Vietnam still important link in global supply chain: experts

Illustrative image (Source: VNA)

Hanoi – Vietnam is becoming a more important piece of the global supply chain, despite the supply chain and shutdown problems facing the country at present, Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (AmCham Vietnam) Adam Sitkoff has told Bloomberg Television.

Acknowledging the pandemic is hindering Vietnam from increasing its role in the supply chain, Sitkoff said he still sees Vietnam attracting investment. He pointed to Vietnam’s best-in-Asia growth performance of 2.9 percent last year.

AmCham hopes anti-COVID-19 policies are the least disruptive to business as possible as firms look for ways to smooth deliveries leading into the critical year-end holiday season, he added.

Though several international organisations have lower their forecast for Vietnam’s growth, they retain a positive outlook on its recovery prospects.

"Beyond the near-term challenges, Vietnam’s medium-term economic prospects remain favourable," analysts at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ) said in a recent note.

ANZ analysts said in the ANZ Vietnam Activity Tracker said the structural factors that made Vietnam an attractive investment destination as a manufacturing hub remain intact.

There is also ample room for policy support to nurture economic recovery further, they stressed.

However, they warned about downside risks to the bank’s 5.2 percent full-year 2021 growth forecast for the country.

Andreas Stoffers, country director of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) in Vietnam, said that Vietnam's economic figures for the first half of 2021 are not too bad, with its consumer price index (CPI) of 1.46 percent still under control.

He expressed his belief that Vietnam will overcome the crisis as it did in 2020.