The project will be carried out by the Viet Nam Cleaner Production Centre under the Ha Noi Technology University over three years, and will begin this year. It has a total investment of  more than 2 million USD.

The Swiss government has committed itself to providing part of the investment for the project through  the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO).

A document to this effect was signed in Ha Noi on Wednesday between the MARD and the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation.

Established in June 2004 by the MARD and 22 international partners, the TFF aims to fund major activities and prioritised projects of the country's forestry sector.

Switzerland , Finland , the Netherlands and Sweden have pledged to contribute around 28 million USD to the fund in the 2004-07 period. Accordingly, the fund had already received 4 million euros from the Netherlands and expects to receive 3.8 million USD from Sweden in late December 2004.

Moreover, the German Government has provided the MARD with technical assistance through a project on the Reform of the Forestry Administration System (REFAS) to help manage the fund.-Enditem

The project, signed in Ha Noi on Monday, aims to build new houses, infirmaries and schools to help Ho Gui villagers living along the coast prevent erosion caused by tides. It will be carried out in the 2004-05 period.

Since 1980, the SRC has helped Viet Nam carry out many projects, including building houses, hospitals and humanitarian clinics for people in calamity-prone areas; improving abilities for provincial red cross branches; assisting disabled children and Agent Orange victims; and providing free surgery for blind people from poor families.

On this occasion, VRC President and General Secretary Nguyen Van Thuong presented a Medal for the Cause of Humanity to Antonine Weber, Coordinator of SRC, in recognition of his contributions to the cooperation and development between the Red Cross of the two countries.-Enditem

The 3.1 million USD project will be carried out over 36 months and will build a national strategy for export development and export strategies for sectors and special products and services.

The project will also help develop the trade promotion network of the Government, trade promotion organisations and export enterprises.-Enditem

The project was launched in Dac Tich and Quang Tan communes in Dac R'Lap district with an investment capital of more than 1.8 billion VND per year. 

Beneficiaries have been provided with new techniques for agro-forestry encouragement, agricultural services and guidance about using investment capital sources to breed animals and grow crops while at the same time protecting forests. Local authorities' role in forest management and development have also been improved. 

Ethnic minority people's awareness about forest protection for natural sustainable development has been raised. Their material and spiritual life has also been improved.-Enditem

The scholarships, each worth 400,000 VND, were for students from primary school level to university level in the province.

Since its first presence in An Giang in 1997, the JMI has provided more than 2 billion VND to projects on consultation for children, free medical checks-up and scholarships. These projects will last until 2006.-Enditem

"In the very near future, a film based on a Viet Nam story, by a Vietnamese producer and with Vietnamese stars but funded by various foreign investors is absolutely possible," said Deputy Director of the Cinematography Department Nguyen Thi Hong Ngat, who led the 10-member delegation to the event.

All seven Vietnamese film-makers brought their own scripts to the festival. But it's quite new for Vietnamese film makers to "market" their products, Ngat said.

Locarno festival organising members last year arrived in Viet Nam to select 12 feature films and documentaries. Director Irene Bignardi highly praised Vietnamese films as diverse and imbued with traditional cultural characters.

The Mekong film programme, consisting of Laos and Cambodia, plus Viet Nam's film industries, was a major topic of the festival, Ngat said. She said Vietnamese films were screened on all the 12 days of the festival and four of them were fully packed by audiences.

The jury board appreciated the "Bar Girls" and "King of Landfills", saying they strongly reflected real life and took in market factors to attract audiences.

The Vietnamese delegation and representatives of the Vietnamese community in Geneva led a six-hour parade of nearly 200,000 people at the festival.

Viet Nam is the unique honourary guest at the 2004 Geneva Festival, the biggest annual festival of Switzerland. This is an opportunity for Viet Nam to introduce itself to the people of Geneva and around 2 million visitors to the festival.

At the inauguration of the Viet Nam Village at the festival and a meeting with the Mayor and the Director of the Tourism Agency of Geneva, General Director Thang  expressed her hope that Viet Nam's participation in the festival would open the prospect for closer cooperation in tourism between Viet Nam and its Swiss partners in the future.

The next round will focus on elements of the draft working report (EDR) aimed to speed up the process, said the participants.

The EDR was already raised for discussion at the eighth round of negotiations, where all the 19 participating member countries raised support for Viet Nam to join the world's largest trade body as soon as possible.

They were of a view that Viet Nam should be granted preferential treatment on the WTO's rules, given the country's  backward development and transitional economy where agriculture remains dominant.

Vietnamese negotiators also conducted 20 rounds of bilateral talks with 17 members, including the EU, the US, Canada, the Republic of Korea, Australia, Norway, Cuba, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Japan, Switzerland, New Zealand, India, Taiwan, Chile and Paraguay.

The discussion focused on opening Viet Nam's markets of goods and services. Viet Nam has signed in principle an agreement on completing bilateral negotiations with Cuba and is close to signing similiar accords with some other members.

Swiss experts said Viet Nam was making as great a leap in economics as China. The country has such advantages as 60 percent of its population are under 30 years old, a contingent of well-trained workers and simplified administrative procedures.

Since 1986, Viet Nam has conducted its renovation, an open-door policy, administrative reform, and developed a market economy, recording important progress. The country has become one of the leading rice and coffee exporters. One of Viet Nam's urgent tasks now is to develop small and medium-sized industrial businesses.

Many big Swiss companies such as Nestle and Novatis are trading in Viet Nam, but their investment in small and medium-scale businesses is still modest.

The eighth round of multilateral trade talks for Viet Nam's WTO membership will be convened on June 15 on the country's goods market and services access,  Vietnamese Ambassador to the United Nations Ngo Quang Xuan told the Lao Dong daily.

