At a sprawling bazaar on the outskirts of Vietnam’s capital, the trade in counterfeit goods is bustling despite government crackdowns and the threat of US tariffs over the issue, two visits by Reuters journalists to the market found. “Police come once a year with a TV crew. They film the seizure of a shop, and then it’s business as usual,” said a seller at her stall displaying fake Ralph Lauren polos at Hanoi’s Ninh Hiep wholesale market. Ninh Hiep is among about 30 “notorious markets”...
A bonfire of red tape to unleash investment and complete stalled projects across Vietnam may drive economic expansion but is unlikely to offset the damage caused by US tariffs and the fuel crisis which have threatened the country’s growth ambitions. Vietnam’s Communist Party General-Secretary and President To Lam, the most powerful leader in a generation, has set an annual growth target of 10 per cent until 2030 to galvanise a nation whose ponderous bureaucracy has snarled private investment and...