Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos RIG

Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos

Saman Bandara, SIRM, Global Ambassador

Vietnam, being a country whose economy benefits largely from foreign direct investments particularly from Japan, Korea and the rest of the developed world (unfortunately, these countries primarily had a severe impact from the Covid–19), will start seeing the impact on its economy, in the short-run and long-run depending on how the above investing countries are able to manage the crisis, which is yet to be seen. On the other hand, it is worth considering the way in which the country has so far handled the crisis which I think should deserve a special mention and I also think they deserve a round of applause from the rest of the world to appreciate the efforts taken to contain the spread of the virus. Sharing the border with China and closer to Wuhan which was the epicentre of the crisis, and so far only with 326 cases as of 26th May, and not having a mortality so far with the grace of the God, Vietnam seems to have come a long way in managing the spread of the virus in its communities. As media reports indicate, and my own knowledge about the tough efforts to get people stay at home by other countries around the world, Vietnam was able to implement a very effective social distancing program which it was able to get people to embrace with relative ease thanks to the Government’s effective information sharing mechanism through digital media. Although the Covid–19 prevention and detection still remains a moving target as we speak, I would like to list the following factors that in my view have made Vietnam’s success in controlling the crisis to date: 1. Early actions by the Government by implementing a strong contact tracing program and a quarantine program with travel restrictions 2. Closure of schools at the early stage of the pandemic 3. Effective dissemination of the Covid–19 related information through digital media in order to the message to reach the public and the awareness campaigns over the digital media 4. Effective social distancing program that was implemented together with recommendation of wearing masks at public places Talking about the companies coping with the situation, most of the companies have taken the “working from home” concept seriously and also the efforts to maintain the physical distance at the work place by creating a flexible working arrangement without really implementing a full hard shutdown as per the recommendation of the Government. This particular mechanism ensured a continued functioning of economic activities without fully closing everything down to bring the whole economy to a halt. This is a time that tested the risk appetite of everyone including the authorities. This was an issue for which risk appetite had to be extremely small and sensitive. I think that the message was cascaded down by the Government to private sector who took that seriously at least from what has been seen so far. Everyone knew that this is a time where nothing can be taken for granted. Risk awareness of the countries around the world both in terms of public health and the economic impact was very well seen based on their responses to the crisis and the way in which countries have been able to manage the crisis so far. Economic impact on corporates is yet to be seen as the situation is still unfolding. It’s certain that the companies that had strong risk management practices would better be able to withstand the economic shock that was brought by the crisis. For example, companies that have robust risk policies may have bought insurance policies to cover business interruptions and such companies would be able to recover some of the losses from the event.