What you need to know in Vietnam today:

Politics

-- Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic Lubomir Zaoralek joined a meeting with Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Le Hoang Quan on Thursday to seek for measures to boost economic cooperation between the two sides. Zaoralek said Czech enterprises consider Vietnam one of the most important destinations for expansion and investment in Asia.

-- Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Thursday reaffirmed Vietnam’s consistency in ensuring close ties with Russia while receiving Governor of Moscow Province (Moscow Oblast) Andrei Vorobyov, who is on an official visit to the Southeast Asian country, in Hanoi. The Vietnamese prime minister also informed the head of Moscow Oblast about future discussions in the meeting of the Vietnam-Russia Intergovernmental Cooperation Committee to strengthen bilateral cooperation in many fields.

 Society

-- The French Development Agency (AFD) will be the lender in a 20-million-euro river embankment project in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho if it is approved by the Vietnamese government in December, Jose Tissier, deputy director of the AFD’s agriculture and rural development division, said at a working session with the municipal authorities on Thursday. The AFD has planned to totally disburse 55 million euros worth of metropolitan development loans to Can Tho, the central province of Ha Tinh, and the northern province of Ninh Binh.

-- Ho Chi Minh City will need about 17,000 full-time and 10,000 seasonal and part-time workers in November, according to an announcement the Center for Human Resources Forecast and Labor Information issued on Thursday. 

-- The State Council for Professorial Titles on Thursday recognized lecturer Le Thi Thanh Nhan, from the University of Science under the University of Thai Nguyen, located in the northern province of Thai Nguyen, as the second female professor of Vietnam in the field of mathematics.

-- The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport on Thursday rejected a proposal by the Vietnam Coconut Association to plant coconut trees on many routes and along some canals in the city.

Business

-- Vietnam and the Czech Republic will strive for US$1 billion in two-way trade in the near future, Vo Tan Thanh, vice president of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said at a forum for Vietnamese and Czech businesses to seek long-term business partners in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday.

-- Pressure of tax collecting and national budget spending is building up greatly, as the amount of money set aside for debt repayment will rise from VND150 trillion ($6.75 billion) in 2015 to VND155 trillion ($6.97 billion) next year, while budget deficits are expected to soar to VND254 trillion ($11.43 billion) in 2016 from VND226 trillion ($10.17 billion) this year, according to the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment.