Businesses express concerns about environmental permits
On October 5, the People's Committee of Binh Duong province announced that it had just organized a dialogue conference with nearly 100 representatives of industry associations and domestic investment enterprises. Attending the meeting were Mr. Nguyen Van Loi - Secretary of the Binh Duong Provincial Party Committee, Mr. Nguyen Van Loc - Chairman of the Binh Duong Provincial People's Council, Mr. Mai Hung Dung - Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, and leaders of departments and branches.
At the conference, businesses, especially small and medium enterprises in the wood, textile, and ceramic industries, are facing many difficulties in completing environmental licensing procedures according to new regulations.
A representative of the Binh Duong Wood Processing Association shared that most wood businesses have been operating for many years and have not fully updated regulations to complete environmental licenses.
Simultaneously implementing many new regulations requires large investment capital, putting considerable pressure on businesses, especially in ensuring green space within business premises.
Currently, new regulations on the environment and environmental licenses are very difficult for businesses and the implementation deadline is approaching in 2025. Therefore, we recommend that the province and relevant departments provide support so as not to cause great damage to business operations.
Before investing large resources to complete permits related to fire prevention and fighting and the environment, wood, garment, ceramic enterprises... are also very worried about having to relocate according to the province's decision to protect the environment. This makes them hesitate to invest, because if they have to relocate, previous investments will be wasted. Currently, there is no specific list of enterprises that must relocate, making it difficult for enterprises to make investment decisions.
Businesses need more loans
The Binh Duong Leather and Footwear Association said that the recent production and business situation of its members has been very difficult. In fact, businesses in the industry still have orders. However, the orders are small and the quantity is small. This makes labor productivity low, costs increase while market prices, especially prices from FDI enterprises, are lower.
Most domestic enterprises in general and Binh Duong in particular can only attract "hard to swallow" orders, requiring high technical and professional qualifications. Also due to small orders and low quantity, the profits earned by Binh Duong footwear enterprises are very low.
In the third quarter, the business situation was more positive than the first two quarters of the year, creating a temporary shift in investment capital flows. In the fourth quarter of 2024, production and business continued to slow down.
To support businesses, the Binh Duong Leather and Footwear Association recommends that the State Bank and credit funds guide and create conditions for businesses to access preferential loans with low interest rates so that businesses have capital to maintain production, invest in machinery and equipment, and innovate technology.
Wood industry enterprises also recommended that the State Bank direct commercial banks to have policies to allow enterprises to restructure debt and extend debt to add more time to pay loans.
Wood industry enterprises hope to receive support to maintain capital flow, ensure production and business activities to overcome difficult times and also not increase bad debt of banks.
Continue to accompany, listen and promptly resolve problems
Based on the recommendations of the Association, businesses, representatives of provincial departments and branches have answered related questions and recommendations quite fully.
Speaking at the conference, Mr. Nguyen Van Loi - Secretary of Binh Duong Provincial Party Committee thanked the Industry Associations and enterprises for their active contributions to the industrialization and modernization of the province in the past time. The Provincial Party Secretary shared the difficulties that Industry Associations and enterprises are facing. At the same time, he pledged to continue to accompany enterprises, listen and promptly resolve problems.
Provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Van Loi requested departments, branches and sectors to quickly compile statistics and resolve difficulties and problems of industry associations and enterprises according to their authority. From there, create a transparent and open investment environment and favorable conditions for enterprises to overcome the difficult period and continue to develop sustainably in the coming time.
