Talking to a reporter from Customs News, to remove difficulties for production and consumption of agricultural and aquatic products during and after the pandemic, Assoc. Prof. Dr Pham Tat Thang, Senior Researcher of the Research Institute for Strategy, Policy on Industry and Trade (Ministry of Industry and Trade) emphasised the need for a series of measures, in which priority is given to the issue of vaccines. Firms must continue to "live" in pandemic conditions and then consider recovery.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Tat Thang, Senior Researcher of Research
Institute for
Strategy and Policy on Industry and Trade
(Ministry of Industry and Trade)

Over the past time, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has implemented many solutions to avoid disruption of production, processing and export chains of the whole industry, such as: immediately establishing two special working groups in the north and the south; proposing a series of ministries and branches to facilitate the circulation, transportation, import and export of goods. What do you think about these solutions?

The establishment of special working groups is necessary, because the same difficulties faced by the pandemic, but the difficulties of the southern firms are different from those of the northern ones. There is no same measure for all firms. The measure must be suitable for each region and the product.

In this regard, I note solving difficulties requires timeliness. However, for the solutions to bring the most practical results for firms, after implementation, they need to be monitored, evaluated, supplemented and adjusted accordingly.

In another new solution, on August 31, 2021, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development launched the "Information forum connecting agricultural production and consumption" with the expectation of activating the "flow" of agricultural products, creating push for quality products. Do you have any suggestions to make the forum's activities really close and effective not only during the pandemic season but also beyond?

Building an information forum to connect production and consumption of agricultural products is very necessary in the current conditions to meet the information demand in production and business of firms. However, in my opinion there are some points to note.

First of all, current market information is not only about prices but also quality issues and the changes in quarantine measures of each export market. The issue of rules of origin, as well as geographical indications, also needs information in the forum.

In particular, currently packaging and sterilisation and disinfection on product packaging are requirements that were not available before. The market also requires and nominate packers and classifiers to sub-label to ensure the supply chain. Information in the forum requires adaptation to meet the demand of the pandemic period.

Recently, when commenting on the Government's draft resolution on supporting firms in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, one of the outstanding contents proposed by the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers is: reduce at least 50% of infrastructure fees of industrial parks from August 2021 to the end of June 2022; at the same time, give suggestions to support trade union fees for all seafood firms. In your opinion, are these proposals reasonable?

In general, the need to reduce input costs for firms is an urgent requirement. Therefore, it is necessary to review all types of costs to cut some costs which reduce burdens for firms.

Regarding the specific proposal of a 50% reduction of infrastructure fees for industrial parks and support of trade union fees for all firms in the seafood industry of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers, I consider the proposal justifiable which should be supported.

Agro-fishery firms are facing many difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Photo: T.H

In your opinion, in the future, how can we promote solutions, especially from the perspective of vaccines, credit to help agro-fishery firms restore production, creating a good momentum for the export of goods after the pandemic?

In the future, a series of measures are needed, especially, measures support firms produce and do business during pandemic conditions.

With the issue of vaccines, the Government has stated that this was a very important measure. In my opinion, we should give priority to vaccines for firms with many employees; give priority to provinces with many industrial zones.

In addition, it is also necessary to study to reduce testing costs, tax reduction. Many people have proposed reducing value added tax (VAT) from 10% to 5%; taxes such as license tax, import and export tax should also be studied to reduce.

In particular, it is necessary to have appropriate credit packages to support firms and apply debt rescheduling solutions for them. Those are absolutely necessary at the moment to help firms survive. After that, when the pandemic is gradually better controlled, firms that have survived will consider the issue of support for recover step by step.

Thank Sir!