Street vendors who are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic are among Government aid package receivers (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The Government’s relief package of 62 trillion VND(2.6 billion USD) for those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic has been largelyconsidered appropriate, timely and well-targeted, a citizens’ survey releasedon December 8 revealed.
About 83 percent of respondents assessed that the financial support wasdistributed in a timely manner, while 85 percent thought the applicationprocedures for the financial support were simple.
The report, conducted by the Australian government’s Department for ForeignAffairs and Trade (DFAT), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the MekongDevelopment Research Institute in September, interviewed 1,335 respondents in63 provinces and cities about the Government’s response to the pandemic in Vietnam.
All of those surveyed were from various backgrounds and randomly selected fromthe 2019 Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index(PAPI) sample.
Respondents showed strong support for the national lockdown in April andclosely followed social distancing measures. About 88 percent of them thoughtthe Government had imposed the social distancing order in April in a timelymanner while nearly 90 percent said they followed the order.
Some 8.8 percent of the respondents said the social distancing order wasimposed early. Most of those people were unskilled workers, non-farm workersand poor people, who were the hardest hit by the pandemic during the lockdown,said Dr Nguyen Viet Cuong, deputy head of the Mekong Development Research Institute.
About 89 percent of those interviewed supported the Government’s strongmeasures and priority for saving lives, even if the economy will sustain moredamage and recover slowly. That consensus level was higher than the averageglobal rate of 67 percent.
More than 96 percent of respondents rated the response from the NationalSteering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control as good or very good,while nearly 94 percent had the same rating for their provincial governments’responses.
Researchers from the Mekong Development Research Institute said it was veryimportant to provide support to the most affected people, since people with joband income losses are less likely to support the Government’s response andthose receiving aid are more likely to agree to the Government’s response.
They emphasised the importance of improving the quality of governance andpublic administration, which can increase confidence and trust from citizens inthe Government, and subsequently their support for the Government during thepandemic.
David Gottlieb, economic and development co-operation counsellor from theAustralian Embassy in Vietnam, said: “I have been extremely impressed by Vietnam’sdetermination to control COVID-19 this year. But it isn’t my impressions thatreally matter for public policy. It is the impressions of the people for whomthose policies are designed that matter. This survey shows clearly that thecommitment to contain the pandemic is shared throughout the whole community -this is a testament to the efforts of all of those involved.”
At the report launching ceremony on Tuesday, UNDP Resident RepresentativeCaitlin Wiesen praised Vietnam’s successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It largely depended on swift and effective Government action combined with thetrust and willingness of citizens to comply with the Government’s preventiveand protective measures. I believe that lessons learnt from this success interms of transparency, accountability and social cohesion will help theGovernment deal with future crises and address the key challenges that citizenshave highlighted as top concerns over the past four years - poverty,environment and corruption in PAPI reports”./.
VNA
