Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina (R) and Vietnamese Ambassdor to Bangladesh Nguyen Manh Cuong at the meeting on January 9 (Photo: VNA)

Vietnam – Bangladesh friendship to brings practical benefits: Bangladeshi PM

The Vietnam - Bangladesh friendship, which went through many ups and downs of the history, will continue to be strengthened, bringing many practical benefits to both countries' people, said Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina.

PM Hasina made the statement during a meeting on January 9 with Vietnamese Ambassador to Bangladesh Nguyen Manh Cuong, who came to congratulate her over the success of the 12th General Election, and the victory of the Awami League (AL) party led by PM Sheikh Hasina.

Ambassador Cuong expressed his belief that under the leadership of PM Hasina, the Government of Bangladesh will continue to obtain many great achievements in socio-economic development, ensuring a prosperous and happy life for the people.

The diplomat highlighted that the traditional friendship and multifaceted cooperation between the two countries have been developed fruitfully, especially in economics and trade, cited VNA.

He hoped that PM Hasina will support and create favorable conditions for opening a direct air route between the two countries, thus creating new motivations for the bilateral cooperative relations, and contributing to expanding trade and tourism connection and people-to-people exchange in the coming time.

Vietnamese Pho named among world’s 20 best soups

Cable News Network (CNN) Travel of the United States has released its list of the world’s 20 best soups, including Beef pho (pho bo) of Vietnam.

According to the media outlet, the broth is simmered for hours with cinnamon, star anise, and other warm spices in order to create a wonderfully aromatic base for this rice noodle soup.

It noted that Pho is among the nation’s most recognized culinary exports, although the soup is a relatively new food, wrote Andrea Nguyen, author of “The Pho Cookbook”.

A bowl of noodles with beef. (Photo: Leisa Tyler/LightRocket/Getty Images)

And while today’s Pho restaurants typically serve a wide range of flavors, beef is the original. By 1930, the soup was served with slices of raw beef cooked gently in the broth, CNN wrote.

The website shared that today, pho bo remains the most beloved version enjoyed by local people, with options including the original raw beef, a mix of raw and cooked beef, brisket and tendon.

CNN’s list also feature other delicacies such as Banga of Nigeria, Borscht of Ukraine, Bouillabaisse of France, Caldo verde of Portugal, Chorba frik of Algeria, Libya and Tunisia, Chupe de camarones of Peru, Gazpacho of Spain, Groundnut soup of West Africa, Gumbo of the United States, and Harira of Morocco.

Soup is one of the world’s oldest and most universal foods, said Janet Clarkson, author of the book “Soup: A Global History”. “Each time you deliver a pot of hearty soup (with perhaps a side of bread) to a friend with the sniffles, you’re in fact carrying on an age-old tradition,” Clarkson said.

2024 expected to be good year for domestic tourism

2024 is expected to be a good year for Vietnam's tourism sector as positive signals have been seen in many destinations such as Phu Quoc, Tay Ninh and Da Nang right from the beginning of the year.

In Phu Quoc, a popular tourist destination in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang, recovery signs have been seen since late 2023 with a surge in the number of tourists. According to the Chairman of the People’s Committee of Phu Quoc city, in that period, the pearl island received 2,000-2,500 foreign visitors each day.

Particularly, the launching of Cau Hon (Kiss Bridge) and an entertainment complex at the Sunset Town invested by Sun Group contributed to making the tourism activities bustling in the island, according to VNA.

The provincial Department of Tourism said that in the New Year holiday, Kien Giang served more than 120,000 visitors, including more than 15,000 foreigners, earning VND369 billion (US$15.16 million).

Meanwhile, the southern province of Tay Ninh made a surprise in 2023 with a record 5 million visitors taking the cable car to Nui Ba (Ba Mountain) in the year.

The inauguration of various works serving Buddhists such as the world largest Maitreya Buddha statue, the highest artificial waterfall in Asia flowing around the statue of Maitreya Buddha, and Uoc (wishing) Bridge, Tay Ninh expects to become a popular destination for Buddhists and visitors in the new year.

