President Vo Van Thuong (R) welcomes Governor of Japan’s Fukuoka prefecture Hattori Seitaro.

President Thuong hosts Governor of Japan's Fukuoka prefecture

President Vo Van Thuong hosted a reception in Hanoi on January 22 for Governor of Japan’s Fukuoka prefecture Hattori Seitaro who is on a working visit to Vietnam.

President Vo Van Thuong highlighted that the Governor's visit as a contribution to further deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia and the world, and between Vietnam and Japan.

Hattori Seitaro said that Fukuoka prefecture and Hanoi have had effective cooperation and exchange programs, cited VOV.

During this visit, the two sides will continue to discuss and implement new cooperation programs, he said, adding that along with friendly cooperation activities, Fukuoka focuses on launching a broad array of people-to-people exchange activities between the two countries, especially those run by Vietnamese people studying and living in Fukuoka.

Governor Hattori Seitaro expressed his desire to further strengthen cooperation and exchange activities in many different fields between Fukuoka and Hanoi, while hoping to receive support and favorable conditions from President Vo Van Thuong.

In response, the Vietnamese State leader glowingly spoke of exchange and cooperation activities launched by the two nations in 2023, and suggested the two countries continue to hold practical and specific activities this year.

Thuong asked Fukuoka Governor Hattori Seitaro to promote people-to-people exchange activities between Vietnam and Japan in general and between Hanoi and Fukuoka province in particular, especially vacation tourism activities of Japanese students coming to Vietnam and Vietnamese students and young people coming to Japan.

President Thuong suggested that Japanese and Fukuoka prefecture businesses need to continue to increase investment in Vietnam, coordinate with Vietnamese businesses to increase investment, business, and cooperation in areas where both sides have strengths and abilities, including training high quality human resources.

He said he hopes that Fukuoka prefecture leaders will continue to provide Vietnamese people with the best conditions and continue to welcome more Vietnamese people in the coming time.

Vietnam, Canada launch military training on exercise planning process

The Vietnam Department of Peacekeeping Operations, in collaboration with relevant agencies and units, on January 22 launched a training course on the exercise planning process in 2024 between Vietnam and Canada.

This is the third time Vietnam and Canada have co-hosted an international intensive training course at the Vietnamese department, according to VNA.

At a training session for bomb and mine clearance. (Photo: VNA)

The course from January 19 to February 2 aims to equip knowledge and skills about the exercise planning process for officers of the Vietnam People's Army (VPA) and partner countries within the framework of Canada's Military Training and Cooperation Program (MTCP). The aim is to improve the capacity of organizing international intensive training courses and developing a contingent of lecturers on UN peacekeeping, thus contributing to strengthening friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and Canada and international partners in the field of peacekeeping.

Canadian Defense Attaché in Vietnam Lieutenant Colonel Paul Payne said that the training course will introduce trainees to the exercise planning process based on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)’s training and exercise documents.

Colonel Pham Manh Thang, Director of the Vietnam Department of Peacekeeping Operations, said this training course attracted the participation of 37 trainees from nine partner countries of Canada's MTCP, namely Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

In 2018, Vietnam and Canada signed a Memorandum of Understanding on military training cooperation. Since then, more than 130 VPA officers have participated in training in Canada and other countries. The scope of training cooperation between Canada and Vietnam has been expanded from language training and logistics to security training courses.

Flight tickets for Tet remain scarce ahead of festive season

Although domestic airlines have continuously moved to increase the number of flights on offer during the 2024 Lunar New Year, known locally as Tet, with numerous flight routes still experiencing high booking rates and ticket shortages during the peak period.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) said that there has been a significant rise in seat reservations for flights departing from Ho Chi Minh City to northern and central provinces before the festive period.

Furthermore, during the post-Tet period, flights from Hanoi to different localities and from central provinces to Ho Chi Minh City are also nearly fully booked.

Passengers line up for check-in services at an airport. (Photo: VTCNews)

In particular, flights departing from Ho Chi Minh City to Buon Ma Thuot, Hue, Tuy Hoa Thanh Hoa, Da Nang, Quang Binh, and Hai Phong Vinh have all seen high reservation rates and face ticket shortages, with some routes hitting full capacity at 100% during peak days, VOV reported.

As part of efforts to meet the growing demand, the CAAV continued to add 48 slots for Vietnamese airlines, equivalent to 48 flights and 10,000 seats per day.

