HÀ NỘI Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc has requested sectors and businesses to make sure production activities continue as normal, despite the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2.

Directive No 11 issued by the PM last week requested that all ministries, People’s Committees and leaders of State-owned and private enterprises to take on a “double mission” fighting COVID-19 and ensuring socio-economic development.

“The intensive collaboration between the Government and the people to prevent COVID-19 has initially yielded major results,” the directive said.

“However, the disease keeps spreading and getting more complicated, affecting the global economy and the economies of several countries that are the major partners of Việt Nam.

“COVID-19 has also troubled many facets of the country’s economy, causing problems to import and export activities, goods transportation, and to the many service sectors such as health, education, catering, entertainment, especially tourism.”

The directive outlined seven actions that central and local authorities should take to ensure socio-economic stability.

They include simplifying banking procedures to facilitate loans and cashless payment, reducing administrative procedures and fees for transport enterprises, and creating favourable conditions for productions, imports and exports.

They also include helping the tourism and aviation sectors to recover from COVID-19, pushing forward the disbursement of investment capital, solving labour problems, and providing citizens with credible, transparent and objective information about the results of the prevention and control of Covid-19 in Việt Nam.

In particular, PM Phúc assigned the State Bank of Việt Nam to make sure credit institutions are able to give loans and ensure financial sources for production activities, and the Ministry of Finance to propose a deadline extension of tax payment and land rent for those affected by COVID-19 in March.

He assigned the Ministry of Transport to reduce administrative and logistic procedures for maritime, aviation, road, inland waterway, and railway companies.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade was assigned to collaborate with the agriculture and construction ministries to review, report, and come up with solutions to ensure inputs for production activities in the country, as well as pushing forward exports activities and taking advantage of free trade agreements.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will promote Việt Nam’s tourism at the national level and collaborate with localities to promote domestic tourism, and developing new tourism packages to attract international tourists.

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs was assigned to collaborate with local labour sectors to encourage workers to overcome the difficult time, and provide assistance and incentives for those who lost their jobs due to COVID-19.

The PM also assigned the Ministry of Information and Communications to inform citizens of the solutions and preventive measures conducted by the Government to fight COVID-19, and crafting a message about Việt Nam as safe destination for foreign tourists and investors.

PM Phúc also requested the country’s and localities’ leaders to postpone overseas business trips and focus on preventing the disease in the country. VNS