Vietnam slips in global business resilience ranking

By Dang Khoa May 21, 2020 | 06:36 pm PT

Customers buy takeaway drinks at a shop on Phan Xich Long Street in Saigon's Phu Nhuan District, April 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran.

Vietnam has dropped three places from last year to 91st in this year’s business environment resilience index.

Vietnam scored 40.7 out of 100 (0 representing lowest resilience and 100 the highest) to be placed 91st among 130 economies, according to the 2020 FM Global Resilience Index, an annual ranking published by FM Global, an international commercial property insurer headquartered in the U.S.

The report measured the resilience of each economy's business environment based on three factors - economic (productivity, political risk, oil intensity and urbanization rate), risk quality (exposure to natural hazard, natural hazard risk quality, fire risk quality and inherent cyber risk quality) and supply chain (control of corruption, quality of infrastructure, corporate governance and supply chain visibility).

On the first factor, Vietnam scored 22.5 points out of 100 and ranked 110th; 35.1 points and 79th position in risk quality; and 49.1 points and 77th position in the supply chain factor.

In Asia, Hong Kong was the only economy that made the top 20, finishing 19th with 88.3 points, while Nepal came in last at 122nd with 23.4 points.

With 100 points, Norway remained in first place for the fifth consecutive year. Switzerland took second place with 98.8 points, followed by Denmark (98.4), Germany (97.5) and Sweden (95.4) to complete the top five.

The bottom five countries in the world were Lebanon with 20.7 points, Chad, 19.5, Ethiopia, 13.8, Venezuela, 8.9 and Haiti with zero points.

Kevin Ingram, executive vice president and CFO of FM Global, said: "Especially after a crisis like Covid-19, resilience is critical for people, countries and businesses. A country’s ranking in the 2020 FM Global Resilience Index is a good indication of how its business environment will fare and how quickly organizations there might rebound after taking the economic blow of the coronavirus."

"These are critical insights for businesses making far-reaching choices as they build facilities, extend supply chains and cultivate new markets."

A recent report ranked Vietnam fourth in the world in the first quarter of this year for having the most positive consumers despite adverse coronavirus impacts. The country came in fourth behind India, the Philippines and Indonesia, according to the Global Consumer Confidence Survey by market research firm Nielsen.