It also advised passengers to arrive at airports three hours before the departure time in order to avoid congestion, and use online and digital check-in methods to save time.

German Bundestag member highlights Germany-Vietnam ties

Chairwoman of the Parliamentary Friendship Group for Relations with the ASEAN States Gabriele Katzmarek highlighted Germany-Vietnam relations while granting an interview to Vietnam News Agency correspondents in Berlin ahead of President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s state visit to Vietnam on January 23-24.

The member of the German Bundestag stressed that bilateral cooperation has developed well over the past year, and the “strategic partnership” is the most important aspect of the two countries’ relations.

Vietnam is currently Germany’s most important trading partner in ASEAN, and there are more 350 German companies present in the Southeast Asian nation, creating around 50,000 jobs, cited VNA.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (Photo: VNA)

In the context that Germany is aiming to further diversify its economic, trade and investment relations, Vietnam will be a very attractive destination for German and European investors, said Katzmarek.

According to her, in the field of climate protection and climate change response, Germany considers Vietnam a global partner and welcomes the country's green growth strategy. She affirmed that Germany will maintain its support for Vietnam in solving challenges caused by climate change, and help it adapt to and further develop its green growth strategy.

For cooperation potential between the two parliaments, Katzmarek said that parliamentary collaboration is an important channel of cooperation, contributing to promoting bilateral and traditional relations between the two peoples.

Regarding the German President’s visit, Katzmarek predicted that in addition to consolidating the time-tested friendship, the leader will seek to expand and diversify political and economic ties between the two countries.

Vietnam joins AI chatbot development race

Seeing the promising future of AI chatbots, domestic IT businesses have decided to participate in the race to create their own to serve Vietnamese people.

At the end of November 2023, Amazon Inc. from the US introduced its AI chatbot called Q for businesses. This product is a strong competitor against ChatGPT by OpenAI, Bard by Google, and AI-related features in Microsoft software pieces.

In Vietnam, VinBigdata JSC. is one of the fierce racers to develop AI chatbots in the world. In December 2023, it launched ViGPT – the first AI chatbot using Vietnamese – for end-users and an integrated version into the multi-cognitive AI platform VinBase 2.0 for enterprises.

Prof. Vu Ha Van, Scientific Director of VinBigdata JSC., shared that this application erases the dependence of Vietnam on foreign products and gradually increases the precision of the information on Vietnamese culture and history, while reducing the data flow abroad.

Technology expert Nguyen Hong Thuc believed that 2024 is the year to implement AI technology into practical tasks to serve the community, SGGP reported.

Young people are experiencing ViGPT – the first AI chatbot using Vietnamese.

In particular, AI chatbots can effectively analyze statistics on Excel or Word documents before composing a corresponding report with useful illustrated charts. An AI secretary can manage documents, records, appointments and schedules of both individuals and companies. It can also arrange meeting agendas or write invitations. An AI designer can automatically search for suitable images on the Internet before making marketing pictures and video clips as requested. It is able to work non-stop round the clock.

“Obviously, the practicability of AI technology has allowed AI chatbots to be used widely everywhere. A conventional application can simply attach a chat box to implement AI elements. This is convenient for startups to develop technological products with AI chatbot frameworks”, said Phuc.

CEO of Vbee Ho Minh Duc stated that AI applications have become more advanced and user-friendly. Current competitions for AI-related products make technological giants find better ways to serve their clients, meaning more diverse and high-quality applications at cheaper prices (ChatGPT Plus is now offered with the price of US$2 per month) or even free of charge (Google’s Bard).

As the market is swiftly growing, giving birth to different ecosystems and business models, technological partners and Programrs can exploit them to invent their own models. Formerly, such major problems as language processing, computer vision, chatbot, or callbot could hardly be solved. Thanks to the implementation of AI technology, it becomes much simpler with open source codes at very low costs.

Taking advantage of the resources of technology companies also helps reduce product development time and expenses. Fewer human resources are needed for core technologies, data establishment, and machine learning because of new AI models.

In the upcoming time, AI technology will be more widely spread in society and enter every step of human’s life instead of merely appearing in business operations. It allows the creation of virtual beings to help human beings and automatic machinery in production, as well as the decision making based on consulting data. Everything will become smarter to effectively serve the community.

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