Van Mieu-Quoc Tu Giam, one of Hanoi's most important cultural landmarks, attracts thousands of visitors each Tet.

Vietnam has made remarkable strides in developing a comprehensive, life-cycle, and gender-transformative social protection system.

Innovation in garbage collection vehicles is an important step in ensuring environmental sanitation, contributing to building a civilized, clean and beautiful urban area in a sustainable direction.

According to the preliminary statistics of the General Statistics Office, Vietnam is now has 9.32 million households participating in agriculture, forestry and fisheries production, especially the number of farms and large-scale paddy fields is on the upward trend.

Vietnam`s population is forecast to continue growing but at slower speed and will hit 100 million people by 2025, according to the Institute of Public Policy and Management (IPPM).

In 2016, health insurance covered 81.7 percent of Vietnam’s population, up 2.7 percent compared to the target set by the Prime Minister, Deputy General Director of the Vietnam Social Security Nguyen Minh Thao said at a meeting on setting tasks for 2017 in Hanoi on January 3.

Making his speech at a conference in Hanoi on December 27, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh stressed the need to call for Overseas Vietnamese, who are successful in their careers and lives with high qualifications, to return to serve the development process in their homeland.

Vietnam is going to operate double-decker buses in its seven localities on trial basis, according to the Ministry of Transport (MoT).

The capital of Hanoi officially launched the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) on the Kim Ma – Yen Nghia route on December 31.

The Vietnam Journalists Association (VJA) in collaboration with the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Publicity and Education and the Ministry of Information and Communications held a conference themed “Journalism after 30 years of doi moi (renewal process) - theoretical and practical issues.” in Hanoi on December 29.

The Government Office recently issued a document to announce the conclusion of Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh following a meeting of the steering committee held to deal with the mass fish deaths in the four central provinces earlier in April.

On the 62th anniversary of the Capital`s liberation, on October 10, Hanoi City solemnly organized the workshop "Honoring good people and good acts and elite citizens of the City" in 2016.

Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue stressed at a forum held in Hanoi on December 26 that the Government wishes to listen to the comments to continue to reassess institutions with the aims to promoting women`s start-ups, especially in the agricultural sector.

Chairman of Hanoi People`s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung confirmed that Hanoi will focus on deploying an effective plan to ensure traffic order and safety, during and after the occasion of New Year and Tet Holiday of 2017.

Vietnam’s defence attaché agency in Laos held a ceremony in Vientiane on December 20 to mark the 72nd founding anniversary of the Vietnam People’s Army (December 22, 1944).

The Ministry of Planning and Investment organised a seminar in Hanoi on December 21 to announce the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its implementation in Vietnam.

A ceremony to sign the agreement joining a pilot voluntary programme on economical and efficient energy use between the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT)’s General Directorate of Energy and the businesses was held in Hanoi on December 22.

President Tran Dai Quang has proposed that UNESCO Chair in Global Learning and Global Citizenship Education, Prof. Carlos Alberto Torres, will continue helping connect Vietnam and the UNESCO in general and the US in particular in enhancing human capacity and awareness of sustainable development.

Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh extended his Christmas greetings to Catholic and Protestant dignitaries and followers in Ho Chi Minh City on December 20.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked the central localities from Thua Thien-Hue to Khanh Hoa to prepare forces and resources to restore houses and clean the environment to prevent epidemics after floods.

Head of the organising board Prof. Nguyen Huu Duc said through the fifth international conference on Vietnamese studies, organisers identified 10 research establishments strong at traditional issues of Vietnamese studies, and 10 others based in other countries.

Shoko Ishikawa, Chief Representative of the UN agency on gender equality and empowerment of women (UN Women) in Vietnam expressed her hope that the United Nations in Vietnam will continue the partnership with the Vietnamese Government, civil social organisations and development partners in the work.

The Government and the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union should cooperate to create the best conditions for young people to take the lead in renovation and start-up activities, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc stressed at the meeting in Hanoi on December 15.