The global COVID-19 pandemic is damaging economies the world over, but it could also be an opportunity for Vietnamese agricultural businesses.

The ASEAN Coordinating Council (ACC) held its 25th meeting in the form of a video conference on April 9 under the chair of the council’s chairman - Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh.

With Southeast Asia facing a funding deficit to meet its burgeoning energy and infrastructure needs, the region needs stronger coordination, skills and transparency in elevating sustainable projects to investors, according to the findings of a report by the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA).

The Government has recently issued Decree No.39/2020/ND-CP on a list of Vietnam’s special preferential import tariffs to implement the Vietnam – Cuba Free Trade Agreement from now until 2023.

The European Union (EU) has drawn up a list of U.S. imports including lighters and plastic fittings for furniture that it will hit with tariffs in retaliation for an extension of U.S. duties on incoming steel and aluminium from the EU and other countries

Vietnam’s trade activity has been badly hurt by the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak over the past months. Nevertheless Vietnam has so far contained the outbreak relatively well and more export opportunities are expected to arrive over the coming months.

Analysts in advanced economies are reckoning with a phenomenon familiar to fragile or failed states – a total economic standstill and the devastation that follows, says Mohamed A El-Erian.

The global recession brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic is almost certain to be far deeper and more protracted than the one that followed the 2008 global financial crisis. While many governments have pledged to bolster their economies with unprecedented monetary and fiscal stimulus – despite holding already-massive public debt – the best they can probably hope for is to stave off economic collapse. If they insist on turning inward – pointing fingers and erecting barriers, instead of upholding international cooperation and economic engagement – even that may become impossible.

Eighty-three per cent of companies in the physical value chain in Việt Nam have been suffering from supply issues over the past two months due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, a recent survey by CEL Vietnam, a supply chain consulting and training firm, has found.

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is expected to create more impetus for Vietnam’s economic development and especially in the promotion of institutional reforms, if there is willingness and adaptability from Vietnamese policy-making agencies and the business community.