Bac Giang (VNA) – Chairman of the People’sCommittee of northern Bac Giang province Duong Van Thai has pledged to adoptmeasures easing difficulties faced by local businesses amid the complicateddevelopment of COVID-19 outbreak.

Accordingly, the province will closely follow the PrimeMinister’s Directive No.11 dated March 4, 2020 on urgent measures removingdifficulties in production and trade, and ensuring social welfare in responseto the epidemic.

The provincial Radio and Television Station launched ahotline to collect public feedback about the handling of administrativeprocedures.

Since the beginning of this year, the provincial Departmentof Planning and Investment has granted licenses to 180 new businesses and 17branches and representative offices, up 9.7 percent year-on-year with a totalregistered capital of over 1.27 trillion VND (55.2 million USD), down 28.5percent.

Fifteen firms registered for dissolution and 149 otherssuspended operations.

Bac Giang is now home to over 9,400 companies, 446 of themforeign-invested with a total registered capital of nearly 3.5 billion USD.Meanwhile, domestic firms have registered more than 71.7 trillion VND incapital in the province.

Seventy percent of all the businesses are operational,offering jobs to about 232,000 workers, around 122,000 of them working forindustrial zones.

The epidemic is hurting local exporters to China and theRepublic of Korea (RoK), forcing them to lay off workers due to the shortage ofmaterials for production./.