The Viet Nam News Agency has selected the following events as of most important significance in Viet Nam in 2007.

1. The campaign “To learn and follow President Ho Chi Minh’s moral example” is the country’s largest political activity in 2007. Launched on February 3 on the occasion of the 77 th anniversary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam, the campaign has been carried out nationwide in many forms, bringing practical effects in encouraging the whole Party, army and people to successfully implement the Party’s 10th Congress Resolution.

2. Viet Nam was elected to be a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. On October 16, the 62 nd session of the UN General Assembly elected Viet Nam as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2008-2009 period with a majority of votes (183/190), affirming the country’s new prestige and position in the international arena.

3. The success of the 12th National Assembly election on May 20. Over 50 million voters nationwide went to the poll, selecting 493 deputies for the 2007-2011 Legislature.

4. The country’s GDP growth rate reached 8.5 percent, the 10-year high and the development investment capital hit record. The social investment capital is estimated to reach 465.5 trillion VND and the foreign investment capital, over 20 billion USD, ODA commitments exceeded 5.4 billion USD, and the stock market’s capitalisation is equal to 45 percent of GDP. However, the world market’s fluctuation, domestic natural disasters, and epidemics have pushed Viet Nam’s consumer price index to the two digits, causing negative impacts on the people’s life.

5. Viet Nam is among 20 countries having the highest number of Internet users. The Internet service in Viet Nam has been developing strongly after 10 years of global connection, becoming a busy market with nearly 18 million users, accounting for 21.24 percent of the nation’s population, higher than the world rate (18.9 percent) and Asia’s rate (12.4 percent).

6. Traffic accidents and traffic jams continue to be the society’s major concerns. On average, traffic accidents claim 1,100 lives and injure thousands of other people each month. Since December 15, wearing helmets has been compulsory for all motorbike riders. Traffic jams in big cities have wasted millions of working hours every day.

7. As many as 440 corruption cases which caused losses estimatedly totalling 286 billion VND uncovered. The investigation and strict treatment of corruption cases, particularly the eight key cases, showed the Party and State’s determination in preventing and battling the “national disaster.”

8. Serious natural disasters and epidemics occurred in several localities. The central regions saw consecutive tropical storms and floods in October and November having 126 people killed or missing, 88 people injured and property loss estimatedly worth over 5 trillion VND. Meanwhile, the severe acute diarrhoea epidemic caused by the vibrio cholera virus occurred in 14 northern provinces, affecting 1,900 people. The disease, claimed not any life, was contained after seven weeks since October 23, the day when the first case was detected in Ha Noi.

9. Tragic accidents at Can Tho bridge and Ban Ve hydro power plant construction sites. The Can Tho bridge’s spans No. 13 and 14 suddenly collapsed at 7:55 am on September 26, killing 54 people and injuring 80 others, becoming the most tragic accident recorded by Viet Nam’s transportation sector. A serious rockslide occurred at the construction site of Ban Ve hydro power plant in central Nghe An province’s Tuong Duong district at 9:30 am on December 15 burying 1 8 workers and engineers under 500,000 tonnes of stone.

10. Viet Nam sport delegation ranked third on the 24 th Southeast Asia (SEA) Games medal tally with 64 golds, 58 silvers and 82 bronzes, fulfilling the set target. This is the highest result Viet Nam has made at the biannual event that was not host by the country. However, the failure of the men’s U23 football squad, Viet Nam’s golden hope, greatly disappointed the Vietnamese fans.


Source: VNAgency.