HCM City caused a shock last year when releasing the information that the highest 2011 Tet bonus was 532 million dong, while Hanoi also gave a shock when announcing that the highest Tet bonus was 72.9 million dong.
However, experts believe that the sky high surprising record high may not repeat this year, a difficulty year for all.
2012 Tet bonus would be just 50 percent of 2011’s
In HCM City, some districts’ labor unions have said that they have received the reports about the plans to pay Tet bonuses to workers. Twenty four businesses in Binh Tan district, hiring 300 workers, had submitted Tet bonus reports by November 23. The average Tet bonus of the enterprises in the district is 6 million dong.
Meanwhile, Pou Yeun Vietnam in Tan Tao Industrial Zone in Binh Tan district, which is employing 80,000 workers, plans to declare the Tet bonus levels later this week.
In Hanoi, Nguyen Khac, Director of the Song Da 7.07 Company, said that though he has not made official decision, but his workers understand that they should not expect overly high bonuses because the company does not perform very well in 2011.
“It is highly possible that the bonuses would be just equal to 50 percent of that of the last year,” Khac said.
Pham Xuan Hong, Deputy Chair of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association Vinatex, said that garment companies have to undergo a difficult year in 2011, since importers cut down the numbers of orders. Therefore, in the best scenario, the bonuses would be equal to that of the last year.
Nguyen Van Tuan, Chair of the Vietnam Construction and Import-Export Corporation (Vinaconex), said that the corporation, like others in the real estate sector, finds it hard to access capital sources in 2011, therefore, a lot of projects have been delayed.
He said that he hopes to fulfill 94-95 percent of the production and business plan set earlier in 2011. If so, the Tet bonuses would be equal to that of the previous year--about 3-5 million dong on average.
Tet bonuses modest because of low profits
Dr Dang Duc Dam, Head of the Institute for Business Development Studies, said that it is now the time the high inflation’s blows are telling on businesses. In the first quarter of 2011, the State Bank of Vietnam three times raised the interest rates to fight inflation, which made it very difficult for businesses to access bank loans.
As a result, businesses had to borrow money at the sky high interest rates of over 20 percent, while the higher production costs always mean lower profit. The fact that thousands of businesses got bankrupted in 2011 showed that 2011 is really a thorny period for businesses.
“I believe that the Tet bonuses would be lower than that of last year,” Dam said.
The director of a joint stock bank complained that 2011 is really a bad year for the banking system. Especially, the current weak liquidity is causing a headache to him. In previous years, the bank lent much money to serve the year-end payment. Meanwhile, in 2011, even though it does not lend much, it is still facing liquidity problem, because it has to arrange money to pay to depositors, who withdraw money, when the deposit interest rates have become no more attractive.
Dat Viet
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