HA NOI — The Ambassador to Norway Ta Van Thong presented 54 books focusing on traditional Vietnamese culture, cuisine, festivals as well as music videos and films to the Deichmanske library in the Norwegian capital city of Oslo.
This is to help the Vietnamese community in Norway gain a better understand of their homeland.
On the occasion, Ambassador Thong thanked the library for co-operating closely with the Vietnamese Embassy in Norway to provide books for Vietnamese readers living in the Scandinavian country.
He also said he hoped that this will boost co-operation between the library and publishers in Viet Nam.
Deichmanske, which was originally set up in 1785, is the largest public library in Norway and has 16 branches in Oslo.
HSBC funds NGO projects
HCM CITY — HSBC Bank (Viet Nam) yesterday began receiving applications for financial support from international and local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) under its Future First programme.
The applicants should be providers of education and life skills for street children, orphans and children-in-care, as well as vocational training for underprivileged young women in Viet Nam, the banks said in press release.
HSBC Viet Nam last year decided to select and fund more projects using its local Corporate Sustainability budget. In the first year of this local scheme, four projects were funded to the tune of VND710 million.
The total budget estimated for 2011 is VND700 million.
The key areas of focus for Future First projects are formal education; basic early childhood, primary and secondary education; informal education; and vocational training to give individuals the capability, resources and opportunity to pursue their personal and household economic goals. The projects will also offer access to need-based counselling, the release said.
Educational projects will benefit children below 18 years, and life skills and vocational training projects will target youths aged from 15 to 24 years.
The application deadline is February 28. Successful applicants will be announced by the end of March.
Heinz launches ketchup iPad app
HCM City – The Heinz Company has a new ketchup cooking application for the iPad, a programme developed by multi media company Caplan.
Now available at Apple iStores, the application features 57 easy to prepare recipes using ketchup which include original meat, fish and vegetarian dishes.
The recipes also include cooking instructions as well as tips and tricks on how to spice up your favourite recipes.
Application updates for the Ketchup Cookbook will be available each month free of charge. Though currently only available in English, other language versions are likely to follow.
For a preview of the application, cooking enthusiasts can check out www.ketchupcookingapp.com or visit the nearest Apple iStore.
Online drinking contest launched
HA NOI – An online contest entitled The Cheers Challenge at drink-savvy.com has been launched as part of the Good Choices and Good Cheers programme by Asia Pacific Breweries.
The objective of the game is to make fun by getting as high a score as possible in 60 seconds for each game level. There are bonus levels after Level 2 and Level 4 with bonus trivia questions, which allow players to score more points.
In both English and Vietnamese, the contest will continue through May, with top regional scorers each week winning a Sony Cybershot camera and the top regional scorer each month an Apple iPad.
The top three country scorers from each participating country at the end of the contest will compete in The Cheers Challenge Championship, a regional face-off in Singapore. — VNS