Storm No. 3 (Yagi) caused serious damage to people and property in many localities in the North, but even in the most difficult moments, there was always the proactive and drastic participation of the entire political system, the spirit of solidarity, joint efforts, and unanimity of the entire Party, people, and army, thereby contributing to minimizing damage; at the same time, it also set many important tasks for all levels, sectors, and localities to quickly stabilize people's lives, soon restore socio-economic activities, restore production and business, promote economic growth, and realize the goal of rapid and sustainable development in disaster-stricken areas in particular and the whole country in general.
1. Storm No. 3 is the strongest storm in the East Sea in the past 30 years and the strongest on land in our country in the past 70 years, with very high intensity, very high speed, wide range, the area near the storm center is level 14, gust level 17, long duration, strong destructive power and very heavy impact and influence on a very wide range in most localities in the North; including 2 complicated and difficult to forecast issues: the storm's duration inland and the storm's circulation with very heavy rain. The heavy rainfall during the storm and the storm's circulation caused flooding, flash floods, landslides in many mountainous areas and major floods in most rivers in the North, leading to very serious damage to people, property, crops, livestock, socio-economic infrastructure, production and business activities, industries, sectors, especially agriculture in the affected localities.
Faced with the complicated developments of storm No. 3 and the floods following the storm, the Politburo, leaders of the Party, State, Government, and Prime Minister have focused on directing all levels, sectors, localities, and functional forces to urgently, resolutely, and synchronously implement tasks and solutions to prevent, combat, and overcome the consequences of storms and floods. On September 9, 2024, while the storm was raging, the Politburo held a meeting and directed the entire political system to focus on responding to storms and floods. General Secretary and President To Lam sent a letter to visit the people and soldiers affected by storm No. 3; directly inspected and directed the response and overcoming of consequences in a number of localities.
The Prime Minister has issued 10 telegrams; directing ministries, branches and localities to closely monitor the situation, focus on responding to storms and floods early, from afar, right at the grassroots level with the motto of being proactive, drastic, preventing, responding effectively at the highest level, ready for the worst situations. Leaders of the Party, State, Government and localities directly inspected and directed the implementation of response and recovery work for storms and floods and promptly encouraged and visited people and forces participating in storm and flood prevention and control, especially families and localities with human losses to minimize damage as much as possible. All levels, branches, localities, socio-political organizations and the entire people have proactively coordinated closely, synchronously and drastically implemented tasks and solutions to prevent and overcome the consequences of storms and floods. Mobilizing nearly 700,000 people and nearly 9,000 vehicles to respond to storms, floods, landslides, and flash floods; proactively implementing solutions to ensure the safety of people's lives and property. The Prime Minister promptly decided to allocate the central budget reserve and provide rice from the national reserve to support localities. The Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front organized a launching ceremony to support people affected by storms and floods; by September 21, 2024, a total amount of over 1,646 billion VND had been mobilized.
2. Although the proactive and active participation from early, from afar, from the grassroots level and the great efforts of the entire political system, all levels, sectors, localities, functional forces, the business community and the people have contributed significantly to minimizing the impact and influence of storms and floods, the damage is still very large and has left serious and severe consequences, causing hundreds of people to die and go missing, thousands of people to be injured; hundreds of thousands of houses to be flooded and damaged; hundreds of thousands of hectares of rice, crops, and fruit trees to be flooded and damaged; thousands of aquaculture cages, boats to be damaged and swept away; millions of livestock and poultry to die; causing widespread power outages and communication outages in some localities; hundreds of dike incidents, landslides, flooding, and local traffic disruptions; especially the mental damage to the people and the irreparable pain and loss of relatives and families whose people died or were injured due to storms and floods.
In the face of the great losses and damage of our compatriots in the affected areas, we deeply regret, understand, and share the tears and endless sorrow of the families who have unfortunately lost their loved ones. Wherever we go in the areas affected by storms and floods, we feel heartbroken and pained when we witness with our own eyes the villages, roofs, fields, gardens, fish ponds, cages, and properties of our compatriots being destroyed by floods. We will never forget the brave and selfless examples of the frontline forces, especially the officers and soldiers of the army and police who did not fear danger and hardship to rescue our compatriots, search and rescue in storms and floods, including comrades who heroically sacrificed themselves, demonstrating the good nature of "Uncle Ho's soldiers", of the People's Police soldiers "forgetting themselves for the country, serving the people". We are moved and impressed by the proactiveness, positivity, solidarity, and spirit of overcoming difficulties of the people in the flood-hit areas, especially the quick-witted, creative, and brave examples of carrying out dangerous tasks, such as promptly evacuating people in villages and hamlets from flash floods, rescuing boats drifting freely on large, fast-flowing rivers. The "charity trips", the kind hearts, and the noble acts of helping our compatriots in difficulty are clear evidence of the spirit of solidarity, mutual love, and the fine tradition of patriotism and love for one's people.
