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Ho Chi Minh City is piloting the opening according to the scenarios of the "Living with the virus" strategy. This is the plan that has been and is expected by many businesses to solve the difficulties when extending "1 road, 2 points"; "3 spot". Especially for businesses, Industrial Parks (IZs) often use a very large scale of labor, the more headache they have to ensure to keep the business and keep the workers safe. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Trong Hoai, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City shared and proposed solutions according to him that can support businesses in this reopening plan.

-Ho Chi Minh City is piloting the opening in a safe direction with Industrial Parks (IZs), what do you think about working as workers in industrial zones today? With a distance of more than 100 days in Ho Chi Minh City, workers in industrial zones have two forms: about 20% stay to work according to the principle of 3-in-place isolation, the rest more than 50% avoid the epidemic by returning to their hometown to live and 30 The remaining % just stay at home according to the principle of who is there waiting for work. Up to this point, whether working or waiting for work, employees have aspirations to return to normal soon so that they can work and earn as before.
- According to GS, how does the opening plan of Ho Chi Minh City affect employment and income of workers in industrial zones?

Ho Chi Minh City as well as the whole country realize that there can't be a new normal from the point of view of non-COVID-19 but we have to live with it as an endemic disease. It is very difficult to make it disappear because there are many variables that are difficult to predict. If the extreme distance continues, it will damage the livelihoods of more than 300,000 workers in the industrial park in particular and other workers in general. However, access to green and yellow cards applies to employees, although with the goal of creating opportunities for workers to re-engage in their previous jobs, the regulations are too strict on the terms of employment. Other implementation events associated with green cards and yellow cards may partly make it difficult for workers to access jobs and income in industrial zones in Ho Chi Minh City.
- Can you say what the specific difficulties are?

The first difficulty is the regulation on green residence of workers with green card. Currently, more than 50% of workers from industrial zones come from other localities and they have returned to their hometown to avoid the epidemic in a natural way. If this number is called back, they cannot comply with the green accommodation condition because they returned to HCMC from an area that has not been recognized as green or returned to the place of residence where most of the previous hostels also could not be considered green.
 

The second difficulty so far, only about 40% of workers in industrial zones have fully completed 2 vaccines. Because they no longer reside in Ho Chi Minh City, the focus on injections is according to the priority subjects of the city. Ho Chi Minh City for IP is not complete. The number of workers with green cards in industrial zones will be difficult to achieve for at least the next two months or even the end of the year. Therefore, it will be difficult for the IZ to have enough workers even if it is a new hire, while the former workers in the IZ who have not yet had a green card may have to wait for a job, their livelihood will continue to be difficult. 

- So how will the pilot implementations of Ho Chi Minh City for IPs in green areas such as Cu Chi, Can Gio, District 7 affect the employment of workers who have joined the IPs in the areas. this, sir?
In principle, industrial zones such as Tan Thuan, Northwest Cu Chi, Southeast, Automotive Mechanics, and Tan Phu Trung, if they adhere to the 4 green principle as prescribed by Ho Chi Minh City, will create jobs for about 40% of workers. activities in industrial zones. But as mentioned, the number of workers in the industrial zones in the pilot green areas is difficult to concentrate when most of them have returned to their hometown to avoid the epidemic. In addition, regulations on 3 on-site testing and periodic testing, as well as distinguishing workers with green cards and yellow cards at work, will make it difficult for businesses in industrial zones. Production costs will increase due to the cost of periodic testing for COVID-19 and production lines and accommodation for two groups of workers with different levels of COVID safety: yellow and green cards.

- What solutions do you recommend for workers in industrial zones to have safe jobs again to ensure their livelihoods in this new opening condition?
Ho Chi Minh City continues to prioritize the coverage of enough vaccines for 60% of the workers who joined the industrial zone before, even though they were in different localities, so that they can return to production soon - where they worked before. This also allows enterprises in industrial zones in Ho Chi Minh City to gradually resume operations at the same capacity according to the green card principle.

In my opinion, the key principle for workers to get their jobs back is to have a green card, while other regulations should only be guiding to reduce the risk of infection during production in industrial zones. Since obtaining a green card is the main principle and other regulations, such as 3 in place, in the long term, it should not be a mandatory condition in the context of opening up under the new approach. This regulation causes workers to live in long isolation from their families and relatives, so they cannot rest assured of production, and at the same time increases the costs that more than 80% of enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City are facing due to more than 3 months of stopping or production. 

I think, should not be too rigid in applying green 4 for workers and industrial zones. When living with COVID-19, medical safety comes first, that is, how to reduce the number of hospitalizations or deaths, but not the number of F0 cases. Thus, the concept of green areas, green places, green roads will be difficult to implement. Therefore, it is advisable to assign the management of employee safety to enterprises according to general regulations, instead of having too specific and too rigid regulations as at present. In addition, each industrial park should have a mobile medical station to monitor the medical safety of workers and businesses, and at the same time support industrial park enterprises to deal with risks when F0 cases arise according to regulations. regulations of the health sector. This will give workers and businesses more peace of mind during the restart process.

In addition, in the long term, in the industrial zones according to the internal planning approach or the accommodation services outside the IZ, it is necessary to arrange safe places for workers to ensure minimum medical safety, even It is even necessary to specify clearly that the residences that make up the majority of workers in Ho Chi Minh City are currently overcrowded hostels with a very high risk of infection that we have experienced during the last epidemic.
-Thank you GS!

Reference as Dien Dan Doanh Nghiep