Locals and travelers to the northern tourism city of Lao Cai will benefit from the 100% Condom Use Program that lasts for a year till September, 2013 and is under the financial fund from the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

The event, that was officially launched on Thursday in Lao Cai City and Sapa District, is targeted at preventing the transmission of HIV/AIDS that is mainly due to unsafe sexual behaviors.

A survey in Lao Cai showed that 35 percent of HIV cases identified were due to unsafe sex, which stands second highest after intravenous drug injection (around 60 percent).

The program helps ensure that condoms are always available in entertainment and lodging establishments and that condoms are always used in sex, regardless of whether it is among sex partners or between female sex workers and their clients.

"We totally agree with the implementation of the program and will work closely to implement it through providing training to our policemen and owners of entertainment and lodging establishments on harm reduction," said Mr. Nguyen Van Hoan, head of the provincial police department for administrative management of social order.

After September next year, the program will be handed over to the provincial HIV/AIDS Control Center and continued with local government funding.

After An Giang and Can Tho, Lao Cai is the third province in Vietnam where the program is implemented.