PM orders sufficient essential supplies after typhoon, foreign partners commit aid
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has signed an official dispatch, ordering sufficient essential supplies for localities suffering severe damage from Typhoon Yagi and its subsequent landslides and floods.
Accordingly, chairpersons of People’s Committees of cities and provinces are required to direct competent authorities to provide food, medicine and other essential items for affected households, particularly those in areas that are isolated and hard to reach.
Market management and supervision over the distribution of essential goods like food, fuels, and other necessities must be enhanced to ensure that there are no hoarding and unreasonable price hikes. Strict punishment must be meted out to any violations, according to the dispatch.
PM Chinh also orders immediate repair of houses, schools and hospitals damaged by the typhoon, clearance of fallen trees, quick resumption of the supply of electricity, clean water and telecommunications services, among others, to ensure the continuity of production and business activities, and implementation of disease prevention measures after the storm.
The Minister of Industry and Trade is tasked with directing competent agencies to keep a close watch on the market developments, ensure market stability and smooth circulation of goods, and handle unusual fluctuations of prices and supply and demand of essential goods in a timely manner.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development is asked to work to reduce damage for agricultural production, save inundated crops, and provide farmers with seedlings, breeding animals, and agricultural materials for production recovery.
The Minister of Finance is ordered to direct the General Department of State Reserves to coordinate with relevant ministries and agencies to assess the situations and needs of affected localities to propose the allocation of food, equipment, disinfectants for them to competent authorities.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Information and Communications must work closely with the Ministries of Industry and Trade, Finance, and Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam News Agency, Vietnam Television and Voice of Vietnam to raise public awareness of the domestic market developments.
Deputy Prime Ministers Bui Thanh Son, Le Thanh Long and Ho Duc Phoc are responsible for the implementation of the dispatch.
On September 13, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) handed 700 gender- and disability-sensitive household kits to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) to support communities in the northern mountainous province of Yen Bai, which has been severely affected by Typhoon Yagi. This initial donation is part of UNDP’s ongoing efforts to assist the government and people to recover from the most powerful typhoon hitting the nation in three decades.
The kits contain items thoroughly selected to alleviate the hardships faced by the most vulnerable population in Yen Bai, responding to the specific needs of affected communities who lost their belongings and providing them with immediate relief in the early stages of response. These kits include water buckets, rain boots for adults and children, blankets, medicine, sanitary pads, whistles, and other essential supplies.
UNDP Resident Representative Ramla Khalidi extended her deepest condolences to the Government of Vietnam and all those affected by the devastation caused by Typhoon Yagi. She acknowledged the profound loss and suffering that the typhoon has inflicted upon communities across the northern mountainous region and the Red River Delta, praising the spirit of unity and solidarity displayed by the nation as it faced the typhoon.
She said UNDP stands ready to support Vietnam in undertaking intersectoral needs assessment, emergency relief, as well as early recovery planning, and long-term resilience building.
Meanwhile, Swiss Ambassador to Vietnam Thomas Gass extended his sympathy to Vietnam over the damage caused by the typhoon, while committing to assisting the nation’s recovery efforts at a meeting with the MARD’s Vietnam Disaster and Dyke Management Authority in Hanoi on September 14.
Accordingly, eight Swiss experts in the areas of clean water, hygiene, and safe house will go to Yen Bai, one of the localities hard hit by the typhoon, to study the province’s situation and put forth appropriate reconstruction measures.
The European country also sent relief supplies, which will arrive in Vietnam on September 16.
