VCCI: businesses need support in COVID-19 pandemic ​ hinh anh 1DACE JSC receives numerous purchase orders after Tet, but has difficulty in shipping products to the European, US markets due to COVID-19. It has upto 40 percent of its products stuck in the store. (Photo: Vietnamplus)

Hanoi (VNA) - The COVID-19 outbreak becomes more complicated globally, causing the world economy to decline rapidly and seriously. In that context, the domestic economy was also significantly affected. The General Statistics Office stated that the GDP growth rate reached 3.82 Q1, the lowest level in the last decade.

Economic experts say that in this context, small and micro enterprises, individual business households will be vulnerable to the consequences of the pandemic, even leading to financial crisis. and the economic loses without timely support.

According to experts from the University of Economics, the GDP growth in the second quarter is about 2 percent. It is expected to reach three percent in the third quarter.

According to Nguyen Bich Lam, GSO General Director, GSO has built two scenarios where the COVID-19 pandemic lasts until the end of the second quarter or third quarter, the annual GDP growth is expected to exceed five percent.

Vietnam's growth is forecast by the World Bank to reach 4.9 percent in 2020. The figure is expected to reach 7.5 percent in 2021 and stablize at 6.5 percent in 2022.

VCCI: businesses need support in COVID-19 pandemic ​ hinh anh 2Van Phan Seafood Processing JSC has made staff redundant and halted production since April 1 due to COVID-19 pandemic (Photo: Vietnamplus)
 

Meanwhile, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) forecasts Vietnam's economic growth to drop to 4.8 percent and 6.8 percent, respectively in 2020 and 2021.

Economic experts have agreed that small and micro enterprises and individual business households will be the most vulnerable to the consequences of the pandemic, even leading to financial crises.

A group of experts from the National Economics University conducted a survey on 500 enterprises impacted by the COVID-19 epidemic. The result showed 93.9 percent of the respondees said the epidemic had a negative impact on their business. their business. In addition, 44.7 percent said they cut down their production and business scale; 65.5 percent had tightened costs; 35.3 percent made staff redundant; 34 percent reduced staff wages and 34.5 percent gave workers unpaid leave.

VCCI: businesses need support in COVID-19 pandemic ​ hinh anh 3Dai Thuan Thien JSC stops buying fruits of farmers in the Mekong Delta region as it cannot ship goods to the north. (Photo: Vietnamplus)

Notably, out of the surveyed enterprises, 34.7 percent chose to "hibernate" until the difficult time ends while only 15.1 percent adapt their production to the new context.

WB Country Director Ousmane Dione said Vietnamese Government should urgently implement supporting activities, especially for micro enterprises and individual household businesses, while improving institutions and the business environment to promote this sector.

According to Nguyen Bich Lam, support for the business community should be about finding markets importing input raw materials. Besides, businesses need to explore the domestic market, reforming products and services to meet the need of the nearly 100 million people.

“Consumption among the population is strong and stable, which is an important factor to the GDP growth. There should be a policy to gradually replace imported goods with Vietnamese goods. Retail system should be improved, especially in remote and isolated areas while effectively implementing the program 'Vietnamese products conquer Vietnamese people' to support  domestic enterprises in the difficult time,” Lam stressed.

Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) Vu Tien Loc, said that VCCI is continuing to conduct surveys on a large scale of businesses to assess the impact of pandemic to business activities, especially in workers' employment.

Previously, VCCI proposed to the Government 12 solutions to support businesses impacted by the COVID-19 epidemic, including stimulus packages to encourage domestic consumption.

In recent years, the Government has introduced measures to support businesses during the difficult time, such as reducing taxes and fees, reducing interest rates and loosening credit conditions, promoting administration reforms./.


VNA