We also always remember the valuable sharing and assistance of the overseas Vietnamese community and the timely support of many countries and international organizations. From the practical work of preventing and overcoming the consequences of storms and floods, we further consolidate and strengthen our belief in the leadership of the Party and the combined strength of the entire political system, of the entire people and army, especially the unanimity and cooperation of all levels, sectors, localities and the strong solidarity of our compatriots and soldiers in times of difficulty and adversity, demonstrating the good nature of our regime.
In the context of many limitations and shortcomings, overcoming great difficulties and challenges in preventing natural disasters and floods, we can see more clearly the fundamental factors, the source of the country's strength, being strongly promoted, in which the "Six pillars of Vietnam" stand out, including:
(1) The fulcrum of the spirit of great national solidarity, solidarity within the Party, solidarity among the People, solidarity within the country, international solidarity, "Solidarity, solidarity, great solidarity; Success, success, great success", as beloved Uncle Ho instructed; (2) The fulcrum of the glorious leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam; for nearly 95 years, the Party has had no other goal than to bring independence and freedom to the nation and a prosperous and happy life for the People; (3) The fulcrum of the heroic, civilized, and cultured historical and cultural traditions of the nation, with the spirit of mutual love and mutual assistance, "love others as you love yourself", "the whole leaf covers the torn leaf, the less torn leaf covers the more torn leaf", "gourd, please love the squash, although they are different species, they are on the same trellis"; (4) The fulcrum of the People, the People make history, the strength originates from the People, "it is a hundred times easier without the People, it is ten thousand times harder with the People"; (5) The fulcrum of the Army and the Police; "when needed, when in difficulty, there is the Army and the Police", "Our Army comes from the People, fights for the People", "Our Police, forget themselves for the country, serve the people"; (6) The fulcrum of the spirit of self-reliance and self-improvement of our nation, of each person when facing difficulties and challenges, the more pressure, the more effort, strive to rise up, overcome one's own limits, with the spirit of "turning nothing into something, turning difficult into easy, turning the impossible into possible".
3. To urgently overcome the consequences of storm No. 3, all levels, sectors, localities, functional forces and people and soldiers nationwide need to continue to focus on seriously grasping the direction of the Politburo, leaders of the Party, State and Government, and the Prime Minister, especially focusing on effectively implementing 06 groups of tasks and key solutions to protect people's lives, safety and health; support stabilizing people's lives; restore and develop production and business; prepare to respond to natural disasters, storms and floods; reduce and simplify administrative procedures to implement support policies; control inflation, promote economic growth in the spirit of Resolution No. 143/NQ-CP dated September 17, 2024 of the Government.
In particular, urgently overcoming the consequences of storms and floods and quickly stabilizing people's lives are identified as key and urgent tasks, especially for Party committees, authorities, and functional forces at the grassroots level. Focus on searching for missing people; promptly rescuing the injured; visiting, sharing, encouraging, and supporting the funeral of the deceased; inspecting and accessing isolated areas to provide timely and effective support to the people. Providing food, clean water, and accommodation for people who have lost their homes; reviewing and implementing resettlement for households who have lost their homes, ensuring completion as soon as possible, before December 31, 2024, with better living conditions than their old places. Ensuring environmental sanitation and disease prevention; urgently sending students to school and putting hospitals and medical facilities into operation in September 2024. Quickly restore and ensure smooth traffic, communication, telephone signal, electricity, clean water supply, and basic social services. Review and take appropriate support measures to restore production and business activities of enterprises, ensure jobs and livelihoods of people in all fields, especially industry, services, and agriculture. Maintain political stability, security, safety, and ensure social order in the area. Do a good job of information and communication work, not allowing hostile and reactionary forces to take advantage of distortion and sabotage. At the same time, continue to review and fully count the damage to promptly propose and recommend to the Government and the Prime Minister to consider and use national reserves, central budget reserves, and other legal sources to support people to overcome the consequences of storms and floods in accordance with the law.
4. Along with stabilizing people's lives soon, we need to focus on restoring production and business, promoting economic growth, and controlling inflation. This is a task of special importance; only by performing this task well can we ensure the stability and sustainability of the lives and livelihoods of people in areas affected by storms and floods in particular and the people of the whole country in general; at the same time, we can create a solid foundation for socio-economic development of each locality, each region and the whole country.
Regarding production and business recovery, ministries, branches and localities need to focus on reviewing mechanisms and policies to promptly and effectively support production establishments, business households, cooperatives and enterprises to quickly restore production, supply and labor chains, and restore and promote production and business development. Urgently exempt, reduce and extend taxes, fees, land rents, water surface rents, etc. for affected and damaged enterprises, organizations and people; promptly make advances and pay insurance benefits; prioritize resource allocation to promptly overcome incidents and damage to the transport system, dikes and irrigation reservoirs. Implement monetary policy solutions such as: restructuring terms, maintaining debt groups, considering exemption and reduction of loan interest, etc. for damaged customers; supplement resources to implement preferential credit policies for the Bank for Social Policies; Continue to provide new loans to customers to restore production and business after storms and floods.
