Prime Minister chairs conference on disaster relief in the Central region

After inspecting the actual damage and disaster recovery work in Gia Lai province, on the afternoon of November 13, at the Government Headquarters, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired a conference with ministries, branches, central agencies; and online with localities on overcoming the consequences of natural disasters, stabilizing people's lives and restoring production and business in the Central region.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chairs a conference on overcoming consequences of natural disasters in the Central region. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA

Attending the conference were Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh and Deputy Prime Ministers; leaders of ministries, branches, central agencies; leaders of 7 provinces and cities in the central region including Ha Tinh, Quang Tri, Hue, Da Nang, Quang Ngai, Gia Lai, Dak Lak.

The conference assessed that in late October and early November, localities from Ha Tinh to Dak Lak were continuously hit by natural disasters, storms, floods, especially the historic long-lasting floods in Hue and Da Nang after storm No. 12 and storm No. 13 with "floods on floods, storms on storms", causing heavy damage to people, houses, schools, essential infrastructure, production and business, especially aquaculture, greatly affecting people's livelihoods, incomes and lives. This natural disaster was very severe, with preliminary estimates of causing more than 30,000 billion VND in damage, affecting 0.2-0.4% of growth.

Storm No. 13 alone killed 6 people, injured 39; 1,279 houses collapsed; nearly 90,000 houses were damaged, had their roofs blown off, or were flooded; 524 ships were sunk or damaged by waves; and more than 54,000 aquaculture rafts were damaged.

Party and State leaders have directly visited, encouraged, and shared the difficulties, losses, and hardships of people in areas affected by natural disasters and floods. The Government and the Prime Minister have promptly allocated national reserves and budget reserves to support localities in overcoming natural disasters and floods. The Prime Minister has decided to support 1,465 billion VND, and the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front has allocated 206 billion VND to support 7 localities in the Central region. The Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Public Security have deployed hundreds of thousands of officers and soldiers, and thousands of vehicles to support localities in preventing, combating, and overcoming the consequences of storms and floods. The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment has supported 692 tons of seeds. The Ministry of Finance has allocated 5,300 tons of rice to support localities...

Leaders of ministries, branches and localities said that the damage caused by the recent natural disaster was huge, and overcoming the consequences required a lot of State resources and the cooperation of the whole society to support overcoming the consequences, restore production and business, and quickly stabilize people's lives.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chairs a conference on overcoming consequences of natural disasters in the Central region. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA

Concluding the conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh praised the resolute and drastic spirit in directing the work of preventing and fighting natural disasters, storms and floods, and minimizing damage. The Prime Minister praised the military and police forces for supporting people in preventing and overcoming the consequences of storms and floods; and thanked the business community and philanthropists for contributing, sharing, and supporting localities and people to overcome difficulties.

The Prime Minister requested local Party committees, authorities, the Fatherland Front, socio-political organizations, and core forces such as the army, police, and health care to continue to encourage families with deceased or missing people, and provide support according to local customs; search for missing people, treat injured people; stabilize the people's situation with the spirit of not letting anyone lack housing, hunger, cold, school, or medical treatment.

The Ministry of Finance urgently reviews and balances the 2025 reserve fund, based on the proposals, and no later than 12:00 on November 14th, submits to the Government a support plan to provide accommodation for the people. Note that on this occasion, relevant parties need to restructure people's accommodation to avoid dangerous places, not close to the sea. The Prime Minister requested that together with the Central Government, localities also mobilize reserve funds to support people to rebuild and repair 1,900 collapsed houses and 67,000 houses with blown-off roofs.

The Prime Minister requested localities to quickly restore electricity, clean water, traffic and telecommunications infrastructure; continue to review and mobilize all means of supply for households suffering from hunger, evacuate people to safe places; ensure that rice distribution must be implemented immediately on November 14. Along with that, localities continue to call on businesses and philanthropists to promote "national love and compatriotism" with the spirit of "whoever has something to help, whoever has a lot helps a lot, whoever has merit helps merit, whoever has property helps property".

