Photo: Suc Khoe & Doi Song

More than 168,000 new Covid-19 infections were recorded over 24 hours

The Health Ministry announced a further 168,719 new Covid-19 cases on March 3 across all 63 cities and provinces a drop of 386 infections from the previous day. Among the latest cases, 15 were imported and the rest were domestic infections.

Over the past 24 hours, Hanoi recorded more than 30,600 new Covid-19 cases and registered an additional 195,000 infections to the national database after reviewing related information.

The capital’s tally was trailed by Nghe An (11,666), Phu Tho (7,216), and Bac Ninh (5,669). The Health Ministry reported that a further 62 COVID-19 patients had died, including 10 in Hanoi.

Photo: Suc Khoe & Doi Song

WB: Vietnam's economy continues to show resilience

The World Bank (WB) on March 11 released its brief updating Vietnam’s economic development in March, stating that the economy continues to show resilience and is recovering although downside risks have heightened.

The WB brief also indicated that FDI commitment slowed while FDI disbursement continued to recover strongly. Vietnam attracted 2.9 billion USD of FDI commitment in February, 15.9 percent lower than a year ago. Most of the commitments were made by existing firms intent on expanding their production facilities. The disbursement of approved FDI projects increased by 7.9 percent in February, the third month of increase.

The budget balance saw a 1.1 billion USD surplus in February as revenue performance remained strong. Expenditures increased thanks to improved disbursement of public investment. Revenues grew by 5.3 percent in February while expenditures increased by 6.1 percent thanks to improvements in the execution of the public investment program.

Over the first two months, the Vietnamese Government collected 22.9 percent of total planned annual revenues. The Government also spent 12.8 percent of planned expenditures. Public investment disbursement improved significantly, reaching 8.6 percent of the target set by the Prime Minister, much higher than the rate 5.1 percent recorded in the same period last year.

WB experts noted that Vietnamese authorities should encourage exporters to seek new markets and innovate into new products through global value chains and existing free trade agreements to strengthen export resilience. Keeping track of domestic price developments is also warranted. Continued administration of the vaccine boosters and renewed health guidance are critical to managing the Omicron wave, the bank recommended.

Photo: Zing

Forum seeks effective ways to safely reopen tourism

The Vietnamese tourism sector has been advised to improve its overall product quality, upgrade tourism infrastructure, and improve the skills of its workforce to thoroughly prepare for the reopening of international tourism in the future, according to industry insiders. Delegates emphasized that with the Covid-19 pandemic now being brought under control in the country, there will be huge opportunities moving forward for the local tourism industry to recover as it enters a new normal period.

According to data compiled by Google Destination Insights, the number of foreigners searching for information about flights to the nation since the beginning of this year has increased by 425% against the same period from last year. Most notably, people seeking tourism information about Vietnam mostly came from the United States, Australia, Russia, France, Germany, Japan, India, the UK, and Canada.

Furthermore, high vaccination coverage along with the government reopening plan to international tourism as of March 15 will create favorable conditions for foreign tourists to the country in the time ahead.

Simultaneously, Hanoi has also ramped up tourism promotion activities in a bid to elevate the country’s image to the wider world, as well as attract domestic tourists and design unique tourism products to effectively adapt to the current situation.

Vietnam Covid-19 Updates (March 12): More Than 169,000 Cases Added to National Tally In the latest wave that hit the country in late April, more than 5.44 million cases have now been confirmed, with 2.98 million people have ...

Vietnam Covid-19 Updates (March 11): More Than 160,000 Cases Recorded As of 6 pm on March 10, Vietnam has detected 5,260,495 Covid-19 cases since the start of the outbreak.

Vietnam Covid-19 Updates (March 10): Over 164,000 New Infections Confirmed The total caseload since the beginning of the pandemic has now reached over 5 million. Furthermore, the total number of recoveries grew to more than ...