Reserving tens of billions of goods to supply people in flooded areas

Promptly supply national reserve goods in the rainy season

Tran Duy Dong, Director of Domestic Market Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade).

In 2020, how will the Ministry of Industry and Trade prepare for reserving and supplying goods to ensure essential goods for people in all natural disasters, especially floods and rain?

- To prepare for the response to the stormy season, on April 24, 2020, the Ministry of Industry and Trade issued Official Letter No. 2868/BCT-TTTN guiding the Departments of Industry and Trade of the provinces and centrally-run cities to develop and implement goods reserving plans for natural disaster prevention, focusing on the following contents: grasping the supply-demand situation and the distribution system of essential goods in the area, focusing on food and foodstuffs, and commodities in high demand in the rainy and flood seasons, focusing on areas prone to natural disasters, remote and easily isolated areas.

Developing a plan, options to store and supply goods, supplies and necessities to meet demand in case of a natural disaster, especially essential commodities such as food, foodstuff andfresh water. When natural disasters, storms and floods occur, the Department of Industry and Trade shall work with other branches and localities to direct enterprises and traders in the locality to participate in preparing goods and essential necessities for reserving and promptly supplying to local people according to the motto "four on the spot".

The Ministry of Industry and Trade regularly contacts the main local contacts, updates information about the rain and flood events to closely grasp the situation and promptly provide guidance on circulation and supply-demand balance for goods, especially essential goods and necessities for the people.

Recently, a number of provinces in the central region had complicated rain and flood causing local flooding, while many mountainous districts were divided. Please tell us, in this particular case, what has the Ministry of Industry and Trade prepared to ensure the supply of goods?

- In the face of complicated rains and floods in some central provinces recently, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has frequently contacted to grasp the situation, directing the Department of Industry and Trade of central provinces to implement according to the plan on reserving essential goods with special emphasis on reserving on the spot.

In particular, the ministry has focused on implementing the following activities: organizing the establishment of points for essential goods supply and price stabilisation in central areas of districts, towns and cities to stabilise the market supply-demand imbalance which causes a sudden increase in commodity prices is not allowed,

At the same time, it is required that distribution enterprises have been assigned to reserve goods to organise selling points for price stabilisation; stocking, providing essential goods in time for people; directed the Market Management Boards to quickly overcome, creating conditions for business households to quickly sell essential goods at the markets; coordinated withMarket Management forces to control the market, to avoid the case of unusual price increases, especially for necessities.

Since storm No. 6 landed in the central region up to now, in the central region has continuously had heavy rains and large rains, many areas have occurred deeply flooded, divided traffic, landslides, causing injury, death, huge damage.

Goods reserve in a number of Central provinces that are affected by floods and rains has been carefully built in terms of plans, items, locations andobjectsbe deployed when natural disasters occur.

Specifically, in the four central provinces that are affected by the floods and rains as follows: in Quang Binh province, noodle reserves are 63,700 barrels, dry provisions are 12,600 barrels, rice is 1,175 tonnes, bottled water is 17,500 barrels, other food products are 1,700 tonnes. Total of goods converts into money is 6.7 billion dong.

In Quang Tri, the reserve of instant noodles is 50,000 barrels, rice is 300 tonnes, bottled water is 30,000 barrels, and salt is 20 tonnes. The total value of goods converted into money is 13,895 billion dong.

In Thua Thien Hue province, reserve of instant noodles is 50,000 barrels, rice is 100 tonnes and bottled water is 35,000 barrels.

In Quang Nam province, the reserve of instant noodles is 45,130 barrels, dry provisions 2,320 barrels, rice is 2,221 tonnes and bottled water is 119,984 barrels. The total value of goods converted into money is 6,496 billion dong.

In the future, what solutions will the Ministry of Industry and Trade implement to best ensure the supply of goods in flooded areas, to support people to stabilise their lives soon?

- To continue to effectively implement the response and best support for people to stabilize their lives soon in the central provinces, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has requested units to carry out their assigned tasks on supply of goods, market stabilisation, in which a number of tasks are concentrated as follows: assessing the situation of essential goods supply; forecasting demand in areas, provinces which continue to be affected by floods and countermeasures when cargo traffic is interrupted; market developments, prices of food, foodstuffs, and necessities.

In a complex case of floods and rains which affect a large area beyond control, the provincial Departments of Industry and Trade should report to the Ministry of Industry and Trade for a plan to immediately dispatch goods from the provinces and large distribution enterprises in surrounding areas to promptly supply essential goods to serve the people.