Clothes are made for export at Đồng Tiến Co in Biên Hòa City, Đồng Nai Province. Photo baodongnai.com.vn

ĐỒNG NAI — The southern province of Đồng Nai has been trying to help local firms affected by the COVID-19 outbreak in ensuring supplies of production materials. 

The provincial Department of Industry and Trade has asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade to provide information about sources of foreign materials, mainly for garment-textile, weaving, electronics and mechanics, as imports of materials from China and South Korea that are forecast to be affected by the virus. 

Meanwhile, the province’s People’s Committee has also petitioned tax and customs agencies to postpone periodic inspections on businesses with no signals of violations in 2020 to allow these firms to better deal with operational challenges. The committee also suggested halting social insurance collections from coronavirus-hit firms until the end of June or December. 

Cao Tiến Dũng, chairman of the committee, urged local departments, agencies and localities to slash unnecessary administrative procedures and remove challenges for businesses. 

Statistics from the provincial Department of Industry and Trade revealed that the import turnover of local businesses marked a yearly decrease of 9 per cent to US$2.1 billion in the first two months of this year.

Major industries, comprising garment-textile; leather and footwear; mechanics-manufacturing; chemicals-rubber-plastics; and electricity-electronics mainly rely on materials from China, South Korea and Japan where have been affected by COVID-19.

Apart from difficulties with material supplies, businesses have experienced declines in output and revenue, and increases in labour costs.

A representative from Biên Hòa Tourist Joint Stock Company told local newspaper baodongnai.com.vn that the company had to make up an average loss from VNĐ100 million (US$4,300) to VNĐ150 million ($6,400) for space rental and employees’ salaries to ensure operations.

The company has witnessed a decline of nearly 100 per cent in booked tours in the first two months compared to the same period last year, so it has petitioned local authorities to adopt policies for debt rescheduling and tax reduction as well as a plan to provide zero-interest loans during the period when some enterprises would earn no revenue. — VNS