MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY. MASTER THESIS GLOBAL POLITICAL RISKS AND THE OPPORTUNITIES, CHALLENGES FOR VIETNAM’S ECONOMY Specialization: International Trade Policy and Law DUONG THI THU PHUONG Hanoi - 2023 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY MASTER THESIS GLOBAL POLITICAL RISKS AND THE OPPORTUNITIES, CHALLENGES FOR VIETNAM’S ECONOMY Major: International Economics Specialization: International Trade Policy and Law Code: 8310106 Fullname: Duong Thi Thu Phuong Supervisor: Assoc.Dr Dao Ngoc Tien Hanoi - 2023 i STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP I certify that I am the only author of this master’s thesis and that all information and findings presented herein are accurate. In addition, I guarantee that all references to implementation aids in the master’s thesis have appropriately identified their origins. Hanoi, 08 September 2023 Author Duong Thi Thu Phuong ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my supervisor, Assoc.Dr Dao Ngoc Tien for his unwavering encouragement and insightful guidance during the writing of my master’s thesis.
During the past five months, I could complete my thesis excellently thanks to his fascinating guidance and suggestions. In addition to my advisor, I want to express my gratitude to all of the professors, lecturers as well as assistants at Foreign Trade University, particularly those in the Master Program of International Trade Policy and Law (MITPL), who invested so much of themselves in teaching us. The knowledge I have gained through this process will not only help me finish my thesis, but will also give me the self-assurance I need to further my profession in the real world. I also want to give a shout out to the people closest to me - my family, friends, and classmates - for all the love and support they showed me while I wrote one of the most significant pieces of my life.
Author Duong Thi Thu Phuong iii TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP. ii LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS .v LIST OF FIGURES. vi LIST OF TABLES. The significance of thesis.
Research purpose and research questions. Scope of the research. Structure of the thesis. 6 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL ISSUES AND CURRENT GLOBAL POLITICAL RISKS.
Some theoretical issues. Definition of risk. Overview of political risk. The current global political risks.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict. The US-China relation’s tension .25 CHAPTER 2: THE INFLUENCE OF GLOBAL POLITICAL RISK ON THE WORLD AND VIETNAM’S ECONOMY. The influence of the current global political issues on the world economy. The influence of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the world economy.
The influence of the US-China trade war on the world economy. The influence of the current global political issues in Vietnam’s economy. The influence of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in Vietnam’s economy. The influence of the US-China trade war in Vietnam’s economy .56 iv CHAPTER 3: THE OPPORTUNITIES, CHALLENGES AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR VIETNAM’S ECONOMY.
The Vietnam’s Foreign policy and political risk index. The opportunities for Vietnam’s economy in the global political risks. The opportunities for Vietnam’s trade sector. The opportunities for Vietnam’s investment sector.
The challenges for Vietnam’s economy in the global political risks. The challenges for Vietnam’s trade sector. The challenges for Vietnam’s investment sector. Recommendations for Vietnam’s economy in the context of global political risks.
Recommendations for Vietnamese government. Recommendations for Vietnamese enterprises .x v LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS AI Artificial Intelligence CPI Consumer Price Index DPR and LPR Donetsk People’s Republic Luhansk People’s Republic EU The European Union ICRG International Country Risk Guide IMF International Monetary Fund MNEs Multinational Enterprises NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization OECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development SWIFT Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications UK The United Kingdom US The United States FDI Foreign Direct Investment vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: Gas consumption in the EU .2: The EU’s diversification away from Russian gas .3: Commodity prices have diverged recently .4: The inflation in the world from 2021, projections for 2025 .5: Global growth has lost momentum.6: Global trade growth has slowed .7: Weaker investment has contributed to the trade slowdown .8: Moderate headline inflation is expected to persist in many advanced and emerging-market economies .9: Export - Import turnover between Vietnam and Russia from 2019 to 2022 .10: Export - Import turnover between Vietnam and Russia in months of 2022 .11: Export - Import turnover between Vietnam and Ukraine from 2019 to 2022 .12: Export - Import turnover between Vietnam and Ukraine in months of 2022 .13: The US general imports from Vietnam, by major industry or commodity sectors, 2015-19 (million dollars) .14: The US total exports to Vietnam, by major industry/commodity sectors, 2015-19 (million dollars) .15: Vietnam’s import and export with China (Unit: Million USD) .54 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Global growth is projected to slow further .2: Global growth remains weak. general imports from Vietnam by industry/commodity sectors, 2015-19 (million dollars). total exports to Vietnam by industry/commodity sectors, 2015-19 (million dollars) .1: EU open-door commitments for Vietnam’s agricultural commodity groups .62 viii ABSTRACT Nowadays, tension between great powers is increasing, leading to the unpredictable change of policy to the rest of the world.
Therefore, global political risk is one of the most serious risks which has a significant influence on a country’s economy, causing instable business environment for enterprises. Especially, for Vietnam, it is a small country, relatively dependent on the big countries’ economy due to the regionally and globally deep integration. The Master thesis with topic “Global political risks and the opportunities, challenges for Vietnam’s economy” concentrates on analyzing the two biggest global political risks which are the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the US-China relation’s tension because the events are happening and these countries have close relations with Vietnam in many different aspects such as: military, politics, especially economics. The Russia-Ukraine conflict has happened more than one year since 2022, causing serious consequences to the world’s economy including: the decrease of the global growth, higher inflation, energy crisis and supply chain disruption.
