Businesses look forward to the day HCM City relaxes social distancing

	Avoiding breaking the chain of agricultural production, processing and consumption
	Low disbursement rate reduces efficiency of public investment capital
	Speeding up cargo clearance at Cat Lai port

Workers at Tan Thuan EPZ, HCM City get the second dose of vaccine against Covid-19 on September 5, 2021. Photo: Hong Dao

Expectations of reproduction

In the program "People ask - City answers" on the evening of September 6, Chairman of the HCM City People's Committee Phan Van Mai said that HCM City will consider reopening a number of safe business activities and as well as more policies to support businesses after September 15.

These are positive signs for the business community, especially small and medium-sized businesses that are gradually "exhausted" during prolonged social distancing.

Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy, Director of Thuy Lan Service Trading Production Company Limited, said that her company is specialising in sewing uniforms, due to not meeting the "three in one spot" condition as well as having no raw materials for production án the partners also stopped working with no output, the company had to stop production since June 2021. If the pandemic is controlled and the city relaxes the lockdown, businesses will calculate to reopen operations step by step with a small group size and gradually increase when the pandemic subsides. Only then can the company get rid of the broken chain after a long period of inactivity.

Not only businesses that have stopped production want to reopen soon, but the "three in one spot" enterprises also hopes that HCM City will relax the social distancing in September to make it easier to “breathe”.

A representative of Ba Huan Joint Stock Company said that in the past three months, the company had implement “three in one spot” production model, but it was also quite difficult. The cost of this operation increased by 50%. Businesses will also be exhausted, and workers will be tired and want to quit. Therefore, if in September, HCM City loosens operations for businesses, it will be a very good sign for businesses to recover.

Truong Chi Thien, General Director of VFood, said that businesses are also “short of breath” when implementing “three in one spot”, alarmingly the workforce at the business has decreased sharply. Initially, when businesses implemented “three in one spot”, the number of employees fell by 20%, now it has reduced by 50%, many workers have applied to back home and do not return to the workplace.

In addition, the company's inventory of raw materials is running out. Ff the city will not reopen, businesses will not have enough input materials to continue producing "three in one spot". Because the production facilities of packaging, stamps, labels and animal feed are temporarily closed.

According to Thien, businesses are looking forward to HCM City's gradual reopening from September 15, because if the city doesn't open soon, the production chain will break.

Prioritise vaccinating workers

However, according to businesses, besides the support of capital and policies, vaccination for workers is one of the important factors for businesses to be able to safely resume operations.

Chu Tien Dung, Chairman of the HCM City Union of Business Associations (HUBA), said there should be many conditions for businesses in HCM City and neighboring provinces to resume operations soon. One of the important issues is vaccinating workers. According to HUBA's report, about 84% of businesses in the city have provided the first dose of vaccination for workers, the rest are trying to access the vaccine source and plan to vaccinate soon.

Sharing the same opinion, Nguyen Thai Thanh, Vice Chairman of the HCM City Export Processing zone and Industrial Park Authority (HEPZA) said that having two doses of vaccine helps workers and businesses feel secure in production. The number of workers of "three in one spot" model in Tan Thuan EPZ is currently 9,500 workers. In the coming days, HEPZA will coordinate with medical units in District 7 to organise vaccination for all these workers.

Recently, the HCM City Export Processing Zone and Industrial Park Authority Business Association (HBA) proposed the HCM City People's Committee to "socialise" the organisation of medical personnel to administer the second dose of vaccine to "three in one spot" workers. Because there are thousands of workers working in HCM City but staying in Binh Duong, Long An and Dong Nai, so they cannot travel between the two localities to get vaccinated. Therefore, the city needs to create conditions for businesses to coordinate with medical facilities and functional forces to organise mobile injection points for workers, especially in bordering areas between provinces and HCM City.

Southwest border: Cigarette smuggling is still a problem amid social distancing

Sharing about the plan to cover the first dose of vaccine and timely inject the second dose of vaccine for people from now until September 15, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of HCM City Duong Anh Duc also requested to focus on frontline businesses to implement as quickly as possible. According to Mr. Duc, this is an important preparation step to return to production when HCM City uses the "vaccine green card".