The 4th outbreak from the end of April until now has recorded the fact that the damage in economic terms alone has been very serious compared to the previous three pandemic waves.
There are several reasons for PM Chinh to visit Binh Duong and Dong Nai over the weekend.
Along with Ho Chi Minh City and Ba Ria Vung Tau, these are the localities that are said to be the key economic regions in the south.
With about a quarter of the state budget comes Ho Chi Minh City, the PM certainly understands the challenges of this city as well as of the country’s economy.
“Achieving dual goals is very difficult but not impossible, there is no better option,” Mr. Chinh said in a meeting he chaired online with HCM City and these localities.
Speaking at this meeting, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong said that HCM City has developed “four growth scenarios” for the whole year of 2021, whereby the highest is 6.05% and the lowest is 3.24%.
In mid-June, the Ministry of Planning and Investment issued a draft report on business development in 2020 and the first five months of 2021.
The draft shows 8 business groups: tourism, restaurant, hotel, textile, retail, mechanics, manufacturing, automobiles, agriculture and processing agricultural, forestry and fishery products, transportation, logistics, air, information technology, and telecommunications are facing many difficulties.
The Vietnam Tourism Association (VITA) said the tourism industry suffered the most from COVID-19 with 90% of tourism businesses, restaurants, and hotels not operating, 10% of businesses operating in modest forms.
Businesses doing tour agency services, ticket agents mostly let 100% of employees quit. For international travel businesses, they must give 60-90% of their employee’s unpaid leave. These businesses are trying to stimulate domestic demand to maintain jobs for key personnel.
In particular, air transport has suffered a serious decline with Vietnam Airlines facing the risk of bankruptcy, Bamboo, and Vietjet having financial shortages.
It is forecasted that air transport will continue to face difficulties in 2021 and in the case that the COVID-19 pandemic is contained, it will not be until 2024 that the industry’s activities can recover to their pre-epidemic levels.
According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the COVID-19 epidemic has caused Vietnam’s textile and garment industry to grow negative 10.5% for the first time in 25 years. Textile and garment export turnover in 2020 only reached $35 billion, down $4 billion compared to 2019.
The draft warning states that “if the epidemic is well controlled, businesses take advantage of opportunities from FTAs, then by the second quarter of 2022, more negative by the fourth quarter of 2023, the textile and garment industry will recover to the 2019 level.”
There are opinions that thousands of businesses in different industries have reached the point of exhaustion or even bankruptcy and that the Ministry of Finance, the State Bank, and the General Department of Taxation should soon review and classify difficulties. of enterprises, business households… on that basis, there will soon be instructions for localities, banks, and credit institutions, thereby providing timely support to enterprises.
“After 4 pandemic waves, they are too tired. For their livelihood, they are no longer afraid of dying from Covid-19 but afraid of dying of hunger. There are people who have to buy cars on installments, buy houses on installments, and rent shops installment payments, or simply have to earn money every day
These things create great pressure for their lives, so besides fighting the epidemic, there must be timely support policies.
We issued a support policy quickly, but it was slow to come to life because of too many administrative procedures. That shows that the State’s policies also need to change,” said Mr. Tran Hoang Ngan, National Assembly member, member of the Economic Committee, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Institute for Development Research.
Chairman of the National Assembly Economic Committee Vu Hong Thanh was quoted by the state-controlled media as saying that the implementation of support packages for workers, businesses, and those affected by COVID-19 was slow and ineffective.
“As of May 27, the cash support package has been realized about VND13.1 trillions out of planned VND 35.88 trillion, equivalent to 36.5% of the support package size,” Thanh said.
Mr. Thanh described the support packages that have not yet reached many vulnerable and difficult groups, especially workers in the informal sector, workers and business households, small businesses, and super small…
Especially from a welfare perspective, Politburo has just agreed on a “principle” to support workers and employers affected by COVID-19.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
Source: https://www.bbc.com/vietnamese/business-57640760
