Hanoi’s initiative to adjust working hours has remarkably lessened traffic jams during rush hours on the first day it took effect, chief a city senior official said in a Vietnamnet report Friday. According to Nguyen Quoc Hung, director of Hanoi’s Transport Department, the traffic situation on local streets improved Thursday when the capital city launched its plan to change working hours for students, state office workers and commercial and service centers in ten downtown districts [...]

The Vietnamese public has been outraged again by another big environmental scandal. Last Friday the Ministry of Public Security’s environmental police found a waste treatment factory in the southern province of Dong Nai dumping thousands of cubic meters of untreated wastewater into the nearby river of the same name. To some people, the exposure was shocking, because the factory was operated by the state-owned Sonadezi Corporation, which has been consistently honored as doing an outstanding [...]

For years, local officials have expended considerable effort to promote Vietnam as an attractive tourism destination, announcing new tours, running commercials on international TV channels and so on. However, they seem to forget about the handiest tools in tourism promotion: guidebooks, which together with postcards and souvenirs, are among income sources that do not require high investment costs. In fact, although the country attracts nearly five million international visitors each year, all the guidebooks currently [...]

Last week newly-appointed Transport Minister Dinh La Thang made the headlines with bold statements about dealing with traffic jams in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi – the country’s largest cities. He promoted public transport, appealing for officials to take the bus at least once a week to set a good example. He also claimed that he himself had traveled by public bus incognito to inspect their services, and concluded that their quality generally met [...]

Last week newly-appointed Transport Minister Dinh La Thang made the headlines with bold statements about dealing with traffic jams in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi – the country’s largest cities. He promoted public transport, appealing for officials to take the bus at least once a week to set a good example. He also claimed that he himself had traveled by public bus incognito to inspect their services, and concluded that their quality generally met [...]