Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc: Without the press, we cannot unite to defeat the epidemic

On the afternoon of June 16, the Central Propaganda Department and the Ministry of Information and Communications held a conference to review information and propaganda work on Covid-19 prevention and control.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that Covid-19 is the biggest pandemic in the past 150 years, causing disruptions across the world. However, up to this point, it can be said that the work of preventing and fighting Covid-19 in our country has been initially successful, in which the press has played a very important role.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc repeatedly expressed his gratitude to all classes of people, officers and soldiers, the business community, and localities for their efforts to overcome difficulties, devote themselves to unity, sharing, and joining hands to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

45 years after the country's reunification, for the first time the two words "Vietnam" have spread so strongly when a series of major newspapers around the world praised Vietnam's achievements in fighting the epidemic.

Vietnam's "specialty" in fighting the epidemic

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that Vietnam implemented measures to fight the Covid-19 epidemic very early, right before the Lunar New Year. After that, we persisted in the principle of "fighting the epidemic like fighting the enemy" and "rather sacrificing short-term economic interests to ensure people's health". On that basis, we have built "special" Vietnamese countermeasures.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc thanked people from all walks of life for joining hands and uniting to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo: VGP

Firstly, under the leadership of the Party, the political system, and the National Steering Committee, the entire population has been mobilized to join in the fight against the epidemic. This is the advantage of the regime, an advantage that other countries do not have.

The coordination between the central and local levels has never been as good as it has been recently. The police and military forces also joined the fight against the epidemic very early, not afraid of difficulties or hardships. Many people were away for months guarding the border, even when their wives gave birth or their fathers died, they could not return.

On the people’s side, there has never been a pandemic where people cooperated as well as the recent one. There were many times when the streets were quiet as people strictly followed the motto “each house stays in its house, each commune stays in its commune, each province stays in its province…”. In many places, veteran forces even “set up checkpoints” to prevent strangers from entering.

For the first time, in a short time after the Vietnam Fatherland Front called for donations, people donated over 2,000 billion VND. In addition, there were images of rice ATMs everywhere, images of old people and children contributing rice and money to fight the epidemic. That was truly an extremely precious thing.

“That is the spirit of patriotism, the people’s trust in the Party, the State, and the support for the political system. That is also the Vietnamese spirit and Vietnamese culture. Not every nation has such a sharing heart,” said the Prime Minister.

Second, unlike many countries, Vietnam implements centralized quarantine, using military barracks, police stations, schools, military schools of provinces, military regions, etc. as quarantine places to help prevent the epidemic from inside and prevent the epidemic from spreading outside.

Third, Vietnam thoroughly implements the spirit of "going to every alley, knocking on every door, checking every household" to promptly detect suspected cases and effectively contain the epidemic.

According to the Prime Minister, throughout the fight against the epidemic, Vietnam has always been "more prepared" than WHO's recommendations, from social distancing to wearing masks.

As a result, the number of people infected with Covid-19 in our country's total population is among the lowest in the world, the cost of fighting the epidemic is also the lowest, and so far there have been no deaths.

The Prime Minister cited the case of patient 19, who was in critical condition and had cardiac arrest three times, but was still saved, or patient 91, whose lungs were thought to be inoperable but is now making a miraculous recovery, with the whole of England anxiously watching.

“Up to now, Vietnam is one of the few countries that have started the new normal process after the pandemic the earliest in the world. It is our pride that in the past two months, there have been no new infections in the community,” the Prime Minister assessed.

According to the Prime Minister, to achieve the current results, the Propaganda and Information - Communications sector has done very well, playing an important role in the fight against the epidemic.

In particular, timely and transparent information on the epidemic's developments, good information discipline, ensuring not to overheat to become panic, not to underheat to become subjective, and strictly handling violations and rumors that cause public confusion.

This is also the first time a separate communications subcommittee has been established within the National Steering Committee.

“Without the press and media, people from rural areas, highlands to borders, from within the country to abroad would not be able to reach a consensus, would not be able to raise awareness to defeat the epidemic together,” the Prime Minister acknowledged.

To translate back is to sin against the people.

Citing experts' analysis, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said the Covid-19 epidemic may last longer, and the world economy still has many unpredictable potentials, so we must not be subjective.

The Prime Minister cited that in recent days, Beijing recorded 42 cases in one day, some of which the source of infection could not be found, and the entire seafood market was cordoned off like Wuhan had done. Therefore, the upcoming tasks of the local health sector are very heavy.

