vow. But everybody knows who Karzai supports – it’s one of Kabul’s worst-kept secrets.

Many teachers in Vietnam complain that they are facing difficulties in giving real life examples for their anti-corruption lessons, fearing the students might become disillusioned.

A delegation of Vietnamese doctors are attending the 5th Congress of the Asia-Pacific Initiative on Reproduction (ASPIRE 2014) which opened in Brisbane, Australia on April 4.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and his Malaysian counterpart Najib Tun Razak have consented to upgrade Vietnam-Malaysia relations to a strategic partnership for mutual benefit.

More than 200 domestic organizations and businesses are attending the 2014 Hung Kings Fair which was opened in the northern midland province of Phu Tho on April 3.

Nine foreign troupes and 16 local ones have registered to attend the Vietnam International Dance Festival 2014, which will be held in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue from April 14-18.

The Ministry of Transport has vowed to take drastic measures to restructure and improve the country's stagnant rail sector.

Border guards from Vietnam’s Thanh Hoa province in coordination with the Security Command of Laos’ Houaphanh province razed a large-scale drug processing and trafficking ring in Laos’ Sam Neua district on April 3.

A US Navy "black box" detector made its much-anticipated debut in the oceanic hunt for flight MH370 on Friday but Australia's search chief warned it was crunch time with the box's signal set to expire soon.

A total of 161 teams from 33 educational institutions are participating in the Vietnam 2014 Robot Creation Contest regional qualifiers underway in Hanoi, HCM City and Danang from April 2-6.

The first-ever caricature festival will be held in HCM City to bring the art closer to the public and provide a comic playground for professional caricaturists and the audience.

The State-owned flag carrier plans to launch its initial public offering in September, stated Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Hong Truong during the ministry’s Q1 meeting.

Small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of Asia’s economies, but they need better access to financing to grow and generate new jobs for the region, says an ADB report.

The bodies of two North Korean sailors were recovered Friday after their cargo ship went missing off the southern coast of South Korea but 11 others are still missing, South Korea's coast guard said.

President Truong Tan Sang on April 3 inspected the progress of the Vietnam-Japan University project in the Hoa Lac High-Tech Park in the west of Hanoi.

Germany will provide more official development assistance (ODA) for climate change, energy and environment programmes in Vietnam, particularly the Mekong Delta region, in the future.