EuroCham Meets with Provincial Leaders in Ba Ria – Vung Tau to Discuss COVID-19

On 14th September, EuroCham board member Mr. Horst Geicke and Chairman of EuroCham’s Transportation & Logistics Sector Committee Mr. Juergen Weber were honoured to join a bilateral conference organised by Ba Ria – Vung Tau People’s Committees regarding support for businesses to maintain and develop production and business activities in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
  

Members of our EU business community, together with representatives from the German Trade and Industry Chamber, Dutch Business Association, French Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and representatives from EuroCham’s key corporate members in the province shared their current issues and recommendations to the Government and local authorities to address the adverse impact of the pandemic on trade activities in domestic and foreign markets.

In response to our concerns, the leaders of Ba Ria – Vung Tau provinces, including Mr. Pham Viet Thanh, Secretary of the province’s Party Committee and Mr. Nguyen Cong Vinh, Vice Chairman of the province’s People's Committee, reaffirmed their guarantee to immediately implement necessary policies for an effective economic recovery plan. Local authotirties admitted three essential issues in the center of the meeting: the ‘Three-at-site’ policy, the circulation of goods and people across the provinces, and the vaccination campaign. The People’s Committee also emphasized that the control of the pandemic needs to be in accordance with maintaining economic development and, at the same time, ensuring that production is in alignment with the health and safety of workers.

The province’s leaders promised to work with other provincial Councils and with the Southern Key Economic Region Council to find a common solution on alignment of movement policies and provided assurances that 95% of citizens living in Ba Ria – Vung Tau would get vaccinated by the end of 2021.

The Provincial Council urged VCCI to send its recommendations to the Government. Particularly, Mr. Nguyen Cong Vinh, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, was appointed as Head of the Special Joint Task Force of the Province supporting enterprises in Ba Ria – Vung Tau. The general public can contact the Special Joint Task Force directly by email or telephone. In the closing remarks, Mr. Pham Viet Thanh reiterated his expectation to continue strengthening multilateral relations between local authorities and EU enterprises.