At an economic forum in Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) - A number of regionaland global news agencies have quoted data from international researchinstitutes and organisations as saying that Vietnam’s economy is on track togrow despite the impact of COVID-19.
On November19, the UK’s Globaldata.com affirmed that Vietnam is one of a fewcountries to have controlled the pandemic to a certain degree, with a lownumber of infections and fatalities. The World Bank also forecast thatVietnam’s GDP would grow 2.8 percent this year and 6.8 percent next.
UK newswirebbc.co.uk also hailed the country for mitigating the economic damage caused bythe pandemic and being the only country in the region on track to post growth in2020.
ThoughVietnam lacks the health infrastructure of wealthier countries, it has beenwidely praised for its public health measures, which quickly brought COVID-19under control. It was quick to develop testing kits and used acombination of strategic testing and aggressive contact tracing to help controlnumbers, it said.
Thecountry’s once-thriving tourism sector has taken a particularly heavy hit but the country has so far avoided the worst economiceffects of the pandemic.
The newspaper also quoted VinaCapital’s chiefeconomist Michael Kokalari as saying that peopleare buying new laptops or new office furniture, for work and for spending moretime at home. A lot of these products are made in Vietnam.
The pandemic has also prompted more companiesto consider manufacturing in Vietnam because of the need to diversify supplychains. “Companies thought they had a global supply chain, but when COVID-19arrived they found they only had a China supply chain and couldn’t produce,” Kokalarisaid.
He addedthat Vietnam’s exports to the US increased 23 percent in the first threequarters compared to the same period of 2019, with electronics exports up 26percent.
The International MonetaryFund (IMF) also predicted that Vietnam’s economy would grow 2.4 percent this yearthanks to decisive steps to contain the healthand economic fallout from the pandemic. It forecasts a strong economic recoveryin 2021, with growth projected to strengthen to 6.5 percent “as the normalisationof domestic and foreign economic activity continues.”
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s malaymail.com quoted chiefAsia-Pacific economist Steve Cochrane as saying that, as of September, Vietnamtogether with regional states such as Singapore, Taiwan (China), Malaysia, and NewZealand had each reported year-on-year growth.
Overall,Cochrane said the baseline economic outlook called for growth across the entireAsia-Pacific region in 2021, with the fastest growth being in China, Vietnam,and Hong Kong (China).
The UK’s proactiveinvestors.co.uk,meanwhile, quoted the Vietnam Holding Fund as saying it anticipates that thecountry’s economy will return to growth above 6 percent next year given its“multiple engines of growth.”
The fund said the country’s resiliency duringthe pandemic “helped raise its profile as a major trade partner” and he expectstrade relations between the country and other nations to “gain furthermomentum”./.
