Vietnam’s Supply Chain Role to Grow Despite Covid, the head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hanoi said.
Covid has disrupted but not derailed Vietnam’s expanding role in global supply chains and growth prospects, according to Adam Sitkoff, executive director of the chamber.
The Southeast Asian nation has struggled to maintain manufacturing and exports in the face of surging Covid-19 cases, one of the key fronts in the battle to keep international trade running for goods including clothes, computer chips and cars.
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“Even with the supply chain and shutdown problems they have because of Covid right now, Vietnam’s still going to do very well economically and it’s becoming, every day, a more important piece of the global supply chain — especially for things that affect American consumers,” Adam Sitkoff, executive director of the chamber told Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin and Rishaad Salamat.
Though “Covid got in the way” of further supply-chain gains and with the full vaccination rate under 3%, he still sees Vietnam attracting investment, including from further relocations out of China. He highlighted Vietnam’s best-in-Asia growth performance last year, when it expanded 2.9%.
For now, the Chamber is aiming to ensure that Covid policies are “the least disruptive to business as possible,” as firms look for ways to smooth out deliveries leading into the critical year-end holiday season, Sitkoff said.
Analysts at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. sounded a similar tone in a report Tuesday, highlighting Vietnam’s longer-term prospects despite the current “deep slump” in domestic demand.
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“Beyond the near-term challenges, Vietnam’s medium term economic prospects remain favorable,” analysts including Dhiraj Nim and Khoon Goh wrote in the report, which also warned of downside risks to ANZ’s 5.2% full-year 2021 growth forecast. “The pandemic has not changed the country’s attractiveness as a manufacturing hub. There is also ample room for policy support to nurture economic recovery further.” Michelle Jamrisko reports on Bloomberg.
According to the Global Business Services (GBS) Company, a leading foreign investment consultant in Vietnam, the country has been well-known to foreign investors for its ideal location for investments and businesses. Strategically situated right in the center of Southeast Asia, Vietnam shares borders with the new economic giant China, is close to international shipping routes and big markets in Asia, boasts a long coastline and has two major cities, namely Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. But, there is more to Vietnam than just a strategic investment destination. It is also a perfect place to register your business in Vietnam.
Throughout the years, Vietnam has been crowned one of the fastest growing economies not only in Southeast Asia but also in the world. Furthermore, while many of the countries have suffered from economic recession due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam appears to be unaffected. Successfully combating the crisis, during the first eight months of 2021, foreign investment registered in Vietnam, at 19.12 billion USD, GBS reported.
