Hanoi (VNA) – Hanoi authorities convened onFebruary 26 to assess the impact of the acute respiratory disease caused by theSARS-Cov-2 (COVID-19) outbreak and work on solutions to fuel localsocio-economic development.

Director of the municipal Department of Planningand Investment Nguyen Manh Quyen said the hardest hit sector is tourism as thenumber of visitors from China, Vietnam’s biggest source, so far has dropped bysome 60 percent, followed by Malaysia (34.9 percent), Singapore (19.6 percent),and Thailand (13.4 percent), while that of the domestic tourists has also fallenby 21.2 percent.

Participants at the meeting said if the outbreakis brought under control in the first quarter, the F1 Vietnam Grand Prix could takeplace as scheduled, as well as other cultural, sporting and festive events.This would help Hanoi’s tourism sector to halt the downward trend in Q2 andrebound from Q3. 

In this scenario, the number of tourist arrivalsin the city may fall 41.3 percent in Q1 and 10 percent in Q2, but rise 6.4percent in Q3 and 15.5 percent in the last three months.

However, they said if the epidemic gets worseand traveller numbers nosedive, revenue collected from tourists this year couldfall 8.3 percent to 95.18 trillion VND (4.1 billion USD), equivalent to 81.5percent of the annual target.

Meanwhile, Quyen noted that production andbusiness activities in February and the first two months of 2020 have beenaffected by the outbreak, as well as the Government’s Decree 100/2019/ND-CPthat regulates fines against administrative violations in road and railtraffic.

Industrial production is forecast to continuegrowing in Q1 but at a pace slower than in previous years.

FDI businesses from China, the Republic of Koreaand Japan, where COVID-19 is raging, are using a large number of managers andexperts from their home countries. Restrictions on entry into and exit fromVietnam may lead to a shortage of personnel at their factories, thus adverselyaffecting production and import and export activities.

Additionally, material supplies are running lowand likely to run out at the end of March. In the current context, bothdomestic and FDI firms working in industries such as animal feed, garments andelectronics are likely to experience shortages since most input materials haveto be imported, the director added.

If COVID-19 is contained in Q1, it will takecompanies and factories in China more time to resume operation, he said.

Experts said agricultural production in Hanoihas suffered only a little since the outbreak. However, A/H5N6 has beenreported here, and if the avian influenza is not curbed, it will influenceanimal farming and growth of the agricultural sector.

Admitting the considerable impact of COVID-19 onmany sectors, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chungsaid the city has also realised certain opportunities, adding that the epidemicis also a driving force for businesses to seek new markets and modernisetechnology.

The most important solution now is to boostcommunications to raise public awareness and prevent the disease fromspreading. Besides, it is necessary to push ahead with administrative reforms,business climate improvement, and investment promotion, he noted, asking eachagency and sector to issue both short- and long-term solutions to fostereconomic development.

COVID-19 is classified as a Class A contagious disease, a group of extremely dangerous infectious diseases that can transmit very rapidly and spread widely with high mortality rates, including the likes of influenza A-H5N1, SARs, Ebola or smallpox. The incubation period for the virus is around 14 days.

As of February 26, 16 people in Vietnam infected with the coronavirus were cured, while no new cases have been recorded in the past 14 days.

Currently, 31 suspected cases are quarantined while 5,675 people who had close contact with the suspected are under close medical observation.

On February 26, a representative from the health ministry said Khanh Hoa and Thanh Hoa provinces are eligible to announce disease-free status./.