Government and Local Authorities’ Regulations Relating to COVID-19

Over the last few weeks, national and local-level government have issued new regulations and official guidance to fight the spread of COVID-19. To keep our members as informed as possible we have summarised the new regulations below:
 
Directive 16/CT-TTg of the Prime Minister on the Implementation of Urgent Measures for the Prevention and Control of COVID-19 (“Directive 16” – English version attached)
     

Directive 16 includes the following provisions:

Workers in factories must keep a safe distance, wear facemasks, and sanitize the workplace as prescribed. People are advised to stay at home and only go outside when strictly necessary and maintain a safe distance of two meters during communication. People should not form groups of more than two outside office buildings, schools, hospitals or public places. Heads of enterprises, factories and businesses are responsible for the implementation of epidemic prevention and control in their facilities and for the protection of their workers’ health and safety.

State agencies and units shall utilise information technology to enable officials and public employees to work from home, except for those whose presence at work is strictly necessary. The heads of these agencies and units shall be held responsible for the transmission of the disease among their personnel due to their failure to comply with regulations on epidemic prevention and control in offices.

Following this, the Office of the Government issued Official Dispatch 2601/VPCP-KGVX (English version attached). This assigned detailed tasks to avoid misunderstanding and inconsistencies in the implementation of Directive 16. EuroCham has circulated the information to members and Sector Committees for their implementation.
    

The Government has also issued other supporting policies, detailed below:

1. Resolution 42/NQ-CP of the Government on Assistance for People Affected by COVID-19:

This Resolution introduces the types of employees who will be entitled to financial support from State budget: people who suffer from a significant decrease in their income and have difficulties meeting basic subsistence costs; people who are made redundant or cannot find a job; certain groups of beneficiaries. It also makes clear that the state, enterprises and the whole of society are all responsible for assisting workers to overcome these difficulties.

2. Decree 41/2020/ND-CP on Tax and Land Rental Deferral (English version attached):

This Decree introduced, with immediate effect, an extension of deadlines for tax and land use fee payments to support businesses suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic. EuroCham shared comments from our Sector Committees to both the Ministry of Finance and the Government during drafting process of this Decree. EuroCham will continue to advocate during the drafting of supporting policies to support members, and further request permanent solutions (e.g. tax reduction) if this economic crisis is prolonged.

3. Hanoi City guidance:

Following Directive 16 and Official Dispatch 2601, Hanoi People’s Committee issued Letter 1141/UBND-KGVX (Vietnamese version attached) instructing Directors of City Departments and Chairs of Districts People’s Committees to implement Official Dispatch 2601/VPCP-KGVX of the Office of the Government.

4. Ho Chi Minh City guidance:

Following Directive 16, HCMC issued Official letter 1204/UBND-TH guiding its implementation (English version attached). In addition, HCMC introduced Decision 1203/QD-BCD on Scoring System for Assessment of COVID-19 Infection Risk at Enterprises (English version attached):

Relevant organisations and individuals (such as Chiefs of Management Boards of export processing zones and industrial zones in HCMC) are responsible for the implementation of a Scoring System to assess the risk of Covid-19 infection at enterprises. The Scoring System categorises enterprises by infection risk level in order to define which may maintain their business operation and which must suspend operation.

5. EuroCham Hotline:

EuroCham has launched a reporting tool for our members to report specific difficulties or inconsistencies in the application of these new regulations by provinces and local authorities. You can contact us at the following email address and we will aim to respond as soon as possible: Hotline@eurochamvn.org