Overview of the Forum. Photo. baovanhoa.com.
At the online forum on impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic held by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism most recently in Ha Noi, in Mr. Nguyen Van Hung, Minister’s opening speech, he stressed: During the past time, the pandemic of Covid-19 has broke out and caused great impacts on the nationwide activities of culture, sports and tourism. Almost all activities have been postponed or cancelled, namely no festivals held, no entertainment activities, no sports activities and no tourism services. This has resulted in the huge loss of gross revenues. People’s lives directly envolved in these three areas of this sector have been suffering lots of difficulties in terms of reduced and even without income.
Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Mr. Nguyen Van Hung chairs the forum. Photo: Minh Khanh.
At the forum, Ms Tran Thi Van Anh, Deputy Director of Ha Noi Department of Culture and Sports shared Ha Noi city’s experiences and ways of organizing cultural activities in the context of the new normal conditions. She stressed during the last 2 years, almost all relics and scenic attractions, theatres, cinemas in Ha Noi must have been closed; music performances, festivals, cultural events have been postponed or cancelled. The revenues through the cultural activities have decreased by 90%. Some units which previously were able to stand on their own financially but now are suffering many negative impacts and meeting difficulties like Thang Long Puppet theatre (in 2019 it achieved a recorded revenue of 54 billion dong, but during 2020 and 2021 it has to be closed down). Likewise, other cultural service businesses in Ha Noi area have to close and cease operations.., hence resulting in heavy losses.
Deputy Director of Ha Noi Department of Culture and Sport Ms Tran Thi Van Anh speaks at the forum. Photo: baovanhoa.com.
Against the complicated backdrop of Covid-19 pandemic, Ha Noi Department of Culture and Sports has maintained the accomplishment of its functional operations; closely collaborating with Departments, Branches, districts and towns to effectively implement the sectoral activities. It has also mapped out ways and scenarios for each area respectively making sure that all conditions and facilities have been in place to cope with the Covid-19 situation. Particularly, the Department of Culture and Sports has changed the way of working from offline to online while ensuring effeciveness, quality and progress have been achieved; building and multiplying exceptional models appearing in reality when the pademic arises.
Se also added in the coming period, in order to carry out effectively cultural activities in the new normal conditions, Ha Noi Department of Culture and Sports has formulated solutions to recover the cultural-sports activities in the area of Ha Noi, concentrating on the followings: Reviewing the list of cultural-sports activities prepared for the last 3 months of 2021 and throughout 2022; building the safety schemes for the conduct of cultural-sports activities in each stage (very high risky-high risky – risky – new normal); proactively preparing for the conditions to hold cultural-sports activities with higher qualities and the same time with safety to pandemic in each certain stage; stepping up the supervisation of the holding of cultural-sports events on the principle as “Safe is to hold – to hold must be safe”.
As for the theatres, Ha Noi Department of Culture and Sports will continue to direct the building of art performances for online shows, on TV channel and offline if the conditions permit with no Covid-19; organizing contests and festivals by ways of online or video clips. Regarding the sports training and competition, it will be implemented according to the 3-tier model.
Additionally, Ha Noi Department of Culture and Sports will continue to advise Ha Noi Municipal Party Committee, Ha Noi People’s Council, Ha Noi People’s Committee on the support mechanism in favour of businesses, individuals so that they could overcome the hardships incurred by Covid-19 pandemic and reactivate cultural-art operation in the new normal situation; further renewing the methods of holding cultural-sports in Ha Noi area, diversifying the organizational ways of cultural activities in an creative manner; concretizing the tasks as directed by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism during the last 3 months of 2021 with 4 breakthrough points “Mechanism-Institution-Manpower-Digital transformation”.
In his closing speech at the forum, Mr. Nguyen Van Hung, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism requested that all units, closely attaching to their tasks and responsibilities, continue to be determined to take actions to encounter Covid-19 impacts, helping the entire sector of culture, sports and tourism to soon overcome the pandemic.
Vy Vy