According to Minister Dao Ngoc Dung, it can be seen that the fundamental new point of this support is to focus on two main objects: employees and employers.

Specifically, support focuses on workers who are directly affected by the epidemic, such as in industrial parks, export processing zones and in enterprises that use a lot of labourers and workers have to be medical treated and live in isolation zones in this 4th epidemic.

The policy consists of three basic groups, inluding: directly support cash for the workers whose contracts or their jobs are suspended; exemption and reduction policies, support from insurance policies as labour safety insurance, retirement insurance, death insurance and unemployment insurance; and support policies to restore production.

The procedure is as transparent as possible is another new highlight of this support. The previous support package of 62 trillion VND had strict criteria, but with the new support policy, there are only 4 days left to review the procedures and 3 more days to disburse.

Mr André Gama, Social Protection Programme Manager, ILO Vietnam states that, the Resolution No. 68-NQ/CP takes important steps towards expanding the coverage and effectiveness of Government relief packages in Vietnam by including new categories of workers to the beneficiaries of government support, and lowering the administrative burden imposed to beneficiaries. We must now wait for its implementation to assess its success.

The ILO believes that the Government is moving in the right direction when it comes to its COVID-19 economic support packages, and congratulates the Government of Vietnam in starting the deployment of the package even when the current COVID-19 wave continues to present worrying patterns of evolution./.