Vietnam’s strong economic recovery grabs international headlines

In its recently published article, Japan’s Nikkei Asia highlighted Vietnam’s robust export growth, especially of garments and textiles. The article said Vietnam’s garment and textile exports were projected to hit all-time high of US$22 billion in the first six months of the year, up 23% from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, Channels News Asia reported that the Vietnamese economy grew at the fastest pace for 11 years in the second quarter. It quoted the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, saying the national economy expanded by 7.72% in the second quarter and 6.42% in the first half of the year.

It also quoted the World Bank, saying Vietnam’s economic recovery "remains strong" despite uncertainties caused by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, COVID-19 lockdowns in China and inflationary pressure.

Dorsa Ti Madani, the World Bank's Chief Economist in Vietnam, attributed Vietnam's impressive growth to a big rebound in exports, the gradual recovery of domestic consumption and the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions.

Alain Cany, chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham), also praised Vietnam’s economic achievements, pointing to the fact that its economy performed better than regional peers, especially in the domestic manufacturing sector. He stressed that the government intervened quickly to reduce the environmental protection tax on fuels to help keep inflation under control.

In its article, newswire Borneo Bulletin described Vietnam’s foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction as a bright spot in the overall prosperous economic picture. Titled "Vietnam's economy is recovering strongly", Borneo Bulletin said the opening five months of the year saw Vietnam attract US$7.71 billion in FDI, up 7.8% compared to same period last year.

The article also outlined that Vietnam is required to exert a greater effort to enhance its competitiveness and retain FDI inflows.

Sharing the same perspective, Prof. David Daoice from Harvard University underlined the need to increase competitiveness to both retain and continue to attract FDI inflows by engaging deep in the global value chain amid the global trend of production shifting,

He revealed that Toyota has partnered with Vietnamese companies to purchase components for its automobile production while Apple also unveiled plans to move their iPad production line to Vietnam.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recently forecast that Vietnam would surpass Malaysia, Philippines, abd Singapore to become the third largest economy in Southeast Asia with a GDP reaching more than US$571 billion by 2025.

These remarkable achievements are expected to give fresh impetus to the growth of Vietnamese economy in the remaining months of the year and next year despite challenges of inflation and global economic fluctuations ahead.