Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

The municipal authorities asked the VBSP branch to work closely with local administrations, mass organisations and associations to promptly disburse the sum, which is expected to meet about 65 percent of loan demand.

Priority will be given to households enjoying debt payment rescheduling and extension, poor and near-poor households, cooperatives and small and medium-sized enterprises, mostly those working in agriculture, food supply, health care and necessities.

According to the VBSP, sectors hardest hit by the pandemic include animal farming, small-scale businesses and services, health care and transportation, with total outstanding loans of over 2.3 trillion VND (100 million USD), accounting for 28 percent of the total.

Minister: Relief for pandemic-hit groups must be swift

A lottery ticket seller (L) is instructed in hand washing before receiving charity gifts

Support policies for people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic need to be carried out immediately as they are facing a raft of difficulties, according to Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung.

At a recent meeting of the Government’s permanent members, Dung also pointed out the necessity of taking into account implementation lag, so as to ensure the timeliness and effectiveness of policies.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) recently compiled a draft resolution on measures for assisting people with sharply declining incomes as well as those who have lost their jobs and are unable to make ends meet due to the direct impact of the pandemic.

It stated that support measures aim to express the Party and State’s focus on vulnerable groups, including ex-revolutionaries, people subject to social protection, and poor and near-poor households.

Policies also look at promoting employers’ access to credit and encourages them to pay adequate salaries to employees with labor contracts who have been forced to temporarily cease working because of the coronavirus outbreak. If employers are still unable to pay salaries even when they have received soft loans, the draft policies also encourage them not to fire affected workers.

Under the draft resolution, the State is set to provide aid to cover part of the daily expenses incurred by workers and by business households and informal workers disadvantaged by the COVID-19 outbreak, quarantine measures, and travel restrictions, MPI noted.

The draft resolution was discussed and received consensus at the Government’s meeting on April 1.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has assigned the MPI to work with relevant ministries and sectors to collect opinions and fine-tune the draft in preparation for issuance./.VNA/VNN

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