The Covid-19 pandemic, coming unexpectedly and lasting from the beginning of the year until now, has made seriously and comprehensive influence on the whole society.
The Covid-19 pandemic, coming unexpectedly and lasting from the beginning of the year until now, has made seriously and comprehensive influence on the whole society. In the context that the whole political system is struggling to fight against the epidemic and ensure the welfare for the people and the economy is in decline, it requires the province to develop solutions for production and business in accordance with the situation.
Negative growth in the first quarter
For the first time in history, Khanh Hoa had a negative growth rate even in the first quarter. According to the data of the provincial People's Committee, in the first 3 months, the GRDP growth rate of the province decreased by 9.3%, the export turnover dropped by 7.63%, tourism fell by 41.8%, the number of guests slashed by 58.6%, total retail sales of goods and services went down by 18.7%, and budget revenue dropped by 18.4% over the same period.
The number of employees in the tourism industry reducing or losing jobs is about 17,100 people. Other businesses divide shifts and work alternately. 1,664 businesses and 1,211 business households in the province have been affected. Meanwhile, farmers in districts are worried about coping with a severe dry season.
In general difficulties, Khanh Hoa has its own difficulties. The province is affected more heavily than many other provinces as the service and tourism accounts for a high proportion in the overall economy of the province.
|
Removing difficulties for production and business
Currently, we must continue to implement measures to prevent of the Covid-19 epidemic in accordance with the Prime Minister's Directive, and at the same time build groups of solutions to remove difficulties in production and business, and develop development scenarios after the epidemic. Initially, the provincial People's Committee will focus on directing and administering the implementation of 3 main groups of solutions.
The first group is removing difficulties for production and business of enterprises and business households. In particular, it’s necessary to create favorable conditions for businesses to access credit and support packages of the Government. Currently, the State Bank of Khanh Hoa Branch has directed the system to proactively take measures to support customers, stabilize interest rates, strictly comply with the provisions on the ceiling lending interest rate for preferential fields, and ensure sufficient capital for production and business. The provincial People's Committee has also asked the Tax Department to urgently implement the Government's Decree 41 on extending the tax payment time and land rent for enterprises. Additionally, it’s necessary to promptly carry out tax exemption, reduction, rescheduling, tax refund and solving difficulties for taxpayers.
The second group is ensuring social security and creating jobs. The provincial People's Committee assigned the provincial Department of Finance to lead and coordinate with other departments and agencies to list the support funding according to Resolution 42 dated April 9, 2020 of the Government. The total support budget for those who reduce income deeply, lose their jobs and policy beneficiaries during the epidemic time is estimated at VND 650 billion. The provincial People's Committee has also directed the provincial Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to coordinate with the provincial Social Insurance to guide enterprises to compile dossiers and procedures to suspend the payment of social insurance premiums; and collaborate with the Bank for Social Policies to promote lending from the national fund for jobs to support workers.
The third group is speeding up the capital disbursement for public investment in 2020. This solution can be considered as a main stimulus channel to create motivation for promoting socio-economic development. In order for this solution to quickly take effect, the provincial People's Committee has directed localities and units to concentrate on completing the ground clearance and arranging resettlement for the North-South expressway project. A number of newly started projects using common provisions and about VND10 trillion from the Central budget have completed investment procedures and submitted them to the provincial People's Council for the investment policy approval in the next meeting and then will submit it to the Government to allot capital for medium-term public investment…
While, it’s impossible to know how the epidemic will evolve in the coming months. The above solutions of the province is expected to partly meet the requirements of both coping with the epidemics as well as developing production and business.
Tran Duy
Translated by T.T
