Check out the latest news in Vietnam today:

Business

-- Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has passed a decision on the establishment of a national steering committee for private sector development strategy.

-- Vietnam’s major private conglomerate, Vingroup, has set a goal to break ground on a Can Gio seaside urban area, a massive 2,870-hectare coastal reclamation project in suburban Ho Chi Minh City, before April 30, 2025. The plan was revealed during a Thursday meeting between Vingroup executives and the city's authorities.

-- Vinpearl Joint Stock Company, a leading hospitality and tourism brand under Vingroup, has submitted an application to list more than 1.79 billion shares on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange.

Society

-- The Vietnamese government has officially extended visa exemptions for citizens of 12 countries, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the UK, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland, granting them 45-day stays upon arrival.

-- The National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting has issued the latest weather updates for Saturday, highlighting cool and misty conditions across northern Vietnam, while the southern region will likely remain warm and sunny with chances of showers in some areas.

-- Police in northern Lao Cai Province confirmed on Friday that they had dismantled a major transnational gambling operation led by two Chinese nationals. The crackdown resulted in the arrest of 97 individuals, including 69 Chinese nationals, who were allegedly involved in high-stakes betting.

-- Construction workers discovered an unexploded wartime bomb while leveling the ground at a freshwater plant project in Muong Lat District, north-central Thanh Hoa Province on Friday afternoon.

World News

-- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is planning a large study into potential connections between vaccines and autism, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, despite extensive scientific research that has disproven or failed to find evidence of such links.

-- Infighting between factions of a gang vying for control over territory in Ecuador's largest city Guayaquil left nearly two dozen people dead, Reuters cited authorities as saying on Friday.

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