A seaport in HCM City. Many businesses around the country and in HCM City are struggling with rising costs, with tens of thousands of businesses being forced to close down (Photo: VNA)
HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Many businesses have closed down or arestruggling with rising overheads due to COVID-19.
From January to theend of May, nearly 60,000 businesses around the country closed. As many as31,800 of them closed temporarily, while the rest were dissolved or are in theprocess of dissolution.
Many others arestruggling with rising production costs.
Ly Kim Chi, chairwomanof the Food and Foodstuff Association of Ho Chi Minh City, said that since thestart of the year businesses have been struggling with rising costs for rawingredients such as condiments, rice and seafood.
Production materialsand items like packaging and rubber gloves have also risen in cost.
Do Van Khuol, supplydirector of the Saigon Food Company, said that COVID-19 was driving up the costof imported ingredients, and prices could rise by 10-25 per cent in the thirdand fourth quarters.
Last month the VietnamAssociation of Seafood Exporters and Producers called for HCM City to delay itsplan to charge extra fees for using seaport infrastructure works and utilities.
The city planned tobegin doing this from July 1 to raise funds to upgrade seaport infrastructure.
The associationproposed delaying that plan until at least 2022.
If the plan begins inJuly, businesses will face a serious financial burden on top of existingproblems such as rising sea transportation costs and falling purchase demands,according to the association.
Although HCM City’sseaports play a key logistical role in transportation within the southernregion and the Mekong Delta, traffic infrastructure for the seaports is stillunderdeveloped, leading to frequent congestion and high logistics costs.
Chi said that the nextfew months will see businesses importing a high volume of raw ingredients.
Businesses have askedthat the proposed seaport fees be lowered so they can recover and improvecompetitiveness more easily, she added.
Businesses are alsoasking the Ministry of Industry and Trade to facilitate cooperation betweenthem and e-commerce platforms to boost their business activities./.
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A seaport in HCM City. Many businesses around the country and in HCM City are struggling with rising costs, with tens of thousands of businesses being forced to close down (Photo: VNA) 
