Japanese, Singaporean newspapers praise Vietnam's response to COVID-19

The Ngoc Son Temple in downtown Hanoi is sterilised to prevent the COVID-19. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam is now reaping strategic gains from its nimble response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tan Hui Yee, Indochina Bureau Chief in Bangkok, wrote in an article published in The Strait Times on May 18.

Schools have reopened and buses are running as usual in the country, which has gone for a month without seeing community transmission of the coronavirus, he said, adding that investor interest - which shrivelled up early this year - is picking up again.

Vietnam’s export of face masks and test kits, meanwhile, could help cushion the larger economic impact of the pandemic, he wrote.

The article quoted Trent Davies, a Vietnam-based international business advisory manager at consultants Dezan Shira & Associates, as saying that everything was put on hold in the first month or two of the COVID-19 outbreak, but now his company is already receiving inquiries from interested investors about doing business in Vietnam.

“Being ahead of the curve, the ASEAN Chair [Vietnam] is in good stead to lead and shape regional responses to the pandemic,” Dr Huong Le Thu, Senior Analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, was quoted as saying.

“No country can recover on its own, but those in better shape and that emerge from this crisis relatively earlier will be in a better position - and also have strategic bandwidth - to take some leadership initiative,” she said.

Meanwhile, Japanese economics newspaper Nihon Keizai on May 19 published an analysis by Chief Market Economist Ueno Yasunari from Mizuho Securities highlighting the effectiveness of Vietnam’s measures to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Vietnam has a population of 97 million people but has only reported some 300 infections and zero fatalities, showing that the country’s way of containing the virus was more effective than elsewhere, he wrote.

What made Vietnam succeed was quarantining infected people from the early days and aggressively tracing those with whom they had contact, he explained./.