Check out what is in the news today, November 8:

Society

-- The national digitalized database of citizens will be completed in two to three years, allowing ready access to information, currently contained in documents including residence books, when performing administrative procedures only with an Ipad, Lieutenant General Tran Van Ve, acting director of a police general department under the Ministry of Public Security, said in a press conference on Tuesday.

-- Five Vietnamese captains of fishing boats who had been kept captive in Indonesia since April 2017 for trial have denied accusations of illegally fishing in the country’s waters and requested protection from competent Vietnamese agencies.

-- The People’s Committee of Thu Dau Mot City in Binh Duong Province, neighboring Ho Chi Minh City, has turned the first sod on a project worth VND600 billion (US$26.1 million) to construct a road along the Saigon River in a bid to facilitate traffic and improve the city’s look.  

Business

-- A $10 billion project between a subsidiary of Vietnam’s state-run energy giant PetroVietnam and the U.S.’s Exxon Mobil Corp to extract oil from the Ca Voi Xanh (Blue Whale) gas field off the central province of Quang Nam will come into operation in late 2019, Liam Mallon, chair of the group’s Exxon Mobil Development Co., revealed at the Vietnam Business Summit held in the central city of Da Nang on Tuesday as part of the ongoing 2017 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit week.

-- Local and foreign investors and experts were drawn to an exhibition highlighting Vietnam’s rich potentialities in different economic sectors which took place on Tuesday as part of the Vietnam Business Summit in Da Nang City.

-- The Vietnam Catfish Association disclosed on Tuesday the export turnover of catfish as of the end of September 2017 had totaled over $1.3 billion, up 5.8 percent against the same period last year.

Lifestyle

-- The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has requested the Miss Universe Vietnam pageant be ceased following mixed opinions on the organization and live broadcast of the semifinal in Nha Trang City, the heart of south-central Khanh Hoa Province, on Saturday last week upon the landfall of the devastating typhoon Damrey, which has claimed 69 lives so far.