NOTICE

CONCLUSIONS OF PRIME MINISTER NGUYEN XUAN PHUC IN REGULAR GOVERNMENT’S MEETING ON COVID-19 EPIDEMIC MANAGEMENT

On June 9, 2020, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc held the Regular Government’s Meeting on COVID-19 epidemic management. Attendees include Deputy Prime Ministers: Truong Hoa Binh, Pham Binh Minh, Vu Duc Dam and Trinh Dinh Dung; Minister and Minister, Chairperson of Government Office Mai Tien Dung, Deputy Chief of Central Office Nguyen Dac Vinh, Chairperson of National Assembly Committee for Culture, Education, Youth, Adolescents and Children Phan Thanh Binh, senior representatives of Central Propaganda Commission, Hanoi People’s Committee, Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee and members of National Steering Committee for COVID-19 epidemic management.

After hearing reports of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 epidemic management and remarks of Deputy Prime Ministers and attendees, the Prime Minister directs as follows:

1. Vietnam has achieved great successes in recent times which should be honored in the “war” against COVID-19 epidemic. We have well controlled the epidemic, no new cases are recorded in the community over the past 2 months, most of the cases have been fully treated, and severe cases have shown positive health-wise development.  These results are gratifying and highly appreciated by the general public and international community.  These successes must be concluded, praised, commended and learnt from to better perform future general epidemic management.

The Prime Minister high appreciates and praises ministries and local authorities, especially military forces, including border guards, police forces, medical personnel and members of National Steering Committee for COVID-19 epidemic management for exerting relentlessly, adopting epidemic management measures stringently and effectively.

2. In the time to come, the country enters new development phase with following basic development principles:

a) Ensure safe environment for sustainable development in new normal conditions. During development process, consider and research world situations, relate to Vietnam conditions, especially when our country has integrated intensively.

b) Thoroughly comprehend direction of the Politburo in Notice No. 77-TB/TW dated June 5, 2020 on maximum utilization of domestic market. Intensively promote development of socio-economic activities. Each ministry and local government must devise plans conforming to requirements of socio-economic development tasks according to directions of Politburo and Prime Minister, especially in disbursement of public investment capital, development of electronic economy, etc.

c) Prepare to integrate and turn Vietnam into a safe destination internationally not only to execute economic development tasks but also political and foreign affair tasks, especially to important counterparts and countries that have successfully controlled the epidemic.

d) Continue to prevent risks of disease spread from the outside, stringently control migration via roads, waterways and airway, do not be careless; adopt appropriate quarantine measures on persons making entry do not allow the epidemic to spread.

dd) Facilitate and implement entry of experts, enterprise managers, hi-tech workers and Vietnamese nationals in a humane fashion while preventing sources of infection from entering Vietnam.

e) Successfully guarantee social security, employment and assistance for poor people, do not let any person lack food and “leave no one behind”.

3. Continue to permit experts, investors, enterprise managers and highly skilled workers to enter and survey investment and business opportunities in Vietnam. Assign Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of  Transport to consider and rapidly process procedures for entry visas, flights and relevant procedures for aforementioned individuals; relevant People’s Committees of provinces and cities shall direct, instruct and allocate quarantine location appropriately and flexibly for each individual, collect charges for quarantine provision, organize reception and quick tests to facilitate procedures for new issuance and extension of work permit for foreign workers and prevent disease spread.

4. Enable Vietnamese businessmen, intellectuals and nationals who are pupils, students, old people, visitors and tourists stranded abroad and other special cases, etc. to return to Vietnam. Assign Ministry of Foreign Affairs to direct and develop specific eligibility for permission to return to Vietnam, establish registration channel to receive application for return. Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall cooperate with Ministry of National Defense and Ministry of Transport in identifying flights and rendezvouses; Ministry of Transport shall direct airlines to regularly organize flights and increase frequency of commercial flights to bring Vietnamese nationals back conforming to domestic quarantine situations.

5. Reopening of international commercial flights: Assign National Steering Committee for COVID-19 epidemic management to publicize safe zones and areas (with specific criteria such as no new cases of infection in the community for 30 days) to steadily reopen international commercial flights carefully and provide specific guidelines for quaranteeing persons making entry via these flights. Regarding places where flights are reopened, assign Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Transport to consider and select certain places for reopening for the time being namely Guangzhou, Taiwan, Seoul, Tokyo, Laos, etc. based on general situations with specific management measures, do not reopen overwhelmingly. These flights must be adopted with epidemic management measures to prevent further spread to the community. Produce preliminary reports on such matters on a regular basis.  Assign Deputy Prime Ministers Pham Binh Minh and Vu Duc Dam to direct in order to achieve the best results.

6. Assign Ministry of Finance:

a) to cooperate with Ministry of Health in reporting to Head of National Steering Committee on COVID-19 epidemic management to present Prime Minister with decisions on allocating mobilized funding sources for epidemic management by funding quarantine and providing financial assistance for provinces with hardships; do not split evenly; ensure the most reasonable use for epidemic management.

b) to produce reports on all expenditure necessary for epidemic management; on the basis of regulations and law, cooperate with Ministry of Health, consider collection of quarantine charges, especially treatment charges and report to Prime Minister for consideration and decisions as per the law. Utilize regulations on collection of quarantine charges under Decree No. 101/2010/ND-CP dated September 30, 2010 stringently and appropriately with reasonable expenditure and economical with budget.

7. Assign Government Office to cooperate with Central Committee for Vietnam Fatherland Front in preparing Letters of Prime Minister to express gratitude to the people, soldiers, domestic and international enterprises, organizations and individuals for providing resources for epidemic management. Request the Central Committee for Vietnam Fatherland Front to continue to direct and mobilize to generate funding sources for epidemic management and share the burden with state budget.

8. National Steering Committee for COVID-19 epidemic management and especially Ministry of Health shall continue to direct epidemic management, do not allow interruption, negligence, carelessness or disease spread at border areas; report to Head of the Steering Committee on arising issues; with respect to cases beyond entitlement, report to Prime Minister for consideration and decision.

Ministry of National Defense shall continue to establish quarantine facilities, assign military camps, military education facilities and appropriate facilities as quarantine facilities for persons making entry.

9. Assign Ministry of Labor - War Invalids and Social Affairs to promote bringing Vietnamese to work in countries and areas which are safe and ready to receive Vietnamese guest workers.

10. Assign Ministry of Culture - Sports and Tourism and local governments to implement local tourism promotion programs.

11. Allow reopening of karaoke venues and nightclubs. Ministry of Public Security shall adopt measures to prevent and rectify acts of deviance and violations that are more likely to occur when the aforementioned services are reopened (namely use of narcotics).

Ministries, agencies, People’s Committees of provinces and central-affiliated cities are hereby noticed for implementation./.