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| The ceremony to launch the export of Song Ma longan to the EU and the UK. |
They were Son La Province’s first batches of longan exports in 2022, which came as part of the Song Ma Longan Festival.
Song Ma District is the main longan growing region of Son La with 7,500 hectares, accounting for over 70% of the district’s fruit cultivation area.
In addition to Europe, Song Ma’s longan is also exported to the United States, China, Australia and New Zealand.
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| Photo for illustration (Source: https://moit.gov.vn) |
Song Ma’s output of fresh longan is expected to reach 60,000 tonnes in 2022, of which 40,000 tonnes will be dried, 18,400 tonnes are for domestic consumption and 1,600 tonnes are for export.
As of July 23, Song Ma District has sold more than 23,400 tonnes, worth 555 billion VND (23.7 million USD).
At the Song Ma Longan Festival, Son La Province recognised two villages in Chieng Khoong Commune as longan flesh processing villages and held an exhibition of longan and other local agricultural produce.
Hanoi ice cream introduced to Venezuelans
According to VNA, the Vietnamese Embassy in Venezuela, in collaboration with "Heladería 1000 sabores" - an ice cream parlor of 1000 flavours - in the state of Mérida, has recently organised an event to introduce “Hanoi Ice Cream” (Helado Ha Noi) to further promote Vietnamese cuisine.
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| Vietnamese Ambassador Le Viet Duyen (R) and Da Silva, the owner of Heladería 1000 sabores (Photo: VNA) |
Speaking at the event, Vietnamese Ambassador Le Viet Duyen expressed his desire to connect the cultures and peoples, as well as strengthen to the traditional friendship of the two countries.
Da Silva, the owner of Heladería 1000 sabores which twice won the Guinness record for the most number of ice cream flavours in the world in 1991 and 1996, said she hopes to cooperate with Venezuela-Vietnam Chamber of Commerce (CAVENVIET) to open a restaurant system promoting Vietnamese cuisine as well as Hanoi’s ice cream in Caracas and states in Venezuela.
The presence of Vietnamese ice cream, made from green beans, in the famous ice cream parlor is expected to help promote Vietnamese cuisine to locals and international tourists, and make the image of Vietnam closer and closer to the daily life of Venezuelans.
HCM City expands pedestrian streets to 22 routes
Ho Chi Minh City will turn another 22 streets into pedestrian streets on weekends between 2022 and 2025, reported VNA.
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| Nguyen Hue Pedestrian Street in HCM City’s District 1. (Photo: VNA) |
The HCM City Department of Transport has sent the municipal People's Committee a proposal for expansion of the pedestrian street project in the downtown area.
The proposal also includes criteria for the management agency to consider when new pedestrian streets are approved for opening.
This project will be carried out in three phases between 2022 and 2025.
During the first phase from 2022 and 2023, new pedestrian streets will be opened at the International Square roundabout, Pham Ngoc Thach street, Cong Xa Paris (from Le Duan street to Nguyen Du Srreet), Dong Khoi street (from Nguyen Du street to Le Loi street), Le Loi Street (from Nguyen Hue street to Quach Thi Trang roundabout), Phan Chu Trinh street and Phan Boi Chau street.
Vehicles will be banned from passing through these streets during specified times.
Priority will be given to walking on Nguyen An Ninh and Luu Van Lang streets. Vehicles will be limited from traveling in and out of these streets.
During the second phase from 2023 and 2024, the city will expand the length of pedestrian streets on weekends on Dong Khoi street (from Le Loi street to Ton Duc Thang street), Le Loi street (from Nguyen Hue street to Dong Khoi street), Lam Son Square from Dong Khoi street to Hai Ba Trung street, Nguyen Thiep (from Nguyen Hue street to Dong Khoi street), Mac Thi Buoi street (from Nguyen Hue street to Dong Khoi street) and Ngo Duc Ke street (from Nguyen Hue street to Dong Khoi street).
Routes such as Dong Du street (from Dong Khoi street to Hai Ba Trung street), Mac Thi Buoi (Dong Khoi street to Hai Ba Trung street), Ho Huan Nghiep street, Ngo Duc Ke street (from Dong Khoi street to Me Linh Square), Phan Van Dat street, and Ton Duc Thang (from Nguyen Hue street to Me Linh Square) will give priority to walking. Vehicles will be limited from traveling in and out of these streets.
During the last phase between 2024 and 2025, weekend walking streets will include Ham Nghi street (from Ton Duc Thang to Quach Thi Trang roundabout).
Vehicles will be limited on Ton That Dam street (from Ham Nghi street to Huynh Thuc Khang street), Thai Van Lung street and Thi Sach street.
Expansion of pedestrian streets is also part of the city's long-term goal of reducing the number of cars entering the downtown area, improving the quality of people's living environment, and promoting the development of tourism, commerce and services in the area where multiple historical relics and architectural works are located.
Vietnamese among the most spoken languages in Australia
Vietnamese ranked third among the top languages used at home in Australia, other than English, VOV cited the latest census by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
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| A Vietnamese language class (Photo: baoquocte.vn) |
The census showed that Mandarin continues to be the most common language other than English with 685,274 people using Mandarin at home.
This is followed by Arabic (367,159 people), Vietnamese (320,758 people), and Cantonese (295,281 people). The number of people speaking Vietnamese at home increased by 43,000 as compared to 2016.
In 2016, with 277,400 users at home, Vietnamese was the fourth most common language in Australia (excluding English).
There are currently 429 languages spoken in Australia, including 183 indigenous ones.
The consensus also revealed that in August 2021, out of nearly 25.5 million people in Australia, 334,785 confirmed their Vietnamese origin./.