The cassava starch production and processing plant of the Yen Binh Investment and Trading Co., Ltd. is operating moderately. Before the outbreak of the COVID-19, the company exported 1,000 tonnes of cassava starch per month, but since the lunar New Year (Tet), it has not been able to sell any cassava starch and its inventory has reached 3,000 tonnes, worth about 25 billion VND.

The Minh Nghia Yen Bai Co., Ltd in the Au Lau Industrial Cluster in Yen Bai city also has about 8 tonnes of cinnamon essential oil with the value of over 3 billion VND in inventory.

Meanwhile, the volume of cassava starch in stock of the Yen Bai Agro-Forest Product and Foodstuff JSC are about 12,000 tonnes, equal to over 100 billion VND, as the company’s products are mainly exported to China and Taiwan.

To help businesses solve difficulties, commercial banks in the locality have taken timely actions.

Bui Trung Thu, Director of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) - Yen Bai Branch said "Following directions of the Government, the SBV, Yen Bai province and the branch have asked all credit institutions in the province to assess losses of customers due to impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the fields of tourism, agriculture and export to promptly take measures to support and remove difficulties for customers”.

Nguyen Manh Hong, Director of Agribank - North Yen Bai Branch said: "We have guided Type II banks and transaction offices to actively work with customers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic to help them overcome difficulties. The credit balance affected by the pandemic is worth 33.2 billion VND of nine borrowers, most of whom are operating in transportation, agro-forestry processing, and hotel and restaurant business”.

Pham Trung Tung, Director of BIDV Yen Bai said: "The branch currently has more than 200 borrowing customers. In which, about 850 billion VND of credit balance is affected by the COVID-19. We have requested the Bank's officials and staff to do their best to solve procedures in support of businesses and individuals in a quick time to help customers overcome difficulties”.

According to a report of the SBV - Yen Bai Branch, as of March 19, bank branches took measures to help remove difficulties for their 190 customers affected by the pandemic with total outstanding debt of 687 billion VND./.