Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong first informed about important figures related to the damages of Typhoon No.3 (Yagi) on the six northern provinces and Thanh Hoa Province. Accordingly, these regions account for 41 percent of the national GDP and 40 percent of the total population. The adverse impacts of Typhoon No.3 and subsequent flooding are estimated at VND50 trillion (US$2.03 billion).
That leads to the national economic growth rate for the last five months of 2024 being slowed down by as much as 0.5 percent compared to the estimation. In particular, the growth scenario for the whole country in 2024 is 6.8-7 percent. However, Typhoon No.3 has caused this forecast to decrease by 0.15 percent. Among them, the agriculture, forestry, and fisheries sector decreased by 0.33 percent; industry and construction by 0.05 percent; and services by 0.22 percent.
Explaining the supports that businesses and individuals can receive thanks to Resolution No.143/NQ-CP by the Government on September 17 about the six missions to urgently address the negative consequences of Typhoon No.3, the Deputy Minister said that the government has directed measures to recover production and trading activities, including exempting, reducing, or extending taxes, fees, land leases, and water surface leases for those affected by the recent storm and flood.
The government has also directed credit institutions to restructure terms, maintain debt groups, exempt or reduce interest rates for affected customers, and provide new credit programs with suitable preferential interest rates to continue lending to customers for post-storm production recovery in accordance with regulations.
The Ministry of Planning and Investment has also been assigned by the government to work with the Ministry of Finance for a report to the government in October on supplementing resources for the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies to lend for special credit programs, especially for lending to poor households and other policy beneficiaries in the northern midland and mountainous provinces. If necessary, the bank should report to the Prime Minister to consider adjusting the credit growth target for 2024.
Finally, the Deputy Minister stressed that to avoid situations where policies are suitable and resolutions are issued promptly but their implementation is not as effective, the Government has insisted that support policies and solutions must be quick, feasible, timely, effective, focused, and directly addressed to the affected subjects. Procedures and conditions for policy implementation must be simple to implement and easy to monitor, supervise, and evaluate.
The beneficiaries are citizens, workers, vulnerable people, households, cooperatives, and enterprises in areas affected by Typhoon No.3 and its subsequent flooding and landslides. At the same time, it is necessary to promptly and effectively implement existing emergency support policies for poor households, near-poor households, and disadvantaged households to repair severely damaged houses and relocate houses whenever it is needed.
The support period is mainly in September and October. However, some support policies for businesses may be extended, and resources may be supplemented for implementation until the end of 2025 to suit the recovery of businesses, households, and seasonal factors in production and business.
In addition, the resolution also emphasizes promoting the proactiveness and resources of all levels and sectors of localities, focusing on policies within the authority of the government, the prime minister, ministries, agencies, and localities to reduce the time required for approval by competent authorities.
The government also allows the application of procedures for the early implementation of urgent works and projects to promptly prevent and address the consequences caused by Typhoon No.3 and post-storm rains.
