Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism proposes support for artists and tour guides affected by Covid-19 epidemic

The document signed by Deputy Minister Ta Quang Dong and sent to the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs stated that recently, the Government and the Prime Minister have issued many policies to support people and businesses facing difficulties due to the impact of the pandemic.Covid-19 pandemic.

However, the performing arts and tourism sectors are suffering the most direct and severe damage due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, but so far there has been no support policy.

The program was implemented based on the idea of ​​People's Artist Hong Luu, Meritorious Artist Lam Bich Nguyen, musician Vu Quoc Nam and singer Dinh Hien Anh to call on benefactors, people nationwide and overseas Vietnamese to share part of their spending to support people in flood-hit areas. Photo: Archive

Since the beginning of 2020, the team of artists participating in performing arts activities and the team of tour guides have been almost unable to operate due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which prevents events from being organized, large gatherings of people, etc.

To remove difficulties for artists and tour guides, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism proposed that the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs propose to the Prime Minister some support solutions, specifically as follows:

Add to Section II of the draft Resolution the objects and content of support: "Support for artists holding the professional titles of art director level IV, actor level IV, painter level IV in public service units performing arts (this is a group of artists with salaries lower than the regional minimum wage). The support level is 1,800,000 VND/person/month, supported for 3 months and paid once.

Regarding the reason for this proposal, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said that performing arts labor is a special type of labor. Artists must be gifted and talented and must be trained in many forms (tutoring, on-site, training through art training institutions...) and must be trained from a young age (from 7-8 years old), the training period is long and only reaching the intermediate and college level is enough to enter the profession.

The performing arts career of artists is very short, on average about 15 to 20 years. At the age of 30 to 40 (for women) and 40 to 45 (for men), the performing ability of artists declines and cannot meet the professional requirements of the performing arts profession.

Nghe An tourism industry is heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo courtesy of Sach Nguyen

In fact, according to the State salary scale, although talented, gifted, and well-trained, when recruited as civil servants in public service units, artists are ranked in salaries like other professions (ranked according to training level, increased by average tenure of 2 years, 1 salary level for grade IV, starting salary coefficient 1.86 x base salary 1,490,000 VND), the current civil servants who are artists cannot go through all the salary levels in the category due to their short career years.

Currently, the country has 100 public service units operating in performing arts (excluding armed forces art units) with more than 2,000 civil servants who are artists holding professional titles of level IV. This group is facing difficulties in ensuring their livelihood due to the Covid pandemic, and performing arts activities have been temporarily suspended.

Vuc Mau Lake Ecotourism. Photo courtesy of Nghe An Department of Tourism

Supplementing Section II of the draft Resolution on the subjects and contents of support: Support for tour guides who have lost their jobs due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic. The support level is 1,800,000 VND/person/month, supported for 3 months and paid once.

According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, this group has lost their jobs due to the stagnation of tourism activities since the outbreak of the epidemic in early 2020. The policies to support workers that have been issued have not specified tour guides, so they have not received any support from the Government.

Meanwhile, the total number of licensed tour guides nationwide is currently more than 26,721 thousand people, including: 16,965 international tour guides, 8,743 domestic tour guides and 1,013 on-site tour guides.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism affirmed that this team of tour guides has made important contributions to the development of the tourism industry, bringing benefits to the country's economy over the past time./.