HANOI, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Encountering unprecedented challenges during COVID-19 outbreaks, Vietnam has taken a series of measures, first vigorously then flexibly, to kill two birds with one stone -- curbing the pandemic and facilitating economic recovery.
Vietnam has experienced four COVID-19 waves -- between late January and late July 2020, from late July 2020 to late January 2021, between late January and late April, and the latest starting on April 27. As of Monday, the country had over 1.55 million cases of COVID-19 infections, including 29,791 fatalities, its ministry of health said.
Vietnam swiftly adopted public health measures upon the first wave of the pandemic, closing borders, carrying out testing, contact tracing, isolation and quarantine, closing schools and public gatherings, and calling on the public to wear face masks and observe social distancing.
In the fourth wave, stringent measures such as lockdowns and limitations on travel in many cities and provinces nationwide have crippled such industries as civil aviation and tourism, and threatened the livelihood of disadvantaged people, especially poor freelancers and migrant workers.
Ho Chi Minh City, the country's biggest city and economic hub, enforced strict social distancing orders for two months ending on Sept. 30, with a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. night curfew in place. In late August, soldiers were deployed for the first time at COVID-19 checkpoints in the city to ensure the enforcement of social distancing measures.
The latest outbreak has hit big economic centers hard, including Bac Giang, Bac Ninh, Hanoi (in the Northern region), especially Ho Chi Minh City and the Southeast region, or the Mekong Delta, said Vo Tri Thanh, former vice president of the Central Institute for Economic Management under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
"Many enterprises, including those deeply involved in global supply chain and regional production networks, have faced disruption in production and business," he said.
Because of COVID-19 outbreaks, Vietnam suffered an estimated economic loss of 847 trillion Vietnamese dong (some 37 billion U.S. dollars) in the 2020-2021 period, Nguyen Thanh Phong, deputy head of the Economic Commission under the Communist Party of Vietnam's Central Committee, stated at the Vietnam Economic Forum 2021 held on Dec. 5 in Hanoi.
Without the pandemic, the country's gross domestic product (GDP) would have grown by 7 percent per year in the past two years, but it actually grew 2.91 percent in 2020, the lowest in a decade, and is predicted to grow 2.5 percent in 2021, he said.
In the third quarter of this year, the GDP shrank by 6.17 percent, the steepest-ever decline, according to its General Statistics Office. In the first three quarters of this year, the GDP increased by 1.42 percent, compared with 2.12 percent in the same period last year.
To realize the target of achieving economic growth of 3-3.5 percent set by the government for 2021, Vietnam needs to gain a GDP growth of 7.06-8.84 percent in the last quarter, which surely requires greater efforts of both the political system and enterprises, said local officials and experts.
"Some foreign and local organizations predicted the economy will grow only 2-2.5 percent this year, the lowest over the past 35 years. However, Vietnam still has three major bright spots, namely stable macro-economy, positive overall export growth, and higher foreign direct investment (FDI) commitments," Thanh said.
In mid-October, the World Bank (WB) revised its forecast for Vietnam's economic growth in 2021 to 2-2.5 percent, from its August forecast of 4.8 percent. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund forecast Vietnam's GDP will grow by 3.8 percent this year. In late September, the Asian Development Bank lowered its economic growth forecast for Vietnam to 3.8 percent from 5.8 percent in July.
To speed up economic recovery, Vietnam has, since October, adopted a new anti-pandemic approach on living safely with COVID-19, lifting strict social distancing orders.
According to a government resolution issued on Oct. 11, the pandemic risk is classified into four levels: level 1 (low-risk, labeled green), level 2 (medium-risk, labeled yellow), level 3 (high-risk, labeled orange), and level 4 (very high-risk, labeled red). Resorts, hotels, motels and tourist attractions can fully operate in localities at level 1 and level 2 pandemic risks, and partly operate at localities at level 3.
In addition to losing social distancing measures, Vietnam has actively conducted "vaccine diplomacy" to seek more foreign COVID-19 vaccines, including Chinese ones, to speed up vaccination among its population, and create favorable conditions for socio-economic activities, especially production and business, to return to normal operations.
Some 97 percent of adults have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine injections, and over 80 percent the second dose; the percentage of students aged 12-17 being vaccinated has been relatively high; and children aged five years and above will be vaccinated soon, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said at the 31st National Diplomacy Conference on Dec. 15 in Hanoi.
Thanks to the increasingly higher rate of vaccinated people, including workers, more and more businesses, especially factories in industrial centers nationwide, have resumed full operations, with more domestic flights already operating and international flights to follow suit soon, more FDI flowing into Vietnam, and more shipments of local goods going abroad, including agricultural products to China.
In the first 11 months of this year, Vietnam lured foreign investment of nearly 26.5 billion U.S. dollars, posting a year-on-year rise of 0.1 percent, said its General Statistics Office. Meanwhile, it recorded a trade value of 599.12 billion U.S. dollars, up 22.3 percent year-on-year, with a trade surplus of 225 million U.S. dollars. Specifically, the export revenue stood at 299.67 billion U.S. dollars, up 17.5 percent.
Vietnam's top legislature has set targets of GDP growth of 6-6.5 percent and per capita income of 3,900 U.S. dollars for 2022.
"The policy of living with COVID-19 will involve continued vigilance and fast action by the authorities, both in vaccination and in social distancing, testing, and quarantining. There is also a clear need for fiscal policy support to boost private demand and help the domestic economy recover," the WB said in its December report named "Vietnam Macro Monitoring." Enditem
