Natural Disasters Cost Vietnam VND1.17T in Jan-June: GSO

Vietnam has lost about VND1.17 trillion ($55.7 million) from natural disasters in the first six months of this year, versus nearly VND1.7 trillion in the same period last year, said the government’s General Statistics Office (GSO). Natural calamities also left 74 people dead and missing, 181 injured, over 63,000 houses collapsed and damaged over 27,000 hectares of paddy and subsidiary crops. Among, disasters-hit localities, the northern mountainous provinces of Lao Cai and Tuyen Quang, and the central province of Quang Binh were the hardest hit. The country is one of the ten countries most vulnerable to natural disasters, particularly tropical storms, floods, landslides and droughts. The country is forecast to suffer five to six typhoons per year. Vietnam lost 1%-1.5% of its GDP to natural disasters each year over the last 20 years. The country ranked fifth globally in terms of overall material losses and mortality from climatic disasters in the 1990-2009 period. (GSO June Edition)