Natural disasters and bird flu hit economy hard, but tourism holding steady

Drought and prolonged cold weather in the north, forest fires in the south, bird flu in almost all of the country’s provinces and cities, and high import prices have affected people and businesses.
In the first quarter however, GDP is estimated to have grown at around 7 per cent. The top contributor was the industrial and construction sector with a 9.9 per cent rise, followed by the service sector with 6.6 per cent.
The agri-forestry-fishery sector, however, grew by only 0.2 per cent.
During the first three months of this year, Vietnam’s husbandry was severely affected by the bird flu outbreak which attacked 57 provinces and cities and resulted in the death or culling of 43 million poultry.
The good news is that on March 30, the National Bird Flu Steering Committee announced that the epidemic was now over.
The poultry shortage was at least good news for the fisheries industry.
For the first quarter, on the back of the poultry shortage, the country’s fishery turnover rose 3.7 per cent year-on-year. Catching increased 2.8 per cent and cultivating increased 5.7 per cent.
The non-state sector topped the list in total industrial production value with an estimated 21.4 per cent rise, followed by the foreign-invested sector at 14.8 per cent (oil and gas rose 20.8 per cent and other industries grew by 12.8 per cent). The state sector rose by 12.2 per cent.
Industrial production growth was strongest in Hanoi, Haiphong City, Binh Duong, Quang Ninh, Vinh Phuc, Ha Tay, Khanh Hoa, Dong Nai and Can Tho provinces.
Each reached an average growth rate of about 20 per cent.
The lowest growth was recorded in Phu Tho (6.1 per cent), Ba Ria-Vung Tau (2.4 per cent), Ho Chi Minh City (11.2 per cent in which the state industrial sector rose merely 0.8 per cent). Each recorded lower growth than the same period last year.
In the foreign-invested sector, 120 projects registered $420 million worth of investment. Projects were 37.2 per cent fewer year-on-year but capital investment was up 11.1 per cent.
Importantly, the average licensed project scale reached $3.5 million, higher than the $2 million recorded last year.
In the trade sphere, exports earned around $5.4 billion, a rise of 15.1 per cent year-on-year.
Exports which brought in over $100 million in the first quarter were crude oil, textiles and garments, footwear, electronics, computers, handicrafts, rice, coffee, wooden products and fisheries.
Meanwhile, Vietnam officially imported around $6.1 billion, 11.2 per cent more than last year in the same period.
The strongest growth in imports were in petrol, steel and iron, fertilisers, plastics, chemicals, insecticides, cloth, cotton, and timber.
Despite the bird flu epidemic more than 743,000 international guests visited Vietnam in the first quarter, 55.3 per cent of whom were tourists.
The US, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Australia, France, and China were the seven countries and territories whose citizens visited Vietnam most in the first quarter.
During that time, nearly 3,600 traffic accidents occurred, resulting in 2,300 fatalities.
The number of accidents declined by 29.7 per cent year-on-year but the death count was up by 3.6 per cent.