In 2023, revenues of Vietnam’s e-learning market are expected to reach around 3 billion USD with a compound annual growth rate of about 20.2% during 2019-2023, according to a report by Ken Research (Photo: doanhnhansaigon.vn)

2023 - Time for Edtech to thrive in Vietnam

Experts are positive about the development of Vietnam’s education technology (Edtech) market in 2023 if local Edtech companies can overcome post-pandemic challenges.

Pham Giang Linh, managing director of Galaxy Education told the Tuoi tre (Youth) newspaper that Vietnam’s Edtech market was formed in 2006 and 2007 – the first development stage of the digital economy in the country, but it only attracted wide attention in the period from 2020-2021, when demand for e-learning increased sharply due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, Vietnam saw the establishment of more than 100 Edtech startups which strongly attracted capital from foreign investors, he said, citing examples like Topica, ELSA, ColderSchool, Edmicro, Vuihoc, and Educa, which attracted from millions to tens of millions of USD.

Local investors including Viettel, FPT, and VNPT also further invested in and expanded their e-learning services, cited VNA.

At the EDUtech Asia 2022 – Asia’s largest education conference & exhibition – which took place in Singapore last November, international experts said major Edtech companies in the world are looking for new markets including Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries.

In 2023, revenues of Vietnam’s e-learning market are expected to reach around 3 billion USD with a compound annual growth rate of about 20.2% during 2019-2023, according to a report by Ken Research, a market research and consulting firm based in India, Indonesia and UAE.

Huynh Kim Tuoc, director of Saigon Innovation Hub, Ho Chi Minh City’s Sciences and Technology Department, said the number of people who own mobile phones and access the internet in Vietnam is higher than those in other countries in the region, which is an advantage that startups look to.

Truong Le Quynh Tuong, Director of South East Asia at ClassIn, said that a factor that makes Ho Chi Minh City’s Edtech market attractive to investors is people’s willingness to pay for education.

She said that the Edtech market in the city in particular and Vietnam in general will continue to thrive as international companies from Singapore, Thailand, China, India, and the US are planning to jump in.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, technology application is an indispensable part of teaching/learning activities. The city’s education department targets to digitalise 35% of learning activities at schools, which is expected to maintain the use of technologies in education and training activities, she said.

Ho Chi Minh City warned against new COVID-19 variants

The Ministry of Health (MoH) has warned Ho Chi Minh City to stay vigilant due to the risks relating to COVID-19 community transmission remaining considerable.

On January 31, an MoH delegation inspected the southern city’s COVID-19 response at Tan Son Nhat International Airport, the health centre of District 3, and the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases, according to VOV.

The Ministry of Health delegation has a working session with the HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases

They assessed that the southern city had performed well in pandemic prevention and control during the Lunar New Year, known locally as Tet, period in late January. However, as new variants are likely to enter and spread among the community following Tet, it must devise plans to combat disease transmission.

Dr Nguyen Vu Thuong, deputy director of the HCM City Pasteur Institute and a member of the MoH delegation, cited the World Health Organisation as saying that the virus remains a global health emergency, with the most worrying concern being the development of variants which are vaccine- and drug-resistant.

Though the number of hospitalised cases in the southern city has fallen sharply, new variants may spread within the community and attack the elderly and unvaccinated people, he noted.

He suggested that local authorities issue strong recommendations at tourist attractions and places of worship to remind people of the need to wear face masks, as well as increasing communication to encourage locals to get vaccinated against the disease.

As of January 31, the country had recorded a total of 11,526,497 cases of COVID-19, including more than 10.6 million recoveries and over 43,180 deaths. Meanwhile, over 266.09 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered.

Domestic market to drive tourism recovery in 2023: insider

With stronger tourism growth forecast for this year, the domestic market is expected to give the strongest boost to the recovery of this sector.

Not Chinese travellers or any other sources of international tourists, it is the domestic sector that will remain the “brightest” factor helping Vietnam’s tourism continue recovering strongly in 2023, Nguyen Huu Y Yen, General Director of the Saigontourist Travel Service Co. Ltd, said as cited by Thanh nien (Young people) newspaper.

He said before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, the three biggest sources of foreign visitors to Vietnam were China, Russia, and the Republic of Korea (RoK).

