Korean Enterprises Accompany Vietnam After Typhoon Yagi

Mr. Hong Sun - Source: NVCC

Mr. Hong Sun - Chairman of the Korean Business Association in Vietnam (KOCHAM) - shared with Tuoi Tre reporters about the damage caused by typhoon Yagi to the Korean business community in Vietnam.

Mr. Sun said: Vietnam and Korea have many similarities, the people and businesses are resilient, determined, the reconstruction process has many difficulties but will gradually recover.

* How do you assess the level of damage to Korean businesses in Vietnam due to the recent storm Yagi?

- Like Vietnamese people and businesses , many Korean businesses in the North suffered huge losses due to Typhoon Yagi. Businesses in Quang Ninh and Hai Phong were reported to have suffered the biggest losses, while many businesses in Hung Yen, Hai Duong, Bac Giang, Thai Nguyen, Phu Tho... were also affected.

Many goods were damaged, factories, warehouses... collapsed, glass was broken, flooded machinery was damaged... The monetary damage has not been estimated, but many places will take several months to recover.

For example, a factory in Hai Phong, near the sea, both the basement and the first floor were flooded, it took the company several months to fix it because many types of machinery had to be re-ordered.

In addition, businesses also suffer indirect losses due to not being able to produce immediately, resulting in delayed orders. Some units have contracts with provisions on natural disasters, but others do not. If customers are late in delivering goods, they will be fined and compensated.

* Are there any major difficulties in the business 's reconstruction process, sir?

- Cleaning up and restoring production and business after the storm is not an easy process, but businesses are doing their best to rebuild. The biggest goal is to soon put businesses back into normal operation, creating stable jobs for workers.

Local authorities have quickly implemented post-storm recovery work. This has helped both domestic and Korean businesses gradually restore production.

However, many areas are still without power so many factories have not resumed operations. Therefore, the business community hopes that the Government will try to quickly restore infrastructure to facilitate travel, thereby helping businesses stabilize again.

Some places like Thai Nguyen, Phu Tho... are still flooded or have collapsed bridges, so workers have not been able to go to work normally. Luckily, the machines are not broken, but without workers, they cannot operate normally.

We expect that in parallel with the business reconstruction process, the repair of bridge and road infrastructure and other social infrastructure will be implemented quickly and synchronously in Vietnam.

* Korea also faces many natural disasters, storms and floods every year. Can you share Korea's experience in overcoming and rebuilding after storms?

- I have lived in Vietnam for 366 months and have never experienced a storm as catastrophic as Yagi. Not only in Vietnam, this storm also raged in China, Thailand, Laos...

The process of business reconstruction after the storm needs to be closely linked and further promoted with the story of environment, society and governance (ESG). This is a global issue, and Vietnamese and Korean businesses are important "links" in it. After this storm, we hope that businesses will be more aware and "deeply rooted" in the subconscious of all actions.

Korea is a country that often experiences typhoons in the summer. To recover from typhoons, floods or any other natural disasters, the government actively supports emergency loans for affected people and businesses to speed up the reconstruction process.

Many taxes are deferred, postponed or exempted. After the declaration of a natural disaster, the central and local budgets are quickly disbursed. In particular, the central budget is maximized for post-storm reconstruction.

Many funding sources participate at the same time, in which the state focuses on handling macro issues, while people and businesses have small-scale sources.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/doanh-nghiep-han-quoc-dong-hanh-cung-viet-nam-sau-bao-yagi-20240921080634194.htm