Photo for illustration
The Hanoi Department of Tourism has announced it will coordinate with the Department of Foreign Affairs, Vietnam Airlines Corporation, and Noi Bai International Airport to welcome the first international tourist in 2020.
This is an annual activity to celebrate the New Year 2020 with the aim of increasing promotion and introduction of Hanoi as a City for Peace and a safe, friendly and attractive destination.
The welcoming ceremony will be held on January 1st, 2020 as the first international flight lands in Hanoi.
It is expected to be attended by leaders of the city People’s Committee, Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, Vietnam Airlines Corporation, Noi Bai International Airport, Hanoi Tourism Association and representatives of some travel agencies, hotels and transport companies in the city.
In 2019, the first international traveler to Hanoi was Mr. Timo Kux of German nationality.
2019 agriculture reaches goal of USD41.3 billion
Total export turnover of agriculture, forestry and fishery products is expected to reach USD41.3 billion in 2019, a year-on-year rise of about 3.5%, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Photo for illustration. (Source: VNA)
Specifically, the sector’s trade surplus is estimated at USD9.9 billion, USD1.12 billion higher than the previous year. This year, agriculture continues to witness 10 commodity groups earning export turnover of more than USD1 billion each, with three of them bagging over USD3 billion, including wood and wooden products, shrimp, fruit and vegetable, coffee and cashew.
It is estimated that the GDP growth rate of the whole sector will reach about 2.2%; of which aquatic products will increase 6.12% and forestry will rise 3.98%.
Over the past year, the ministry also actively negotiated to be able to export more high-value fresh fruits to the US, Australia, Japan and China. At the same time, it also boosted shipment of processed chicken meat to Japan, suckling pigs to Malaysia and Hong Kong (China), honey to the EU and the US, and the first batch of milk to China in October 2019.
Furthermore, it finalized negotiation with authorities of Hong Kong (China) to ship frozen pork, processed chicken meat and bird’s nest to the market.
For seafood export, the US has recognized Vietnamese catfish products, while China gave the green light for the country to import three more species of Vietnamese aquatic products, including ngao hoa, ngao trắng and nghêu lụa, which are all types of clams.
This decision brings the number of aquatic products Vietnam exports to China up to 48 that are used to process food, in addition to 36 ornamental species and one for breeding.
Visa exemption: Vietnam can lure over 1 million foreigners
At a Resolution of the regular Government meeting in November 2019, the Government agreed to extend visa exemption for citizens of 8 countries: Russia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Belarus, for stays in Vietnam until December 31st, 2022.
Foreign tourists to Hanoi. (Photo: kinhtedothi.vn)
Under the resolution, the duration of stay for visa-free entry will remain 15 days regardless of the type of passport or entry purpose, on the basis of fully meeting the conditions prescribed by Vietnamese law.
Earlier, the Vietnam Tourism Advisory Board commented that if visa exemption continued to be extended for the eight countries, the country could attract more than 1 million additional foreign tourists a year.
The move is expected to be a significant driving force for international travelers to choose Vietnam as their destination.
Vietnam has unilaterally exempted visas for citizens of 13 countries, including the eight aforementioned nations and the officials of the ASEAN Secretariat, and signed bilateral agreements on visa exemption with 90 countries./.