Overcoming economic damage after storm No. 3
At the regular Government press conference in September 2024, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment (MPI) Tran Quoc Phuong assessed that the consequences of storm No. 3 caused huge damage. Despite many efforts to prevent the storm with the participation of the entire political system as well as early and remote preparation, the damage caused by storm No. 3 and the post-storm circulation showed that its impact was very terrible.
As of September 27, 2024, the estimated damage is about 81.5 trillion VND. Public infrastructure works as well as large local infrastructures were severely affected, infrastructure, public services such as electricity, water, communications, schools, hospitals were damaged. This is a preliminary statistic of the damage caused by storm No. 3 and its circulation. The Ministry of Planning and Investment has a quick assessment of the impact on the country's economic growth, which is a decrease of about 0.15%.
Immediately after the storm passed, the Prime Minister promptly directed the Ministry of Planning and Investment and other ministries to urgently report to the Prime Minister and the Government to have immediate support solutions for those affected by the storm.
The Government issued Resolution No. 143/NQ-CP dated September 17, 2024 with the main contents being key tasks and solutions to urgently overcome the consequences of storm No. 3 and quickly stabilize the situation and people's lives, promote and restore production and business in affected areas.
The Resolution has 6 basic contents and also reflects the guiding ideology of the Government and the Prime Minister on the order of priority in solutions, in which priority is given to people, human life, and human health. Therefore, the first solution is to protect people's lives and health, then to restore production and business activities.
Resolution 143/NQ-CP dated September 17, 2024 also gathers solutions, in which support solutions focus on two aspects: fiscal and monetary solutions.
"We went to the field in Hai Phong and Quang Ninh and found that in industrial zones affected by storms and floods, businesses returned to production very quickly, recovering after just over a week.
However, industry can recover quickly, but agriculture and tourism are affected longer, recovery requires longer. Agriculture, especially plant and animal varieties, requires a long time. For tourism, especially places that use large assets such as ships, recovery takes a long time. In this Government report, the Ministry of Planning and Investment also requested the Prime Minister to pay more attention to the two sectors of agriculture and tourism, the damaged areas" - Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong said.
Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are the two main locomotives and driving forces.
According to Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong, if there were no storm, the growth rate could have been higher than 7.4%. According to the scenario built with the results of the third quarter and 9 months, the Ministry of Planning and Investment will continue to report to the Prime Minister and the Government to maintain the target of striving for 7% GDP growth for the whole year. If conditions permit, it can strive for higher than 7%.
In the Government's directive solution, the Ministry of Planning and Investment advises that unaffected localities with high growth potential need to share and make more efforts to compensate for the losses of affected localities.
"In the report, we recommended to the Prime Minister that there are two key areas that achieve higher growth rates, which will have a very positive impact on the economic growth of the whole country, namely Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. These are the two main locomotives and driving forces of the whole country," said the Deputy Minister.
