Vietnam's post-pandemic economic recovery in German media spotlight

Last year saw the country face numerous difficulties in its fight against COVID-19 due to the swift spread of the Delta variant. Following the emergence and subsequent wide spread of the Omicron variant, the nation has resumed all activities and is open once again to foreign visitors due to its decision to live safely with the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the article, March alone witnessed the country’s import and export turnover hit a record high of US$67.37 billion, of which total export turnover reached US$34.71 billion, surpassing the record previously achieved back in July, 2021.

Traditionally July is viewed as the busiest month of the year with Christmas products being shipped to Europe and America. Therefore, analysists are firm in their belief that the nation will enjoy a new record year, with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) forecasting that the Vietnamese economy will grow by roughly 6.5% in 2022.            

According to details given by the article, electronic products, especially mobile phones, serve as contributory factors to the ongoing Vietnamese export boom. This country is also in the process of expanding its supply chain, with greater participation in the value chain as opposed to just assembling mobile phones as it had done before, it said.

Furthermore, the labour intensive apparel industry is also seeing a surge in business amid many Vietnamese garment enterprises continuing to enjoy strong growth.

The Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) note that the opening months of the year witnessed textile and garment exports reach approximately US$8.2 billion, up 59% over the same period from last year, with export turnover expected to fetch US$12.7 billion in the first quarter.

Meanwhile, an increasing number of apparel companies have been forced to refuse orders due to a shortage of manpower for production. In addition to textiles, Vietnamese wood firms have also received a large number of orders and will be operating at full capacity until the third quarter of 2022 in line with Vietnam’s status as one of the largest exporters of wood products in the world.

According to economist Tim Lee Lahaphan of Standard Chartered Bank, more and more international businesses are planning to move their supply chains to Vietnam due to its position considered a manufacturing hub for electronics, textiles and footwear.

According to the article, the nation is seeing not only a manufacturing industry and foreign trade boom, but also strong growth in tourism. Last weekend during the nation holiday, flights and trains to popular tourist destinations were almost full.

The number of passengers traveling by plane during this period is estimated to have increased by 25% to 30% from the previous month and by between 90% and 95% over the same period last year. In addition, in mid-March the nation announced the opening of its borders to international visitors, the resumption of international tourism activities, as well as the lifting of isolation regulations for incoming visitors.

The tourism industry can be seen to make an important contribution to the Vietnamese economy. Before the pandemic in 2019, tourism accounted for 9.2% of GDP, with over 18 million international visitors. Moving forward, the Vietnamese Government wishes to a swift recovery of the sector to compensate for the damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years.