A street in HCM City (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNA) - HCM City is making extra efforts to ensure safe production amid the COVID-19 outbreak, as Vietnam’s largest economic hub is now home to 415,000 businesses with 3.2 million workers.
The city’s Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control has used a set of indicators to measure the risk of infection and classify enterprises permitted to continue operations.
The city has set up inspection teams to monitor the application of such indicators at local enterprises as well as Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s Directive No. 16 on social distancing measures.
Its Centre for Disease Control has guided businesses on how to carry out measures to minimise the risk of infections and recommended they request employees keep a certain distance from each other and wear face masks while at work.
When inspecting businesses at the Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone recently, Chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong asked that close contact be minimised in crowded areas.
He urged businesses to sign commitments to following COVID-19 prevention and control regulations and stepping up the application of IT in prevention efforts.
According to the city’s Management Board of Export Processing and Industrial Zones, it currently has 17 such zones with about 1,100 enterprises and nearly 280,000 workers. Most companies have arranged staggered shifts to ensure social distancing.
Secretary of the HCM City Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan recently asked businesses to strictly follow social distancing measures as regulated in Directive No. 16. “The State does not prevent enterprises from manufacturing, but economic development must meet certain requirements and not pose risks to people’s safety,” he emphasised. “Only when enterprises meet all the criteria on disease prevention will they be permitted to operate.”
According to the city’s Department of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs, 75 percent of the businesses have cut their production since the lunar new year (Tet) holiday in late January, with 600,000 people losing their jobs./.
VNA
