The Ministry of Finance has proposed removing licenses for medical mask exports from May 16.
Under the government’s instruction issued in February, the Ministry of Health controlled the export of medical masks. Medical masks are only permitted for export for the purpose of international aid and assistance.
Additionally, no more than 25% of the country’s output of medical masks can be exported, while the remaining 75% must be ensured for the national Covid-19 prevention.
However, the regulation is not applied for businesses which specialise in the production of export goods that were already granted investment certificates, and companies manufacturing medical masks for foreign trade that had signed processing contracts before March 1, 2020.
According to the Ministry of Finance, Vietnamese mask producing capacity has been raised to around 13 million per day, including seven million medical masks and the remainder being antibacterial cloth masks. So, the licensing needs to be maintained until May 15 to ensure domestic demand, including the reserve.
Under the Ministry of Finance’s recommendation, from May 16, the licensing regulation should be removed.
To date, the Ministry of Health has signed contracts to buy 46.15 million medical masks and 268,000 N95 masks along with hundreds of thousands of safety clothes for the Covid-19 battle.
Vietnam has seen no new Covid-19 case over the past week. Among 268 patients, up to 224 have been discharged from hospital. The country has relaxed some social distancing measures.
Source: dtinews.vn, NLD