Visitors to Ba Den Mountain in Tay Ninh province (Photo: VNA)

Charter flights from the RoK have been resumed just recently while there haven’t been many Chinese tourists, and Russian tourists haven’t returned. The European and US markets have begun to bounce back but are unlikely to record a breakthrough in 2023, he pointed out.

Yen expected the number of international tourists in 2023 will return to about 50% of the 2019 level. Meanwhile, in just over six months of 2022, the number of domestic travellers rebounded to over 50% of the pre-pandemic level, and this year’s figure will definitely reach 70 - 75%. Outbound tourism will also share the same trend.

The domestic market can regain the 2019 growth in 2024, the Saigontourist CEO predicted.

About 9 million Vietnamese travelled during the recent Lunar New Year holiday, surging 47.5% year on year, statistics show.

Nguyen Trung Khanh, General Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, expressed his belief that 2023 will be a vibrant year for Vietnamese tourism in terms of both domestic and international markets.

He cited some experts as saying that the world will witness vigorous growth in travel demand this year. As a bright spot in the global tourism map, Vietnam will definitely not be out of this trend.

Vietnamese exports face array of challenges ahead in 2023

Vietnamese exporters are required to swiftly grasp information in order to adjust production activities in line with market conditions amid global high inflation, along with rising domestic exchange rates and interest rates, according to insiders.

During a recent trade promotion conference held with Vietnamese Trade Offices abroad in January, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien assigned overseas Vietnamese trade offices to intensify trade promotion activities to boost exports amid a decline in orders, thereby fulfilling this year's export growth target of 6%.

Statistics compiled by the General Department of Vietnam Customs indicate that the country’s total import-export value in January stood at an estimated US$46.56 billion, representing a fall of 17.3% compared to the previous month and a decline of 25% compared to the same period from last year.

In terms of the figure, exports stood at an estimated US$25.08 billion, a decline of 13.6% from the previous month and a drop of 21.3% against last year’s corresponding period.

The decline in exports is reflected in all key export groups, including phones, computers and machinery.

This fall in exports has been reflected in all key export groups, including phones, down by 18.6%, computers, down by 11.5%, machinery and equipment, down by 25.2%, agricultural and aquatic products, down by 30%, coffee down, by 29.2%, and rice, down by 17.4%.

The current situation can largely be attributed to the traditional Lunar New Year, known locally as Tet, as well as global economic uncertainties, both of which have caused a decrease in consumer demand and new export orders, VOV reported.

Vu Ba Phu, director of the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency under Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), pointed out that amid difficulties facing the global and national economy, the country has approved 76 trade promotion projects by sending businesses to join prestigious exhibitions abroad. This is along with efforts to organise trips for trade delegations to conduct market surveys in Vietnam.

Aside from a decline in export orders, there are set to be further trade barriers in the near future as many major importers of Vietnamese goods in the EU, or market areas under the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), continue to introduce key changes relating to regulations on imported goods.

For example, the EU has also issued official and emergency control measures for imported goods, thereby forcing Vietnamese exporters to enhance their competitiveness as a means of meeting stringent regulations.

Tran Thu Quynh, Vietnamese Trade Counselor in Canada, has requested that local firms specialise in exporting copper pipe fittings to the Canadian market to gain more insights into new decisions made by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) regarding whether or not to continue to impose anti-dumping or subsidy duties on Vietnamese products moving forward.

UK imports from Vietnam in 2022 put at over US$6 billion

United Kingdom (UK) imports from Vietnam amounted to US$6.06 billion last year, rising by 5.2% over 2021, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

Phones and phone parts were Vietnam’s biggest export earner to the UK, at US$1.13 billion, accounting for 18.7% of the total.

Local employees work at a clothing facility. (Photo: VNA)

Machinery, equipment and parts as a whole came in second with combined revenue of US$852.1 million, accounting for 14% of the total, followed by the textile and footwear industries.

In 2022, Vietnam’s exports to the UK grew sharply in a range of items, including coffee, electrical wires and cables, cereals and gemstones, cited SGT.

According to the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade, bilateral trade has expanded strongly in 2021 thanks to the UK - Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA).

As part of the UKVFTA, some 85.6% of tariff lines for goods imported by the UK from Vietnam were eliminated in January 2021, and 99.2% will be removed by January 2027, according to the UK Department for International Trade.

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