1-      UK consul alters visa procedures

According to the UK Embassy in Hanoi, changes have been made to procedures for issuing Vietnamese people with UK visas. From March 2, 2009, the UK Embassy in Hanoi and the UK General Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City would  take longer to process applications for ordinary visas to the UK because applications would go through the UK Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand.

Vietnamese people who want to apply for a UK visa can make an appointment at http://ukinvietnam.fco.gov.uk and www.visa4uk.fco.gov.uk. Those with diplomatic and official passports would have their applications processed in Vietnam.

Vietnamese people who wanted to apply for a short-term UK visa should make appointments via the internet at least two weeks before the day they want to enter the UK. Online appointments can be made four weeks in advance. Students and those applying for long-term visas should submit their applications three months before the day they want to enter the UK.

The changes were not aimed to limit the number of people entering the UK, but were part of a plan to restructure the UK’s visa approval system. The new system would cut visa processing centres around the world by half, down to about 50 centres.

In this region, applications for UK visas from Laos and Cambodia will be approved by the UK Embassy in Bangkok, and application forms from Singapore will be approved by the UK Embassy in Malaysia.

Every year, about 8,000 Vietnamese people, most of them are students, apply for UK visas, and the number increases year on year.

(Vietnam News, Feb 18, 2009)

2 - Vietnam among top 20 malnourished countries

According to a national nutrition conference, which took place in Hanoi on February 17,

Vietnam is one of the top 20 countries in the world in terms of malnutrition.

Malnutrition is prevalent in many areas across the nation, with areas of particular concentration including the Central Highlands, the northwestern and northern central regions.

As well as decreasing the number of underweight children, the country still faces a second form of malnutrition: stunted growth and shortness. This is a chronic type of malnutrition that has a long-term effect upon a child’s body and can lead to diseases such as obesity and diabetes.

At  the conference, Dr. Tran Chi Liem, Deputy Health Minister, said that nutritional programmes have helped to reduce the rate of undernourished children in the country to 19.9 percent in 2008, down from 21.2 percent the previous year.
However, the continued success of these programmes is now facing a number of threats, including the impact of the economic recession, an increase in the incidence of diseases and epidemics and poor nutritional knowledge.

According to Truong Hong Son, Secretary of the Child Malnutrition Prevention Programme, the health sector is aiming to raise the proportion of babies who are breastfed for the first six months to 5 percent and to increase the rate of mothers who follow a healthy nutritional plan by 10 percent by 2009.

The country is targeting a 1.1 percent decrease in its total number of underweight children and a 1.3 percent drop in the number of children suffering from stunted growth and shortness due to malnutrition each year.

The obesity rate among the under-fives is expected to fall to below 5 percent this year.

To reduce cases of malnutrition among children, future nutritional programmes will focus on maintaining and increasing public awareness and information campaigns and providing adequate health care for pregnant women.

In addition, these child malnutrition prevention programmes will target nutritional improvement through the provision of suitable food for underfed children, supplying micronutrient supplements to pregnant women, giving vitamin A supplements to children between 6-60 months of age and worming children between 24-60 months old./.

(website VietnamPlus/ VNA Feb 17, 2009)