Coronavirus threatens to push a large number of Vietnamese firms into bankruptcy

Up to 74 percent of Vietnamese business owners said their businesses could not survive if the coronavirus epidemic last in six month, VnExpress cited result of a recent survey on 1,200 enterprises conducted by the Private Economic Development Research Board.

With business slowdown, revenue is not enough for the firms to pay for business activities including salaries, bank loan interest, premises rent.

Nearly 30 percent of enterprises are facing up to 50 percent in revenue loss, while 60% of the firms have more than half of revenue drop.

Firms operating in tourism, education, textiles, leather and footwear, furniture manufacturing are getting the hardest hit from the epidemic.  

As a major supplier of raw materials, China is also a market that consumes 60-70% of Vietnam's total of wood export of woodchip and 67% of total exported paper. "The possibility for these enterprises to shut down businesses is high, affecting many millions of workers, said the board.

During the first two months of this year, nearly 16,200 businesses suspended operations, an increase of 19.5 percent from a year ago, according to the General Statistics Office.

The government has announced a support package worth $1.16 billion to help businesses cope with the coronavirus epidemic while help the economy stick to its 6.8% growth target this year.

Under instruction of Vietnam’s central bank, local lenders have also announced a credit package worth of VND285 trillion ($12.3 billion) to support enterprises to stand against the coronavirus crisis.

► Vietnam’s central bank proposes $12.3bln credit package for virus-hit firms’ revival

► Vietnam announces $1.16bln stimulus package to help virus-hit firms

Source: VnExpress