The Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association, Vietnam Electronic Industries Association, and Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of Ho Chi Minh City said a company called Royal Strategic Partner is willing to sell vaccines, and the Vietnamese embassy in the UAE has held a meeting with the company to assess its ability to do so.

The four groups want the government to either negotiate directly with the company to buy the vaccines or identify an agency for this to ensure their workers are vaccinated by early next month.

They said over 90 percent of their member businesses have suspended work after the fourth Covid wave began in late April, disrupting supply chains and eroding the trust foreign players have in buying from Vietnam.

The four industries together export nearly $150 billion worth of products annually, or nearly 60 percent of the country’s total.

They employ eight million workers and another 12.5 million indirectly earn a livelihood from them.

The government is seeking to speed up vaccination for the country’s nearly 100 million people of whom 5.5 million have received the first dose and 546,400 others have got two.