Global media positive about Vietnam’s growth despite COVID-19
Hanoi (VNA) - A number of regional
and global news agencies have quoted data from international research
institutes and organisations as saying that Vietnam’s economy is on track to
grow despite the impact of COVID-19.
On November
19, the UK’s Globaldata.com affirmed that Vietnam is one of a few
countries to have controlled the pandemic to a certain degree, with a low
number of infections and fatalities. The World Bank also forecast that
Vietnam’s GDP would grow 2.8 percent this year and 6.8 percent next.
UK newswire
bbc.co.uk also hailed the country for mitigating the economic damage caused by
the pandemic and being the only country in the region on track to post growth in
2020.
Though
Vietnam lacks the health infrastructure of wealthier countries, it has been
widely praised for its public health measures, which quickly brought COVID-19
under control. It was quick to develop testing kits and used a
combination of strategic testing and aggressive contact tracing to help control
numbers, it said.
The
country’s once-thriving tourism sector has taken a particularly heavy hit but the country has so far avoided the worst economic
effects of the pandemic.
The newspaper also quoted VinaCapital’s chief
economist Michael Kokalari as saying that people
are buying new laptops or new office furniture, for work and for spending more
time at home. A lot of these products are made in Vietnam.
The pandemic has also prompted more companies
to consider manufacturing in Vietnam because of the need to diversify supply
chains. “Companies thought they had a global supply chain, but when COVID-19
arrived they found they only had a China supply chain and couldn’t produce,” Kokalari
said.
He added
that Vietnam’s exports to the US increased 23 percent in the first three
quarters compared to the same period of 2019, with electronics exports up 26
percent.
The International Monetary
Fund (IMF) also predicted that Vietnam’s economy would grow 2.4 percent this year
thanks to decisive steps to contain the health
and economic fallout from the pandemic. It forecasts a strong economic recovery
in 2021, with growth projected to strengthen to 6.5 percent “as the normalisation
of domestic and foreign economic activity continues.”
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s malaymail.com quoted chief
Asia-Pacific economist Steve Cochrane as saying that, as of September, Vietnam
together with regional states such as Singapore, Taiwan (China), Malaysia, and New
Zealand had each reported year-on-year growth.
Overall,
Cochrane said the baseline economic outlook called for growth across the entire
Asia-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 the
country’s economy will return to growth above 6 percent next year given its
“multiple engines of growth.”
The fund said the country’s resiliency during
the pandemic “helped raise its profile as a major trade partner” and he expects
trade relations between the country and other nations to “gain further
momentum”./.