Businesses expect more flexible mechanism for import of Covid-19 vaccines
Instead, the Covid-19 vaccine should be considered a kind of commodity that has been certified and recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and approved by the Ministry of Health of Vietnam.
Le Bich Loan, Deputy Head of the Management Board of Ho Chi Minh City Hi-Tech Park, suggested that the Ministry of Health only need to point out what Covid-19 vaccine of specific manufacturing enterprises are allowed to import. Importers will find ways to buy producing enough legality for the imported vaccine batch to conform to the type prescribed by the Ministry of Health.
Instead of designating what enterprises are allowed to import with complicated administrative procedures, the Ministry of Health should co-certificate on WHO-recognized Covid-19 vaccines. Only when the Ministry assumes co-certification of vaccine, the immunization coverage will be improved benefiting the community, especially helping businesses maintain production when their workers are fully vaccinated.
Currently, 500 out of 1,000 foreign-invested enterprises in HCMC are present in the global supply chain. Parent companies of these enterprises are located in the United States, Europe, Japan, Korea. These countries have been producing vaccines and have an abundant supply of vaccines to the markets of other countries. Parent companies themselves expressed their desires to supply vaccines to enterprises in Vietnam. However, with the present mechanism, the supply of vaccines is hardly done. As a result, many subsidiaries of foreign enterprises are at risk of being interrupted and bounced off the global supply chain.
Ms. Loan revealed in the past time, foreign enterprises operating in Saigon Hi-Tech Park have proposed to the Management Board of the park that they expected the government to allow their parent enterprises to transfer Covid-19 vaccines to the subsidiary enterprises in Vietnam.
For instance, Intel product Vietnam Company, Jabill Vietnam Company, Samsung Group, Nidec Sankyo Vietnam Group with a very large number of more than 10,000 workers are at great risk of having to stop production, be knocked out of the supply chain, or go bankrupt as with the current distribution of vaccines, these companies will hardly achieve herd immunity and maintain stable production soon.
Previously, four Vietnamese business associations, namely Textile & Garment, Electronics, Leather, Footwear - Handbag, Fine Arts and Wood Processing have requested the Government to support the associations' enterprises to buy Covid-19 vaccines. Immediately after that, the Prime Minister directed the Ministry of Health to urgently negotiate with partners and increase the supply of vaccines for businesses of the associations.
Pham Xuan Hong, Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Textile, Embroidery and Knitting Association added that many member enterprises of these associations had to stop production from July 15 because they could not ensure the "3 on-site" regulation. And these businesses can only resume operations if all employees are inoculated with Covid-19 vaccines. However, with the current vaccine import mechanism, the amount of imported vaccines is very limited.
