Vietnam struggles to keep open manufacturing hub Binh Duong as Covid-19 cases surge

Binh Duong province is the country’s second-largest recipient of accumulated foreign direct investment after nearby Ho Chi Minh City. The government expects 50,000 new cases there in the next fortnight

The government allowed factories in industrial zones to stay open if they provided on-site accommodation or direct transport for employees, but the outbreak has complicated this approach

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Vietnamese troops have been deployed to Ho Chi Minh City to oversee the enforcement of stay-at-home orders and 2,000 soldiers will be sent to Binh Duong. Photo: AFP

Published: 9:30am, 27 Aug 2021Updated: 4:24pm, 27 Aug 2021

For almost two months, Sang Luu has been impatiently working at home earning half his previous salary, counting the days until it is safe for Vietnam’s economy to reopen.

The 32-year-old, who lives in the southern province of Binh Duong, sells plastic injection moulding machines for a Vietnamese company that imports machinery from China and resells to local and foreign buyers.

“We can’t deliver our products. We only have a few stocks left but we couldn’t even sell them,” Luu said, referring to the broken supply chain caused by Covid-19 lockdown restrictions imposed on at least one-third of Vietnam’s 63 provinces and cities, including the entire southern region.

In response to the current outbreak, the Vietnamese government has allowed factories in industrial zones to continue operating if they can provide on-site accommodation – known as the “3 on-site” model – or provide transport to ensure employees go straight to the accommodation arranged for them after work. Those who cannot fulfil the conditions must close temporarily.

Luu’s wife, a migrant from northern Vietnam, is a factory worker in Singaporean industrial estate VSIP. She has also been at home, receiving a minimum salary from her company because she refused to stay at her workplace like her colleagues. Her employer tried to apply the 3 on-site model but some workers tested positive for Covid-19.

“If she had gone to work, she would have been sent to quarantine,” said Luu, who has a one-year-old daughter. “The 3 on-site model is not safe … Our savings are running out. [I] hope the outbreak can be over soon so we can come back to work.”

Vietnam’s outbreak, which surged in April, has damaged its export-dependent economy, particularly in Binh Duong province, which is the country’s second-largest recipient of accumulated foreign direct investment (FDI) after nearby Ho Chi Minh City.