In the Papers The Best of the VietnameSe Press
Smartening Up A plan has been approved to provide VND2.070 trillion (US$96 million) for training officials and young talent abroad over the next seven years. Under the plan, Vietnam aims to provide Master’s degree educations to college lecturers at higher education institutions, employees of research centres and those working for government ministries and other state agencies. The country will also send gifted young people in science and other specialisations to undergraduate programs in foreign countries. It is hoped that through this scheme, 1,650 such people will graduate with a Master’s from overseas institutions and a further 150 others will graduate with a university degree. Priority will be given to universities in the US, the UK, Canada and Australia.
Books are for Life The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism revealed last month that Vietnamese people read a mere 0.8 books a year on average. The announcement was made in the run-up to the Festival of Books and Reading Culture 2013, titled The Book that Changes Life. Deputy Minister Huynh Vinh Ai made a passionate speech about the importance of books, and Nguyen Thi Thanh Mai, of the ministry, said that compared to other countries in Southeast Asia, Vietnam was lagging behind. Nguyen Quang Thach, who initiated the project to bring books to the countryside, said that he conducted a survey in 2011. All 253 respondents, farmers, said they did not read any books. Rural children read 0.2 to 0.8 books per year, compared to five books per year for urban kids. The third Festival of Books and Reading Culture was held at the Temple of Literature in Hanoi on Apr. 20 to mark the World Book and Copyright Day.
28 | Word May 2013
Sign of the Times Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City say they will remove banners and neon signs with illegal designs to ensure urban traffic safety in the city — and punish those responsible. They will also set more regulations on banners, including requiring them to show names of management entities or producers, in line with business registration licenses, along with their addresses and telephone numbers. Horizontal banners will be fixed at a maximum height of two metres while the length is not allowed to be longer than the home front width. Vertical banners’ width and height is restricted to one metre and four metres respectively. The height of the signage is not allowed to surpass that of the building where they are installed. In addition, writing on banners must be in line with Advertising Law — which regulates the size of a foreign language not to be scaled at over three-quarters of that of the Vietnamese part. When broadcast on radio, television channels or in other media, Vietnamese advertising content must be expressed before foreign content.