In the past two months, compared to southern businesses that were not or have not been affected, northern businesses were heavily and directly affected by the third epidemic.
Reporting to the Prime Minister, the Office of the Private Economic Development Research Board (Division IV) said that businesses first encounter difficulties in attracting workers.
Next, the supply chain and production chain in many industrial zones are facing difficulties due to goods being congested when transported through epidemic-affected localities like Hai Duong.
Trucks with Hai Duong license plates traveling on the Hanoi – Hai Phong highway were asked to turn around and go another direction on February 22.
Many businesses said that due to travel restriction policies and quarantine measures of neighboring provinces, especially Hai Phong, the purchasing and transportation of agricultural products from Hai Duong to Hai Phong Port is congested.
According to information from the Hai Duong Shipping Association, there have been over 100 agricultural export orders, equivalent to 650 40-foot containers, that have had to cancel ship schedules and contracts since the outbreak and circulation stopped.
The transport sector alone is also greatly affected when many passenger transport teams report that they only operate 20-30% of their current vehicles.
Covid-19 broke out again at the beginning of the year, causing the number of people traveling by train and car to decrease sharply even though this is the time near Tet, travel demand is high.
Many businesses in the Transport Association and Logistics Association also reported having to make detours to avoid epidemic areas, incurring additional costs.
During the outbreak, some localities implemented social distancing, restricted travel, and closed shops.
For export businesses, the biggest difficulty is still the problem of lack of empty containers.
Faced with these problems, associations recommend a number of measures.
With vehicles serving import and export goods entering Hai Phong ports, localities can research and build separate circulation corridors to not disrupt the supply chain of goods.
Another solution is to register a list of drivers who have implemented epidemic prevention measures as a condition for driving vehicles, and at the same time have a specialized agency monitor vehicle operations through surveillance equipment.
Regarding Covid-19 testing for drivers, businesses recommend that people residing in any locality be given conditions by the health agency of that locality to take samples and return test results, and are not required to return to their place of posting.
In addition, the Government can consider reducing road tolls during epidemic outbreaks on highways where transport companies have to change routes because old routes are quarantined due to the epidemic.
The enterprise also proposed to quickly establish an information channel to update all directive and administrative documents from central to local levels for timely and synchronous capture.
