Late winter cold often brings rain to the northern and north-central regions.

Cold air wipes away early summer warmth, brings rain

A cold air wave is hitting northern Vietnam, helping to send early summer temperatures dipping thanks to moderate winds and light showers.

The cold spell struck early on April 5 and then quickly spread across the northern and north-central regions that put an end to searing heat in early summer, according to the National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting.

On April 5-6, the intense heat, especially in Son La, Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa, Thua Thien-Hue, Da Nang and Phu Yen, will gradually turn down, with temperatures anticipated to fall 3 to 4°C, ranging from 25 to 35°C, cited VOV.

In Hanoi, the cold air wave also brought winds and rain to the capital early on April 5, causing temperatures to fall slightly and stay around 26 - 32°C.

Though temperatures drop slightly, people should be wary of thunderstorms and hailstones to hit the regions, warned meteorologists.

The experts also said in April 2024, northern localities are likely to endure cold air but with weak intensity, while low pressure in the West tends to become stronger, so hot weather will increase more in the northern and north-central regions.

The average temperature across the country is expected to be commonly 1-2 degrees higher than the average for many years during the same period.

As Vietnam is in the transition period from the cold season to the hot season, erratic weather patterns such as thunderstorms and hailstones may occur more often across the country, warned meteorologists.

Vietnam ranked 6th among fastest growing Asian economies in 2024

The US website finance.yahoo.com placed Vietnam 6th among the fastest growing economies in Asia in 2024 in its article published on April 4.

The article cited projections for Vietnam's real GDP growth to reach 5.8% and per capita GDP growth at 7.41%.

Vietnam found itself positioned behind the Macao Special Administrative Region (China) which claimed the top spot, followed by India, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and the Philippines. Within Southeast Asia, Indonesia followed Vietnam at 10th, Malaysia at 14th, Laos at 18th, and Thailand at 20th, according to VNA.

Photo: VNP

With a projected expansion of 4.5%, the Asian economies are expected to collectively contribute over 60% of the global economic growth this year.

However, the article highlighted the importance of effective risk management for sustained economic recovery. Key challenges facing the Asian economies include the ongoing real estate crisis in China, potential financial instability in debt-laden nations, inefficiencies within supply chains, and the escalating threat of rising transport costs.

FDI prospects remain bright spot of Vietnamese economy

While near-term trade is about to take off again, long-term FDI prospects remain a bright spot of the Vietnamese economy, according to the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC).

The HSBC report “Vietnam at a glance” outlined that greenfield FDI rose almost 60% year-on-year in the first quarter of the year, 65% of which is concentrated in the pillar manufacturing sector and the rest in the real estate.

Singapore has regained the crown as Vietnam’s largest FDI provider, with an impressive share of 50%. Greater China, which made up half of Vietnam’s FDI in 2023, came second with a share of 30%. The Republic of Korea and Japan, that traditionally are Vietnam’s two largest investors, only accounted for a share of 15% combined.

According to HSBC experts, while Vietnam is set to see better growth prospects in the Year of the Dragon (2024), its GDP in the first quarter of the year expanded by a slower-than-expected pace of 5.7% year-on-year.

Think tanks pointed out that this does not mean that the recovery story is derailed. Rather, Vietnam remains firmly on a rebound path, led by better trade prospects, VOV reported.

Photo: VOV

Indeed, high frequency indicators continue to point to sanguine trade outlook, largely thanks to an upturn in the electronics cycle. Not only has the short-term trade cycle turned, but the long-term positive FDI prospects also carry on. But to return to pre-pandemic growth, Vietnam’s growth requires a broadening out from its trade sector to domestic-oriented services.

HSBC economists kept their yearly growth forecast unchanged at 6.0% for 2024, but have tweaked their quarterly forecasts, accounting for a stronger pick-up in activities in the second half of the year.

With regard to inflation, they expect inflation to average around 3.9%, albeit elevated but still below the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV)’s inflation ceiling.

Tourism sector likely to achieve yearly goal of 18 million foreign visitors

The tourism sector is striving to maintain the growth momentum recorded in the first quarter so as to fulfill the target of serving 18 million foreign visitors this year, given a full recovery in most of Vietnam’s markets.

