The Hoang Vu Ltd. Co. in the Bac Tu Liem industrial complex, Hanoi. In the first six months of 2021, Hanoi had 13,125 newly registered enterprises (Photo: VNA) According to asurvey conducted by the Hanoi Association of Small and Medium Enterprises(Hanoisme) among 1,500 of its member businesses, 57 percent of them areoperating moderately and 38 percent are at normal operation levels. Enterprisesthat are temporarily suspending operations or waiting for dissolution accountedfor 2.6 percent, while only 1.4 percent are seeing good performance.
Thoseenterprises faced difficulties in capital and production due to having tocomply with pandemic prevention regulations, said the association.
Hanoisme ViceChairman and General Secretary Mac Quoc Anh said that to support small andmedium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the association has organised trade promotionprogrammes and is pushing for greater networking among enterprises.
Theassociation has also organised seminars on digital transformation, helping SMEsto change their business models to the new COVID-19-driven move to digital.
In addition,Anh has proposed that Hanoi exempt enterprises from land use tax for six monthsof 2021 to compensate for periods of suspended production in 2020 and 2021 dueto COVID-19.
Anh alsoflagged reducing administrative procedures for businesses to make it easier forthem to attract investment. In particular, red tape obstructing theconstruction of production facilities.
Meanwhile,industry and trade associations have been asked to conduct surveys ofenterprises and business households regarding their ability to access capitaland commercial leases.
The surveys,requested by the Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade, will be used to makerecommendations to the Hanoi People's Committee on ways to support thoseenterprises and business households as well as their employees during theCOVID-19 pandemic, said Tran Thi Phuong Lan, the department’s acting director.
Due tonegative impacts from COVID-19, the Hanoi Department of Transport has proposedthe People's Committee to approve the adjustment of capacity and revenuetargets in public passenger transport by buses in 2021; and support in loaninterest of 2021 for investment projects of replacing buses to improve servicequality.
The transportdepartment noted that inter-provincial passenger transport of the city in Mayonly reached 47 percent of capacity compared to April and decreased by 28.7 percentover the same period in 2020. Of which, bus transport decreased by 30 percentin capacity year on year and 41.5 percent month on month. The revenue from bustransport also dropped by 40 percent and 51.2 percent, respectively.
The revenue ofthe transport companies has decreased, while they must pay large expenses suchas interest on bank loans, taxes, land rent, road usage fees, parking fees andsalaries for workers.
The HanoiPeople's Committee passed a Directive on supporting small and medium-sizedenterprises in the city back in December 2020.
The aim ofthis Directive was to maintain an average growth rate of new businesses at 10 percentper year (or about 30,000 enterprises); and creation of about 1.5 million newjobs. SMEs will contribute 25 percent to total export turnover, 40 percent tothe city's GDP and 30 percent to the city's budget./.
VNA
