Which plan is safe for businesses?

Businesses expect safe production

Chu Tien Dung, Chairman of the Business Association of HCM City, said HCM City has issued policies to support businesses to reduce difficulties, but, due to pandemic prevention, the city would issue more drastic policies, which also inevitably affects businesses’ production.

According to the leader of the Business Association of HCM City, the municipal People's Committee has issued an urgent plan to prevent and control the pandemic, which requires maintaining and stabilising safe production, avoiding disruption of supply chains, food production, equipment, and medical supplies; and increasing the rate of about 5-10% of businesses to return to production in safe conditions.

To achieve the goal, the city facilitated and guided firms to produce safely in the conditions of pandemic prevention based on one of four options.

Option one, firms implement the "three on-site" or the "three on-site in shift". Option two, enterprises implement the "one route - two destinations" or the expanded "one route - two destinations"; allowing them to set up concentrated accommodation at different locations and to transport workers from concentrated places to working places.

A new option (option three), businesses operate under the "four green" model including green workers, green routes, green production areas, and green living places. In particular, "green workers" can travel using their personal vehicle between their "green production area" and "green living place" along the "green route". in option four, firms can combine the models in the above options.

According to businesses, of the above four options, options two and three are suitable for many units. In fact, most firms have adjusted their production models on the basis of maintaining the "three on-site". Some other units are considering switching to the "four green" model. However, "green routes" and "green living places" are not decided by businesses, but need support from local authorities.

Businesses also expected the city to vaccinate their workforce. Simultaneously, they are in need of a synchronous and drastic implementation of solutions to support them in the medical sector, testing, transportation, and human resources from the city government for smooth production and circulation.

Regarding vaccination, Tran Doan Trung, Vice Chairman of the HCM City Confederation of Labor said besides more than 80% of workers in industrial parks and export processing zones in HCM City receiving the first dose of vaccine, there were still about 390,000 workers in firms with more than 200 employees who had not been vaccinated. Currently, the unit has implemented support packages for employees. Up to now, there have been 1,400 firms, with more than 100,000 employees registered to operate in HCM City. However, many units struggle to support workers because they cannot connect them due to complex pandemic developments.

Per Pham Thanh Truc, Deputy Head of the Management Board of Export Processing Zones and Industrial Parks in HCM City, as of August 15, there were 650 firms, with 51,000 employees registered to operate under the “three on-site”. However, many units faced difficulties and had to reduce production activities. During implementation, although firms strictly controlled people in and out and tested periodically, F0 was still detected after many negative tests. Fortunately, 4,100 F0 workers recovered very well because they were vaccinated in June, so no bad developments occurred.

Some businesses suggested that the State should support the cost of Covid-19 testing, and they will be proactive in production and business activities, proactively control health at firms; grouping and dividing workers' shifts to limit  the spread of infection in their units.