Check out the news you should not miss today in Vietnam:

Society

-- Traffic police officers of Quang Ngai Province in central Vietnam on Friday helped an elderly woman and her two grandchildren, who were forced to get off a coach due to lack of money, to return to their home in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province.

-- The People’s Committee of Quang Tri Province in central Vietnam on Friday awarded a certificate of merit and VND20 million (US$852) to a local man who built a statue of the cat, the zodiac animal of this lunar year. The cat statue, which is nicknamed 'Miss Cat' as it is considered the most beautiful cat statue this Tet holiday, has gone viral on social networks and attracted tens of thousands of visitors.

-- Four 100-ton ferries were mobilized on Friday afternoon to ease pressure on the crowded Rach Mieu Bridge connecting the southern provinces of Tien Giang and Ben Tre.

-- The People’s Committee of Hai Phong City in northern Vietnam on Friday started work on the Do Muoi street project stretching to the VSIP arterial road, at an estimated cost of over VND1 trillion ($42.6 million).

Business

-- Some 18,000 Vietnamese people bought tours abroad through travel companies in Ho Chi Minh City during this year’s Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday, spending VND432 billion ($18 million), according to the municipal Department of Tourism.

-- Vietnam welcomed about nine million domestic tourists during the Tet holiday (from the 29th day of the 12th month of last lunar year to the 5th day of this lunar year), surging 47.5 percent year on year, while the revenue from them totaled VND17.5 trillion ($745.8 million), down 30 percent, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism reported.

-- A book festival held on Le Loi Street in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City to celebrate the Lunar New Year holiday attracted some 800,000 visitors and helped earn VND8.2 billion ($349,485), double the expected figure. The festival has the largest-ever scale during its 13-year history.

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