After swift virus success, Vietnam sets sights on post-pandemic business

After swift virus success, Vietnam sets sights on post-pandemic business.

After proclaiming success in containing the coronavirus, Vietnam is positioning itself as a safe place to do business, capitalising on demand from international manufacturers looking to diversify their supply chains away from China.

“Given its fast response to the virus, we expect foreign investment to pour in to Vietnam after the pandemic,” Kizuna Joint Development Corp, which builds ready-to-go factories in Vietnam, told Reuters in a statement.

The company, which has a client base of mainly Japanese and Korean investors, said it is speeding up plans to finish a 100,000 square metre (1 million square foot) factory in southern Vietnam in anticipation of an increase in post-pandemic demand.

Advisers who help foreign firms relocate internationally said Vietnam’s success in dealing with the pandemic had already boosted the confidence of foreign investors in the country.

Vietnam’s planning and investment ministry said the country was well positioned to assist manufacturers seeking new production bases.

“These opportunities will include the shifting of investment, particularly by large multinational groups seeking to diversify their supply chains to other areas, including Southeast Asia,” deputy minister Tran Quoc Phuong said in a statement on a government website. “Vietnam is among the first of those destinations.”

Before the pandemic, many China-based businesses looking to escape rising labour costs and fallout from the U.S.-Sino trade war had been looking at Vietnam. Hanoi’s growing portfolio of trade deals, such as the European Union Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), was also encouraging investment.

Source: Reuters