Ahead Of The AFF Cup Semifinals, Vietnam Became The Strong Rival Of The Republic Of Indonesia In Green Square And The Economy

President Joko Widodo (right) and President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Nguy

JAKARTA The Indonesian national team will play the semifinals of the AFF Cup against the Vietnam national team at the Bung Karno Stadium, this afternoon, Friday, January 6. The two teams are known to have a fairly high rivalry over the past few years.

Later, the Golden Star team recorded a number of advances in football with several points, such as the two-time AFF Cup champion (2008 and 2018) to become the only Southeast Asian team capable of advancing to the third round of World Cup qualifiers.

No doubt, Vietnam is not only Indonesia's fierce rival to achieve achievements, but also for all countries in the region.

Just so you know, the rivalry between Indonesia and Vietnam does not only occur in the green field. It is said that the country that adheres to communist ideology is also Indonesian in obtaining investment in the manufacturing sector.

In fact, the Minister of Investment/Head of BKPM Bahlil Lahadalia admitted that Indonesia is difficult to compete with Vietnam in terms of investment because of the various conveniences offered.

So what is the current picture of Vietnam's economy?

Citing data released by the World Bank (World Bank), the neighbor in Southeast Asia has tripled growth in terms of GDP per capita to 3,700 dollars in the last decade. Although still below Indonesia which is around 4,291 dollars per capita, this country has shown a significant increase.

It was stated that the Vietnamese manufacturing sector was progressing rapidly by imitating China's economic scheme, which is the production base of world giant companies.

"Thanks to its solid foundation, Vietnam's economy has proven to be resilient through various crises, the most recent of which is COVID-19. GDP growth has slowed to 2.6 percent in 2021 due to the emergence of the Delta variant of COVID-19 and is expected to recover to 7.2 percent in 2022 and 6.7 percent in 2023," the World Bank reported, quoted by the editors on Friday, January 6.

Indonesia itself in 2021 posted economic growth of 3.69 percent in 2021, and is believed to be above 5 percent for 2022. Meanwhile, the government's estimated in the state budget, 2023 economic growth could reach a maximum of 5.3 percent.

Although strong on the manufacturing side, Vietnam has begun to feel a global economic slowdown as reflected in the manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) which is perched at 46.4 in November 2022. This means that the processing sector in the country is in the contraction zone because it is below level 50.

Meanwhile, Indonesia is known to be still comfortable in the expansionary zone for sixteen consecutive months with the book PMI manufacturing 50.9 in November 2022.