Support fleet recovery after storm

After the third storm, Quang Ninh tourism industry was also severely affected. Many businesses and ship owners in the Ha Long tourist fleet suffered huge losses. 27 cruise ships were sunk by the storm, causing the ship owners to really struggle when they had just recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, everyone is looking forward to timely and effective support policies and mechanisms to be able to soon restore, preserve and develop the fleet - an image that has become a symbol of Quang Ninh tourism.

Storm No. 3 caused heavy damage to many tourism businesses.

According to the Department of Transport, 27 tourist boats and 4 cargo ships sank in the province due to Typhoon Yagi. Of these, 23 tourist boats anchored and taking shelter from the storm at Tuan Chau International Tourist Port sank on September 7.

Talking to reporters, the ship owners could not help but feel sad seeing billions of dong worth of assets submerged in water for a long time, causing the damaged ship to be even more damaged. According to the ship owners, It is estimated that to repair a wooden-hulled tourist boat costs between 500 million and 1 billion VND; a steel-hulled tourist boat costs between 1 and 10 billion VND. Some boats that cannot be restored must be completely replaced, costing up to billions of VND.

Mr. Vu Dinh Sang, owner of Mai Lam tourist boat, shared: In the recent storm, businesses in general suffered more or less damage. My family has 4 passenger boats visiting Ha Long Bay, 3 of which were sunk by the storm. Counting the damage up to this point, we don't know how much it is because most of the money to build and buy the boats is currently from loans from banks, making us really miserable. In the immediate future, we really hope that the province, departments and branches will have solutions to support the costs so that we can quickly salvage the boat and bring it back to the repair shop to fix it as soon as possible because the longer the boat is submerged, the more damaged it will be.

Mr. Tran Van Hong, Head of the Ha Long Tourist Boat Association, met and learned about the situation of businesses and ship owners whose ships were sunk while anchoring and taking shelter from storms at Tuan Chau International Tourist Port.

Mr. Tran Van Hong, Head of the Ha Long Tourist Boat Association, said: As soon as we received information that the sightseeing and accommodation boats in Ha Long Bay were sunk due to storm No. 3, the Association quickly checked the number of boats, visited and encouraged the boat owners to find solutions together, in which the first priority was to contact the ship salvage units to salvage the boats as quickly as possible. In recent days, the salvage units, mainly in Hai Phong, have also been very busy because during storm No. 3, many boats and water transport vehicles were in trouble. Therefore, on September 16, the salvage of sunken ships at Tuan Chau International Cruise Port was carried out after a week of waiting. However, due to the great devastation of the storm, the first ships to be salvaged were also severely damaged. The Association has reported to the province and the competent authorities managing cruise ships to take measures to support companies, businesses, and ship owners with financial resources to salvage ships. We really hope that banks will join in supporting businesses to extend and postpone debts so that they can repair, upgrade, and build new ships to return to operation soon to generate revenue.

“A loan support is really necessary and has great significance at this time to help businesses and ship owners restart their operations. Indeed, after nearly 3 years of being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, ship owners are exhausted. When operations stabilized not long ago, they were heavily affected by storms, leaving us without enough financial resources to cope and recover,” said Mr. Vu Nguyen Tuyen, a ship owner operating in Ha Long Bay.

At the meeting to discuss solutions to overcome the consequences of storm No. 3 and gradually restore tourism activities on September 13, Mr. Cao Tuong Huy, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, directed departments and branches to focus on supporting and immediately removing difficulties for tourism businesses. At the same time, assigned the Department of Transport to promptly support the salvage of the sunken tourist boat to ensure stable and safe transportation activities.

To accompany businesses, Quang Ninh will immediately propose to the Government policies on banking, including debt rescheduling, debt extension, debt deferral, loan interest rate reduction, new loans for damaged businesses; propose to reduce electricity prices, taxes, insurance, etc.

Removing difficulties for businesses in general and businesses operating in the tourism sector in particular is an urgent task. We believe that with the province's timely support policies and the spirit of self-reliance and overcoming difficulties of businesses, tourism services in the whole province will soon recover and stabilize, creating an important driving force for the Ha Long tourist fleet, which has been painstakingly built to become a national tourism brand, to continue to develop more and more professionally and modernly.

Source