Focus on immediately restoring agricultural production capacity; take this opportunity to restructure crops and livestock in regions and localities in a more natural, efficient and sustainable direction; promptly support seeds, feed, chemicals and necessary materials. Quickly bring affected industrial parks, industrial production, trade and service projects back to normal operation; quickly restore damaged logistics facilities and warehouses, avoiding disruption of the supply chain. Review and reduce administrative procedures to promptly repair and rebuild works and factories affected by natural disasters to promptly restore production and business; apply emergency investment processes and procedures to works and projects for storm and flood prevention. Localities proactively and actively mobilize the participation of the entire grassroots political system, closely coordinate with ministries and central agencies to focus on overcoming the consequences of natural disasters and floods in the spirit of Resolution No. 143/NQ-CP of the Government.
Regarding promoting economic growth and controlling inflation, it is necessary to clearly identify this as one of the key, consistent, and most important contents in directing and operating the macro economy, aiming at the goal of rapid, green, and sustainable development, contributing to restructuring the economy according to the Resolutions of the Party, the National Assembly, and the Government. From now until the end of 2024 and in 2025, all levels, sectors, and localities need to continue to focus on closely monitoring and grasping the market and price situation; ensuring adequate supply of goods, stabilizing prices of essential goods and raw materials for life and production and business; absolutely not allowing food shortages to occur; continuing to research and restructure the energy supply chain in a green, sustainable direction and in accordance with the country's natural conditions and the needs of the people; in the short and medium term, it is necessary to focus on ensuring adequate supply of gasoline, oil, and electricity for production, business, and consumption; Strictly handle acts of speculation, hoarding, price manipulation. Implement a proactive, flexible, timely, effective monetary policy, closely and synchronously coordinate with a reasonable, focused, key expansionary fiscal policy and other policies to prioritize promoting growth, maintaining macroeconomic stability, controlling inflation, and ensuring major balances of the economy. Increase access to credit and reduce costs, continue to strive to reduce lending interest rates to support the economy. Effectively implement a reasonable, focused, key expansionary fiscal policy, especially policies to extend, postpone, and reduce taxes, fees, charges, etc.; increase spending savings, thoroughly save regular spending to reserve resources for social security, support to overcome the consequences of natural disasters and development investment. Further promote the disbursement of public investment capital; Prioritize capital allocation, speed up progress of important, key national projects, inter-provincial, inter-regional, national, regional and international connections.
Focus on studying and overcoming the limitations and shortcomings of the stock, corporate bond and real estate markets; promptly remove difficulties and obstacles related to projects and land in the conclusions of inspections, examinations, and judgments in some localities and other stuck and pending projects in accordance with the direction of the Politburo; thereby contributing to freeing up resources, promoting production and business and economic growth.
Focus on renewing traditional growth drivers (investment, consumption, export) and strongly promoting new growth drivers (such as urban development, regional economy, digital transformation, green transformation, circular economy, sharing economy, knowledge economy, high-tech industries and fields, semiconductor chips, artificial intelligence, etc.); in which special attention is paid to developing digital economy and green transformation, considering this an inevitable objective requirement of integration, globalization and also a favorable opportunity to bring the country forward with the times, escaping the "middle-income trap".
Continue to improve institutions, mechanisms and policies to attract more social investment capital, promote the development of the private economy to truly be an important driving force of the economy; increase selective foreign investment attraction associated with technology transfer. Strongly promote the domestic market, effectively implement the Campaign "Vietnamese people prioritize using Vietnamese goods". Expand and diversify export markets, supply chains, effectively exploit signed Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and more actively promote negotiations and signing of new FTAs with Middle Eastern and African countries, Halal product markets, etc.
Continue to strongly promote and create qualitative changes in implementing 3 strategic breakthroughs in institutions, human resources and infrastructure; clearly identifying institutions as "breakthroughs of breakthroughs" because they are both a resource and an important driving force for the development of a socialist-oriented market economy; continue to innovate institutional building thinking in the direction of not only focusing on state management but also focusing on expanding space and creating development; have open mechanisms and policies, creating breakthroughs in removing difficulties for production and business, unlocking resources, training high-quality human resources, promoting science and technology, innovation and developing a synchronous and modern strategic infrastructure system. Focus on promoting industrialization and modernization, promoting economic restructuring associated with transforming the growth model towards improving productivity, quality, efficiency and competitiveness, constantly improving Vietnam's position on the regional and global economic map. Strengthening discipline, improving the effectiveness and efficiency of state management, continuing to simplify and reduce administrative procedures, creating all favorable conditions for people and businesses. At the same time, focusing on developing cultural and social fields, ensuring social security, improving people's lives, comprehensively protecting the environment; stepping up the fight against corruption and negativity, contributing to serving and promoting socio-economic development; ensuring political security, social order and safety, consolidating national defense and security, strengthening foreign affairs, international integration, maintaining a peaceful and stable environment and creating favorable conditions for national development.
