Expecting second support package has long-term vision and forecast

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Dr. Mac Quoc Anh

Could you please provide a preliminary assessment on the efficiency ofthe first economic support package issued by the Government?

- The policies in the first support package proposed by the Government as well as ministries and branches are very suitable with the needs and aspirations of businesses. However, the unfortunate thing is that this package is still deployed slowly, and the disbursement time for the support package to reach businesses is not fast. Moreover, the beneficiaries of the support policies are not wide, even many policies make the conditions too difficult compared to the actual situation of most businesses. Typically, a credit package of VND16,000 billion with an interest rate of 0%/year for businesses damaged by Covid-19 to pay employees' wages, this package offers many difficult policies. So far, there is only one enterprise eligible to borrow capital, while for enterprises in difficulty, how can they be eligible to meet such requirements.

To avoid problems in the first support package, in your opinion, how should the second support package be fixed?

- Up to now, we still do not have official information about the second economic support package, even if this package will be available or not, but support for businesses at this moment is still very necessary. Therefore, businesses still expect the state to bring out the second support package. However, the important thing that businesses want is that the conditions and procedures for receiving support of this second package are not strict as in the first time.

For example, in the VND16,000 billion support package, the management agency should remove the requirement that enterprises have paid at least 50% of their work stoppage wages to employees from April 1 to June 30, because if the enterprise is in adifficult situation, it is impossible to pay staff salaries.

Regarding finance, the regulators need to encourage banks to cut more interest rates, increase unsecured loans, facilitate and reduce loan conditions for businesses in difficulty.

Moreover, activities of import and export should also be promoted, relevant agencies need to support faster settlement of procedures, expand exports for powerful products, bringing high added value to the economy.

In addition, policies on deferral and postponement should be replaced by reductionsfrom tax fees to interest rates and reduction of conditions.

At present, the Covid-19 pandemic is still complicated and may continue until next year, while the current supporting policies stipulate the delay for a certain time, from three to six months. So, in my opinion, the new policies come to fix in the direction of delay and reduction until the end of 2020 and into 2021. The pandemic is long-term, the short-term support policies will affect the long-term planning strategy.

Therefore, the supporting policies should be made with a long-term vision and forecast.

However, we still need to distinguish which sectors and fields should be prioritized for support, in your opinion, which sectors should they be?

Of course, the policy making needs to include orientations on sectors and industries that prioritize development. We should focus on the industries that contribute to the integration process, which are the spearheads and strengths of Vietnamese enterprises, suitable for international markets such as: industry, processing, manufacturing, technology, software.

Along with that, the authorities need to create conditions to create businesses that lead small and medium enterprises to follow, forming a new supply chain.

Thank you Sir!