Vietnam has been dealing with the effects of opening up to the outside world following Covid, but there have been some positive outcomes.
Reopening after Covid
Vietnam’s borders were shut to outsiders for two years owing to the Covid-19 outbreak, but on March 15 they were reopened.
Two months later, the nation became one of the first to do away with testing requirements for all applicants.
It saw 172,900 visits in May, an increase of 70.6% from April.
Insiders and experts have been urging the government to reduce visa requirements in order to draw more tourists from outside the mainstream markets.
According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, just 2.95 million guests, or 60% of the objective, arrived after 11 months. One of the factors was that China, a significant tourist market that before the pandemic sent over 32% of all foreign visitors to Vietnam, still had not reopened its borders. The number of travelers from Europe and Russia, the second-largest markets for Vietnamese tourism before the outbreak, was also impacted by the crisis between Russia and Ukraine.
Insiders and experts have been urging the government to reduce visa requirements in order to draw more tourists from outside the mainstream markets.
Combating corruption in Covid-19
In Vietnam, two high-profile corruption instances were uncovered while the pandemic was still in full swing. The first involved bribery in connection with Covid-19 repatriation flights, while the second involved bidding for the provision of Covid-19 test kits.
The government planned almost 800 aircraft to bring back more than 200,000 people from more than 60 nations and territories when the virus spread internationally. Many had to spend a lot of money on tickets and go through difficult processes in order to catch a flight home.
A police investigation into bribery regarding the clearance of repatriation flights began in January of this year with the detention of numerous staff members in the consular division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Since then, 34 individuals from various ministries—including prominent officials like To Anh Dung, the deputy foreign minister, and Nguyen Quang Linh, a deputy prime minister’s aide—have either been arrested or are being looked into for suspected participation.
The Covid-19 test kit scandal involving Viet A Technology Corporation was the other prominent corruption case. Phan Quoc Viet, general director of Viet A, acknowledged in January that he had inflated the price of the kits by 45%, paid close to VND800 billion (US$35.2 million) in “bonuses” to the company’s partners, and bribed some people.
Nguyen Thanh Long, the minister of health, and Chu Ngoc Anh, the former chairman of Hanoi, are among the almost 100 officials who have either been detained or are the subject of an inquiry.
Drug scarcity
Since the beginning of the year, there have been shortages of medications and medical supplies in hospitals all around the nation, including the largest ones in Hanoi and HCMC.
According to official statistics, 12 out of 21 hospitals and 82% of medical facilities, or 12 out of 21, lacked medicine and equipment by the end of July, forcing patients and their families to purchase even the most basic supplies like bandages or needles.
In HCMC, hospitals treating dengue fever have been forced to use less effective alternatives or medications that are not covered by public health insurance, increasing the cost of care for patients.
After two years of Covid-19, a number of health officials and hospital executives said that difficult bidding processes and a lack of financial resources were the main causes of the inadequate medicinal supply scenario.
Shortage of Gasoline
In August, a number of gas stations in HCMC and the southern provinces closed their doors or only sold a little amount of fuel, leading to a crisis in the country’s supply. From early in the morning till late at night, lines of people could be seen waiting to fill up at stations.
Later, the situation also occurred in Hanoi, where customers had to wait in line for petrol for up to 30 minutes each time.
Global supply shortages were one cause of the issue, causing companies to purchase goods at exorbitant costs and sell them at a loss. Additionally, the government-controlled retail pricing did not account for rising costs, which drove many merchants to halt distribution.
Businesses involved in the fuel supply chain accused the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Finance of “problematic” management and said that the more fuel they sold, the more money they lost.
Then, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh instructed executive agencies to address the situation as soon as possible, ordering the central bank to grant suppliers simple access to credit so they could import additional fuel and directing them to include fuel transportation costs in retail prices.
Since the supply of gasoline has been more consistent in recent weeks, the Ministry of Industry and Trading is requesting permission from the government to alter a number of regulations governing the trade of gasoline in order to create long-term order for the market.
Mass dismissals of employees
Workers all over the country are being laid off, furloughed in the thousands, or have their working hours reduced in order to reduce costs, leaving them with low incomes just before Tet. This is because factories are seeing a drop in orders towards the end of the year amid falling demand in important markets like the U.S., Europe, and Japan and difficulties in securing raw materials.
The Vietnam General Confederation of Labor stated at a meeting on job losses on November 28 that around 1,235 firms in 44 cities and provinces had experienced difficulties, affecting 472,000 workers, of whom 41,500 have been laid off.
Particularly labor-intensive industries including leather, textile, woodworking, and seafood processing have seen job losses and reductions in working hours.
Since last month, labor officials have been compiling data on laid-off workers in southern manufacturing centres, including Ho Chi Minh City, in order to connect them with potential recruiters.
The HCMC Department of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs estimates that over 43,000 new employees will be needed by city enterprises during the next two months.
Recently, local authorities’ coordination helped 1,500 out of 1,800 laid-off people in HCMC’s Cu Chi District find new jobs.
While this is going on, several companies with tens of thousands of employees have made an effort to keep their staff on board in anticipation of a pickup in revenue in 2019. Both suppliers for major brands like Nike, Adidas, and Puma, Pou Chen in HCMC and Pousung in its neighbor Dong Nai, have promised to give out significant Tet bonuses that are on par with pre-pandemic levels in order to share burdens with employees and entice them to stay after the holiday.