In January-March, more than 4.6 million foreigners chose Vietnam as a holiday destination, representing increases of 72% over the same period last year and 3.2% compared to that in the same period of 2019. The sector also served 30 million domestic tourists. Total revenue from tourists is estimated at 195 trillion VND (7.8 billion USD).

According to the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism (VNAT) under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, major markets in Northeast Asia continued to see remarkable growth and are the main driving force for the recovery while those in Southeast Asia also grew well and in Europe continued to grow strongly thanks to the effect of the unilateral visa exemption policy by Vietnam. The recovery of the Chinese market in the period reached 69%, showing a positive sign.

Major tourist destinations across the country also saw positive results in the past three months, attributable to early communication, advertising and promotion to stimulate tourism demand and favorable visa policies, cited VNA.

Foreign tourists touring Ha Long Bay (Photo: VNA)

Notably, Hanoi welcomed about 6.54 million visitors, including around 1.4 million foreigners, representing year-on-year rises of 10.9% and 40%, respectively, and earned more than 25 trillion VND.

The central province of Quang Nam, home to the world cultural heritage sites of Hoi An ancient city and My Son Sanctuary, served over 1.6 million visitors, including more than 910,000 foreigners. The number of foreign arrivals represented a 36% year-on-year rise.

Thanks to its promotion efforts, the central province of Khanh Hoa which boasts the renowned Nha Trang beach city welcomed 2.1 million holiday-makers, of whom over 1.2 million are foreigners, during January-March.

Other localities like Da Nang and Binh Dinh also reported impressive results.

Besides the target of 18-million foreign arrivals, the sector also aims to serve 110 million domestic ones to earn 850 trillion VND.

To that end, VNAT Director Nguyen Trung Khanh stressed the need to innovate promotion methods; focus on exploiting customer market segments and products that Vietnam has strengths in such as MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions), golf, community-based tourism, cuisine, health care; and expand railway tourism.

It is also necessary to establish offices to promote Vietnamese tourism abroad, firstly in Vientiane, he added.

Border gate with China opens, trade resumes

The trade of goods across the Vietnam-China border has returned to a pre-Covid-19 level of activity.

The Mong Cai International Border Gate has reopened for two weeks and the goods trade of border area residents have been busy.

Locals last weekend were seen standing in long queues waiting for their turn to enter China.

Early in the morning, hundreds of people gathered at the subordinate gate of the Mong Cai Border Gate.

After the border gate was opened, they moved to a room waiting for exit and lined up there. Agencies checked documents to ensure their allowed number of entries to China.

After that, they entered Chinese territory to buy consumer goods and re-entered Vietnam. The exit and entry must be done during the day.

“I go to China to carry goods to Vietnam as I am hired to do this. I am paid VND200,000 or VND300,000 each time depending on the amounts of goods and weight,” said D.T.V, a resident in Tran Phu ward of Mong Cai City.

The number of people registering to exit Vietnam and enter China was high. There were also Chinese people entering Vietnam as travelers. Local officers had to work hard to ensure security and order.

According to Senior Lieutenant Colonel Diep Manh Hao from Mong Cai Border Gate Frontier Post, the border gate resumed its usual operation on March 15.

The people coming to the border gate to enter China for goods exchange are mostly those who have residential books in border areas.

On the first day after the border gate opened, the number of people crossing the border gate was small. However, the figure has been increasing rapidly.

Hao said, agencies now handle tens of thousands of documents to approve the exit and re-entry of people daily, cited VNN.

The Mong Cai International Border Gate has reopened (Photo: Pham Cong)

The people go to China to buy mostly consumer goods (clothes, footwear, garments, toilet papers, tissues and some production tools).

No more than four exits a month are allowed per person and the goods they trade must not be higher than VND2 million each visit.

“In recent days, we fulfilled procedures for 15,000 people, both travelers and border area residents daily,” Hao said.

Prior to that, the border gate was closed as China had followed a ‘zero Covid’ policy. On January 21, China began restoring usual activities, allowing people to cross border gates within the day to trade goods. However, limitations were still imposed on some activities.

Since March 15, all activities at Mong Cai (Vietnam) and Dongxing (China) have been running as usual.

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