Read what is in the news on the first day of 2018:
Society
-- A healthy baby girl weighing 3.2 kilograms has become the first to be born in Ho Chi Minh City in 2018, “saying ‘hello’” to the world from Tu Du Hospital at 12:00 am on Monday.
-- Corruption and wastefulness remain among the biggest threats to the survival of the regime and the Communist Party of Vietnam, Vietnamese State President Tran Dai Quang told the media on the New Year occasion.
-- Hotels and accommodations in tourist hot spots such as Vung Tau, Binh Thuan and Da Lat were fully booked for New Year’s Eve as families traveled for the holiday break, with room prices being raised by around 150 percent compared to regular days.
-- Six vessels caught illegally mining river sand on the Thu Bon River in central Vietnam’s Quang Nam Province have been taken in by local police, with the total volume of mined sand estimated to be nearly 300 cubic meters.
-- The price of land on Phu Quoc Island off southern Vietnam’s Kien Giang Province is soaring at unprecedented speed as investors race to secure a footing in the lucrative market to brace for the planned upgrade of Phu Quoc from an island district into a special administrative and economic zone.
-- Over 97 percent of construction components of the Vam Cong and Cao Lanh Bridges in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta had been finished by the turn of the New Year, promising to soon erase the last traffic bottleneck in the region to unleash its full economic potential.
-- Ten Ho Chi Minh City citizens under the age of 30 who excelled in their respective areas of profession in 2017 will be honored with the title “Iconic Citizen of 2017” at a ceremony hosted by the municipal administration on Monday morning.
Business
-- A group of expatriate Vietnamese who are members of the Association of Vietnamese Scientists and Experts (AVES) have been holding meetings in the French capital of Paris to discuss improvements that could be made to Vietnam’s plan to establish the Van Don special administrative and economic zone in northern Quang Ninh Province.
-- Between 56 and 90 percent of seats on domestic flights between Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Da Nang operated by flag carrier Vietnam Airlines during the peak travel season around the upcoming Lunar New Year (February 16) have been booked, according to an airline representative.
-- Businesses and small vendors in central Da Nang City have stocked goods worth around VND980 billion (US$43.22 million) to prepare for the upcoming shopping season before the Lunar New Year, the municipal Department of Industry and Trade has announced.