Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh affirmed that the Government, the Prime Minister and ministries, central branches and localities will accompany and remove difficulties and obstacles [...]
On the morning of September 20, Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh chaired the online conference "Removing difficulties and obstacles for manufacturing enterprises in industrial parks, export processing zones, high-tech parks and industrial clusters".
In attendance were leaders of a number of ministries, branches, 28 provinces and cities and businesses, including foreign-invested enterprises with large investment capital and many workers.
Not every F0 shift means the entire factory will close
At the beginning of the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh stated that today's meeting focuses on discussing solutions to overcome difficulties for businesses. "We will carefully discuss how to ensure the recovery of production, which businesses and localities both want. However, we still have to ensure the safety of workers and not let outbreaks form in industrial parks and industrial clusters. This is a difficult issue in the context of not completely controlling the epidemic", the Deputy Prime Minister suggested.
“The supply chain of an enterprise is not just in one province, one area, one factory, it can be arranged in many factories in many provinces and many areas. Therefore, coordination between localities and regions is very important", the Deputy Prime Minister suggested that localities discuss this coordination as well as implementation work.
Reviewing the situation of industrial parks and industrial clusters, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc said that to date, there are 291 industrial parks in operation. The occupancy rate is about 71%.
In the first 8 months of 2021, industrial parks and coastal economic zones across the country have attracted about 428 new investment projects and 517 projects to increase investment capital with new and increased registered capital of about 8.1 billion USD. Total revenue of businesses reached about 140 billion USD, export turnover reached about 100.7 billion USD (accounting for 47.5% of the country's total export turnover), contributing about 96,500 billion VND to the state budget; has created jobs for nearly 4 million direct workers (including 456,000 foreign workers), an increase of about 90,000 workers compared to the end of 2020.
Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc said that the Ministry has coordinated with the Vietnam Business Forum Alliance to conduct an investigation and survey of 500 corporations and enterprises with foreign direct investment operating in Vietnam to clarify difficulties and obstacles. The survey results show that nearly 50% of businesses are seriously affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, while the rest are greatly affected.
Through reflections from localities and businesses, the Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment said there are 7 groups of problems difficulties and challenges that industrial parks, economic zones, high-tech parks and industrial clusters face, such as increasing input costs and transportation costs, leading to a shortage of input materials and inflated production costs. In addition, businesses also have to bear costs related to epidemic prevention and control such as: Testing costs, investment costs to meet conditions for disease safety control, and costs to maintain on-site production activities.
As an enterprise with more than 6,300 employees in the high-tech park of Ho Chi Minh City, a representative of Nidec Vietnam Company proposed that, after resuming operations, any case of F0 detected at the production line, it is only necessary to isolate or close the related production part, not the entire enterprise. Employing many workers from outside the province, businesses want to create favorable conditions for workers to move between localities.
Similar to the same point of view, a representative of Nike Vietnam Company, a unit with an export turnover of more than 7 billion USD, expressed concern about restoring production but must ensure "absolute safety". The company also wants to not close the entire factory when detecting 1 F0 case, but only need to quickly separate F0 and quarantine F0 contacts in the factory.
Immediately responding to businesses' recommendations, the Deputy Prime Minister stated clearly that the phrase "absolutely safe" that businesses are concerned about here means absolutely not allowing a large outbreak to occur in the business; Avoid the situation where production resumes without control until a certain point, when the disease spreads silently among the workforce and then breaks out into a large outbreak, greatly affecting the health of workers. "If production resumes, it must be screened for the epidemic, such as weekly testing. For this testing, ministries and branches, based on the opinions of businesses, need to give specific instructions", said the Deputy Prime Minister. “If an industrial park with up to 20,000 workers becomes an outbreak, it is very dangerous.However, it is not rigid that when there is F0, the factory with thousands of workers will be closed. If F0 is in any factory, stop that factory and right in that factory, if it is determined that F0 is only related to some F1, then isolate F1, even that factory can still operate.
Expressing joy at the Deputy Prime Minister's answer, Unilever Vietnam Company proposed to accelerate vaccination for key production forces. Samsung Thai Nguyen representative proposed allowing employees who have received 2 vaccinations to travel to work every day from home (green zone) to the company using the bus system arranged by the company.
Enterprises such as Hyosung Vina Chemical Company (Ba Ria-Vung Tau province), Far Eastern (Binh Duong), C.E.O (Kien Giang)... all want to prioritize vaccination for workers, simplify the process of inviting foreign experts, and support cost reduction such as VAT refund...
Create maximum convenience
In response to business recommendations, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Minh Vu affirmed that entry procedures for experts are becoming faster, more flexible, and more open, for example reducing the quarantine period from 14 days to 7 days. We have temporarily recognized vaccination certificates from over 60 countries. Currently, ministries and branches are considering expanding the number of foreigners entering Vietnam.
Deputy Minister of Transport Le Dinh Tho affirmed that there are currently no major problems in goods circulation. Every week, the Ministry holds meetings with localities twice a week, assigning responsibility to the Departments of Transport to firmly grasp the traffic situation in the area for timely resolution.
Deputy Minister of Finance Vu Thi Mai said that on September 16, the National Assembly Standing Committee approved a package on tax exemption and reduction. Currently, the Ministry of Finance is urgently preparing a draft decree guiding the implementation of this package to submit to the Government.
According to Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen, under normal conditions, the Ministry is expected to ensure the "5 green", the first is green factories, the second is workers, the third is transportation, the fourth is worker accommodation and the fifth is on-site medical care of the enterprise.