A color show in Phu Quoc (Photo: VNA)

Along with Phu Quoc and Tay Ninh, the central city of Da Nang is also a promising destination in 2024 thanks to a rising trend from 2023.

According to the Da Nang Department of Tourism, local accommodations served more than 7.4 million guests in 2023, doubling the number in 2022, including more than 2 million foreigners.

During the Christmas and New Year holidays from December 23, 2023 to January 1, 2024, Da Nang welcomed 261,000 tourists, a surge of 34.7% year on year. In the three-day New Year holiday, the central city received 434 flights, up 10%.

Last year, Vietnam received 12.6 million foreign arrivals, 3.5 times higher than 2022, exceeding the target set at the beginning of the year by 57%. The number of domestic tourists hit 108 million, 5.85 higher than the target, while the sector’s revenue was estimated at VND672 trillion (US$27.59 billion), surpassing the goal by 3.38% and equivalent to 93% of the figure recorded in 2019.

Remittances to Vietnam rise sharply over global uncertainties

Vietnamese expatriates tend to send home remittances due to global geopolitical insecurities, with the amount expected to rise sharply in the coming days ahead of the lunar New Year festival.

The Ho Chi Minh City branch of the State Bank of Vietnam reported that overseas remittances to the southern city, the most populous locality in the country, hit nearly US$9 billion last year, representing a year-on-year rise of 35% and tripling the total amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) capital the city attracted during the year. Notably, overseas remittances to Ho Chi Minh City normally make up 55-60% of the total national amount.

The World Bank in its August 2023 report forecast that Vietnamese remittances would hit US$14 billion in 2023, helping the country enjoy a current account surplus. But following the release of the data on remittances from Ho Chi Minh City, the total amount of remittances for the whole country may exceed the World Bank’s forecast.

According to Nguyen Duc Lenh, deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City branch of the State Bank of Vietnam, to promote post-pandemic economic recovery, some countries have eased restrictions on immigration and health, paving the way for Vietnam to increase labor export, and as a result the amount of money remitted by the guest-workers has also increased considerably. In addition, overseas Vietnamese, despite financial difficulties, still care and support their relatives in the fatherland.

Remittances to Vietnam rise sharply over global uncertainties. (Illustrative image)

Some money transfer companies said that the amount of remittances increased considerably last year. Faced with geopolitical insecurities in the world, Vietnamese expatriates tended to remit more money back home, both in terms of amount and number of remittances. The amount of money transferred back to the country is forecast to increase sharply in the coming days ahead of the lunar New Year festival, the biggest of its kind in Vietnam, VOV reported.

Statistics show the amount of remittances to Vietnam from 1993 to the end of 2022 reached more than US$190 billion, nearly equal to the amount of disbursed FDI capital. By the end of 2022, overseas Vietnamese from 35 countries and territories had invested in 385 FDI projects in 42 localities across the country with a total registered capital of US$1.72 billion, contributing to spurring socio-economic development, creating jobs for local workers and increasing tax revenue for the budget.

Out of the total amount of remittances transferred to Vietnam every year, the US takes the lead as it is home to the largest community of Vietnamese nationals globally. The US is followed by the UK, Australia, and Canada. As for labor export, remittances mainly come from Vietnam’s major labor export markets such as Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Taiwan (China).

The World Bank forecasts that Vietnamese remittances are expected to rise to US$14.4 billion in 2024, while the International Organization for Migration reports Vietnam has received up to US$17-18 billion in remittances each year over the past three years.

Over the past 10 years, remittances have become an important source of finance for Vietnam. Despite global upheavals, Vietnam has retained its position in the top 10 countries with the largest amount of remittances in the world and in Top 3 recipients of remittances in the Asia-Pacific region. Overseas remittances, along with FDI capital, help the government stimulate domestic consumption, support private investments, get more resources to maintain a stable exchange rate policy and increase foreign exchange reserves.

Currently, approximately 6 million Vietnamese expatriates are living in more than 130 countries and territories worldwide, mostly in developed economies. Between 130,000 and 150,000 are sent to work abroad every year, making a great contribution to Vietnam financially.

