VietNamNet Bridge – The abuse of appointment procedures to promote officials who lack practical experience needs to be resolved, the National Assembly Standing Committee said yesterday, Sept 21.

 VietNamNet Bridge – HCM City lawmakers have demanded better management of food safety amid complaints that many eateries patronised by students, workers and others do not meet hygiene standards.

Many National Assembly deputies have requested the legislature to pick transport projects and food safety, among others, for its supervision program in 2017 since they have much impact on the country’s socio-economic performance and people.

VietNamNet Bridge - With a 20-40 percent growth rate and predicted 15 percent growth rate in upcoming years, the processed food market is attractive to many investors. 

 VietNamNet Bridge – It wasn’t until recent food safety concerns that the market recognised a huge demand among Vietnamese customers for food of clear original, and enterprises were quick to jump in the high-potential agriculture sector

 VietNamNet Bridge – Food service enterprises must apply for food safety and hygiene permits, but many enterprises complain it is too hard to get permits due to complicated procedures.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Ministers, Government officials and People’s Committee leaders should improve management of food safety and hygiene, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said in a recent directive.

Nguyen Tan Binh, director of the HCM City’s Department of Health, spoke to the The Labourer newspaper about plans to establish an independent food safety management agency under the People’s Committee.

 VietNamNet Bridge – HCM City’s Department of Health proposed city authorities remove all temporary markets and set up an agency to assure food safety and hygiene in the city, although it said this was a tough task.

 Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has underlined the need to identify the responsibilities of agencies concerned with food safety management, especially the role played by their chiefs.

 VietNamNet Bridge – The Department of Transport of Ha Noi has asked its inspectors to stiffen punishments of violating vehicles in order to ensure traffic safety during the Lunar New Year Festival.

 Vietnam continues to suffer food safety concerns which have worsened in the run-up to the Tet Lunar New Year festivities.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) recently announced high expectations for expanded exports of Vietnam seafood and other aquaculture exports to the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) region as a result of its formation.

The increasing overuse of chemical pesticides and fertilisers are posing more threats to farmers' health and agroproduct consumers, but authorities have never had an eye on the overwhelming consumption of the chemicals in agriculture.

 VietNamNet Bridge – A recent directive of the agriculture and rural development ministry has asked provinces and cities to strictly deal with slaughterhouses and abattoirs that do not obey food hygiene and safety regulations.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Many contagious diseases can appear and spread out on a large scale in the coming school year, such as dengue fever, hand-foot-mouth (HFM) disease, flu and newly emerging catastrophic diseases like MERS-CoV and Ebola,

 VietNamNet Bridge – Most Vietnamese people don't pay attention to nutrition, says Nguyen Thi Lam, the deputy director of the National Institute of Nutrition.

 VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnam cashew industry stands to lose billions of US dollars as a result of the failure to establish a framework to assure product safety of internationally traded foodstuffs.  

VietNamNet Bridge - Much of Vietnam’s agricultural land has become contaminated because of the abuse of pesticides and fertilizers, and the cost to revive it could be high. 

 VietNamNet Bridge – Health experts believe that food safety is still a major problem in big cities and provinces, especially at factory canteens at industrial parks in HCM City and Binh Duong.