German newswire lauds Vietnam’s economic policy amid COVID-19

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

Berlin (VNA) – The Deutsche Welle (DW) newswire on April 17 ran a story praising Vietnam’s successes in fighting COVID-19 with all of its power while the global economy is facing depression due to the pandemic.

The article quoted a report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as saying that the world economic growth is forecast to drop by 3 percent this year. For the first time in 60 years, the Asian economy has been predicted to not expand. Meanwhile, the Chinese Government has announced that its economy downsized 6.8 percent in the first quarter.

However, Vietnam has so far done a fairly good job in economic term. Though the figure in the first quarter is lower than the estimate, the growth still hit 3.82 percent, it said.

Talking with DW, Carl Thayer from Australia’s University of New South Wales, said it was a noteworthy achievement.

According to the article, Vietnam launched a strategy to contain SARS-CoV-2 from early. Therefore, data from the Johns Hopkins University showed that the total number of infection cases has only reached 268 to date.

Despite social distancing measures, electronics and medicine-pharmaceuticals sectors still grew by 14 percent and 44 percent, respectively, in the first quarter, said the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AHK) in Vietnam, adding that the Vietnamese Government is adopting different measures to prevent economic slowdown.

It said like other countries, Vietnam has also faced difficulties, especially in services, tourism and aviation. The tourism sector lost 3-4 billion USD in the first quarter.

Thayer also added that Vietnam could succeed in maintaining the balance between protecting people’s health and economic benefits in the short term./.