According to VNA, Minister of Public Security Gen. To Lam confirmed on November 4th morning that the ministry’s mission had arrived in London the previous day.
Minister of Public Security Gen. To Lam (Photo: VNA)
“The ministry has assigned a set of tasks, of which the foremost priority is to rapidly confirm the victims’ identities,” Lam told reporters on the sidelines of the National Assembly’s ongoing meeting.
“Our mission has brought along various essential documents and DNA samples to match and cross-check with those of the UK side to reach a final conclusion.”
The minister said that the Government would implement citizen protection measures as soon as Vietnamese nationals were confirmed as being involved in the case.
“If a Vietnamese national is identified, we will try to bring them home in the fastest way possible,” Lam said.
He added that the mission could only send their first working report back to Vietnam at 3pm on November 4th at the earliest due to the time difference.
The authorities so far are yet to confirm how many missing persons reported by Vietnamese families were connected to the Essex lorry case, the minister said.
“Families who lost contact with their children all assumed they could be among the 39 victims. But after a few days, some families found out that their children were still in Vietnam or had gone to another country,” Lam said.
Police in the central provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh received 34 reports of missing persons between October 24th and November 1st. Three families in Nghe An, however, on November 2 announced that they managed to contact their thought-to-be-missing members who were abroad.
In a statement late on November 2nd (UK time), Essex police said they believed the victims in the Essex lorry case were Vietnamese, adding that they have identified some of the victims and have contacted the Vietnamese Government and some families in the UK and Vietnam.
The confirmatory evidence needed to formally present cases to HM Senior Coroner for consideration has not yet been obtained, they said.
"This evidence is being gathered across a number of jurisdictions worldwide. As a result, we cannot at this time announce the identity of any of the victims,” said the statement.
Essex police will continue to cooperate closely with the Vietnamese Government and others to identify the victims and offer support to all those affected by this tragedy.
HCM city spends over VND19 trillion reserving goods for Tet 2020
The Ho Chi Minh city Department of Industry and Trade has issued plans to supply essential food and foodstuff for the Lunar New year (Tet) holiday 2020.
HCM city spends over VND19 trillion reserving goods for Tet 2020 (Photo for illustration/ Source: thanhtra.com.vn)
Specifically, businesses prepared to produce and reserve Tet goods worth over VND19 trillion, an increase of 602.5 billion (3.27%) compared to the same period last year.
For the peak month from December 26th, 2019 to January 24th, 2020 (the first to the last days of lunar December), total prepared goods are valued at more than VND10 trillion, and over VND4 trillion will be spent on goods for market stabilization.
Many goods groups with large quantities will be prepared, equivalent to 20%-35% of market demand, such as: poultry meat, eggs, processed food, cattle meat, cooking oil and rice.
Vietnam’s trade turnover exceeds 400 billion USD
Vietnam’s total import-export turnover has surpassed 400 billion USD, according to the General Department of Customs.
According to VNA, the country’s total import-export value reached 403.05 billion USD from the beginning of the year to October 15, a year-on-year increase of 8 percent, equivalent to an increase of 30.02 billion USD over the same period last year.
The department said that in the first half of October, total import and export value reached nearly 21 billion USD, down 12.8 percent compared to the second half of the previous month./.