|
Vietnam can export things ‘people want to buy’: HSBC official
Vietnam has the potential to export “things people want to buy,” giving it a comparative advantage as it strives to recover from the global economic crisis, John Coverdale, HSBC Group General Manager, said.
HSBC sees Vietnam as an emerging market with big investment opportunities, he said at a press briefing last week during a brief business visit to attend the opening of a branch in Binh Duong Province.
“From an HSBC perspective, with a strong presence in the emerging markets, we may see things somewhat more optimistically than perhaps many banks,” Coverdale said.
While the West has a lot to work its way through, the developing market including China and Vietnam have an opportunity “because you’re not carrying the baggage of the past in the same way.
“Asia Pacific was not as leveraged as the West. And this is in part because of the Asian Crisis, I guess, and therefore we see opportunity here,” he said.
As a bank that has always focused on emerging markets, “we see in five or 10 years time... our group chairman has spoken about much more of a shift towards emerging markets away from the West in terms of the Western dominance, perhaps a rebalancing, which is probably inherently a good thing.”
Responding to a question about whether Vietnam’s economy has weathered the global economic crisis, Coverdale said the country’s economy is at a different stage of development, and will differ in its recovery as well.
“In the rest of the world, demand has fallen, and it impacts different exporting countries differently,” he said. “You export, for example, a lot of garments with some very strong brand names, and even non-branded goods, and people still have to put clothes on their back. So, I guess people will adjust accordingly.”
Coverdale said Vietnam’s exports might not be of high value during this period, but could still record “good volumes.”
Vietnam was the only one of the top 30 exporters to the US to increase shipments to the world’s largest economy during the first four months of the year, benefiting from clothing and footwear production, Bloomberg reported last month.
“Each country is impacted slightly differently,” Coverdale said. “But if you’re in a growing economy, then in a sense, you’re in the better position than many of the countries are in, for example, the West, where their economies are in recession.
“So although you’re impacted by demand, by the reduction in demand from, for example, the West, and you’re still forecast to grow. And banks will generally reflect what’s going on in the economy.”
Vietnam’s economic growth accelerated in the second quarter, buoyed by construction activity, amid indications of a broader regional recovery.
The country’s gross domestic product grew 3.9 percent in the six months through June compared to a year earlier, after gaining 3.1 percent in the first quarter, the General Statistics Office in Hanoi said.
The economy expanded 4.5 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, according to the statistics office.
The government has cut its growth target for the year to 5 percent from 6.5 percent amid contractions in economies that buy many of its exports, but even this is seen as optimistic by the International Monetary Fund, which has predicted a 3.5 percent expansion.
Coverdale said HSBC would continue to make strong investments in Vietnam. “Here [in Vietnam], as you can see, we’re growing and adding people. So I think on the whole, in Vietnam, this is positive.”
Hoang Uy
thanhnien
|
