Almost no restaurant is full, many employees stand at the door, trying to invite passersby. In the evening, only very few bars have guests to relax. “We maintain operations in the hope that some miracle will happen, for example, seeing a long line of customers waiting to open. Before the pandemic, there were always foreigners coming to my restaurant to eat burgers, everyone people still have to wait in line. Now it’s not like that anymore, every day, as long as there are about 20 customers, I feel lucky,” said a shop owner. Itaewon neighborhood is empty of tourists because of the epidemic. Photo: Korea Herald. A similar situation occurs in Myeong-dong, a popular destination for people who love to shop, eat, and have fun. Most of the restaurants operate moderately with a small number of customers. Because of their reliance on foreign tourists, the streets of Seoul are going through an unprecedentedly difficult time. The pandemic has limited international travel for many months, and the source of visitors from locals has also decreased a lot because of social distancing and blockade rules. The Seoul Metropolitan Government predicts that the number of foreign tourists has decreased by 86%, from 13.9 million in 2019 to just 1.92 million in 2020. “These neighborhoods popular with foreigners have been hit very hard. We get a lot of phone calls asking for help from people doing business here,” said an official from the tourism department of the city government. The famous entertainment areas in Seoul rely heavily on foreign tourists. Photo: Seoulpubcrawl. More than a year after the pandemic broke out, the rate of vacant real estate in busy neighborhoods also skyrocketed because many businesses went bankrupt. According to the Korea Real Estate Commission, more than a third of the total store space in Myeong-dong is vacant, or 38.4%. This rate stands at 22.6% in Itaewon and 13.1% in Hongdae. Experts say that unless the pandemic ends, this trend is sure to continue. In an effort to revitalize these areas, starting in May, the Seoul city government offers coupons and gift cards for a number of special tourist attractions, including Itaewon and Myeong-dong. A city government official in the tourism policy department said Seoul is also preparing many support measures to attract more local tourists to these entertainment districts. At Itaewon, some signs of positive change gradually appeared. According to shop owners, although business is not as good as before, the number of visitors seems to have increased as they turn to attracting locals. “Things are starting to get better compared to the same period last year. Hope to see Itaewon bounce back to its glory years,” said Maeng Ki-hoon, head of the merchants association in Itaewon.

