Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Nam Dinh, Feb. 6 (VNA) -- State President Tran Duc Luong on Thursday made visits to northern Nam Dinh and Ha Nam provinces to extend best wishes to local leaders and people on the occasion of Tet (lunar new year celebrations).

In Nam Dinh, the President attended a ceremony to launch a campaign of planting bamboo trees to prevent the local dyke system from floods on the Red River at My Trung commune of My Loc district.

Addressing the ceremony, Luong said "Tree planting by everybody and every family in response to the late President Ho Chi Minh's appeal will strengthen the capacity of protecting the country against natural disasters, improve its ecological environment, and ensure safety for the people's life.

"Growing and protecting bamboo trees to prevent tides and floods have great benefits and are a duty of everybody people," the President told a crowd of thousands of people, who were present at the ceremony.

The same day, President Luong visited workers who are building Yen Lenh bridge spanning the Red River to link Ha Nam with Hung Yen provinces. The bridge, designed by Vietnamese engineers, is being built with funds from businesses as well as state budget support.

For his part, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai on Thursday paid a New Year visit to the food processing VISSAN Company, as a sign of the Government's appreciation of its contributions to stabilising market prices during the shopping season.

Vissan sold out more than 2,200 tonnes of fresh meat and 1,300 tonnes of processed food worth 114 billion VND (7.6 million USD) during the lunar New Year festival (TET) which finished just today after six holidays.

As a leading food manufacturer and processor, Vissan has set a target of earning 810 billion VND in revenue this year by selling 88 tonnes of fresh meat and 20 tonnes of processed food a day. The company has planned to invest more than 200 billion VND in upgrading technology and moving to a suburban area to meet quality and environmental demands by the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) into which Viet Nam begins its integration process this year.

Also this afternoon, Nguyen Minh Triet, Politburo member of the Communist Party of Viet Nam CC and Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, visited the command of the municipal police.

Triet praised the municipal police for well maintaining social order and security during traffic-busy Tet.

He also asked the force of public security to uphold its key role in the fight against crimes, further cracking down on traffic violations and weeding out drug addicts' dens.

The senior Party official handed 100 million VND as reward to those units which had made considerable contributions to the maintenance of municipal order and security during Tet.