Enterprises affected by the recent East Sea-related disturbances in the southern province of Dong Nai have asked for the speeding up of loss evaluation of insurance companies for early payment to help them quickly recover and stabilise production and business.

They made the request at a meeting with representatives from the provincial People’s Committee on August 20 to review the assistance given to those affected in incidents sparking from workers’ rallies protesting against China’s illegal actions in Vietnam’s waters in mid-May.

Several businesses also suggested the decrease of credit interest rates to help them access loans to recover production.

The locality’s working group on evaluating losses proposed that the State Bank promptly give guidance on requirements and procedures that the businesses need to do in order to access preferential loans in foreign currency to buy machinery, equipment and materials.

According to the People’s Committee’s statistics, among the 205 businesses hit by the disturbances, 114 have reported total property losses of nearly 377 billion VND (17.7 million USD), while 82 have declined any assistance.

The province’s Taxation Department has to date issued 100 decisions to refund taxes worth 322 billion VND for businesses. The Customs Department has provided assistance for 34 businesses with priorities given to dealing with customs procedures and document submission delay.

The affected enterprises also received advance insurance payment of 37.6 billion VND, while the province waived land rentals worth nearly 13 billion VND for 19 businesses.

At the meeting, the people’s committee said that 451 suspects have been detained so far for their involvement in the riots. Authorised offices have started legal proceedings against 164 suspects and 28 cases. Four cases with five defendants have been tried with the highest sentence of 8 years in prison.-VNA