Economic reopening helps enterprises to recover

The Ho Chi Minh City Centre of International Integration Support (CIIS) on September 10 coordinated with the Vietnam International Arbitration Center to organize an online seminar on accompanying with enterprises to respond to risks of the Covid-19 crisis.
Workers at a Japanese firm in Vietnam (Photo: SGGP)
Workers at a Japanese firm in Vietnam (Photo: SGGP)
At the seminar, Dr. Vo Tri Thanh, Director of the Institute for Brand and Competitiveness Strategy, said that the Covid-19 pandemic can be considered a test because, in the future, there might be many changes with greater influences in the context that economies in the globe are increasingly interconnected, tied, and relied on each other.

The Vietnamese economy is under great pressure from the poor demand for goods, products, and services, and now faces the risk that the supply capacity is affected. According to Dr. Vo Tri Thanh, after two investigations, only 2 percent of enterprises have not been affected. The vast majority of enterprises have not had enough cash flow of revenues and expenditures, and many of them have ceased operation or gone bankrupt.

With the same point of view, Mr. Pham Binh An, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Institute for Development Studies, said that up to 84 percent of HCMC-based enterprises have been facing difficulties, and only 10 percent of them can access support packages. More than 80 percent of enterprises have not been able to approach support packages because of various reasons.

However, comments at the seminar all agree that the Government has made great efforts proactively and drastically to control the pandemic. At the same time, reopening the economy is the most important measure to help production and business to recover. Investors' confidence is still maintained, proven by the number of newly-established enterprises; the number of investment projects of large private companies has begun construction; many projects funded by public investment have been completed and put into use; the amount of foreign direct investment capital has continued to grow; exports and imports have still maintained the growth rate; domestic consumption has remained stable.

In the coming time, enterprises need to make better use of the support channels of State agencies, carry out strategies to reduce unnecessary costs at a maximum level, transform business models, and build secure and digitalized work systems to minimize the risk of the disease spreading and affecting workers' health. They need to convert products attached to market demand and consumer trends, approach markets, keep regular contact with their partners even during interruptions, and increase exploitation of the domestic market. In the long run, enterprises need to take advantage of free trade agreements and foreign investment strategies in shifting global supply chains.

On September 10, the Ho Chi Minh City Statistical Office said that it was coordinating with other departments to investigate by the online method to collect information about the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on production and business activities of enterprises and assess the level of support and the spread of policies for businesses in the past time to offer solutions to further remove difficulties for production and business activities to help businesses respond better to the pandemic.

Information will be collected from September 10 to 20, and the results will be released by the end of this month.

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