Capital urged to rise up despite COVID-19 outbreak

PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc

The Government chief made the calling on Monday while working with local leaders. 

Especially, PM Phuc pushed the city to accomplish basically preset norms especially job generation and budget collection and contribute to national development. 

The city was urged to conduct the Party Congress at all levels and set hallmarks in national development towards the 13th Party Congress. 

As the Capital of Viet Nam, the city has to serve as a driver of national development and set an example for other localities, the PM added. 

The Ha Noi municipal People’s Committee reported that almost all preset goals in Ha Noi have been missed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Especially, GDP growth rate was only 3.72%, just over a half than the same period last year. 

The local authorities attributed the growth rate to expansion of industries and construction in the first two months that had yet been impacted by the virus. In addition, budget collection has yet been affected thanks to budget payment extension from last Q4 to Q1. 

There are rooms for some sectors to flourish by year-end such as industrial products for disease prevention, IT service applications, and agricultural production. 

However, the pandemic has put the city under high pressure to meet its socio-economic development goals. The consumer price index tended to be higher than last year, particularly that of food. Construction progress was slow as the result of poor disbursement rates. The number of infringements on drugs, black market credits, and environmental violations were high. 

Earlier, the local administration crafted three scenarios to cushion impacts of COVID-19. 

In the first scenario, social distancing measures would be ended on April 22 or May 3, the local economy would operate normally in early July. 

The second scenario forecasts that the coronavirus disease would be put under control in Q2 but potentially risk res urgence by late 2020 as other countries have yet contained the virus. The local economy and social activities would hardly operate normally but maintain at minimum levels. 

In the third scenario, COVID-19 pandemic would spread widely and be unable to be put under control in Q2 despite social distancing rules. The local economy and people’s lives would be extremely difficult./.

By Kim Anh