MB Economic Insights 2021 – perspectives to help Vietnamese enterprises manoeuvre

The main theme of the seventh MB Economic Insights was “Financial flexibility – preparing for the next new times”

The seventh MB Economic Insights was a seminar for leading economists to share their opinions about contemporary issues and search for solutions that drive firms toward flexibility, proactiveness to new chances and adapt to new era living together with COVID-19.

Opening the conference with the presentation “How will Vietnam’s star economy regain its sparkle”, Jacques Morisset, lead economist at World Bank, stated: “Vietnam has been unexpectedly and severely impacted by the Delta variant of COVID-19 in the third quarter of 2021, which temporarily contracted the economy. However, in 2022, Vietnam’s growth will be positive due to two main drivers: exports and government spending.”

According to Morisset, Vietnam’s government is playing a vital role in accelerating vaccination programme, upgrading medical infrastructure and manoeuvring in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, there is still plenty of potential for a large-scale government stimulus package.

In terms of macroeconomic condition and orientation for the short, medium, and long term, Vu Thanh Tu Anh, a renowned economic expert in Vietnam, also the dean of Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management, stated that while being badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam's macroeconomic base is still solid and has not been undermined. A few highlights include the robust recovery of the industrial sectors in the northern region, as well as increased export activity as a result of the improved global economy.

Leading economists voiced their opinions about contemporary issues and search for solutions to drive firms toward flexibility to adapt to the new situation at the seventh MB Economic Insights

In 2021, Vietnam has maintained high credit growth and particularly positive condition of the stock market, which has shown the appeal of Vietnamese corporations for investors. Vu Thanh Tu Anh also mentioned two scenarios for the domestic economy in 2021, and for the positive one, Vietnam's GDP growth will be around 2-2.5 per cent, and the pandemic woes are under control.

Supply chains disruption and inflation’s pressure are expected to last until the middle of next year. Economic recovery will be slowed down due to the Omicron variant of COVID-19. In some countries, monetary and fiscal policy have been tightened, and interest rates increased modestly. International travel restrictions will seriously influence the travel and service sectors.

He reminded the companies of two major global trends. The first one is the internet economy, commerce, and services with the critical role of digital transformation, creativity, and data. The second trend focuses on sustainability and resilience to be ready for unanticipated events on the international market in the upcoming time.

In the seminar, MB experts gave a sharp analysis about interest, exchange rate, and commodities, and suggested solutions, financial and banking products to hedge risks and fix financial costs, especially on the digital platform BIZ MBBANK on which customers can buy foreign currencies, transfer money online with their own equity, sell foreign currencies online – receive direct consulting about foreign exchange rate as well as using money derivative products.

With the application of an online Q&A system, more than 400 clients joining online conference could proactively ask questions even while speakers were presenting. The discussion has been lively via multidimensional connections between enterprises and expert speakers.

Sharing at the seminar, Luu Hoai Son, director of Planning and Marketing at MB stressed that the bank's concrete efforts to deploy digital factory model to track the customers’ experiences so that it can improve convenience and reduce transaction costs effectively. Besides, MB is urgently implementing many other preferential policies for import-export businesses in 2022 in many fields from agriculture and farms to industrial parks.

This year’s conference was held while the global economy was entering a new era, living together with COVID-19, conducting flexible financial policies and accelerating digital transformation. International and domestics contexts created new threats and required the proper stance on the new times. The seminar’s theme, “Financial flexibility – preparing for the next new times”, hence has been appreciated due to its contemporaneousness, and it created deep impression and attracted hundreds of top corporate clients in several sectors in Vietnam to join both offline and online conference.