Breakfast @ Tuoi Tre News - April 15

Catch up on the news in Vietnam today:

Politics

-- Vietnam's Party General Secretary and State President To Lam had a meeting with Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Wang Huning in Beijing on Tuesday, as part of his state visit to China.

-- National Assembly (NA) Chairman Tran Thanh Man met with Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the Presidential Palace in Rome on Tuesday, as part of his official visit to Italy.

-- NA Chairman Man had a meeting with Maurizio Acerbo, General Secretary of the Communist Refoundation Party of Italy, in Rome on Tuesday, affirming that Italy is one of Vietnam’s leading partners in the European Union.

On the same day, he also met Qu Dongyu, Director-General of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), welcoming the cooperation projects between FAO and Vietnamese ministries, departments, and localities.

Ho Chi Minh City

-- The Investigation Police Agency under the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Public Security announced on Tuesday that it had initiated criminal proceedings against Le Thi Thuy Trang, a 49-year-old resident of An Lac Ward, along with six accomplices, for causing environmental pollution and illegal trading of invoices.

According to the investigation results, Trang led a ring that collected solid waste but failed to properly treat it, choosing instead to sell it or illegally dump it into the environment, with a total volume exceeding 20,000 metric tons.

-- The municipal Department of Construction has tasked the Ho Chi Minh City Road Traffic and Technical Infrastructure Management Center with coordinating with relevant units and firms to develop plans for artistic lighting at key landmarks in the city center.

-- Air quality in Ho Chi Minh City remained stable during the 2021-25 period, but several high-traffic intersections such as Cat Lai, An Phu, and An Suong recorded pollution levels that exceeded permissible limits.

Economy

-- Twenty-six commercial banks have lowered deposit rates by about 0.1-0.5 percentage points per year, mainly for terms of six months or longer, thereby helping reduce input costs and creating room to cut lending rates.

-- International Finance Corporation (IFC) is planning to invest some US$3 billion in Vietnam, while mobilizing additional funding from international partners to expand the scale of its investments, heard a meeting between Ho Chi Minh City vice-chairman Nguyen Cong Vinh and Thomas James Jacobs, IFC country manager for Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, on Tuesday.

-- Pawnshop chain F88 reported a substantial uptick in assets used as collateral in 2025, including over 31,800 autos.