The American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) has called on Vietnam to relax entry procedures and quarantine rules for foreign investors.

AmCham director Adam Sitkoff. Photo: Dan Tri

“AmCham encourages authorities to implement less burdensome entry procedures for fully vaccinated business people, foreign experts and maybe even tourists,” AmCham director Adam Sitkoff said.

He said it’s necessary to facilitate foreign businesspeople’s traveling in Vietnam to help improve investment, speed up key infrastructure projects, launch education programs, among others.

Vietnam has lengthened the quarantine period to 21 days for foreign experts and Vietnamese returnees after it suffered the resurgence of the virus from those who finished the 14-day quarantine.

In a survey conducted by AmCham on May 21-22 about the impact of the latest COVID-19 outbreak on business operations in Vietnam, its members named “Lack of vaccine to protect their workforce/ team” the biggest among seven business challenges and “Burdensome travel requirements” the second biggest.

In addition, “Length of quarantine period” is the top five challenges for bringing in people from outside Vietnam.

Business people can reach agreements via video conferences but the online links are not enough to replace in-person meetings and work trips to Vietnam to check quality or suitability before making decisions or commitments as well as to find reliable partners for their supply chain and investment.

Foreign visitors at Tan Son Nhat International Airport, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: TTKDQT

Adam Sitkoff stressed the importance of vaccination and wanted Vietnam to accelerate its vaccination program. He emphasized that the vaccine has proved effective and the high immunization rate becomes the only way to fight against Covid-19.

He said he didn’t want Vietnam to lag behind other countries on this issue.

Vietnam ranks low in inoculation due to the thin global supply of vaccines. 

It has received roughly 2.6 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine via the COVAX Facility and purchase.

The government said different suppliers have committed approximately 110 million doses for Vietnam in 2021, including 31 million by Pfizer, 30 million by AstraZeneca, 38.9 million by the COVAX Facility, and 10 million under cost-sharing by COVAX Facility.

The Ministry of Health continues working with other suppliers namely Moderna, Johnson & Johnson (the US), CureVac (Germany), and Sputnik V (Russia).