Responding to the daily's concern about the country's late start in negotiations and whether it would have an impact on the entire process of negotiation when it plans three negotiation sessions for the whole year, Ambassador Xuan stated "We still have time to push up the whole negotiation process."

The negotiations for a WTO membership requires us to negotiate with many partners, accordingly we  have to depend on others who are very different from each other, Xuan elaborated, affirming "We have tried our best."

Each member country is represented by a delegation consisting of two government delegates, an employer delegate, a worker delegate, and their respective advisers.

The meeting, scheduled to last until June 17, will discuss new international labour standards on the development of human resources and construct a plan for the next four years. The economic situation in occupied territories will be also on the agenda of the conference.

, May 18 (VNA) - As many as 200 foreign companies from China , Singapore , Malaysia , Thailand , the Republic of Korea , India , Switzerland , France , Italy , Germany , Japan and Viet Nam are displaying their products at an International Exhibition on Machinary and Industrial Equipment opened in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday.

This was announced by a JMI representative at a working session with the provincial Committee for Population, Family and Children.

The fund will be used to implement projects on healthcare for poor children in the province.

Between now and 2006, tens of thousands of children will benefit from free medical check-ups and treatment under the projects.

An agreement to this effect was signed in Ha Noi on Wednesday by Swiss Ambassador to Viet Nam Thomas Feller, Viet Nam 's Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Bui Manh Hai and Resident Representative of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), Phillipe Scholtes.

The project aims to upgrade the metrology and testing laboratories, particularly textile/garment and fish/food testing) in the country and strengthen capacity of a pool of management system auditors and trainers for ISO 9000, ISO 14,000, HACCP, SA 800 and OHASS 18000.

The project, jointly carried out by the Rangers Department of central Quang Nam province and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)'s Indochina programme, aims to reafforest and protect watershed forests in Ca Tu ethnic minorities-inhabited areas in the province's A Vuong.

Addressing the awarding ceremony in Zurich on Monday, Chief of the Federation Department of Foreign Affairs Micheline Calmy-Rey spoke highly of international cooperation in natural resource protection. She affirmed that Switzerland will continue to cooperate with and assist countries in implementing such environmental protection projects.

So said Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung at a meeting on Wednesday with the mayor of Geneva, Christian Ferrazino, who is on a working visit to Viet Nam.

The Vietnamese leader highly valued the mayor's visit, and said a week-long festival on Ha Noi's economy and culture to be organised in Geneva next May will be a practical activity to enhance the friendship and cooperation between Ha Noi and Geneva in particular and between Viet Nam and Switzerland in general.

These programmes will provide information and technical assistance for Vietnamese businesses specialising in fruit and vegetables, herbal medicines, aquatic products, textiles, garments and footwear.

According to SIPPO's Executive Director Makus Stern, two other assistance programmes are in the making for Vietnamese software and organic honey. He said that SIPPO is negotiating with some international financial organisations over a bee keeping project to make organic honey for export.

Makus Stern said that Vietnamese goods have improved significantly in competitive strength because enterprises are keener on increasing product's added value by improving quality and design.

He said he is impressed by the fact that an increasing number of Vietnamese exporters label their products with the "Made in Viet Nam" trademark, adding that the possibilities of export for enterprises are much higher than what they are experiencing now.

Stern drew Vietnamese fruit and vegetable exporters to an effective form of marketing -  exports on the spot. That means selling fruit and vegetables inside hotels and resraurants frequently visited by foreigners, aboard airplanes and to groups of foreign travellers.

An agreement to the effect was signed by Deputy Minister of Education and Training Tran Van Nhung and CDA Country Director Walter Mayer in Ha Noi on Monday.

The project, which has been carried out in northern Viet Nam since 2003, aims to minimise losses of underground water sources, rivers and lake-water and improve the region's drainage and solid waste treatment networks.

A document to this effect was signed in Ha Noi on Tuesday between SDC and the People's Committees of Nam Dinh and Quang Binh provinces.

This is the third phase of the Nam Dinh and Dong Hoi urban development projects and  a project to formulate toxic waste management centre in Nam Dinh province.

The Nam Dinh urban development project aims to develop an environmentally sound and sustainable approach to urban development and establish an institutional framework for the management of integrated urban services and a medium-term investment programme for the sanitation of cities.

Ha Noi, Nov. 19 (VNA) -- Viet Nam will attend the International Conferences on the Information Society to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, next month and  in Tunisia in November, 2005.

            A talk on the information society was held in Ha Noi on Tuesday by the National UNESCO Committee and UNESCO office  in Viet Nam in preparation for Viet Nam's participation in int'l conferences.

            The jazz bands, which will give six performances in Ha Noi and five shows in Ho Chi Minh City, include the Eurostars Quartet 2 with Saxophonist Fluvio Albano of Italy, pianist Dag Arnessen of Norway, contrabassist Jean-Louis Rassinfosse of Belgium and drummer Alex Riel of Denmark; the Urban Connection Band of Norway and duos, and trios from Sweden, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark.

            Vietnamese saxophonists Quyen Van Minh, Quyen Thien Dac and Tran Manh Tuan, bass guitarist Vu Ngoc Ha, drummer Le Quoc Hung and the Hanoi Jazz Band, Red River Big Band and Le Vu Voeten Xp will attend the festival.

            During the festival, training courses manned by participating artists will be held at the Ha Noi Conservatory and a photo exhibition on the previous jazz festivals will open at the French Culture Centre. - Enditem

The participants passed four resolutions: the IPU's role in multilateral organisations to ensure peace and security and build an international alliance of peace; common global issues: IT contributions to the government's managerial work; the expansion of parliamentary democracy; globalisation; and the IPU's assistance in ending the Palestine-Israel conflict.