Hanoi (VNA) – Despite difficulties resultingfrom the acute respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19),Vietnam’s socio-economic situation in February basically remained stable, saidPrime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

At the Government’s regular meeting on March 3,the Cabinet leader said thanks to the political system’s activeness, drasticand effective actions, and the spirit of “fighting the disease is like fightingenemies”, COVID-19 prevention and control efforts have reaped encouragingoutcomes.

He repeated the Government’s consistentviewpoint of being ready to sacrifice economic benefits to protect the healthof people and visitors to Vietnam.

According to the PM, Vietnam has stayed calm andsober in assessing the issue, and it has been ready to respond to everycircumstance. The localisation of hotbeds has been carried out in a drastic andtimely manner, while the quarantine of Vietnamese citizens and foreigners whotravelled through coronavirus-hit areas has proved effective.

Thanks to these efforts, the COVID-19 outbreakin Vietnam has been minimised although the country shares a long border withChina, where the epidemic started. So far, there have been only 16 infection casesin Vietnam, and all of them have fully recovered, PM Phuc noted.

He lauded the efforts being made by varioussectors, especially the military, police and health forces, and localitiesnationwide, adding that nearly 10,000 people have undergone quarantine andreceived care from local authorities and military units.

Vietnam has recorded no new SARS-CoV-2 infectioncases over the last 18 days, he noted.

However, as the disease has spread to 67 countriesand territories, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised the globalrisk assessment of the infection to “very high”, it is necessary to take drasticactions to continue disease prevention and control tasks to prevent COVID-19from spreading in the community, PM Phuc said.

The PM pointed out that the outbreak has greatlyinfluenced all major economies around the world. In Vietnam, it has heavilyimpacted air transport, tourism, services, and especially value chains, leadingto an interruption in the supply of input materials.

Despite that fact, the socio-economic situationin February basically remained stable, PM Phuc said, noting that the consumerprice index (CPI) declined, budget revenue increased, funding for anti-diseasework was provided in a timely manner, and agriculture developed stably.

He asked Government members to discuss financial– banking solutions and other measures to facilitate production and businessactivities to realise their development targets.

At the meeting, the Ministry of Planning andInvestment reported that many areas fell in the first two months from the sameperiod last year, such as the disbursed and registered FDI capital. Retailsales of goods and consumer service revenue, as well as foreign arrivals inVietnam, also witnessed slower growth

However, there remained many positive points tothe socio-economic situation, the ministry said.

Macro-economic stability has been maintained,and the February CPI fell 0.17 percent month on month. Meanwhile, exports inthe first two months grew 2.4 percent year on year to 36.9 billion USD, andagricultural development has remained stable.

More than 17,400 businesses with registeredcapital of almost 364 trillion VND (15.7 billion USD) were established in thetwo months, up 9.1 percent and 47.1 percent, respectively. Nearly 12,000 firmsalso resumed operations, up 17.1 percent./.