On the morning of September 27th, 2021, the Economic Committee of the National Assembly held a seminar: "Consultation about Socio-Economics" under the chair of Prof. Dr. Vuong Dinh Hue - Chairman of the National Assembly. At the seminar, there were also heads of agencies of the National Assembly. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Hong Chuong – NEU President, Prof. Dr. Hoang Van Cuong – NEU Vice President and economic experts attended the seminar.
Speaking at the seminar, NEU President emphasized that the manufacturing and supplement chain has been partially disrupted due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Clarifying the serious impact of Covid-19 on the supply chain in Vietnam, he illustrated the long-term social distancing had interrupted the manufacturing of 80 percent of textile, leather, and shoe manufacturing factories in Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai, Binh Duong, An Giang, Kien Giang….
"In the central and northern localities, the textile, garment, and footwear businesses only operate at 50% -70% capacity due to social distancing and labor shortage. About 40% of businesses have the ability to fulfill the required condition of “3 on the spot" policy, said Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Hong Chuong.
According to NEU President, the cause came from the view of “prevention is better than cure”, so the change is not timely and passive. Other causes of interrupted circulation and logistics services are the inconsistent implementation of social distancing in localities, labor shortages, slow material supplement, and high cost.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Hong Chuong also emphasized that the pandemic has become a part of life. It is necessary to have a policy from the beginning, including training a qualified community health team, making a careful plan of rapid response for the transition from a "prevention" strategy to a "cure" one.
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Pham Hong Chuong recommended synchronous, unified, and flexible opening policies. At the same time, he suggested it was necessary to mandate policies to encourage enterprises to build short supply chains, replace goods sources, make use of all domestic and local resources to limit excessive dependence on imported raw materials.
Attracting workers back to production activities, social security, especially housing policies for workers in industrial zones are also proposed to discuss at the seminar.