Check out the news you should not miss today, July 15

Politics

-- Ho Chi Minh City chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong received Choi Jae-sung, chairman of the Korea-Asia Friendship Foundation, on Friday, affirming that the Vietnamese metropolis is willing to strengthen ties with South Korea in education and training

Society

-- Vietnamese national Nguyen Thanh Dung, who was charged for torturing a Cambodian toddler in 2016, was sentenced in absentia to 18 years in prison by a court in Cambodia on Friday.

-- A total of 35 solutions on controlling public and individual vehicles to resolve the chronic traffic congestion in Ho Chi Minh City were brought to discussion during a conference on Friday.

-- A new speedboat service, running between the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang and Con Dao Island, off the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, was inaugurated on Friday.

-- A tropical depression formed in the Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago in the East Vietnam Sea early on Saturday and is likely to gather enough strength to become a storm.

Business

-- Vietnam's exports are projected to rise 13 percent from last year to $200 billion this year, exceeding the target set by the government, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai affirmed at a meeting in Hanoi on Friday.

-- The first sod was turned for a VND1.5 trillion ($65.21 million) clean water plant in the northern province of Bac Giang, 60km from Hanoi, on Friday.

-- Export processing zones and industrial parks in Ho Chi Minh City attracted investment worth some $384 million in the first six months of 2017, a 39 percent increase year on year.

-- The State Bank of Vietnam is collecting feedback on a proposal to allowing foreigners without permanent residence in Vietnam to open savings accounts in local banks.

-- The U.S. International Trade Commission is investigating Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics for allegedly “dumping” washing machines into the United States from their Vietnamese factories for prices below fair market value, which may affect Vietnam’s labor force and export revenue.

Lifestyle

-- A kite festival is taking place on My Khe Beach in the central city of Da Nang on Saturday and Sunday, attracting more than 60 kite artists.

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