Vietnamese doctors gain impressive achievements in 2023

Vietnamese doctors have mastered new techniques such as liver transplants with different blood types for older children, preparing new radioactive drugs, and saving a newborn baby who weighed 400 grams.

1. Preparing new radioactive drugs

In November 2023, for the first time, a hospital in Vietnam, Cho Ray Hospital, successfully prepared two new radioactive drugs used in PET/CT scanning - Ga-68 PSMA for treating prostate cancer and Ga-68 PSMA for treating neuroendocrine tumors.

Within one month, 12 cases of prostate cancer and nine cases of neuroendocrine tumors were treated with PET/CT imaging with new radioactive drugs.

The use of the two radioactive drugs was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2020 and 2016, and they have been used widely. However, not all countries can produce Ga-68 PSMA and Ga-68 Dotatate. Previously, patients had to go abroad to have PET/CT scanned with the two drugs.

2. Setting up special operating bed for newborn with heart disease

In order not to miss a second to save the life of a newborn baby with severe arrhythmia in the womb, on October 9, 2023, surgeons of two end-line hospitals, Hanoi Obstetrics Hospital and Pediatrics Central Hospital, designed a special operating room with a cardiac intervention table put next to a cesarean section table.

Tens of doctors at the hospitals had only 16 hours instead of two weeks to prepare the special operating room. On October 10, the cesarean section was done. The baby girl was born weighing 2.1 kilograms, with a heart rate of only 50 beats/minute, sometimes down to 35 beats/minute, which caused heart failure.

Photo: VNN

Fifteen minutes later, the baby with a heart just equal in size to a finger was placed with an artificial pacemaker. When the ventricular rate increased to 120 beats per minute, she was brought to the Central Pediatrics Hospital nearby for intensive treatment.

3. Liver transplant

The patient was a 15-year-old girl from Quang Binh, who suffered from liver cancer, and a liver transplant was the only method to maintain her life. Her grandmother was the organ donor, but she and her grandchild did not have the same blood type (ABO blood type incompatibility).

In Vietnam, at that time, organ transplantation from ABO blood group incompatibility had been performed on kidney transplant patients and on liver transplant patients in children, but not in adults, cited VNN.

On October 30, an 8-hour laparoscopic surgery to take a piece of the grandmother's right liver to transplant into her granddaughter was performed by doctors of the Military Hospital 108. One week after the surgery, the patient recovered well.

4. Feeding a newborn weighing only 400 grams

A baby girl, Binh An, was born in July in Hanoi in the 26th week of pregnancy, weighing only 400 grams.

Many operations were carried out to rescue the girl. After that, she was given nutritional infusions using longline technique and treated with antibiotics to treat severe infection. After four months, the baby developed normally with the weight of 2.1 kilograms.

Binh An was the most premature baby with the lightest weight ever who has been saved by doctors. Previously, in 2021, doctors at the Central Obstetrics Hospital successfully raised a baby girl born in the 27th week of pregnancy, weighing 400 grams.

5. Mastering whole-body radiotherapy techniques for cancer patient

The patient was a woman, 46, from Binh Duong province, who was hospitalized in July 2022 diagnosed with lymphoma. Six years ago, she was diagnosed with the disease and received chemotherapy. The disease recurred in 2019 and 2021 but chemotherapy was no longer effective.

The patient received total body radiotherapy for three days, twice a day, under special conditions. After that, she received a stem cell transplant (the patient's sister was the bone marrow donor) and was discharged after 45 days. After five months of discharge from the hospital, the patient returned to normal life.

6. US technique applied successfully in Vietnam

In early September 2023, M, 6, from Hung Yen province became the first child in Southeast Asia receiving surgery to place electrodes on the cerebral cortex to map the epileptogenic area. The surgery was performed by surgeons of the Central Pediatrics Hospital with the technique transferred from the US.

The technique was effective. The child did not have to take anti-epileptic drugs after the surgery. In the US, this kind of surgery costs US$150,000 (VND3.5 billion). In addition, patients have to pay for drugs and treatment process. A depth electrode costs about US$1,500.

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