Tag: pandemic

New Year season sees many people travelling, which creates conditions for many illnesses to spread.

Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai chaired a meeting on October 13 with the Price Management Steering Committee to evaluate results in the first nine months of this year and the first half of October and to establish priorities in the months to come. Factors affecting price management, he said, include some tax support policies expiring at the end of the year, the speed of public investment disbursement increasing, demand for consumer goods, especially in food and consumer goods, rising sharply as Tet approaches, and the lingering impact of natural disasters and the pandemic.

Despite posting slowing growth since before the pandemic, Vietnam’s construction sector is still a bright spot in the Asia-Pacific region and is forecast to grow by more than 8.71 per cent during the 2022-2027 period. FDI inflows continue to come and the government’s support policies have helped enterprises in the construction sector to recover.

Though newly-registered FDI is still to recover to pre-pandemic levels, additional capital and capital contributions and share purchases continued to increase in the first nine months of 2022.

According to VnDirect Securities, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has decisively and promptly responded to changes in the international financial market. However, an increase of 100 basis points in the operating interest rate was unexpected, and higher than the forecasted 50 basis points. VnDirect believes the rate may increase by an additional 30-50 points during the closing months of the year. The 12-month deposit interest rate at commercial banks will rise to 6.1-6.3 per cent per annum by end-2022, which is still lower than the pre-pandemic 7.0 per cent per annum.

Employers have been exempted from paying unemployment insurance premiums for the past year in an effort to help them overcome Covid-19. As production and business activities return to some semblance of normal, compulsory unemployment insurance premiums will be re-applied from October 1, at 1 per cent of an employee’s monthly salary.

According to the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, more than 60 per cent of workers are currently renting houses and housing development for workers is proceeding slowly. In March, the government decided to support the rental costs of workers affected by Covid-19.

Agreeing that the operation of the banking system is not perfect and that inadequacies in the economy hinder the release of all resources for growth, analysts have proposed six solutions to improve efficiency in the management, exploitation, use, and promotion of resources for socio-economic development.

Vietnam is well placed to improve its socio-economic results this year based on the experience gained in 2021, conference hears.

Covid-19 has created huge economic losses for Vietnam, estimated at $24 billion, or 7 per cent of GDP. The damage to Ho Chi Minh City’s economy has been put at about $12 billion.

The number of daily Covid-19 cases and the infection rate in Ho Chi Minh City have both fallen significantly. Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam suggested that the city gradually allow production and business activities to enter into a “new normal” after vaccination rates are achieved. The city has completed disbursing the first support package for those affected by the pandemic, with a total cost of over VND700 billion ($30.52 million), and is implementing the second package, with a total cost of more than VND900 billion ($39.24 million).

The risk of continued community transmission of Covid-19 in Vietnam is very high, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Vaccinations are key to ending the pandemic, but are not the only measure, as they alone cannot end community transmission. The Ministry of Health’s “5K” strategy therefore needs to be continued. Many countries, including Vietnam, lack vaccines.

At the “Impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy and options for Vietnam” webinar, organized recently by the International Society of Vietnam Economists (ISVE), analysts said that the country must choose between economic damage now or in the future.

While inspecting Ho Chi Minh City on July 29, State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked that city authorities continue to implement social distancing to control Covid-19, while adopting synchronous measures to protect people’s lives and minimize the fatality rate.

The volume of orders placed on e-commerce platforms has increased significantly in Vietnam since social distancing and quarantining were introduced. Tiki has sold 10 tons of vegetables and taken 10,000 orders for essential products each day. Demand for essential products on Shopee reached 30 tons a day. Average consumption of vegetables and processed food on Lazada was 5-10 tons a day. Voso and Postmart, with advantages in logistics, offered both online and offline price stabilization sales and ensured delivery to many areas.

Many banks and businesses have applied modern technologies to their services amid the pandemic, such as eKYC (electronic know-your-customer, for account openings), QR codes, and non-cash payment services in order to offer customers a more convenient experience.