Day: October 3, 2021

Vietnam hopes to receive support from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) to restore and develop tourism more sustainably, especially through its initiatives, technical assistance and training programmes.

The statement was recently raised by a delegation of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) at the 54th Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for East Asia and the Pacific and the 33rd Joint Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for East Asia and the Pacific & the Commission for South Asia.

These were two important meetings of the region in preparation for the 24th UNWTO General Assembly scheduled to be held in Morocco in December. The Vietnamese delegation was led by VNAT Deputy General Director Ha Van Sieu Tran Phu Cuong, Director of the VNAT’s Department of International Cooperation, said that like other countries in the region, the COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted tourism activities in Vietnam since 2020.

However, Vietnam is implementing campaigns towards domestic tourism and taking measures to stimulate tourism demand, such as launching the “Safe Vietnam Tourism” application and the “Vietnam: Travel to Love” campaign, and setting up the “Wonders of Vietnam” project on Google Arts & Culture.

Cuong also told participants that the Government has agreed on the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s proposal to pilot a plan to welcome back international tourists to Phu Quoc island in the southern province of Kien Giang.

The ministry is closely coordinating with localities and related sectors to develop a pilot plan to apply “vaccine passports” with several appropriate countries and territories, he added.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Ho Chi Minh City has received over 1.03 trillion VND (45.4 million USD) donated by localities, organisations, businesses and individuals at home and abroad to help the city in COVID-19 prevention and control.

On October 2 alone, the city received more than 77 billion VND in cash and transfer to pandemic control and over 1.4 billion VND to purchase COVID-19 vaccines as well as medical supplies and equipment from sponsors, including 2 million rapid test kits worth 88 billion VND donated by VPBank.

Since the beginning of this year, the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of HCM City and the committee for raising, receiving and distributing funds for COVID-19 prevention and control have received over 312 billion VND in cash to support the purchase of vaccines against COVID-19 and get food and essential goods with total value of more than 364 billion VND.

Since July 1 to October 2, 194 individuals, businesses and organisations inside and outside the country have donated medical supplies and medicines worth over 2.61 trillion VND.

The committee and municipal authorities have so far distributed over 853 billion VND in cash and more than 354 billion VND worth of goods to COVID-19 prevention and control activities in the city.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

More than 1.48 million employees in 83,352 units in Hanoi will receive allowances from the unemployment insurance fund, according to Director of the city’s Social Security Agency Nguyen Duc Hoa.

On October 1, the Government issued Decision No. 28/QD-TTg providing regulations on the implementation of support policies for employees and employers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, using the unemployment insurance fund.

Accordingly, different levels of allowances from 1.8 million VND (79 USD) to 3.3 million VND (144.8 USD) will be given to each labourer depending on the time they has paid unemployment premiums.

On September 30, the National Assembly also issued a resolution on the provision of allowances to employees and employers affected by COVID-19 using the unemployment insurance fund.

Under the resolution, about 30 trillion VND (1.31 billion USD) from the fund will be used to support labourers who are covered by unemployment insurance as of September 30, 2021, excluding employees in State agencies, socio-political organisations, people’s armed forces and public non-business agencies who are paid by the State budget.

Labourers who have stopped paying unemployment insurance due to the termination of their labour contracts or working contracts between January 1, 2020 and September 30, 2021, and have unemployment insurance premium payment period reserved in accordance with the employment law, are also eligible for the support, excluding retirees who receive monthly pensions. The support will be delivered from October 1 and scheduled to complete on December 31 at the latest.

The resolution clarifies that employers, excepting State agencies, socio-political organisations, people’s armed forces and public non-business agencies funded by State budget, who are joining unemployment insurance before October 1, 2021, will have their premiums reduced from 1 percent of their wage funds to zero percent for a duration of 12 months from October 1.

As a result, in Hanoi, the amount of unemployment insurance reductions for 12 months will be 1.18 trillion VND (51.9 million USD). And over 1.48 million employees will receive allowances with a total amount of 4.22 trillion VND.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union (HCYU) Central Committee, in coordination with relevant agencies, launched a programme on October 3 to call for assistance to children whose parents have died of COVID-19.

Attending the event were Nguyen Anh Tuan, First Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union Central Committee and representatives of a number of ministries and agencies.

The COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam has killed more than 19,000 people. According to statistics from the Department of Children’s Affairs under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and reports of the Departments of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs of 30 provinces and cities, as of October 1, up to 2,091 children and juveniles under 17 who have lost their parents, mothers, fathers or caregivers due to the pandemic.

The programme aims to mobilise organisations, businesses and individuals to join hands to take care of and support the orphaned children due to the COVID-19 pandemic until the age of 18 in a sustainable way so that they can overcome difficulties and stabilise their lives soon, ensuring conditions for them to develop comprehensively and become useful people in society.

The programme will concentrate on provinces and cities that have been heavily affected by the COVID-19 epidemic and focusing on providing financial, education, health and spiritual support.

Students who lost their parents due to COVID-19 will be provided with 500,000 VND per month until they are 18 years old.

The Youth Union collaborated with FPT, a technology giant in Vietnam, to establish schools for 6-18 year-old children whose parents died of COVID-19. The programme also calls on experts and volunteers who have experience in the field of child psychology to provide support and timely intervention for children, especially at the beginning when they are going through trauma.

People who want to donate to the programme can access the website www.noivongtaythuong.vn or sending financial aid through account number: 1000 001 001 191919 at the Vietnam Bank for Social Policy’s Branch in Hanoi.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Vietnam has set a target of amending the Law on Foreign Trade Management and relevant legal documents related to trade remedies or building a Law on Trade Remedies by 2030.

This is one of the goals of a project, which was approved on October 2 by Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh, aimed to to improve trade remedy capacity for domestic manufacturing industries in the context of Vietnam’s participation in new generation free trade agreements (FTAs).

Other targets include providing knowledge and skills on trade remedies for staff in ministries, agencies and localities.

A team of legal experts and consultants who has in-depth knowledge of trade remedies are expected to be established to support manufacturing industries to ensure Vietnam’s interests in international trade.

Under the project, the inter-sectoral coordination mechanism in the field of trade remedy is set to be built and strengthened to meet the requirements of the trade remedy work in the new context, assisting the settlement of other countries’ trade remedy investigations into Vietnamese exports.

The capacity of the Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam will be strengthened to satisfy practical needs and effectively support domestic manufacturing industries.

The content of trade remedies will be included in the programmes, strategies and policies for the development of key manufacturing industries.

The project also targets enhancing international cooperation, actively participate in negotiations, develop regulations on trade remedies, settle disputes on trade remedies within the framework of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and free trade agreements.

To realise the above-mentioned goals, some solutions should be adopted, including completing the model of trade remedy investigation agency in Vietnam based on studying those of other countries and reviewing the agency’s operations in the country.

It is necessary to select several fundamental manufacturing industries, which have an important impacts on socio-economic development to strengthen trade defence capacity during the implementation of FTAs.

A up-to-date database on investment, production, business, import and export in these industries should be set up to promptly consider and apply trade remedies in accordance with the law.

The building of infrastructure and software for investigation and application of trade remedies is also essential.

It is a must to set up and operate a portal to update developments of trade remedy cases related to Vietnam, creating conditions for concerned parties to submit and access documents in the form of electronic data and responses during the investigation of the cases.

A mechanism should be developed for supporting and exchanging information between state management agencies, the business community and associations, especially small and medium-sized enterprises to assess the possibility of applying defensive measures and its impacts.

Source: Vietnam News Agency