The Prime Minister requested the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Public Security, the Fatherland Front, and socio-political organizations to quickly intervene to support and clean up collapsed and damaged production facilities and houses. Enterprises should quickly stabilize production and business, avoid disruption of supply chains, and avoid contract violations with foreign partners. The Ministry of Education and Training should compile statistics and immediately resolve issues related to schools. The Ministry of Health should grasp the situation and work with localities to overcome the consequences.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chairs a conference on overcoming consequences of natural disasters in the Central region. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA

The Prime Minister emphasized that everyone must join in the spirit of "where the flood recedes, restore there", quickly restoring people's livelihoods. Relevant agencies, banks, credit institutions, and insurance companies should promptly implement measures to support people and businesses to restore production and business. Banks should postpone, extend, and freeze debts; the Finance sector should postpone taxes, fees, and charges; and the Insurance sector should promptly make initial payments to help businesses overcome the consequences. The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment should closely monitor the agricultural production situation in localities, especially plant and animal breeds. The Ministry of Construction should review the transportation system. The Ministry of Industry and Trade should review and ensure adequate supply of essential goods such as gasoline, water, and construction materials; avoid shortages of goods, leading to hoarding and price hikes. The Ministry of Finance should preside over and closely coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to draft a Government Resolution directing the work of overcoming the consequences of natural disasters.

Noting that, continuing to review and fully synthesize statistics on damage caused by natural disasters in localities, the Prime Minister requested Ministers, Heads of sectors, Secretaries, and Chairmen of People's Committees of provinces and cities to actively participate and proactively resolve work within their authority to quickly overcome the consequences of natural disasters and floods.

* Previously, after inspecting the damage and overcoming the consequences of storm No. 13 in coastal communes and wards of Gia Lai province, the Prime Minister worked with ministries, branches, and key leaders of Gia Lai province on overcoming the consequences of storm No. 13.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh encourages workers at Nhon Hoi Economic Zone. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA

The Prime Minister commended the Party Committee, government, army and people of Gia Lai province for their active participation in overcoming the consequences of natural disasters and floods; especially their determination to evacuate people, avoiding serious human consequences. He highly appreciated the province's restoration of electricity and telecommunications systems, however, the Prime Minister pointed out that many households had lost their homes, schools and medical facilities were damaged and could not be rebuilt, so it was necessary to share and support people to restore their housing, not to leave anyone homeless, not to let anyone go hungry or cold, and not to leave anyone behind.

The Prime Minister directed the province to accurately count the losses of households whose houses were swept away, collapsed, completely damaged, or severely damaged; immediately allocate the 60 billion VND that the province received from corporations, general companies, and support units to immediately build resettlement areas in emergency conditions to ensure that people have new housing, and immediately repair damaged houses; immediately resettle coastal residents, move them inland, and reserve the seafront for the construction of tourism and public spaces... The Prime Minister requested to review the entire infrastructure system and damaged or missing items to immediately complete them, especially traffic, electricity, water supply and drainage, technical, educational, health, and cultural infrastructure; create jobs and livelihoods for the people.

The Prime Minister requested the military, police, militia, grassroots security, youth, etc. to resolutely support businesses in cleaning up, sanitizing the environment, and repairing to create space for production and business. The banking system has arranged credit packages and policies to extend and defer debt so that businesses can overcome the consequences of storms and floods. The Finance sector has to defer and defer debt; study tax, fee, and charge reductions for businesses damaged by natural disasters. The Insurance sector must calculate the damage, and initially provide a portion to support businesses.

Storm 13 caused an estimated VND5,900 billion in damage to Gia Lai province. The Prime Minister directed the Ministry of Finance to grasp the remaining reserves and balance them to provide appropriate and timely support. In the immediate future, the province needs to use its reserves to urgently repair essential infrastructure. The local political system must get involved to encourage people to overcome difficulties...

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/thoi-su/thu-tuong-chu-tri-hoi-nghi-ve-khac-phuc-thien-tai-khu-vuc-mien-trung-20251113170015600.htm