After locking down for nearly three months, Ho Chih Min City is finally seeing some of the restrictions slack up this month. But what comes with the reopening is a severe labor shortage in the city.
Meanwhile, Japan-based electronics maker Panasonic announced that its new factory will start production on Oct 13 in the province of Binh Duong, Vietnam, which locates right at the north of the Ho Chih Min City, according to VIR.
About 10,000 workers working in the hi-tech parks in the city live in the province of Binh Duong or Dong Nai.
According to Vietnam Express, there were about 288,000 workers pre-lockdown in the industrial parks and export-processing zones in teh city, while only 135,000 workers have returned to their work posts this month, said Pham Duc Hai, the deputy head of the city's Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control.
As the city reopens, workers are leaving the city instead. Since October 1, almost 90,000 workers have left the city, worrying for another lockdown that will descend them into unemployment again.
The Vietnamese government decided to restart production and social activities under the pressure of declining GDP and plea from enterprises who had to operate at low or zero capacity during the lockdown.
Vietnam's GDP for the third quarter is forecast to decline by over 6% on year, according to Reuters.
