Read what is in the news today, February 1!

Politics

-- General Secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party and State President Nguyen Phu Trong has sent a congratulatory message to Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, who was sworn in as the 16th King of Malaysia on Thursday.

Society

-- The transport ministry on Thursday rejected a proposal by the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam that all toll stations under its management nationwide stop collecting tolls for three days, February 4-6, to ensure unobstructed traffic flow during the Lunar New Year travel rush.

-- Doctors at the Bac Me General Hospital in Ha Giang Province in northern Vietnam on Thursday safely delivered a baby from the bottom of a ravine after the baby’s mother fell off a cliff on her way to the hospital for delivery.

-- Leaders of the Vietnamese Party and State have made it clear that public workers and officials must refrain from visiting their bosses during Tet holiday with the intention to give presents or money as a kind of bribe for personal gains, Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung said at a regular press conference on Thursday.

-- Six officials at the Department of Natural Resources and Environment in Gia Lai Province in the Central Highlands have been subject to disciplinary actions for their wrongdoings in a case of land mishandling in the provincial capital city of Pleiku.

Business

-- South Korean lender NongHyup Bank is poised to open its first branch in Ho Chi Minh City in the near future following the successful operation of its Hanoi branch that was opened in 2016, NongHyup Bank President Lee Dae-hoon said at a meeting with Vice-Chairman of the municipal People’s Council Pham Duc Hai on Thursday.

-- Investment and trade ties between Vietnam and the Czech Republic have shown encouraging signs along with their thriving political and diplomatic relations, with two-way trade experiencing a stable 15-percent growth rate in recent years and bilateral import-export turnover topping US$1.2 billion in 2018, according to Vietnamese Ambassador to the Czech Republic Ho Minh Tuan.

-- Vietnam’s export-import turnover is likely to hit a record $500 billion in the fourth quarter of 2019, up five percent from 2018, with the year 2018 marking the third consecutive year that Vietnam had posted a trade surplus, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

-- Consolidating macro-economic stability and promoting growth are the most important tasks for Vietnam in 2019, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said at a monthly government meeting in Hanoi on Thursday, calling for ministries, sectors and localities to join efforts to realize the goals.

-- Vietnam exported 120,000 metric tons of tea in 2018, earning $219 million in revenue, which is a year-on-year decrease of 8.4 percent in volume and 3.4 percent in value, respectively, according to the Import and Export Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

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