With drastic, creative, flexible and timely directions of the Government and the Prime Minister, the engagement of the whole political system and business community, and the strong support from people, Viet Nam has obtained important results in performing the dual tasks of fighting Covid-19 and boosting socio-economic development.

Minister, Chairman of the Government’s Office and Spokesman of the Government Mai Tien Dung (centre) at the press conference on August 3 (Photo: VNA)

The remark was made by Minister, Chairman of the Government’s Office and Spokesman of the Government Mai Tien Dung at the Cabinet’s regular press conference on August 3.

He noted that after 99 straight days without community Covid-19 transmission, Viet Nam has recorded locally infected cases in several localities, especially some hospitals in central Da Nang city. The Government’s permanent members shortly held three meetings under the chair of the PM to discuss response measures.

In July, the PM chaired a teleconference to promote the disbursement of public investment and official development assistance while working with some major provinces and cities like Ho Chi Minh City and several localities in the central, Central Highlands and Mekong Delta regions to boost public investment disbursement to facilitate growth.

The Government leader also ordered the establishment of seven working teams to visit localities, ministries and sectors to address difficulties facing businesses and step up public investment disbursement, Dung said.

Despites the pandemic’s negative impact, thanks to breakthrough efforts, Viet Nam recorded month-on-month improvement in socio-economic development during the first seven months of 2020, with macro-economic stability sustained, inflation controlled, and the consumer price index growth slowing down.

However, as community transmission of Covid-19 has returned since late July, challenges remain huge for the time ahead, he admitted, pointing out that there are many latent risks to the macro-economic stability; public investment disbursement has yet to meet requirements; many industries are still struggling; the service sector, especially aviation and tourism, has been hardly hit; and the number of businesses dissolved or suspending operations, as well as job losses, have increased.

The Government considers the early August as decisive to whether or not Covid-19 will break out on a large scale, so it is necessary to summon every resource to deal with any outbreaks, especially the one in Da Nang, persistently carry out disease prevention and control measures, fulfill socio-economic development targets, and continue ensuring social security, social order and safety, defence, security and external activities, the official stressed.

Dung also noted several solutions issued by the Government, including drastically implementing synchronous anti-Covid-19 measures but still creating the best possible conditions for the flows of goods, and accelerating the disbursement of public funds which must be viewed as the focal political task for 2020.

Source: VNA