Vietnam is one of the fastest growing telecommunications markets in the region and the world in recent years. According to the General Statistics Office, at the end of 2005, Vietnam had only 15.8 million telephone subscribers, including 8.7 million mobile phone subscribers and 7.1 million landline phone subscribers and 210,000 telephone subscribers. cover the Internet. But only 5 years later, the whole country had 125.9 million phone subscribers, nearly 8 times more. In which, there are 111.5 million mobile phone subscribers, 12.8 times higher and 14.4 million landline phone subscribers, 2 times higher. The number of Internet subscribers increased rapidly during this period with 3.7 million fixed broadband Internet subscribers, 17 times higher than 2005. But after that, the number of phone subscribers decreased gradually, the biggest decrease was fixed phones. In the period 2012 – 2015, the number of telephone subscribers achieved an average growth of 0.5%/year, of which the number of mobile phone subscribers increased by 2.1%/year and fixed subscribers decreased by 17.7%/year. year. In contrast, the number of fixed broadband Internet subscribers is still growing quite high, an average of nearly 16% per year, reaching 7.7 million subscribers in 2015. However, in recent years, the telecommunications market is facing saturation of traditional telecommunications services. The number of landline phone subscribers tends to decrease sharply. By the end of 2020, there were only 3.2 million subscribers, down 41% compared to the same period in 2015 and down 78% compared to the same period in 2010. The operation of the fixed telephone service segment is currently only in moderation, mainly serving agencies, government organizations and businesses. For mobile phone subscribers, by the end of 2020, the whole country has 123.6 million subscribers, which is only close to the number of subscribers in 2015. In addition to the recent decrease in demand, there are also mobile phone operators. The network handles garbage SIM according to the regulations of the Ministry of Information and Communications. The number of broadband Internet subscribers continued to maintain a high growth rate for many years when at the end of last year, there were 16.7 million subscribers, 2.2 times higher than in 2015, an average annual increase of 16.9%. The growth rate of the telecommunications market is also reflected in the revenue figures, whereby telecommunications revenue in 2010 reached 177.8 trillion VND, maintaining the growth rate of over 40% in previous years. By the period 2011 – 2015, post and telecommunications revenue continued to maintain a fairly high growth rate, increasing by nearly 60% in 2015 compared to 2010, increasing by nearly 10% on average per year. In the period of 2016 – 2018, telecommunications revenue maintained a fairly high increase of nearly 8% compared to the previous year, but by 2019 only increased by 2.6%. Particularly in 2020 due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, telecommunications revenue dropped sharply by 13.6%, reaching only VND 315,200 billion. The telecommunications market share is quite fiercely competitive by optimizing value-added services on the number of existing subscribers. In addition, revenue from traditional telecommunications services is also greatly influenced by the popularity of free calling and messaging OTT applications. Decision No. 749/QD-TTg dated June 3, 2020 of the Prime Minister approving the “National Digital Transformation Program to 2025, with orientation to 2030” has made Vietnam one of the The first country in the world to issue a program on National Digital Transformation, which is a favorable condition for businesses to actively exploit the opportunities brought by the technological revolution. With the goal of “Vietnam belongs to the group of 70 leading countries in e-Government (EGDI)”; “Digital economy accounts for 20% of GDP”; “The fiber optic broadband network infrastructure covers over 80% of households, 100% of communes” and “Universal 4G/5G mobile network services and smart phones”, telecommunications businesses, digital businesses there is a lot of room for growth.

This time is in the season of pumpkin harvest, although it has a high yield, from 1.5 to 2 tons / ha, however, compared to the previous time, the current price of squash is very low. Previously, each kilogram of pumpkin people sold in the field was priced from 10,000-15,000 VND / kg depending on the quality but only 3,000-5,000 VND / kg.

Due to the low price of pumpkins, people only dare to harvest in moderation. Photo: Tien Dong

Ms. Nguyen Thi Giang’s house, Hoi Lam hamlet, Cam Son commune, this year planted more than 3 sao of pumpkin, although it did not take too much care, but like other spring vegetables and fruits, this year squash the price is very low, only 3,000 VND / kg. Sometimes even lower, traders try to force prices, so people only harvest small.

For each pumpkin pole, the cost of seed and fertilizer costs nearly 1 million VND, not to mention the care and hiring of the harvester. Currently, due to the low price of pumpkins, farmers face many difficulties. Photo: Tien Dong

Mr. Hoang Manh Ha, chief hamlet of Hoi Lam hamlet, Cam Son commune, said: The whole village of Hoi Lam has about 50 pumpkin growers, this is a highly productive pumpkin variety, the time from planting to harvest is 3. month. Mr. Ha’s family also produces 3 sao, the cost of seed and fertilizer for each pole is nearly 1 million VND, not including the care for 3 months and the cost of hiring the harvester. If the price of squash is stable, each pole also gives an income of nearly 10 million VND. However, recently, the low price of squash makes farmers very difficult.

Mr. Ha said that, due to the longer time for pumpkins to stay in the field than other crops, when the price of pumpkins is low, farmers can harvest them in moderation to wait for higher prices.

People have finished harvesting pumpkins and gathered along National Highway 7A. After that, traders will come to buy them. Photo: Tien Dong

Mr. Dang Dinh Luan – Head of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department of Anh Son district said: Usually at the beginning of each crop, the purchasing establishments still ask about signing offtake contracts with farmers, but due to low contract prices. Therefore, people do not agree but accept the market price.

Regarding the planning issue, Mr. Luan said that the district also now has a plan for vegetable growing areas on the land, and regularly provides technical guidance to farmers, thereby gradually improving production efficiency. bring higher income on the same area than before.