The stalled production of export goods will cause a risk of breaking the international supply chain, thereby affecting the revenue and reputation of enterprises. Therefore, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, implementing solutions to stabilize production must be a priority.

Officials of Hoanh Mo border gate Customs Branch (Quang Ninh Customs Department)
guide businesses through procedures. Photo: Quang Hung

Need help from the authorities

The Covid-19 pandemic continued to develop and tended to spread rapidly in some localities, causing many businesses and industrial parks to stop operating, greatly affecting not only the production and business situation in the country but also causes a risk of disrupting the supply chain of goods around the world.

According to a representative of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, many requirements of international partners are a big challenge for Vietnamese export manufacturers. As with textile businesses, partners require businesses to commit to on-time delivery, otherwise they will have to compensate by air-delivery, which will greatly increase costs.

While factories have to close due to the pandemic, businesses still have to pay basic salaries for employees to keep them, which is a significant financial burden for businesses.

In this context, it is necessary to join efforts of functional sectors. For example, recently, in the face of the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in Bac Giang and Bac Ninh provinces, making it difficult for goods to pass, the General Department of Customs has issued an urgent directive to instruct the Customs Departments of provinces and to implement many solutions to help businesses remove difficulties to ensure the source of raw materials for production and business, as well as not disrupt the supply chain of goods.

Many local customs departments and branches have increased the use of online communication methods, not only to help answer questions about goods clearance procedures, but also to propagate and warn businesses about the pandemic as well as prevention methods.

A representative of an enterprise in Bac Ninh province said that when there was a shortage of empty containers, in order to help businesses transport export goods, the Customs authorities have provided information on the operation of ships from port business units, so that businesses can proactively develop production and export plans.

Active from the production plan

Support from the authorities is a "necessary condition", but enterprises need to stabilize production from their own strategy.

Than Duc Viet, General Director of Garment 10 Corporation, said that garment enterprises in general use a lot of labor. As in Garment 10, there are 12,000 employees at enterprises and associated companies.

Therefore, in order for production to be stable, the company must check, trace and localize workers who have contact with or are near the radius of F0 and F1 infections.

The enterprise also pays great attention to propaganda and requires employees to strictly comply with pandemic prevention and control measures. Because only one case of infection will affect the entire chain and means the factory has to close, stopping production even for one day will greatly affect the delivery schedule and business operations due to the seasonal nature of the company.

Moreover, to ensure the order volume, May 10 has also come up with an innovative solution to convert to medical protective products and masks.

Not only complying with the requirements of pandemic prevention, exporting enterprises also have to apply many measures to ensure the supply of raw materials, labor force as well as logistics solutions. In addition, many businesses have applied digital transformation, using e-commerce to find partners, increase productivity as well as product quality.

In terms of short-term solutions, for businesses today, vaccinating workers to prevent Covid-19 is an urgent requirement. According to the opinion of many businesses, businesses are willing to accompany the Government to socialize the source of vaccines. Currently, the cost of vaccination is only a third of the cost of testing, so vaccination is a fundamental, long-term and economical solution.

Following the call of the Prime Minister, many corporations and businesses have supported the Covid-19 Vaccine Fund to contribute to repelling the pandemic and bringing life back to normal.

According to Vo Thanh Hung, Director of the State Budget Department (Ministry of Finance), the purchase of vaccines is assigned by the Government and the Prime Minister to the Ministry of Health as the focal point, but businesses can support local governments. However, the Ministry of Health is also assigned to identify groups of subjects that are prioritized for injection. But Hung said that workers in concentrated industrial zones should also be in the priority group.

Sharing the same view, Nguyen Hong Uy, Director of Registry and External Affairs, Abbott Vietnam, said that when the supply of vaccines increases, Vietnam needs a strategy to expand the priority subjects to be vaccinated to the business community to realize the "dual goals". Therefore, it is necessary to have a specific and effective mechanism for the business community to work together with the Government.