Vietnam’s Ministry of Transport has issued a decision to temporarily shut Dien Bien Airport in the namesake northern upland province for eight months for an upgrade and expansion, starting from mid-April.

The airport, located in Thanh Truong Ward in Dien Bien Phu City, will be closed from April 15 to December 17 this year.

The current Dien Bien Airport was restored from Muong Thanh Airport, which was constructed by the French.

The airport has a runway which is 1,830 meters in length and 30 meters in width, three aprons, and a passenger terminal that was built in 2004 and has an annual capacity of 300,000 passengers.

Due to the short runway and simple landing systems, Dien Bien Airport only serves ATR 72 turboprops and Embraer 190 jets, which can transport a maximum 114 passengers.

The Dien Bien Airport expansion project is aimed at making it capable of handling modern Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft and the equivalent airliners.

VASCO, a subsidiary of national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines, and Bamboo Airways are operating air routes connecting Dien Bien with Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

The Airports Corporation of Vietnam is in charge of managing and operating Dien Bien Airport.

Work on the Dien Bien Airport expansion project started on January 22 last year, with total capital of nearly VND1.47 trillion (US$62.3 million) sourced from the Airports Corporation of Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Dien Bien Province set aside VND1.56 trillion ($66.1 million) from its budget for site clearance.

The project includes lengthening the runway to 2,400 meters and widening it to 45 meters, rebuilding runway turn pads, building more taxiways, installing light systems, and developing some supporting components.

After the expansion project is completed, the passenger terminal of Dien Bien Airport will have two floors and an annual capacity of 500,000 passengers.

The project is slated for completion in the third quarter of 2023.

The Dien Bien People’s Committee had earlier sent a dispatch to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam reaching a consensus on temporarily closing Dien Bien Airport from April 1, but work on some components was delayed, scrapping the plan.

In 2019, Dien Bien welcomed some 845,000 tourists, with 25,300 of them traveling to the province by air, local media reported.

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A household in District 4, Ho Chi Minh City that breeds 82 dogs as pets in a 2.6m-wide house has been fined VND64 million (US$2,724) for causing environmental pollution.

A representative of the People’s Committee of Ward 9 in District 4, where the family of Nguyen Thi My Thanh — the owner of the dogs — resides, confirmed the information to Tien Phong (Youth) newspaper on Tuesday.

In particular, Thanh’s family was fined VND40 million ($1,698) for discharging wastewater which exceeds the criteria by over 10 times and VND24 million ($1,019) for releasing wastewater with a pH level above the permitted.

The household was also asked to take measures to deal with the environmental pollution and pay measurement and sample analysis fees.

According to the representative of the People’s Committee of Ward 9, most of the 82 dogs are puppies and sick canines that other people brought to Thanh’s house.

Local residents have repeatedly complained that Thanh dumped the dogs’ excrement directly into the drainage system in front of her house and left them unbridled, causing environmental pollution and danger for residents.

The Ward 9 authorities asked Thanh to install glass doors to prevent odor from affecting her neighborhood. 

District 4 officials also offered the family ways to minimize the impact of the dog breeding on the environment and neighbors. 

However, Thanh’s family failed to follow the instructions.

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Vietnam is one of the four countries from which Finland is aiming to attract high-skilled personnel through a talent-seeking program that has been introduced in Ho Chi Minh City.

The Commercial Section of the Finnish Embassy in Vietnam held a conference on Tuesday in Ho Chi Minh City to debut the Talent Boost program, which helps seek high-quality human resources from Vietnam, as well as from Brazil, Turkey, and India.

The program was presented by a Finnish delegation involved in education and work, including Laura Lindeman, senior director and head of work in the Finland Unit at Business Finland, a government organization for innovation funding and trade, travel and investment promotion.

Under the program, Finland attracts talents from students to professionals such as doctors, nurses, information technology and clean engineers, and start-up entrepreneurs, Lindeman said.

Those who are professionals will undergo procedures for diploma recognition, which will take about a year, she added. 

It is estimated that the Finnish technology industry alone will need 130,000 new workers in the next 10 years, the conference was told. 

With a population of only over 5.5 million people, Finland offers plenty of job opportunities to foreign talents, especially those in technological fields.

The Vietnamese community in Finland has about 10,000 people, a quite large foreign community that has good relations with locals, Lindeman said in reply to why Vietnam is included in the Talent Boost program.

Vietnam has a young population with a lot of potential capabilities that can be appropriate for jobs abroad, while Finland is a country offering many good opportunities for such jobs, she added.

Along with its policy of attracting foreign talents, Finland also provides foreign companies operating in the country with financial support, recruitment assistance, and a fair business environment.

In the near future, the Talent Boost program will also be broadly introduced to universities, companies, and startup communities in Vietnam, the conference was told.

Finland also has programs that provide expats with assistance in cultural integration as well as support for their spouses and children so that they can live satisfactorily and happily in the host country.

Finland has so far been named the happiest country in the world for six consecutive years, according to the 2023 World Happiness Report, an annual publication of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network under the United Nations. 

The Finns’ happy lifestyle is rooted in social stability and welfare, according to the report.

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