Trumps policies

Hanoi (VNS/VNA) – Businesses may have several additional months before they have to pay income tax and land-use fees , per a proposal from the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to the Government.

The ministry proposed a five-month extension for business VAT tax, a three-month extension for income tax (for certain businesses only) and land-use fees, which may result in a more than 5 billion USD reduction in the State’s budget collection during the first half of 2021.

The proposal also included household and private businesses in sectors eligible for support as well as their income tax.

The MoF said the State budget would still even out as taxpayers were expected to make full payments by the end of the fiscal year while citing numerous difficulties faced by the business community in dealing with the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic as grounds for the proposal.

The ministry stressed the importance of allowing businesses to hold on to their cash as it’s essential to the country’s economic recovery. This is the third proposal made by the ministry in support of the business sector.

Last year, tax offices issued extensions for nearly 185,000 businesses with a total tax payable of 3.8 billion USD with the main benefits being 14 domestic car manufactures to the tune of 870 million USD.

Economist Dinh Trong Thinh said the Government must do more to support the business community, saying it is an important factor in maintaining social and economic security. He, however, added inspection and oversight of support policies must be thorough to prevent waste and corruption.

Head of the General Department of Taxation Cao Anh Tuan said reviews had been conducted by his department to gauge the damage caused by the pandemic to the business sector and local tax offices have been instructed to submit reports on if and how the pandemic has affected businesses under their jurisdiction.

The department has also established online channels to answer tax-related questions, carried out administrative reforms and simplified the inspection process to support businesses./.

VNA

The Youth4Climate Initiative is implemented under UNDP “Climate Promise,” a global programme through which UNDP is committed to supporting 115 countries in enhancing their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), by 2020.

In Vietnam, the Youth4Climate Initiative aims to strengthen the capacity of existing youth representatives and networks to advance climate actions at national and international forums, through consistent and coordinated efforts and enhanced collaboration with the Government, UN agencies, development partners, private sector, and civil society organizations in future climate initiatives and policies.

At the Conference, the results of the recent global UNDP’s survey – “People’s Climate Vote” – were shared. Similar to the majority of respondents across the world, 64 percent of respondents from Vietnam declared that they are facing a global climate emergency, with 60 percent of them suggesting urgent responses. The Peoples’ Climate Vote is the largest survey of public opinion on climate change ever conducted, with the participation of 1.2 million people from 50 different countries.

In his remarks, Pham Van Tan, Deputy Director-General of the MONRE’s Department of Climate Change, said climate change response has remained among of the top missions of the whole political system. Vietnam adopted and enforced the Paris Agreement shortly after it was signed in 2015, he said.

He further noted that Vietnam’s commitments to the global response to climate change were also included in the revised Law on Environmental Protection adopted by the National Assembly last November.

“In order to implement the NDC targets, we need a strong will, determination, efforts and join collaboration from all socio-economic groups, of which Youth Union members and youth, as our future leaders, are playing an important role,” Tan noted.

“Youth are the powerhouse for innovation and action, and it is our role, as UNDP Vietnam, to help them reach capacity,” Caitlin Wiesen, UNDP Resident Representative in Vietnam, highlighted. By empowering young people, Vietnam can unleash new potential for the implementation of the Paris Agreement and its NDCs in the future, she added.

Nguyen Ngoc Luong, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union shared that “we are willing to introduce new creative initiatives that can attract the mass participation of youth and generate momentum for youth to respond to climate change as part of their self-awareness and continuous lifestyle.”

During the conference, youth presented the key findings of the Special Report ‘Youth for Climate Action in Vietnam,’ which is the first report fully led and co-written by 20 outstanding youth at the National Writeshop organized in December 2020. The co-authors were selected based on their outstanding performance during the three regional Youth4Climate consultations from July to November 2020.

The Special Report depicts the bottlenecks youth have faced in undertaking climate action as well as the accelerators they identified to fast track their contributions to the NDC implementation and the transition to a greener and low-carbon Vietnam in four key thematic areas: (i) Climate Mitigation, (ii) Climate Adaptation, (iii) Nature-based Solutions, and (ii) Climate Policies.