5. Vietnam is considered one of the countries most severely affected by natural disasters and climate change. In the coming time, natural disasters, storms, floods, and climate change are forecasted to continue to develop in a complex, extreme, and unpredictable manner with increasing frequency and intensity, and increasingly severe impacts and influences.
In that context, the work of preventing and fighting storms and floods in particular and preventing, responding to and overcoming the consequences of natural disasters in general need to have a strong, comprehensive, substantive and effective change. This is an important political task, both urgent and strategic in the long term for the entire political system, all levels, sectors and localities. In particular, it is necessary to thoroughly grasp the consistent viewpoint of putting people's lives first and foremost and not sacrificing progress, social justice and environmental protection in exchange for mere economic growth, leaving no one behind in preventing and fighting natural disasters as well as in all economic and social activities. Clearly identify that preventing, fighting and overcoming the consequences of natural disasters is the responsibility and obligation of all people and society; promote the highest level of proactiveness, positivity, self-reliance and self-reliance of Party committees, authorities and people at the grassroots level; not to be passive or surprised in any situation. Ensure scientific, rational and practical relevance; smoothly combine tradition and modernity; focus on all three stages of prevention, response and overcoming consequences, in which proactive prevention is the main focus; shift management and risk prevention to basins, inter-regions and inter-sectoral levels. At the same time, promote the combined strength of the great national unity bloc associated with the strength of the times; use a comprehensive, global approach to preventing and overcoming the consequences of natural disasters.
To achieve the goals set out in the National Strategy for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control to 2030, with a vision to 2050, all levels, sectors and localities must absolutely not be negligent or subjective, and continue to synchronously and effectively implement Directive No. 42-CT/TW dated March 24, 2020 of the Secretariat on strengthening the Party's leadership in the work of preventing, responding to and overcoming the consequences of natural disasters; the Law on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, the Law on Civil Defense, the National Strategy and Plan for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control. Focus on improving the quality of forecasting and warning of natural disasters; continue to review and perfect programs, plans and scenarios for natural disaster prevention and control, ensuring integration into the strategies, planning and socio-economic development plans of the whole country, each region, each locality, sector and field. Implement flexibly, creatively and effectively the "four on-the-spot" motto at the grassroots level in accordance with the actual conditions of each locality in each period. Focus on guiding, raising awareness, management skills, and responding to natural disasters, especially at the grassroots level and in high-risk areas; focus on reviewing and perfecting processes, regulations on organization and operation, and coordination in preventing and overcoming the consequences of natural disasters. Prioritize the allocation of resources to invest in equipment, facilities, and synchronous, advanced techniques and modern technology; continue to perfect mechanisms and policies to effectively use the Natural Disaster Prevention Fund. Urgently complete the Natural Disaster Risk Zoning Program, develop large-scale landslide and flash flood zoning maps, detailed to the commune and village level.
Focus on arranging and relocating people in high-risk areas, creating jobs and sustainable livelihoods in new places, ensuring they are equal to or better than the old places. Review planning and build works to ensure prevention of flash floods and landslides. Strengthen forest management, protection and development, improve forest quality, especially natural and protective forests. Do a good job of information and communication, especially good models, good practices, and advanced examples for replication. Promote international cooperation, mobilize support and assistance from countries, international organizations, and external partners, especially in human resource training, technology transfer, and advanced management and operation models, contributing to meeting the requirements of natural disaster prevention in the new period.
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Storm No. 3 has passed but there are still consequences, heavy losses both spiritually and materially for many people, families, villages, communities, localities and the whole country. Promoting the fine tradition of "national love, compatriots' affection", always remembering the teachings of beloved Uncle Ho "Nothing is difficult - Only fear is not steadfast - Digging mountains and filling seas - Determination will make it happen", under the leadership of the glorious Communist Party of Vietnam, let us further promote the spirit of solidarity, unity, standing shoulder to shoulder to overcome all difficulties and challenges, determined to quickly stabilize people's lives, actively restore production and business, socio-economic activities, create livelihoods for people in storm and flood-affected areas as soon as possible; At the same time, continue to strive to achieve the highest success in implementing the socio-economic development goals and tasks set out in the Resolutions of the Party, National Assembly, and Government, contributing to promoting the country's rapid and sustainable development, bringing a prosperous and happy life to the people.
