A worker on a production line of Kydo Vietnam Garment Ltd.Co in northern Hung Yen Province. (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnamese businesses have voiced their concernsover the struggle to cope with the coronavirus due to a lack of raw materials.
Mai Xuan Duong, President of the Garment and Textile Association in Hung Yen province,said while businesses had not been affected that much, the possibility oflacking materials in the coming months seemed real.
“Most of our materials such as cloth and thread are imported from China. Reportsshow we only have enough to last for another month,” Dương said.
“Due to the epidemic in China, our suppliers can not ensure the materials wehave ordered will be delivered. It’s almost unavoidable that businesses in Vietnamwill lack materials at this time,” he said.
He said such shortage would result in businesses having to temporarily suspendoperations, with workers being laid off, for two to four weeks.
The damage was obvious, he said.
Some 5,000 garment businesses in Vietnam employ 2.5 million workers. Even ifworkers are laid off due to lack of production materials, businesses will stillhave to pay them.
The garment and textile sector is not the only one affected.
Nguyen Van Manh, a driver for the North-South Passenger Bus Company said in thepast month, the number of passengers had dropped sharply, so his company wasplanning on cutting services and laying off drivers like him.
Meanwhile, Nguyen Quoc Anh, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Rubber PlasticManufacturers Association (HRPMA), said production of rubber and plastic in Vietnamwas largely dependent on China with 70 percent of materials imported from thecountry.
“If our Chinese partner aren't able to supply materials in the next month, wewill have to import them from Japan or the Republic of Korea at higher prices.We won’t be able to make a profit because we signed contracts for these goodsyears ago,” he said.
Vu Minh Tien, Director of the Institute of Workers and Unions under theMinistry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said laws on labour and socialsecurity state that in certain cases when labourers are laid off temporarily,businesses could temporarily suspend paying their social insurance.
“I think both businesses and labourers need to share these difficulties toovercome the situation,” Tien said./.
VNA