Mai Hoang, the youthlead reporter said she hopes the report will be widely shared with the Government of Vietnam and other stakeholders for our voices to be heard.

Source: VNA

Prioritizing the production of convenience goods

Mr. Vu Duc Giang, Chairman of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vitas), shared that the Covid-19 pandemic, which lasted from the beginning of last year to now, had significantly changed the structure of products of the garment and textile industry. For instance, the line of suits, high-end men’s and women’s shirts, and high-end women’s dresses had been reduced by 80 percent. On the contrary, the product line of mid-range and convenient products, home wear dresses, and spandex products had highly increased, especially in the main export market of the US.

Sharing the same point of view, Mr. Le Tien Truong, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex), said that from last year to now, enterprises under the group have rapidly changed their commodity structure from high-end suits and high-end men’s and women’s shirts to protective clothing and knitwear. This change is also considered the main demand trend in 2021.

Not only that, the garment and textile importers of Vietnam in many markets around the world also have changes in selecting export enterprises. Accordingly, priority is given to the import of apparel products of enterprises that are committed to environmental protection, such as adopting measures to minimize waste generation, enhance recyclability, and reduce the use of fossil energy. As for fabric materials, priority is also given to environmentally friendly fabrics that do not use chemicals in the process of weaving and dyeing or dyeing without generating wastewater.

The transformation in consumer tastes and the search for partners has forced Vietnamese enterprises to quickly convert their investments to suit the new market needs.

According to Mr. Vu Duc Giang, three development strategies had been quickly deployed by domestic garment and textile enterprises. Firstly, they would review all the changes in consumer demand in the export markets. Particularly, they would focus on reviewing carefully key markets, such as the US, which accounts for 42 percent of total export turnover, and Europe.

Secondly, their production technologies would go green, reducing the use of fossil energy, cutting gas emissions, and increasing recycling waste. Enterprises would also combine this strategy with the improvement of administrative skills.

Thirdly, enterprises would urgently invest in developing products along with their brands. This is the foundation for the industry to build a more sustainable foothold in the export markets, especially in the context that several free trade agreements (FTAs) signed by Vietnam are opening up many advantages in terms of tax rates and competitiveness for garment and textile products.

Looking back to 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic had broken many raw material supply chains, as well as caused bankruptcy to many major global apparel brands. It is very important to adapt quickly to market changes. Besides, in the coming time, according to many experts, enterprises must take into account the ability to fulfill large orders with short production time because the pandemic will possibly remain complicated, and logistics activities face many difficulties.

Linking to control trade fraud

In another perspective, economic experts said that exporting enterprises should make efforts to prevent the risk of being investigated and imposed trade remedies. Information from the American Apparel and Footwear Association said that the US government is still investigating to impose new punitive tariffs on imports into the country, including garment and textile products exported from Vietnam. Moreover, in November last year, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) officially announced to initiate an anti-dumping investigation on polyester-textured yarn (PTY) exported from Vietnam.

Mr. Do Thang Hai, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, said that the application of trade remedies will cause much harm to domestic enterprises, not only in the US market but also in many other markets due to the domino effect. To prevent this risk, it is essential to implement dual solutions to effectively support enterprises. Accordingly, enterprises themselves need to link up to prevent the act of abetting foreign enterprises in changing the origin of their products. The Government needs to build preferential policies to attract investment without prioritizing investment attraction in industries that are the strengths of domestic enterprises. This will help to reduce competitive pressure in the export markets.

The representative of Vitas suggested that the Government soon negotiates and signs strategic cooperation with the US to increase export advantages for the garment and textile industry in particular and other industries that are also exporting to this market, in general. Moreover, many trade counselors also said that Vietnamese apparel and textile enterprises need to expand their export market share to Northern Europe and Australia.

In these markets, Vietnamese export products merely account for a modest proportion with about 2 percent of total imports from countries and territories around the world. These markets have signed FTAs with Vietnam, so the import tariffs are also extremely preferential. Therefore, increasing exports in these areas not only helps enterprises to increase market share but also reduces the risk of being imposed trade remedies.