National Assembly (NA) Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan held talks with President of the Council of States of Switzerland Ivo Bischofberger on March 29 during the latter's official visit to Viet Nam from March 28-31.

The NA Chairwoman hailed the developments in the two nations’ relations in terms of politics-diplomacy, trade-investment and cooperation, proposing the two nations enhance delegation exchanges and coordination at multi-lateral forums.

At the talks, the two sides shared experience in law establishment in environmental protection and education and training through the establishment of high-quality education system, providing more scholarships for Vietnamese students to Switzerland in fields of law, banking, high tech and tourism and Switzerland’s organization of vocational training for Vietnamese students.

Deputy Minister of Defense Be Xuan Truong, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, Deputy Minister of Justice Le Tien Chau and Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Viet Tien have been assigned as members of the National Traffic Safety Committee.

Representatives of the Viet Nam Embassy in Malaysia made a consular visit of Doan Thi Huong, a suspect in the death of Democratic People’s Republic of Korean citizen Kim Chol, at the Kajang prison on March 29.

One of the two lawyers arranged for Huong, lawyer Hisyam Teh Toh Teik was also present during the visit. 

With the agreement of Huong and her family and assistance from the Vietnam Embassy and the Vietnam Bar Federation, lawyers Hisyam Teh TohTeik and Naran Singh have been arranged to defend the suspect at court.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT) on March 29 organized a ceremony to announce the import-export report in 2016.

The report was established from official information on export and import of each sector and market and the direction of the MIT in monitoring and promoting export and import activities with intensive analysis and forecasts, said Deputy Minister of the MIT Tran Quoc Khanh.

The report provides useful information not only for businesses about commodities and export and import activities but also for managers in field of policy making for a more sustainable import-export  growth.

The nation’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) in March increased 0.21% against February and up 4.56% from the same period last year.

The CPI in the first quarter of the year saw a year-on-year increase of 4.96%.

Eight out of 11 commodities saw increases in prices. Medicines and health care service group saw a price rise of 7.51% while restaurants and food services, hats, garments and footwear and beverage and tobacco witnessed price decreases of 0.87%, 0.12% and 0.02%, respectively.

Viet Nam welcomed more than 3.2 million foreign visitors in the first three months of 2017, a year-on-year increase of 29%.

In March only, one million foreign passengers travelled to Viet Nam, up 21.2%.

The nation heads to cater for 11.5 million foreigners and 66 million domestic visitors this year, gaining VND460,000billion in revenue.

The export of agricultural, forestry and aquatic products in March was estimated at US$2.9 billion, raising the total export turnover in the first three months of the year to US$7.6 billion, a year-on-year increase of 7.6%.

Viet Nam gained US$4.2 billion, US$1.5 billion and US$1.8 billion from exporting agricultural, forestry and aquatic products, year-on-year increases of 13.5%, 3.6% and 12.4%, respectively.