Ha noi

Vo Tri Thanh *Vo Tri Thanh Viet Nam has delivered its economic data in the first quarter. The overall picture is still optimistic with the gross domestic product (GDP) expanding nearly 4.5 per cent – among the best performers in the world. However, is this result good enough for the Southeast Asian country to securely triumph over its target set for the whole year? The first quarter growth, though in the same range as the last quarter of 2020 which also stood at 4.48 per cent, was up from the 3.68 per cent recorded in the first quarter of last year. The renewed outbreak of COVID-19 in some parts of the country, including the capital city of Ha Noi, adversely affected the first-quarter's performance which fell below the Government’s expectation of 5.12 per cent and was lower than the 5.7 per cent expected by Bloomberg’s economists. Despite that, Viet Nam has been widely praised for its economic achievements given all the uncertainty about the prolonged pandemic and uneven recovery globally. Viet Nam is still set to outperform most of the region. Key indicators in the first three months have partly reflected Viet Nam’s good recovery. Exports remained the country’s key economic growth driver with a value of US$77.4 billion during January-March, a rise of 22 per cent year-on-year. Viet Nam ran a trade surplus of more than $2 billion in the first quarter. Pledged foreign direct investment (FDI) surged by 18.5 per cent year-on-year to $10.3 billion while disbursed FDI increased by 6.5 per cent to $4.1 billion. Industrial production was expected to expand 6.5 per cent during the period, especially the main drivermanufacturing – electronic equipment, phones and accessories – climbing 9.5 per cent. The number of new businesses fell by 1.4 per cent and their total registered capital rose by 27.5 per cent. Other sectors including agro-forestry-fishery, services sector, disbursement of public investment and State revenue improved significantly. Meanwhile, …

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The current ongoing pandemic is also providing the time to ease pressure on Vietnamese trade as restructuring of the Global Supply Chain is being dealt with. Only those countries that are well-prepared and have successfully controlled and contained the pandemic will be able to see a good outcome and macroeconomic stability in the future by an improved marketing strategy. Break in supply chain The repeated closure of the border, and immigration restrictions during the current pandemic have caused trade activities and global value chains to be disrupted or broken, especially the important supply chains to the US, China, Japan, Germany, and the European Union (EU). All these countries are reeling under the havoc being caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. At the same time, manufacturing and business facilities of 1,000 of the world's largest suppliers have upto 12,000 units in Covid-19 quarantined areas, most of which are located in China. This explains why there is a breakdown in the Global Value Chain (GVC) that is seriously affecting trade activities for almost 50% of international trade. In addition, the application of digital transformation in manufacturing and business activities has made countries increase automation, in order to improve production capacity and withdraw from the GVC, so as to localize the economy. The disruption of Global Supply Chains is also due to sanctions inflicted during the US-China trade war, along with rise of protectionism. The industries in the world are overly dependent on China, so the leading countries tend to withdraw from what is considered the factory of the world. Closer linking of the supply chain with the value chain is essential for ease of control. The US-China trade war had partially initiated and spurred this process when China thought it needed a strategy to undermine America's leading role in global trade. The pandemic is not the only reason that has caused a change in the structure of the Global Value Chain, …

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Due to low price, farmers leave ripe chilies in the field. (Photo: SGGP) In Phu My District, traders are buying bird’s eye chilies for only VND3,000-VND5,000 per kilogram while at the beginning of the season, the price was VND15,000 per kilogram. Many chili farmers even cannot find any trader to sell. Many households with a large area of chilies have to leave the ripe chilies in the field because they cannot afford to hire workers to pick them. The representative of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Phu My District said that the growing area of chilies in the whole district this year was about 1,262 hectares, an increase of 30 hectares compared to last year. This year, the yield of chilies is extremely high, from 1 to 1.5 tons per 500 square meters. Currently, the price of chilies is too low, so the locality has reported to the higher level to find a solution to help farmers. By Ngoc Oai – Translated by Thanh Nha …

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