Packing line at Trieu Phu Loc Furniture Co in Binh Duong province. The Government, localities and businesses are rushing to put the economy back on track. (Photo: VNA)Ata press conference on October 18, Nguyen Van Lam, Deputy Director of Ho ChiMinh City's Department of Labour, Invalids and SocialAffairs, said nearly 135,000 workers had returned to work at exportprocessing zones and high-tech zones, and 5,000 workers resumed work atenterprises outside industrial zones.
Lastweek, the Dong Nai Industrial Zone Authority announced nearly 1,400enterprises, or more than 80 percent of those operating in 31 industrial parksin the province, have resumed operations, drawing more than 334,000 workersback to work which represents 54 percent of total number of labourers at thelocal industrial parks.
InBinh Duong, the local authority said it was striving to have 90 percent ofenterprises resume operations by the end of this month and 100 percent by theend of this year. The management board of provincial IPs is stepping upvaccinations for experts and workers towards the goal of returning to normal byearly 2022.
Secretaryof the provincial Party Committee Nguyen Van Loi committed all possible supportto firms to return to work in safe conditions.
Inthe capital city, after easing many restriction measures, Hanoi’s businessesare speeding up production to secure new orders and restore production. In nineindustrial parks in the city, the number of businesses operating normally hasreached over 95 percent.
Thesenumbers have partly shown great efforts of the Government, localities andbusinesses themselves in putting the economy back on track.
Theprolonged lockdowns due to the spread of the virus, especially in thesouthern region which is home to the country’s production hubs, has disruptedmost economic activities in the past two months.
Vietnam’sgross domestic product (GDP) increased by only 1.42 percent in the first ninemonths after recording a decline of 6.17 percent in the third quarter. It isalso the first quarterly decline recorded since 2000.
Incomeand employment are also seriously affected, especially for workers inindustrial zones and people who depend on services. The unemployment rate in thethird quarter was 3.72 percent and the underemployment rate among peopleof working age was 4.39 percent, the highest since the first quarter of2020.
Quickresponse
Despitesome early confusion in containing the disease in some provinces, with the greatefforts, solidarity and determination of the Government and the entire society,the pandemic has been gradually put under control in hotspots such as HCMCity, Binh Duong, Dong Nai and Long An, paving the way for loosening measuresto recover the economy.
Manypolicies have been adjusted to adapt to the new context andare introduced, giving hope to businesses and pulling them through thishard time.
Duringan online meeting on October 17, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh reaffirmedpandemic prevention and control policies must be unified nationwide,facilitating the implementation of measures to allow enterprises to resumeoperation and get workers back to work.
Resolution128 recently issued by the Government on "Safe adaptation, flexibility andeffective control of the COVID-19 pandemic” which sets out criteria to assessthe level of pandemic risk and specifies response measures in a unifiedapplication to all localities, agencies and businesses, is good news forenterprises.
Accordingto businesses, this resolution helps them define more clearly the risk levelswhich let them know when they can continue operation or when they need totemporarily halt operation (“on” or “off”) or “off” to any degree. Unifiedregulations will also prevent local authorities from creating or applyingregulations of their own will, facilitating companies in building andimplementing their business plans.
Earlier thismonth, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) announcedthat from October 8, new regulations in Resolution 68 will loosen conditionsand add more workers and businesses to the list eligible to receive funds fromthe support package worth 26 trillion VND (1.1 billion USD).
Sinceadoption in July, authorities in provinces and cities across the country havebeen quickly implementing measures to help people and businesses.
Inthe latest update from 63 provinces and cities, more than 15 trillion VNDhas been disbursed under Resolution 68 by the end of September, of whichreceivers include 376,610 employers and nearly 18.6 million people.
In25 southern provinces and cities, total support value reached more than 11.7trillion VND, accounting for 75 percent of the whole country.
However,enterprises are still facing many challenges, including the shortage of workersafter a huge number returned to their hometowns during the lockdownperiod, rising costs of input materials and the lack of capital for production.
VoTri Thanh, Director of the Institute of Branding and Competition Strategy, saidsupport policies need to be implemented synchronously and quickly to helpbusinesses recover and catch up with the global trend, avoid letting themlose business opportunities which may be hard to find again.
“Themost important thing for businesses now is a support package which is bigenough (in value), large enough (in volume) to comprise of necessary entitiesin need of support and be implemented quickly enough,” Thanh told Vietnam News.
Thepandemic remains complicated and unpredictable and the country is facing a widerange of heavy consequences in all aspects of socio-economic life.
TheMinistry of Planning and Investment is working with other Governmentalagencies, local authorities, business associations and industry experts tobuild a comprehensive programme to steer Vietnam's economic recovery in 2022-2023,to connect supply and demand and to support businesses and the public,especially vulnerable groups in the post-pandemic period./.
VNA
