According to **, official data released by Vietnam's National Bureau of Statistics a few days ago showed that the country's GDP increased by 505%, less than expected 6The 5% target is not only much lower than the 8 in the same period last year02%, which is also lower than 5 in the past 10 years78% average growth rate. In this regard, Reuters analysis said that Vietnam's economic achievement this year was affected by factors such as weak global demand and reduced public investment due to increased anti-corruption efforts. Of course, Vietnam's economic growth rate this year has been much lower than expected, but it is still one of the fastest-growing economies in Southeast Asia and the world.
In addition to the above-mentioned factors, the main reason for Vietnam's slower economic growth this year is that political influence is also one of the main factors contributing to this result. As we all know, with the continuous escalation of tensions between China and the United States, the United States and European countries have encouraged their allies and partners in the Asia-Pacific and Europe regions to decouple from China in the economic field in order to suppress China's development needs. Therefore, in the context of the so-called "friendly shore outsourcing" of the United States and the West, Asia-Pacific countries such as Vietnam and India have become countries in the United States and Europe to replace China in an important position in the industrial chain.
Vietnam is not only one of the most populous countries in the Asia-Pacific region, but also has a relatively complete industrial system. More importantly, Vietnam is the only ASEAN country that has had a military conflict with China, and it also has many sovereignty disputes with China in the South China Sea. Therefore, amid the clamor of the so-called "high rate of return" and "low risk" in the West, Vietnam once became an investment destination for Western companies to transfer industrial chains from China. Vietnam was also full of expectations to replace China as an important link in the Western industrial chain, so it desperately introduced preferential policies to attract investment from Western companies.
However, what Vietnam never dreamed of was that due to differences in political systems, the country does not have an advantage over so-called "democracies" such as India in attracting investment from Western companies. At the same time, many Western technology companies have only found that the prospects are not as rosy as they say after listening to the propaganda of US and European politicians and blindly transferring the industrial chain to Vietnam. At least, Vietnam does not have the same industrial and technological base as China, and Western high-tech companies are inseparable from China in terms of raw material demand, which makes Vietnam's investment status declining in the eyes of Western companies.
What makes Vietnam even more dissatisfied is that Western countries are always keen to draw a big pie for a certain country in order to win over them and work for them. When the United States met with visiting Vietnamese leaders not long ago, it promised to let American semiconductor companies invest in the country. However, the result made Vietnam happy, and the American chip companies that were originally planning to invest in Vietnam have recently announced the expansion of their investment in Malaysia. According to official figures released by Vietnam, Asian countries such as China, Japan and Singapore account for 80% of Vietnam's total investment. In other words, the US and European investment in Vietnam has not met the country's expectations, and their clamor is actually lip service.
In this regard, the global network recently quoted experts as saying that the investment of the United States and European countries in Vietnam may be just a spare tire in a short period of time, and with the weakening of global demand, a lot of foreign capital is withdrawing from Vietnam, and the resulting consequence is that Vietnam's exports in the third quarter of this year fell by nearly 8% year-on-year, and at the same time, the total investment of foreign capital in Vietnam in 2023 will decline by nearly 40% year-on-year. In a recent report, the United States, which has vowed to increase its investment in Vietnam, blamed the Hanoi authorities for the "slow investment approval process, the accounting system that is inconsistent with the international level, and the investment environment that displeased foreign companies."
In this regard, the global network pointed out: On the one hand, the United States hopes that Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries will leverage the world's pivotal status of China's industrial chain, and on the other hand, it is unwilling to tolerate even temporary losses due to Vietnam's shortcomings at the current stage, which will of course only prompt Vietnam to become more calm in its expectations of the United States. Obviously, the flickering of the United States and European countries finally disappointed Vietnam, which was once full of expectations for them. After all, the absence of investment from US and European companies, and even the withdrawal of investment, are the main reasons for the decline in Vietnam's total exports and much slower than expected economic growth.
Vietnam, having learned the hard way, has turned to the point that China will not let go. Therefore, when the United States and the Philippines are militarily disrupting the South China Sea, Vietnam, like other ASEAN countries, has chosen to remain silent. At the same time, while the United States is asking its international allies and partners to distance themselves from China, Vietnam has announced in a high-profile manner that it will strengthen its comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination with China, and has demonstrated to the United States with concrete actions its determination to refuse to alienate China.