Breakfast @ Tuoi Tre News – March 8

Politics

-- The Standing Committee of the National Assembly said in a meeting on Monday that Vietnam’s government debt has reached 50.3 percent of GDP, or 0.3 percent over the allowed level. 

-- Vietnam’s State President Truong Tan Sang will pay official visits to Iran, Tanzania and Mozambique from March 9 to 15.

Society

-- Many Vietnamese fishers have said they had been robbed by a maritime surveillance ship of China when they were fishing in the waters around Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago, according to the Coast Guard of Ky Ha Port in the central province of Quang Nam.

-- Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung had a working session yesterday with authorities of 13 provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta to find solutions for stopping the intrusion of salt water into local rice fields.

-- Given current deadly traffic accidents, authorities in the central city of Da Nang have planned to lower the speed limit for trucks traveling in the locality.

Business

-- Taekwang Industrial Co. Ltd., a South Korean company, has invested over US$170 million in building a shoe-manufacturing factory in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho.

-- Many fishermen have complained that they face difficulties in accessing soft loans for building ships.   

-- Vasco and Techcombank have said they will set up a new airline with the charter capital to reach at least VND300 billion ($13.3 million).

Sports

-- Famous badminton trainer Agus Dwi Santoso, an Indonesian, has left Vietnam for his homeland after two weeks of coaching the Ho Chi Minh City team.

-- The Vietnamese women’s national football team lost 1-6 to Japan in the qualifiers of the Rio 2016 Olympics on Monday.

Education

-- Hung Vuong University in Ho Chi Minh City has fired 82 officials and lecturers and announced it will terminate labor contracts with the remaining 26 officials.