Illustrative image (Source: Ministry of Industry and Trade)Tran Thanh Son, a manager at Song Ngọc Garment Co., Ltd, said his companydecided to invest in an additional production line to help meet US orders afternearly four months of suspended production.
It has orders from the US for until April next year, he said.
Chu Tien Dung, the HCM City Union of Business Associations chairman, saidcompanies have worked with their employees and partners to speed up productionto fulfil order backlogs and accept new orders.
Nguyen Van Be, chairman of the HCM City Export Processing Zone and IndustrialPark Authority Business Association (HBA), said 1,500 companies, 500foreign-owned, in the city’s industrial parks and export processing zones haveresumed operations, with 60 percent going back to more than 80 percentcapacity.
“Walking around the factories, we realised that the city's decision to ‘livewith the pandemic’ has proven effective.”
For instance, a company that used to stop production when workers were found infected,has in the past 15 days found 20 infections, but, with support fromauthorities, disinfected the factory, sent the infected workers to medicalfacilities for treatment and continued production, he said.
According to the HCM City Export Processing Zone and Industrial Park Authority(HEPZA), nearly 216,000 out of 288,000 workers at industrial parks and exportprocessing zones have returned to work, and many of the companies are operatingat 95 percent capacity.
Companies in labour-intensive sectors such as textile and garment and footwearare now basically back to normal.
Dr Tran Du Lich, a member of the National Assembly Economic Committee, said forcompanies to get up to speed needs Government financial support andsimplification of procedures for them to access the funding.
The HCM City Department of Industry and Trade said it would offer a creditsupport package worth 70 trillion VND (3.07 billion USD) this year to helpbusinesses access preferential loans and resume production.
The State Bank of Vietnam’s HCM City branch said banks would provide credit tobusinesses at supportive interest rates this quarter.
Nguyen Hoang Minh, its deputy director, said his office took measures tomitigate the difficulties faced by businesses in line with directions from thecentral bank and the city People’s Committee.
Demand for funds increases normally at the end of the year, but there would beno shortage, he assured.
The banking industry is committed to ensuring sufficient loans at preferentialinterest rates to help businesses revive production and trading, he said.
The industry has become a reliable partner for businesses, implementing anumber of policies to enable them to overcome difficulties caused by the pandemic,including debt restructuring, waiver and reduction of interest and fees andpreferential loans to supporting industries and those that use technology, headded./.
VNA