The US- China relation’s tension has significantly escalated from the US president Donald Trump imposed a high tax on Chinese export products, leading to the trade war between two countries. Similarly, the trade war caused some impacts on global economy, especially for trade and investment. All both risks have direct and indirect influence on Vietnam’s economy in some main sector such as: trade, foreign investment, supply chain disruption. When the Russia-Ukraine happened, declining trade turnover as well as investment’s stagnation between Vietnam and two countries due to payment, shipping difficulties.
Whereas, for the US-China trade war, Vietnam can get some benefits in a short time such as: increasing trade to both countries, attracting more foreign investment. In general, Vietnam’s economy can not only get the good opportunities but also face some challenges from the global political risks. Therefore, from the analysis, the author also gives some recommendations for both Vietnam’s government and enterprises to seize the chances as well as overcome the difficulties. Key word: Global political risk, Russia-Ukraine conflict, the US-China trade war, Vietnam’s economy.
The significance of thesis Ever since the end of the Second World War, political risk has played a major role in global trade. Even while the political situation may change substantially in some regions, several difficulties have been rather constant over this time and might be seen as “background noise” at the global level. The world’s political environment has also seen major shifts in the last several decades. Since 2018, increases in tariffs are the most visible of the several restrictive measures the United States and China have implemented on trade flows between the two nations.
After the United States raised duties on Chinese imports, China retaliated by increasing levies on American goods. Although the trade battle seemed to grow in the Fall of 2019 with additional tariff increases, a ceasefire was reached between the two nations at the end of 2019, with some previously announced tariff hikes being canceled and other earlier increases being rolled back. The so-called Phase One Agreement was signed in January of 2020 as a result of the ceasefire. However, the global economy has seen a succession of trade confrontations between China and the US.
Moreover, the trade war is not only an economic matter, but also relates to the political one when President Donald Trump’s strategic plan is to “Make America great again”. Moreover, this is a competition between two largest economic countries to lead the world. Besides, the Russia-Ukraine conflict on February 24, 2022 was a watershed moment that reversed the post-Covid-19 global economic recovery. This event caused Western countries and the United States to experience a sharp slowdown in economic growth, inflation to escalate, poverty and food insecurity to worsen, globalization to collapse, and environmental degradation to accelerate.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted a slowdown in global growth from 6.9% in 2023 in the World Economic Outlook Update (WEO) report for January 2023. Almost all other estimates for global growth in 2023 are relatively pessimistic as the likelihood of economic recession and financial instability is significant. 2 Nowadays, with the complexity of international relationships, political risk is becoming an important factor having considerable impacts on economic aspects in a country. According to Eurasia group’s global political risk report, they pointed out 10 risks which have huge impacts on the globe including the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the US-China relation issue which are considered as the highest political risks, including: Rogue Russia, Maximum Xi, Weapons of mass disruption, Inflation shockwaves, Iran in a corner, Energy crunch, Arrested global development, Divided states of America, Tik tok boom, Water stress.
In Vietnam, globalization is gaining momentum, and the country is becoming more integrated regionally and internationally. The process of Vietnam’s international integration into the current global framework is now being aggressively undertaken. Moreover, Vietnam is a small country whose economy is relatively dependent on other countries. Therefore, in the complicated context among nations, researching global political risk is extremely necessary.
Thus, the author chooses the thesis topic “Global political risks and the opportunities, challenges for Vietnam’s economy” in order to look at these shifts and make some predictions about how countries have altered the character of political risk in the present and the future; find out opportunities as well as give some recommendations to overcome challenges for Vietnam’s economy. However, in the thesis, the author only focuses on analyzing the two biggest political risks which are the Russia- Ukraine conflict and the US-China relations tension because they have a significant influence on Vietnam’s economy. Literature review “Political risk” has still been one of the concerning topics for researchers so far which has considerable impacts on a country’s economy in general and enterprise’s business activities in particular. Many studies have contributed to the definition, the forecasting, and assessment of political risk.
The following definitions were established in an effort to categorize the many "technical" interpretations that have been connected to political risk throughout 3 time: Firstly, political risk is considered as non-economic risk (Ciarrapico 1984, Meyer 1985); Secondly, political risk is unwanted government interference with enterprise operations (Aliber 1975, Eiteman and Stonehill 1973, Henisz and Zelner 2010); Thirdly, the likelihood that political forces or events would interrupt MNE operations is known as political risk (Root 1972, Jodice 1984, Brewers 1981, MIGA 2010); Fourthly, risks in the business environment caused by changes in government policy and their possible impact on a company’s the profits or the goals are known as political risk. Besides, political risk is also studied in some countries such as: China, the US, Russia. In Political Risk Index: Spring/Summer 2023, the report analyse patterns in the world’s most vulnerable countries. In each country, the report will score different types of risk in the country including: Expropriation Risk, Political Violence Risk, Terrorism Risk, Exchange Transfer and Trade Sanctions Risk, Sovereign Default Risk.