A number of small Vietnamese businesses in the US, such as supermarkets and restaurants, are in a situation of unprecedented difficulty due to Covid-19 outbreak, which has to struggle and expect government support.
From the huge $2,200 billion bailout that the US government has just approved, there are nearly 350 for supporting small businesses that employ 500 or less workers. According to the latest guidance issued by the Small Business Administration (SBA), these businesses will be allowed to lend up to 250% of the total salary and fixed costs (overhead) of a month at interest rates. Ò 1%.
If the borrower keeps all employees and pays them in full, the debt will be waived or reduced. The government will repay the debt to the bank on behalf of the business. At a press conference on April 2, US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said businesses could immediately start applying from April 2 at 2 o’clock.
Economist Nguyen Xuan Nghia said that America’s first priority is to rescue small businesses because they “hire the most employees in the economy.” That is why ‘creating socioeconomic impacts for the United States’.
Nguyen Thanh Thuy, owner of two Vietnamese restaurants in the tourist city of Orlando, Florida, with a staff of 20, said his restaurants were closed since March 19.
Although the government did not force restaurants to close as long as they did not serve customers on the spot, Thuy said that these days “no customers came to buy” so he was forced to close to save pay less for staff salaries.
However, he said he still pays an equivalent of 10 days’ salary to support hardships for those who have been with him for a long time and he called this the “emotional problem.”
As for part-time workers, such as students who work part-time jobs, he said that he “can’t pay everyone.”
Regarding the rent, Mr. Thuy, who owns the Saigon Noodles and Grill and Huong Viet restaurants in Orlando, said: “They still send letters to ask for rent, but in case I don’t have the money to pay now they also sympathize us. The landowners are Vietnamese so they know it very well. I can still pay, but if I don’t wait for the government subsidy package.”
When asked what to expect about the government’s bailout, he said: “If they lend themselves money with an interest rate of about 3.25-3.75%, it is not beneficial. In case they lend me with zero interest, I can do this and that.”
“If you have enough courage to manage, no need to borrow money, no need to pay interest is better,” he added.
When asked about how to manage, Mr. Thuy said he would use his personal savings, negotiate with the landowner to reduce the rent and make a declaration of no income with the insurance company.
“If the rent goes down from $5,000 to $2,000 a month, then I can spend $10,000 enough to take care of the five months’ rent so I won’t be taken back by the landlord and can be reopened later,” he said. “The money I spend, I can declare with the insurance, they will pay me a part.”
Already 10 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits because of the pandemic. The US Department of Labor on April 2 announced it had received 6.6 million applications for new benefits last week because of the disease. According to CNBC, the latest statistics brought the total number of people registered to support unemployment in the US to 10 million in just 2 weeks.
Earlier, Dow Jones surveyed the opinions of economic experts and made a prediction of 3.1 million unemployment benefits for the week starting March 23.
For the week beginning March 16, the United States recorded a record 3.3 million jobless claims, only half the latest figure.
According to NBC News, the actual number of unemployed could be much higher because many applicants had trouble processing paperwork, after the state labor bureaucracy became overloaded.
Experts said that the economic activities were stopped suddenly because of a series of social distancing policies of the US Government is the cause of the rise in unemployment.
This is also considered the unprecedented level of unemployment of this country.
“I cannot draw a fairy tale about reasons not to be bothered. We can record large numbers in the next few weeks,” US JP economist Michael Feroli warned. . He and his colleagues predicted last week that numbers would be 3.5 million.
Mr. Nguyen Thanh Thuy said that he is studying about a loan package for small businesses that will in fact be exempted or reduced.
“If I borrowed about $30,000, I could keep the restaurant without having to close it,” he said.
Based on that, the case of the pandemic lasted a few months, he said he could still ‘manage’ without being ‘panicked’.
“If the full salary is required, then the problem of addition and subtraction will be divided. If the amount they lend is not enough to cover those costs, then we will not borrow it. If they lend me a few tens of thousands so I can pay my employees’ wages so they don’t go out to pay for unemployment, I will borrow it. ”
In addition, he said that if the government reduces taxes, it ‘is better’. “Businesses like us are able to save several thousand tax dollars each year,” he said.
Answering the question of whether or not they are afraid of losing employees when they have to take such a long time off from work, he said this is a general situation so ‘the employees understand it too’.
“Now if they have found another job, there really is no other place for them to apply for a job. Moreover, I have been treating my staff very well for a few years now so they probably won’t go away,” he explained.
In his words, a crisis like this is “the first time he has spent 45 years in the US.” There was a time in 2008 when the US economy went down, but not to that extent,” Mr. Thuy said.
Another small Vietnamese business owner, Mr. Vo Binh, owner of six Asian supermarkets around Atlanta, the capital of Georgia, told VOA that because it was an essential service, his markets were still opening during the panemic season, though with shorter opening times and fewer customers.
“The sales are down a lot,” he said.
“I have applied some measures to cut down on spending but I hardly get much because there are some people I do not want them to leave so I still keep people. Only now they work a little bit less, not overtime, ”he said.
As a result, the salaries of non-overtime employees “remain the same,” said Mr. Binh has nearly 500 workers.
Regarding the expectation of how the government helped him, Mr. Binh said he would like to be supported with salary to pay his employees so that he “doesn’t have to fire“, the rent because of “very high cost” and the cost of electricity and water. .
“It will be difficult to chase after experienced people later,” he explained. “But business cannot be done without high wages, there’s no way we can handle it.”
As for taxes, he said that ‘it is not necessary until the end of the year,’ so ‘it’s not really necessary right now.’ As for the government bailout, he expected to come ‘as soon as possible’: “The problem is when that money comes into our hands. Because of my staff, I can’t help it for another 6 months or 1 year. If I had money until now, I would have been able to pay staff salaries. ” Mr. Binh said.
“Government jobs are often not fast. When the money came to the business, many people were fired, so it is very urgent now,” he added and said he needed money‘ within 1-2 weeks.
He did everything he could like adding a thin layer of glass at the cash register to prevent contact, giving masks to employees, disinfecting the market areas several times a day.
“These days, if you buy disinfectant, you have to pay three or four times as much,” he explained. “Facemasks are also scarce. We have to pay a high price to buy for employees or customers.”
In addition, he said that he advised older employees to stay home and that he would ‘help provide some support’ and help them become unemployed.
Compared to the 2008 crisis, he said the situation was “much worse.”
“This time there was something special about people not going out so all the business was going down,” said Binh, who has been living in the US for 45 years. “Back in 2008 there were still some people who had jobs and they were still able to walk and interact with each other.”
“Everyone is worried about their health and afraid of being infected, so they stay at home. They’re not in the mood to think about spending on shopping, eating well.”
Vietnam annually receives over 16 billion dollars of remittances from around the world, with the current epidemic situation around the globe, it is certain that the amount of money sent to Vietnam will level off.
The budget for the Communist Party and the bulky apparatus of the Government of Vietnam is still full, only workers and private businesses have to take care of themselves, expected millions of jobs will be lost and tens of thousands of factories will go bankrupt in the near future.
Trung Nam from Da nang – Thoibao.de (Translated)
