VIETNAM TODAY

HCM City sets a target to double its average income by 2020, according to a master plan approved by the People’s Council.

HCM City only has 27.3 million square metres for road while its 5.5 million registered motorbikes and over 500,000 cars need 100 million square metres for traffic.

A hot low pressure is heading for the northern region of Vietnam from west, creating the first heat wave in the region this summer.

A contract for the construction of the main work of the Lai Chau hydropower plan worth more than 11 trillion VND was signed in Hanoi on May 13.

Vietnam attaches importance to strengthening cooperation with Iran at international forums.

Japan’s Deputy Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso on May 13 received a Vietnamese delegation from the Ministry of Public Security led by Minister Tran Dai Quang.

Major U.S. retailers including Gap Inc declined to endorse an accord on Bangladesh building and fire safety backed by Europe’s two biggest fashion chains, a trans-Atlantic divide that may dilute garment industry reform efforts.

Lip syncing and "inappropriate" outfits in liveshows that have generated controversy over the past several years have reduced of late, officials said at a recent meeting in HCM City.

The fifth ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, focusing on green growth and poverty reduction for sustainable development, wrapped up on May 13 in Da Lat city, in the Central Highlands of Lam Dong.

The Vietnam Asset Management Company may be exempt from taxes, according to the NA Finance and Budget Committee.

The government has requested that the State Bank of Vietnam reduce the gap between deposit and lending interest rates.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on May 13 inspected the progress of Vietnam’s Kilo-class submarine, which is being tested in Kaliningrad, Russia.

A Soyuz space capsule carrying a three-man crew returning from a five-month mission to the International Space Station landed safely Tuesday on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

More than 300 delegates are gathering for the first ASEAN international conference on geology and natural resources in Vietnam’s Ba Ria-Vung Tau province on May 13-14.

Ngan Nguyen, a Vietnamese high school student in the US city of Bloomington, Minnesota, has been awarded a Gates Millennium Scholarship, which will provide full tuition for her tertiary studies.

A multilateral training course opened in the northern port city of Hai Phong on May 13 to improve law enforcement capacities and coordination at sea for attendees from the four Gulf of Thailand countries of Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia.

Western countries should temper their disdain for eating insects and boost research into using them to feed livestock, the UN and FAO said.

The Court of Appeals at the Ho Chi Minh City Supreme People’s Court on May 13 commuted Lo Thanh Thao’s prison sentence from three and a half years to two years.

The air defence forces of Vietnam and Japan should broaden cooperation in the areas of flight safety, aviation medicine, and disaster relief in the time to come.