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Vietnam, Despite Low Coronavirus Caseload, Will Take Months to Recover
Economically

Ralph Jennings

   TAIPEI, TAIWAN - Vietnam has reported few new coronavirus cases every
   day since mid-April. Now schools are reopening, smaller restaurants are
   back in business and traffic jams are forming again in the financial
   center,Ho Chi Minh City,as commuters head to work.

   The Southeast Asian country has[1]controlled its coronavirus caseloadat
   just 271 across a 96 million population by quickly sealing off the
   border with China where the global outbreak began, quarantining tens of
   thousands of people and tracing the contacts of known cases.

   The phased-in reopening that's now in progress will stimulate some
   demand as people get back to earning money following job losses and
   work furloughs in April, experts in the country predict. But Vietnam's
   once booming economy won't approach pre-COVID-19 disease outbreak
   growth levels until at least the second half of 2020 because of a
   continued lack of foreign tourists and a dearth of export demand from
   overseas, they say.

   Tourism stopped April 1ongovernmentconcerns aboutthe risk of letting in
   virus-infected travelers. Vietnamese exports aren't selling as well as
   normal because storesoverseashaveclosedand consumers have lost jobsdue
   to disease containment measures.

   "I would say with any luck we'll get back to some sense of normalcy by
   July," said Ralf Matthaes, founder of theInfocusMekong Research
   consultancy in Ho Chi Minh City.

   A return to normalwould first reward retail and the manufacturing
   supply chain,aslaborers regain jobson the assembly lines andbegin to
   spend their earnings. Domestic flights are powering back up too, though
   some hotels remain shuttered due to low demand.

   A survey byInfocusfound some 30% of people lost their jobs and 16% were
   furloughed in Ho Chi Minh City and the capital,Hanoi.

References

   1. https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/how-vietnam-contains-the-coronavirus/5404566.html

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