“Those two countries probably stand out most positively,” said Joseph Incalcaterra of HSBC Global Research when responding to a question on which Southeast Asian countries will be able to keep COVID under control and smoothly roll out vaccines.

HSBC’s Incalcaterra also praised Vietnam’s handling of the virus, and said its response to the pandemic allowed the country to maintain its reputation as a “very good destination” for foreign direct investment. “We saw that actually FDI this year remains very resilient into Vietnam,” he said.