Hanoi (VNA) – Dr Jonathan Choi, Chairmanof the Hong Kong-based Sunwah Group, has expressed his optimism about Vietnam’sfuture, saying the country has recovered “very quickly” after the COVID-19pandemic was controlled and is one of the best performers in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in this regard.

In an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) in Hanoi on August 5, Choi said Vietnam has made a good decision on thepandemic as the country opened doors right after the situation got better.

Vietnam’s gross domesticproduct (GDP) growth was one of the best in the region, and many investors fromHong Kong (China) and all over the world would like to come to the SoutheastAsian nation.

Expressing his belief that the Vietnamese marketwill grow very fast in the time ahead, Choi emphasised the country’s potentialin a range of areas, from finance to smart city development, innovation,property and agricultural products, in which Vietnam and Hong Kong cancooperate.

Notably, Hong Kong is interested in investing inproperty and many Hong Kong developers want to invest in the Southeast Asian country, hecontinued.

Choi said Sunwah wants to help Vietnam promoteits agricultural products to China, a market with 1.4 billion people who loveVietnamese agricultural products like fruits and seafood.

He also mentioned a new business method – setting upa Vietnamese pavilion on the top of different e-commerce platforms to enableChinese consumers to buy Vietnamese products directly.

For innovation, the Group marked a milestone inthe field in 2020 with the establishment of Sunwah Innovations and the openingof various innovation centres in Vietnam, mainland China, and Cambodia,together with the launching of the Sunwah International Innovation Platform(SWIIP).

Sunwah Innovation Centre Ho Chi Minh City islaunched in December 2020 as the flagship of Sunwah Innovation Centres’network. The centre is aimed at becoming a key player of the local startupecosystem, actively promoting Vietnam’s innovation and entrepreneurshipdevelopment in its rise into a regional and global startup hub.

Meanwhile, Sunwah Innovation Centre Hanoi wasestablished in 2022 with a primary focus on students' innovation andentrepreneurship. It also acts as a bridge between various ministries,departments, and agencies, as well as the group's partners, who are experts andstart-up support groups from both within and outside the country, with the goalof strengthening the country's startup and innovation ecosystem.

Choi said the two centres are operating fruitfullyand Vietnamese startups are very successful, taking the Sunwah-sponsored internationalcompetition for startups in Hong Hong as an example, where Vietnam entered thetop 10 among 100 participating countries.

In this regard, Jesse Choi, the third generation toinherit and lead the group, said Vietnam’s startup ecosystem is one of the mostvibrant in Southeast Asia, along with Indonesia and Singapore.

Apart from the innovation centres in Hanoi and HCMCity, he cited a women entrepreneurship programme launched by Sunwah and itspartners to help female entrepreneurs enhance their skills and lead their startups.

He said starting business in Vietnam withseafood processing, his father has expanded the business to eight sectors,which has created a firm foundation and a lot of opportunities for him to runthe group in Southeast Asia.

Jesse Choi noted that he will work more on innovation andcontinue to seek opportunities to expand the group’s operations in Vietnam.

Jonathan Choi has been on a working trip to Vietnam afterthree years of hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jonathan Choi, who is also Chairman of the Guangdong –Hong Kong – Macao Bay Area (GBA) Entrepreneurs Union, said he wants to use thisopportunity to promote the new “energetic” region whose population reached over86 million and its GDP was 1,668.8 billion USD in 2020.

GBA is a good place for investment and a big marketfor Vietnamese products, he said./.