Producing wooden furniture for export to EU market at Tuyen Quang WOODSLAND JSC. Photo: VNA.
The above comment was made in the report "Evaluating the effectiveness of policies to support businesses affected by the COVID-19 epidemic", through analysis of survey data for 355 businesses in 46 provinces/cities and group discussion with 9 business associations in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (from August 18 to September 8, 13) and 9 policy enforcement agencies.
The survey shows signs of business recovery in 2022 such as good revenue growth (10,4%). However, analyzing the data deeply, this growth was achieved thanks to the low starting effect caused by the sharp decline during the COVID-19 epidemic. According to calculations from the data of surveyed businesses, the actual growth in 2022 is 0,8% compared to 2019, which is only close to returning to the level before the epidemic. That raises the issue of needing measures from the State to support and promote the growth rate to continue to increase further in the following years.
Nine groups of challenges listed by enterprises include: High inflation/prices of goods/materials; crisis risks and increased costs directly from suppliers; the quality of human resources is unsatisfactory due to low skills/lack of skills; difficult and/or uncertain logistics operations; labor shortage; change and lack of transparency in regulations related to governance/environment/society; technology/digital and cybersecurity-related risks; ethical/legal/reputational risks of distributors/intermediaries and agents; difficult to access bank capital.
In which, the three biggest challenges in 3 - 2022 are high inflation/commodity/material prices, affecting 2023% of the total number of surveyed enterprises; Crisis risk and increase in direct costs from suppliers, affecting 70,1% of total surveyed enterprises and unsatisfactory quality of human resources due to low skills/lack of skills, affecting 62,3% of total surveyed enterprises.
Comparing these results with other studies shows that there are similar results, such as a survey by the Ministry of Planning and Investment in the second quarter of 2022, which stated that logistics costs, input material costs and capital costs are burdens that erode profits of enterprises; Or the Business Environment Index report released by the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham) in September 9, up to one-third of the Association's member enterprises encountered major obstacles in issues related to labor supply.
Financial difficulties continue to be a major difficulty for businesses after the blockade orders are lifted with more than half (52,3%) of surveyed businesses in 2022. The proportion of businesses facing financial difficulties remains high compared to 2019, the time before the outbreak.
The causes of financial difficulties of enterprises are still the traditional causes that existed both before and during the COVID-19 epidemic, including: Backlog of receivables, high production and business costs, high interest rates and decline in the ability to pay due loans/debts. In the context of great political upheaval due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the post-pandemic world economy or China's COVID-2022 prevention and control policies, the business associations surveyed all agreed that these difficulties are aggravating and adding new difficulties (such as transportation prices, changing procurement demand, etc.), which greatly affect businesses in the second half of 2023 and early XNUMX.
According to a report by the Handicraft and Woodworking Association of Ho Chi Minh City (HAWA), sea freight rates increased by 5 times higher than before, causing many foreign customers of the enterprise to constantly postpone the delivery date, delay receiving goods, which affects the cash flow of the business.
Report "Evaluating the effectiveness of policies to support businesses affected by the COVID-19 epidemic" conducted by the Prime Minister's Advisory Council on Administrative Procedure Reform through the Technical Assistance Project Promote reform and enhance connectivity of small and medium enterprises (LinkSME) of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). LinkSME supports research and evaluation of the effectiveness of these policies to seek lessons learned in the design and implementation of government support programs and policies. The study is expected to make recommendations to the Prime Minister and the Government on amendments or improvements to the implementation of current business support programs and policies related to production recovery after the COVID-19 epidemic. XNUMX, improve access to support packages of small and medium enterprises.
Recently, Minister, Chairman of the Government Office Tran Van Son, Chairman of the Advisory Council on Administrative Procedure Reform of the Prime Minister has sent a document to the Ministers of Ministries, heads of ministerial-level agencies and agencies attached to the Government; Chairpersons of People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities should study and refer to this report to improve the business and investment environment.
