In some key industrial areas, such as Bac Giang, Bac Ninh, and others, the pandemic has also attacked industrial parks, where large numbers of enterprises are located, including many participating in global value chains, causing disruption to production activities and supply chains.
There was a period when hundreds of enterprises in Bac Giang had to halt operations while nearly 200,000 workers temporarily lost their jobs.
Currently, the pandemic remains very complicated, spreading to many large industrial cities such as Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai, and others, forcing these localities to implement social distancing.
Long-term production stagnation will negatively affect the health of enterprises, the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers as well as the nation’s economic development goals.
Many enterprises have received orders to make until the end of the third and fourth quarters of this year, so if they cannot deliver in time, they will certainly suffer heavy losses.
To ensure the implementation of the “dual goal”, the Government, ministries and sectors have been working continuously with the 63 provinces and cities, particularly pandemic-hit localities to direct the pandemic prevention and control in industrial parks and production facilities. At the same time, relevant agencies are also proactively assessing the pandemic spread and updating the safety map to live with the pandemic aligned with building suitable production plans.
Each industrial production facility must also self-assess the pandemic safety and develop a plan to maintain production at each level of the pandemic while conducting solutions to ensure disease prevention and control and to avoid production disruption.
The policy of “narrow zoning” and “safe production” has been synchronously implemented by localities, helping to maintain production activities and minimise negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although the pandemic remains complicated in Bac Giang, since the end of May, a number of enterprises have resumed production with the application of new safety procedures.
So far, the province has seen nearly 300 enterprises, with about 75,000 employees, reopening production after the pandemic has been basically put under control.
In the national scale, industrial production has overcome difficulties caused by the pandemic to maintain a positive growth rate. The index of industrial production (IIP) in the first six months of this year was estimated to have increased by 9.3% over the same period last year. In particular, the manufacturing industry rose by 11.6%, continuing to be the main growth driver of the economy.
Experts recommend that enterprises need to thoroughly grasp the policy of “living with the pandemic to maintain production” and follow a safety chain including safe accommodation and transportation for workers and a safe production environment.
Enterprises can arrange 20-30% of its workers to stay at concentrated accommodation areas according to anti-epidemic safety measures. In addition, it is necessary to establish “COVID-19 safety teams” who are responsible for regularly monitoring the implementation of pandemic prevention and control measures at factories.
Enterprises can also consider the plan to reduce capacity to ensure effective isolation and anti-pandemic while maintaining safe production.
In addition, localities need to thoroughly grasp and effectively implement the Prime Minister's directions and draw lessons from practice to better conduct epidemic prevention and control, thus contributing to maintaining and promoting production and preventing the pandemic from entering industrial parks in order to protect the lifeblood of the economy.
