Vietnam Today

Ho Chi Minh City has gradually eased social distancing measures since October 1 and is moving towards the “new normal”. The prices of many goods and essential items are stabilizing.

Standard Chartered has lowered its 2021 GDP growth forecast for Vietnam to 2.7 per cent. Despite adopting a rather cautious view until the signs of recovery in the country become clearer, it has maintained its forecast of 7 per cent for 2022.

According to Nikkei Asia, from being bottom at the end of July, Vietnam ranked 118 out of 121 countries and territories as of the end of September in the Covid-19 Recovery Index. It received a perfect score in the vaccination criterion.

The government has issued a Resolution on purchasing AstraZeneca vaccine produced by Hungary. It also decided that the total number of purchased, imported, aided, and funded vaccine doses this year will exceed 150 million.

Vietnam has received 300,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine and medical equipment from Australia. This is the second batch of vaccines from the country, under a commitment to provide 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca to Vietnam in 2021.

Vietnam is becoming the innovation hub of Southeast Asia and boasts great potential in the application and development of new technologies as robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) become part of daily life.