A garment production line of Kydo Vietnam Company in the northern province of Hung Yen's Pho Noi A Industrial Park. (Photo : Pham Kien/ VNA)

It said Vietnam’s relative economic success is somewhat surprising considering the Vietnamese government has said that it won’t put economic recovery ahead of public health.

Vietnam is not only the envy of its COVID-hit Southeast Asian neighbors, all of which will face severe economic contractions this year and only marginal recoveries in 2021, but it has also earned international praise for its resilience, said asiatimes.com.

Vietnam’s economy is less dependent than other Southeast Asian states on tourism, which accounted for 9% of its GDP in 2018, compared with 32% for Cambodia and 20% for Thailand. It has thus faced less pressure due to the collapse of international travel, according to asiatimes.com.