At the Government's online conference with businesses on August 8, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said that the fourth outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has negatively impacted businesses. Resources are running out while the market shows no signs of recovery.

It is necessary to implement flexible and effective measures
to prevent and control the Covid-19 pandemic, creating conditions
for businesses to stabilize and maintain production and business activities.
Photo: N.Thanh

Four main groups of solutions

With the responsibility of being the Government's general advisory agency, according to Minister Nguyen Chi Dung, in the current context, the most important thing for businesses is the appropriate disease prevention and control measures, thereby creating conditions for businesses to adapt to the situation.

With the above point of view, the Ministry of Planning and Investment recommends implementing eight groups of solutions in the short and long term. In particular, the group of urgent policies and solutions that need to be implemented immediately includes:

Firstly, implement flexible and effective measures to prevent and control the Covid-19 pandemic, creating conditions for businesses to stabilize and maintain production and business activities; research a mechanism that allows enterprises to purchase self-testing equipment to take the initiative in testing.

Second, to ensure smooth and efficient circulation of goods, and to overcome interrupted supply and value chains. Organize and implement the national, inter-provincial and inter-regional "Green flow" of goods to transport goods on the principle of minimizing procedures; study and propose rules for safe transport to prevent and control the Covid-19 pandemic; thoroughly apply technology in controlling travel conditions for vehicles and workers.

Study and guide to unify the classification rules against the Covid-19 pandemic across the country, avoiding excessive localization, hindering the operation of enterprises; study the regulatory framework on safe factories so that it can be flexibly applied, suitable to the actual conditions of the locality and enterprises.

Third, support to cut costs and remove difficulties in cash flow for businesses. Accordingly, studying and amending policies on trade union fees, road maintenance fees, electricity prices for the tourism industry in the long term; to study and propose stronger solutions to support debt restructuring and extension of old debts; reduce interest rates on loans; urgently implement support policies on extending and reducing VAT and corporate income tax with a value of about VND20 trillion and reducing land rent by about VND700 billion after being approved by the National Assembly Standing Committee.

Fourth, guide the organization to effectively deploy the package of support policies for employees and employers worth about VND26 trillion. Research and propose policies to flexibly apply and relax regulations and conditions on the granting/renewal of work permits for experts working for foreign-invested enterprises, in accordance with the new context.

Four groups of long-term solutions

For the group of long-term policies, creating a foundation to support enterprises to recover and develop, the Ministry of Planning and Investment also proposed four groups of solutions.

Accordingly, the first is to create strategic enterprise development policies, exploit the advantages of industries and fields to seize opportunities to recover the economy; it is necessary to have policies to develop large-scale private enterprises, playing a leading role; developing supporting industries in priority industries; long-term and sustainable solutions to ensure a stable source of input materials for manufacturing industries; develop value chains in agriculture and food processing in order to create high added value.

Second, improve the efficiency of implementing policies to support enterprises, especially small and medium enterprises; review and remove legal problems; maximize the simplification of current administrative processes and procedures, considering the application of priority import and export processes.

Third, promote and support businesses in digital transformation and innovation. Promote the implementation of digital economy development; supporting the development of e-commerce platforms; technology applications for electronic payment transactions, logistics and delivery; research, deliver or order Vietnamese digital technology enterprises to develop digital technology solutions and platforms.

Fourth, improve operational efficiency and exploit the potential of the state-owned enterprise sector. At the same time, research and propose the consolidation and development of a number of large-scale state-owned corporations and enterprises that operate effectively and play a leading role.

In addition, the Ministry of Planning and Investment proposed to the Prime Minister to soon set up a special working group to remove difficulties for businesses and people affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

On the part of the business community, it is also necessary to continue to uphold the national spirit, promote initiative, self-reliance and efforts to overcome difficulties and challenges; proactively innovating production and business models, restructuring enterprises; focus on training and improving management capacity and quality of human resources; strongly apply science and technology to turn challenges into opportunities; create new value standards, pay more attention to serving the people and domestic needs; expand the market, move towards participating in the global value chain.

On the part of organizations and business associations, it is necessary to actively research and evaluate the challenges and opportunities of the industry and field, and promptly share, guide, and support member businesses and industries. At the same time, propose to the Government solutions and initiatives to develop enterprises and restore the economy.