"We must both develop the socio-economy and fight the epidemic, but we must not be subjective. If we are subjective, we will have to pay the price," the Prime Minister emphasized.

The director of the International Monetary Fund said that if the Covid-19 pandemic returns in the fall, the world will be devastated and growth will decline sharply. As for Vietnam, if it chooses to open up, how will it be controlled?

“We should not regret opening the country just because of 20 million tourists this year. We need to take action to prevent the spread of the disease in the community,” the Prime Minister said.

Currently, there are about 30,000 Vietnamese people abroad waiting to return home. According to the Prime Minister, it is impossible not to welcome them back, this is culture, it is responsibility.

“We cannot be irresponsible towards our compatriots abroad. We receive messages regularly, so we must address this wish, but there must be criteria, prioritizing children, the elderly, stranded tourists, people seeking medical treatment, people returning from school to work…”, the Prime Minister analyzed.

Regarding the orientation of socio-economic development, the Prime Minister said that Vietnam has initially succeeded in achieving the dual goals. While the world economy collapsed, with negative growth, even negative growth of 6-7% in some countries in the first quarter, Vietnam still achieved growth of 3.8%. Although this is the lowest figure in the past 10 years, it is the highest in the region and the world.

Therefore, the key task at this time of the government and localities is to focus on stronger solutions, not to blame objective factors to promote socio-economic development, ensure people's lives, and not to let people be poor and hungry.

Currently, 16 localities have committed to ensuring growth and ensuring the State budget.

The press must spread positive energy.

In the “new normal” activities, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc requested that press agencies need to better communicate the implementation of the dual goal of both fighting the epidemic and developing the economy.

The press needs to spread positive energy in society, multiply examples of good people, good deeds, good companies, good businesses, and effective business practices to help the economy recover after the pandemic.

At the same time, the media needs to contribute to improving the investment and business environment, contributing to efforts to resolve difficulties and propose recommendations from localities and the business community to promote growth, boost production and exports, and speed up public investment progress.

According to the Prime Minister, the investment environment determines development. If we do not reform, apply technology, or innovate, no one will come to work with us.

In the coming time, the media will also emphasize the policy of developing the domestic market of 100 million people, promoting domestic consumption more strongly. Recently, domestic tourism has started very well, which is a condition for the economy to continue to develop at the necessary level.

The Head of Government also paid special attention to the media's proactive foreign information about Vietnam's efforts and achievements, building the image of Vietnam, a safe, attractive, dynamic, potential-rich destination with a good investment environment in the eyes of investors and international friends, and seeing a Vietnam striving to be strong in the future.

Emphasizing that the 13th Party Congress is an important event for the country, the Prime Minister requested the press to actively participate and publish information about this event.

According to the Prime Minister, no matter the period, the spirit of the press is always "supporting the righteous and destroying evil".

In the coming time, the press will have to overcome many difficulties to stand firm. The Prime Minister said that there have been discussions and consensus on the need for a financial mechanism to support the press after the planning. The Prime Minister asked the Minister of Information and Communications, the Minister of Finance, and the leaders of the Central Propaganda Department to study a suitable support mechanism.

Concluding the conference, Politburo member and Head of the Central Propaganda Department Vo Van Thuong said that he will absorb the Prime Minister's comments to make information and communication work more effective in the coming time.

Head of the Central Propaganda Department Vo Van Thuong

The Head of the Propaganda Department commented that recently, the press has been very proactive in communicating to all people, all locations, all spaces with many touching images and news articles, spreading and touching people's hearts, bringing about very high efficiency.

According to statistics, from January 9 to March 15 alone, there were 127 articles about the fight against Covid-19 in 13 newspapers every day. This is unprecedented, making fake news no longer viable.

Thanks to good propaganda, the image of Vietnam, its people, its safe and friendly environment, and its good work in fighting the epidemic have spread around the world over the past 3 months. This is a great success.

“Good practice will lead to good propaganda, good propaganda will promote better practice. Therefore, in the coming time, the press will continue to propagate so that people can overcome difficulties and challenges, the country can take advantage of economic development opportunities, and strive to fulfill its tasks,” the Head of the Propaganda Department concluded.

At the conference, the Prime Minister decided to reward 1 billion VND to all newspapers actively participating in the fight against Covid-19.