Enjoy your breakfast while skimming these news items in brief on Tuoi Tre News today, March 11:

Business

-- T&T Group has just proposed that the Ministry of Transport should allow it to buy Phu Quoc International Airport, located on the namesake island off the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang. The group suggested that it should be permitted to either purchase the entire airport property or the right to operate the facility with the use of the current staff. The group also pledged to continue investing in the airport in five years’ time.

-- At a meeting on Tuesday, Sun City Group – a corporation based in Macau, China – sought permission from the Vietnamese government and the People’s Committee of Kien Giang Province in the Mekong Delta to build a hotel and casino on Phu Quoc Island.

-- On Tuesday, a delegation from Delta Galil Industries, an Israeli textile and apparel firm, which was led by Finance Director Yosef Hajaj, worked with the People’s Committee of Binh Dinh Province in central Vietnam on a project to build a weaving-dying-garment plant which the group is carrying out in Phu Cat District. Built on an 18,000-m² plot, the plant is expected to cost US$13 million.

-- Le Minh Toan, who lives in Hanoi, on Tuesday told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reporters that he will keep his 12 savings books as mementos. Toan said between 1981 and 1985 he put into a bank several savings which were worth a total of VND4,100 then. The sum was enough to buy a small house at that time. In 2002, when he went to the bank to withdraw the money, he was shocked to learn that the entire original savings plus interest amounted to a mere VND109,778 (around $5).

Society

-- At a Tuesday meeting, representatives of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport said advertisements will be displayed on 156 buses on 10 routes on a pilot basis, which will yield an annual revenue of around VND10 billion ($466,027). The department is expected to earn roughly VND170 billion ($7.92 million) each year if it launches ads on 2,344 buses. Representatives of the city’s Departments of Finance, and Culture and Sports were also supportive of the approach to improve bus companies’ earnings and cut down on state subsidies.

-- Dang Van Dung, deputy director of the Southern Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, said on Tuesday that the southern region will see the peak of this year’s dry season in March, April, and early May. The high temperatures in April and May are expected to stay between 37 and 39 degrees Celsius in southeastern provinces and between 35 and 37 degrees Celsius in Mekong Delta provinces.

-- Around 10:15 pm on Tuesday, three cars of a train, numbered SE5, which departed from Hanoi and was destined for Ho Chi Minh City were tossed from the rails after the train collided with a truck which was crossing a residential road in Hai Lang District in the central province of Quang Tri. Two of the train cars were carrying passengers, while the other served as a canteen. The accident killed the train driver and injured several others. Further casualties remained unknown past midnight.

-- Nguyen Hong Truong, Deputy Minister of Transport, told a press meeting on Tuesday that after launching three automatically-operated toll stations on National Highway 1 and the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the ministry will launch 35 such stations on a section of the national highway spanning from the north-central province of Thanh Hoa to the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho, and a section of National Highway 14 and the Ho Chi Minh Trail which goes through the Central Highlands.

-- Binh Thuan Province’s Party Committee has announced the termination of a 20-year treasure hunt which was conducted on Tau Mountain, located in Tuy Phong District. Tran Van Tiep, 101, who has been prospecting for the treasure, was requested to return the site to its original state as committed earlier.

Education    

-- Phan Thanh Nguyen, principal of Ly Tu Trong Middle School in the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh, on Tuesday confirmed that the attack by a group of seven graders on their defenseless female classmate captured in a video clip did take place in one of the school’s classrooms. The clip has gone viral in the past few days.