DECISION

ON OVERCOMING THE FLOOD CONSEQUENCES IN THE PROVINCES AND CITIES: QUANG BINH, QUANG TRI, THUA THIEN-HUE, DA NANG, QUANG NAM, QUANG NGAI AND BINH DINH

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government of September 30, 1992;
At the proposals of the ministries, branches and People’s Committees of the central provinces and cities damaged by the floods,

DECIDES:

Article 1.- In order to soon overcome the consequences caused by the floods, quickly stabilize the people’s life, restore and develop production, the People’s Committees of the flood-stricken provinces and cities and the concerned ministries and branches shall have to concentrate all central and local resources to promptly perform the following urgent tasks:

1. Regarding social relief:

- To continue to provide immediate support and hunger relief for families of the dead and injured, families with swept-away or collapsed houses, families entitled to social policies and poor families meeting with great difficulties;

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- To restore and repair houses, schools, health centers and social welfare facilities damaged by the floods.

2. Regarding production restoration and development:

- To promptly restore and stabilize production, supply short-term vegetable and subsidiary food crop seeds for people to grow and combat pre-harvest hunger. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall, together with the People’s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities, have to sufficiently supply vegetable and subsidiary food crop seeds for the localities;

- To actively and immediately prepare rice seeds for the Winter-Spring crop production in 1999-2000. The provinces must take initiative in contacting other localities to purchase and provide enough rice seeds for the people.

3. To promptly restore and repair crucial and major traffic routes linking the centers of the provinces and cities with districts and communes so as to render timely service to the relief work, communications and production.

4. To continue with measures and plans to maintain security, order and social safety in the areas hit by natural calamities. To enhance the market control, to fight speculation and raising prices of essential goods like rice, curative medicines, construction materials…

5. The ministries, branches and localities shall hold preliminary reviews and evaluations so as to hammer out consequence-overcoming measures, soon normalize production and business activities, services, tourism and stabilize the people’s life in flood-stricken areas.

Article 2.- To provide free of charge 33,000 tons of rice-equivalent food from the national reserve source (including 8,600 tons already provided under the Prime Minister’s Decisions No. 1004/QD-TTg of November 5, 1999 and No. 1027/QD-TTg of November 10, 1999) to the provinces as hunger relief for the people, which are distributed to the provinces as follows:

Quang Binh

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(550 tons already distributed)

Quang Tri

2,800 tons

(300 tons already distributed)

Thua Thue-Hue

17,000 tons

including the rice equivalence of the remaining 147 tons of instant noodle under the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 1004/QD-TTg of November 5, 1999 (5,000 tons already distributed).

Da Nang: 2,500 tons (500 tons already distributed)

Quang Nam

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(1,650 tons already distributed)

Quang Ngai

3,000 tons

(500 tons already distributed)

Binh Dinh

500 tons

(100 tons already distributed)

The Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance shall allocate capital from the State budget for the National Reserve Department to procure food, fully making up for the above-mentioned quantities of reserve food.

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Article 3.-

1. To allocate 100 billion VND from the central budget to support the people’s life in the localities:

- Social relief: 55 billion VND (support for burial of the dead, swept-away and collapsed houses...).

- Support for purchase of seeds, breeds and veterinary drugs: 25 billion VND.

- Support for textbooks, notebooks and school equipment: 5 billion VND.

- Support for curative medicines and medical instruments at the grassroots level: 8 billion VND.

- Support for clean water and environmental sanitation: 5 billion VND.

- Support for reparation of cultural relics: 2 billion VND.

The Ministry of Finance shall consult the concerned ministries and branches in guiding the provinces and cities how to use this funding.

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The Ministry of Planning and Investment shall consult the Ministry of Finance and the concerned ministries and branches in guiding the provinces how to use this funding.

The funding support stated in Clauses 1 and 2 of this Article shall be distributed to the localities as follows:

Provinces

Support for the people’s life restoration

Infrastructure

Quang Binh

8.6 billion VND

10 billion VND

Quang Tri

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15 billion VND

Thua Thien-Hue

34.8 billion VND

30 billion VND

Da Nang

6.9 billion VND

7 billion VND

Quang Nam

19.3 billion VND

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Quang Ngai

9.6 billion VND

12 billion VND

Binh Dinh

6 billion VND

6 billion VND

Apart from the support sources of the State, the ministries, the branches and the People’s Committees of the flood-stricken provinces shall have to arrange and adjust their 1999 construction capital sources, giving priority to the restoration, repair and upgrading of urgent infrastructure projects.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance shall study soon and submit to the Prime Minister for decision an appropriate mechanism for the provinces to efficiently use their remaining capital sources and the capital amounts supplemented in the year 1999 to overcome the flood consequences.

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The Ministry of Finance shall direct and guide the localities to organize the above-mentioned tax reduction and exemption.

Article 5.- The Ministry of Finance shall consider reducing the 1999 budget revenues to be collected from the localities affected by the floods, ensuring that the localities have sufficient resources to fulfil their spending tasks according to the approved cost estimates. The Ministry of Finance shall together with the Ministry of Planning and Investment consider supplementing and adjusting the budget revenue and expenditure plan of the year 2000 in order to help the localities quickly restore their infrastructure projects and some other urgent works.

Article 6.-

1. The State shall earmark 500 billion dong from the capital re-allocation source of the State Bank within the 1999 plan as loans for households to borrow without property collateral to overcome the flood consequences according to the lists approved by the presidents of the provincial-level People’s Committees.

- The monthly lending interest rate of 0.3% shall apply to short-term (less than 12 months) loans which shall be used for purchase of seeds, breeds, fertilizers, insecticides and supplies in service of the agricultural production and fishery.

- The monthly lending interest rate of 0.4% shall apply to medium-term and long-term (from 12 months to 5 years) loans which shall be used for aquatic culture, repair and purchase of fishing gear, repair of boats and ships, and construction of dwelling houses.

The Vietnam State Bank shall guide the commercial State banks and the localities to effect the lending as prescribed.

2. For households and enterprises that have debts owed to credit institutions, if they suffer from damages caused by the floods, they shall be considered for debt rescheduling, freezing or write-off, depending on the extent of their damage. The State Bank shall guide the drawing up of dossiers and synthesize reports for submission to the Prime Minister for decision.

Article 7.- The People’s Committees of the flood-stricken provinces and cities:

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2. To continue to inspect and direct the committees for reception and distribution of relief money and goods (from inside and outside the country) in order to distribute reliefs in a quick, timely and fair manner to the right objects in their respective areas. The plan on the reception and distribution of relief goods must be detailed and made public.

The provinces shall organize and strictly manage the sources of relief goods, use the funding for the right purpose, seeing that no losses, waste, negative and corrupt acts would occur.

Article 8.- The ministries and branches shall, depending on their respective functions and tasks, have to coordinate with the central provinces in working out plans and measures to restore existing projects and build new constructions under their management, in line with the planning and ensuring safety in the rainy and flood season.

Article 9.- This Decision takes effect from the date of its signing. The ministers, the heads of the ministerial-level agencies, the heads of the agencies attached to the Government and the presidents of the People’s Committees of the provinces and cities: Quang Binh, Quang tri, Thua Thien-Hue, Da Nang, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh, shall have to implement this Decision.

PRIME MINISTER




Phan Van Khai