Vaccination against COVID-19 is given to a health worker in Khartoum, Sudan. (Photo: THX/VNA) According to the Vietnam News Agency correspondent in Africa, on June 14, President World Bank (WB) David Malpass had a meeting with the African Union (AU) COVID-19 Vaccine Procurement Task Force (AVATT) to discuss ways of cooperation to promote the vaccination against COVID-19 in Africa, of which WB will support the AU to deploy 400 million doses of vaccination Johnson & Johnson vaccine . Previously, on March 28, AVATT signed an agreement to buy 400 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine with a financial guarantee of $2 billion from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank). The World Bank and the AVATT Group agreed to speed up all administrative procedures to ensure African countries have access to vaccines as soon as possible. The agreement between the World Bank and the AVATT Group will support AU Member States to implement immunization, including domestic distribution (logistics and storage in accordance with cold chain requirements), ensuring systems, energy necessary capacity and capacity for vaccination, promoting propaganda campaigns so that people are ready to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Dr. John N. Nkengasong – Director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and member of AVATT – said the number of Johnson & Johnson vaccines reached under the agreement is an important key to directing aim to immunize at least 60% of Africans. Achieving this goal is a prerequisite for saving the lives and livelihoods of the people of Africa, safely reopening the continent’s economy, and continuing the continent’s economic development agenda. With more than 41 countries at various stages of finalizing their vaccine orders, and with increasing vaccination momentum, it is essential that countries can organize full vaccinations for their populations quickly and with affordable prices. Mr. Strive Masiyiwa – AU special envoy and AVATT coordinator – said that the decision to cooperate with AVATT by the World Bank was made after the US announced the sharing of COVID-19 vaccine, which means that countries can rest in peace. more concerned about access to and financing of needed vaccines. Under the AVATT structure, AU member countries are allocated vaccines based on population size through a collective procurement mechanism. These doses complement vaccines offered through the COVAX Mechanism – which aims to provide vaccines to 30% of the population of the participating countries – allowing AU Member States to achieve their continental vaccination targets. AVATT was established on November 6, 2020, with the task of finding the necessary funding and ensuring equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccine for AU member countries.

Overview of BOO Phu Ninh clean water plant (phase 1A). Illustration: Tran Tinh/VNA Speaking at the meeting, Minister Tran Hong Ha emphasized that developing a scheme to ensure national water security is a very important task to describe the overall picture of Vietnam’s water resources. Accordingly, the development of the Scheme should point out the objective and subjective reasons; at the same time, assessing the shortcomings, challenges and forecasting problems of water resources in the future; from there, set out views, goals, guidelines, major policies, solutions to solve water resource problems. Reporting at the meeting, Director of the Department of Water Resources Management Chau Tran Vinh said that, performing the assigned tasks, the Department has coordinated with units in the field of water resources of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to build The content of the Scheme is built on the basis of the monitoring report of the National Assembly’s Committee on Science, Technology and Environment, the water governance assessment report of the World Bank (WB) and other contents. Water resources have been summarized and reviewed by the Department in recent years. Accordingly, the specific goal of the Project to 2030 is to minimize dependence and optimize the benefits brought by water from inter-national water sources; proactively regulate water, prevent and respond to incidents of pollution, degradation, depletion of water sources, drought, water shortage, and saltwater intrusion; effectively and sustainably overcome the situation of drought and water shortage in the dry season in the South Central region, the Central Highlands, the Mekong River Delta, remote areas and islands… In addition, it is necessary to improve access to clean and safe water sources for people and water-using industries; basically control 90% of water exploitation and use activities, ensure economical, efficient, sustainable, safe, fair and reasonable use, associated with protection and development of water resources and environment environment and adaptation to climate change; controlling over 90% of discharges into water sources that play an important role in supplying treated water up to environmental standards; improve and restore seriously polluted and degraded water sources; conservation and sustainable development of important wetland ecosystems. At the same time, it is necessary to improve the provision of water supply services in urban and rural areas, raising the rate of using clean water and hygienic water of urban residents to about 95-100%, and about 93-95 in rural areas. %; ensure food security through efficient operation of irrigation works in the context of climate change… Representatives of the units said that in order to continue completing the National Water Security Assurance Scheme, it is necessary to add groups of implementation solutions that create a breakthrough in the management of water resources of the Ministry of Finance. environment and resources in the next 5 years such as: promoting digital transformation, building an online water resource database, building a common index on integrated water resources management, digitizing management data Water quality, quantity of water as the basis for regulation and allocation of water resources… Concluding the meeting, Deputy Minister Le Cong Thanh requested the Water Resources Management Department to absorb the comments, continue to review and add contents to the Scheme accordingly. Deputy Minister Le Cong Thanh emphasized that the development of the National Water Security Assurance Scheme is to identify the risks of water security and the problems, tasks and solutions to solve fundamental problems. version of national water security. Accordingly, by 2030, Vietnam needs to focus resources on implementing tasks and solutions to fulfill the set goals as soon as possible, ensuring national water security in association with sustainable development. economic, social, and environmental.

Google has partnered with Western Union and Wise to enable this feature. According to Josh Woodward, Director of Product Management at Google, the company is starting to launch cross-border payments with Singapore and India, with the goal of expanding globally by the end of the year. “As we’ve done with some Google products, we’ll test, learn, iterate, and scale,” he said. Under the agreement, Western Union handles cross-border payments on Google in more than 200 countries, while Wise supports more than 80 countries. When Google Pay users in the US want to send money to someone in India and Singapore, they’ll be notified of the exact amount the recipient received. Inside the app, users can choose a provider – Wise or Western Union – and the time it takes for the money to reach the recipient. Currently, the Google Pay money transfer feature only allows US users to send money to users in India and Singapore, but not vice versa. In addition, the feature is also new to individual money transfers. Mr. Woodward shared that they chose India and Singapore first because of their importance in the remittance market. According to the World Bank, India was the largest recipient of money in the world in 2019 with more than 80 billion USD. Meanwhile, the US is the largest depositor. Du Lam (According to TechCrunch)