Socialist Republic of Vietnam

A grand meeting was held on March 10, in Buon Ma Thuot township of Daklak central highlands province to celebrate its 25th liberation day. A parade by 5,000 people began shortly after the dawn with 25 trained elephants pulling artillery pieces, one method of delivering supplies to troop during the war. A parade of hundreds uniformed soldiers was stepping in patriotic music. More than 10,000 people lined the street in bright sunshine to watch the parades. Today they will watch firework first time in province. A lot of singing and dancing of ethnicities in province are performed.

The Vietnam Fatherland Front, the government and the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations jointly held a meeting in Hanoi on January 17 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with the People

1999 saw significant socio-economic achievements recorded by the Vietnamese people. The achievements are as follows:

1. The gross domestic production grew by 5%.

2. The agricultural production increased by 5.5%

3. Rice-equivalent food output reached 33.8 million tonnes.

4. The industrial production grew by 10.3%.

5. The export turnover grew by 22%.

6. More investments were concentrated in agriculture, and in the rural and remote areas.

7. The number of poor households was reduced.

The recent flooding in seven central provinces of Vietnam has inflicted widespread losses of lives and property, production and infrastructure. At least, 592 people were killed and 24 left missing. Thua Thien-Hue province was the hardest hit province. In that province 351 people died, 24 went missing and 250 others were injured. Floods have severely affected over 670,000 households of which 15,000 have had to move to other places. About 1.6 million people are homeless and relying on relief supply.