Oil-field province appealing to foreign investors

Ba Ria-Vung Tau (VNA)- The southern oil-field province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau has unveiled a plan of establishing two more industrial parks (IP) to meet an increasing demand from investors, both domestic and international.

The provincial IP Management Board said 40 projects capitalised at over 4,642 million USD were licensed for operation in 12 IPs throughout the province last year.

Of these projects, 21 have involved foreign direct investments with a combined capital of 4.285 million USD and 19 others were domestic investment projects capitalized at some 357 million USD.

The figures represented a two-fold increase over the yearly plan in the number of newly-licensed projects and 15.47 times over 2007 in the volume of investments.

In addition, 30 operational projects have registered to increase their investments by almost 344 million USD.

In short, by the end of 2008, Ba Ria-Vung Tau province boasts 194 valid projects with a total registered capital of almost 11.45 billion USD, including 96 FDI projects capitalised at 8,352 million USD.

Last year saw three new IPs put into operation, expanding the provincial IP territory by more than 3,000 ha, said the management board.-

Vinh Long: Multi-billion VND projects target Khmer group

Vinh Long (VNA) – Hundreds of pupils of the Khmer ethnic minority group in the Mekong Delta province of Vinh Long will benefit from a project that aims to build a boarding school in Tam Binh district.

The project has a total investment capital of 29 billion VND, including 27 billion VND sourced from the state budget and the rest from the provincial budget. For the first phase, project site clearance, fence building and roads linking to the planned school have been completed.

Under the second phase, six classrooms, functional rooms, auxiliary works and accommodations for 240 pupils from the Khmer ethnic minority group in Tam Binh, Binh Minh, Tra On and Vung Liem districts will be built. It is scheduled for completion in the academic year of 2010-2011.

The provincial People’s Committee also approved a 1.4 billion VND project to expand the existing clean water supply system in Tam Binh district’s Loan My commune which is home to a large number of Khmer people.

The province’s Board for Ethnic Minority is working with local relevant agencies to provide 660 million VND as soft loans to Khmer poor households in the districts of Tra On, Tam Binh, Binh Minh and Vung Liem to support their production.

The board also invested over 1.7 billion VND in building four crematories at Khmer Nam Tong Buddhist pagodas in Tra On and Binh Minh districts to serve the local people’s funeral services.-

Capable teachers will get chance to prove their worth

HA NOI — Creating a level playing field of competition among teachers is a key way to improve teaching quality, said director of the Viet Nam Education Institute Dr Nguyen Huu Chau.

Increasing competition among teachers is part of the Ministry of Education and Training’s new draft strategy for education development during the 2009-20 period. The draft strategy was passed on to 63 education and training departments in an online meeting on Wednesday, following corrections to the 13th version of the draft strategy based on feedback from experts and scientists.

Under the draft strategy, to improve teachers’ capabilities, the ministry will abolish the policy of permanent staff in which a teacher can work at a school until they reach retirement age.

The capability of teachers would be assessed in an effective way, said Nguyen Thien Nhan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Training.

“Teachers who belong to permanent staff can easily make themselves comfortable and exert little effort,” explained Chau.

However, the ministry would sign working contracts with teachers that included a clause that they might lose their jobs if their performance fell below a certain level, said Chau.

No shortage

There were more than 1 million teachers in Viet Nam. They make up 80 per cent of the nation’s civil servants, so schools at every level did not lack teachers, said Chau.

“So schools will now have a chance to hire and make contracts with capable teachers,” said Chau.

Le Minh Thinh, a young teacher who works at a fashion shop on Xuan Thuy Street, said that if the strategy was put in place, there would be space for young teachers like him to be recruited instead of having to take up other work.

“All schools have told me that they have enough permanent teachers,” said Thinh. “We have no chance to try and prove ourselves.”

Contracts would also be applied for management staff in education, said Chau.

Chau said a teacher’s direct manager, their colleagues and students would all be responsible for assessing them.

In addition, headmasters would also have the right to decide the salary of their teachers depending on their capabilities.

Teachers who lackedskills would get training or be transferred to other more suitable positions, said Chau.

The draft strategy also includes solutions to develop the capabilities of teachers and education management staff, including holding more training courses for teachers and applying suitable policies to attract leading students and graduates to the education sector. —