VIETNAM TODAY

People using e cigarettes or heated tobacco products in Vietnam will face fines of VND 3-5 million and be required to destroy the products, under a new government decree.

Vietnam achieved a top-tier global ranking in operational efficiency, placing 16th among 101 economies with a score of 70.44 points in the World Bank's Business Ready 2025 report.

Streets in central Ho Chi Minh City were left littered with rubbish after New Year countdown celebrations, as large crowds gathered to welcome the New Year.

A new tidal surge is forecast to hit Vietnam’s southeastern coast from the evening of January 1 to January 2, with peak levels of 3.95-4.05 metres at Vung Tau.

Eighteen people were killed and 41 injured in 49 traffic accidents nationwide on January 1, the first day of the New Year, according to the Traffic Police Department.

The Law on Teachers, comprising nine chapters and 42 articles, stipulates that teachers’ salaries will be ranked at the highest level within the public administrative and non-business pay scale.

The National Assembly has targeted 10 per cent GDP growth for 2026, a goal that demands enormous capital inflows.

Hanoi will run more than 69,000 bus and metro trips during the New Year holiday from January 1 to 4, 2026, to meet rising travel demand, the city’s Transport Management and Operations Centre said.

Ho Chi Minh City’s Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien metro route (Metro Line 1) was full of passengers in the early hours of New Year’s Day as large crowds returned home after fireworks celebrations.

Military and public security forces are working around the clock to complete construction before the Lunar New Year (Tet), which falls on middle February 2026.

Fireworks were set off simultaneously at five locations across Hanoi at 11.45 pm on December 31 to mark the New Year 2026.

Crowds poured into central areas of major cities across Vietnam, including Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, to welcome the New Year 2026.

Vietnam has appointed four more army officers to serve in UN peacekeeping missions in Africa and Europe, reinforcing its growing and increasingly professional role in global peace operations.

Severe coastal erosion has continued to batter Hoi An’s beaches after late-2025 storms, damaging large stretches of shoreline and raising concerns over safety, tourism and livelihoods.

Long Bien Bridge in Hanoi will reopen to two way traffic on January 1, 2026, after nearly two months of repairs aimed at improving safety on the historic crossing over the Red River.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has requested more breakthroughs in banking reform and policy implementation to drive the country's double digit economic growth.

Two rare silver pheasants wandered into a resident’s garden in Lam Dong Province and were handed over to authorities for release into the wild, police said.

Doctors in Hanoi saved the life of a foreign man who suffered sudden cardiac arrest while playing pickleball, after he collapsed at a hospital gate and was resuscitated under an emergency protocol.

Two residents in Thanh Hoa Province have voluntarily handed over rare wild animals to authorities for care and release back into the wild.