Sharing difficulties with businesses, local leaders said there has been much support for frontline forces on the economic front. Like Da Nang, City leaders will organize dialogues with domestic and foreign businesses to listen, work together to remove problems, and support production recovery. It is expected that the City will support credit loans, deferrals, and tax deferrals for businesses...; loan support for businesses with the City's investment fund; agree to delay the progress of investment projects affected by the epidemic; Support testing for workers in industrial parks.
Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Vo Van Hoan said that the City's Working Group has been established to remove difficulties for businesses; Issue a plan to support businesses affected by the epidemic. Ho Chi Minh City has also worked with Dong Nai, Binh Duong, Ba Ria-Vung Tau... to unify regional connectivity solutions; Collaborate with agencies on issues of circulation and transfer of materials, labor, and experts.
The business is the subject; The locality is the center and focal point for solving difficulties
In his concluding remarks at the Conference, the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized the role of industrial parks and industrial clusters with tens of millions of workers, making great contributions to the budget, growth, and social stability. Determining that economic recovery in general and supporting businesses to resume production and business is a difficult and long-term task, Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh affirmed that the Government and the Prime Minister will accompany in a long-term and closely with ministries, branches and localities to support businesses to quickly restore and stabilize production.
The Deputy Prime Minister affirmed that from now on, he will maintain monthly meetings with ministries, branches, localities and businesses, especially localities and businesses that still face many difficulties, combined with proactively learning, understanding and sharing difficulties with businesses. "Let the Government and central agencies accompany businesses until production and business are completely restored", said the Deputy Prime Minister.
In recent times, the Party Central Committee, the National Assembly, and the Government have paid special attention to closely, specifically, and drastically directing epidemic prevention and control; Many resolutions and policies have been issued to direct sectors and localities to focus on both epidemic suppression and production and business. The National Assembly issued Resolution No. 30 to strongly decentralize the Government in epidemic prevention and control, and the Government spends a lot of time on this work and has policies to support businesses and people to restore production and business.
Thinking that the epidemic is still complicated, Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh stated that restoring production and business, removing difficulties and obstacles for businesses, and stabilizing people's lives are urgent requirements today. However, restoring production and business while ensuring the health and safety of workers is "a difficult problem, because production and business under normal conditions are still difficult, production and business under conditions of epidemic prevention and worker safety are many times more difficult".
“The Government, localities and businesses all want to quickly restore production and business. It is important to coordinate closely, smoothly, with high responsibility and organize effective implementation. If we do not coordinate well, it will be difficult to succeed", Deputy Prime Minister affirmed.
In that close relationship, the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized the subjective role of businesses in the production and business recovery process. Depending on the situation of each locality and area, businesses need to proactively develop plans to restore production, including solutions to control F0; Avoid the situation where having F0 in a workshop requires stopping the entire factory with dozens of workshops.
The Deputy Prime Minister pointed out that the center and focal point to handle and remove difficulties for businesses are provinces, cities, and grassroots governments. "Localities need to soon organize conferences, meetings, exchanges, and contacts with businesses to thoroughly grasp and implement the spirit of production recovery in the current context, and guide businesses to have plans for re-production", the Deputy Prime Minister suggested.
Citing evidence of models in some localities that have established working groups headed by provincial leaders to directly handle, guide, and approve plans to restore production of businesses in the context of epidemic prevention, Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh suggested that leaders of localities across the country need to base on the situation of epidemic developments in the area, proactively and flexibly deploy solutions to support businesses in the area.
For ministries and central branches, Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh emphasized the role of overall regulation, guidance, creating favorable conditions as well as removing obstacles in mechanisms and policies. "Enterprises are the subjects, the center, the focal point of solution is the localities. The Government, ministries and central branches will stand side by side with localities and businesses", said the Deputy Prime Minister.
In response to the recommendations of businesses, the Deputy Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Health to have a specific plan to distribute vaccines to localities with industrial zones and clusters, provide guidance on epidemic prevention solutions, and ensure absolute safety for workers. Provinces and cities direct the Department of Health to coordinate to prioritize vaccines for industrial production workers.
Regarding transportation, the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized the principle of always ensuring the smooth flow of vital traffic routes, and in case of blockade, finding alternative routes for goods to circulate. The Ministry of Transport coordinates with the Ministry of Health and localities to provide instructions so that workers can travel from one province to another.
Notably, the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized the role of Directors of Departments of Transport in ensuring the circulation of goods locally, and the need to proactively advise the Chairman of the Provincial and City People's Committees on appropriate solutions, ensuring uniformity and smooth circulation of goods. The Ministry of Transport needs to strengthen inspection and examination to prevent a situation where documents at the upper level create smooth conditions but at the lower level cause congestion. The traffic industry and localities are not allowed to issue “sub-licenses” that hinder traffic.
Regarding the issue that many businesses are concerned about, the entry of experts and highly skilled workers, the Deputy Prime Minister highly appreciated the statement of the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that it will create maximum conditions in the coming time. "The role of experts is very important, many places cannot produce without experts. Therefore, it is necessary to create maximum conditions, but ensure effective disease prevention".
Regarding the recommendations of businesses, the Deputy Prime Minister requested ministries and branches to receive, create conditions, and remove difficulties.
The Deputy Prime Minister also reminded localities about restoring some necessary services to industrial zones, "otherwise, how will tens of thousands of workers eat and drink in some places".
Closing the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh affirmed the message that the Government will accompany and listen to businesses' opinions to remove difficulties and obstacles until production and business are restored to a new normal state.
Duc Tuan
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