An economist, Le Dang Doanh, said in an interview with DTiNews that Vietnamese businessmen must predict China's next moves to be well-prepared if the situation escalates.

On May 19, at the conference on attracting investment in agriculture in Hanoi, Doanh said the tense situation showed that China may be willing to escalate the current crisis.

Economist Le Dang Doanh

Amid these tensions over the East Sea, what is your opinion on the economic relations between Vietnam and China?

Vietnam's exports to China in 2013 reached USD13.32 billion, most of which are agricultural products and raw materials.

Meanwhile, we import about USD36.96 billion in goods from China. We import things like parts for mobile phones assembly and textiles and footwear industries. China's export investment fund lent us capital to build several power plants. According to the stated terms, we have to import Chinese equipment and hire Chinese contractors, which in turn brought Chinese labourers. 

We must anticipate what China's future actions might be because their recent actions on the East Sea have shown the lengths to which they are willing to go to put pressure on us. We must consider extreme situations. For example, if China chose to cease trade relations with Vietnam it would deal a heavy blow to our economy. We should consider now how we would respond to such actions so we can minimise the negative effects. 

For example, the Formosa project in Ha Tinh Province belongs to Taiwanese investors but they hired Chinese contractors and 3,000 Chinese labourers. If we had no replacement for them, the project would become stagnant. China is 9th biggest investor in Vietnam. However, we have trade relations with 243 countries, so it wouldn't be impossible to replace the role of Chinese products. We can do that, and we should make ourselves ready in case that eventuality occurs. 

What can businesses do to improve the economy and support Vietnam?

In these current times, let's follow the steps of our brave coast guard and fishermen. Even though our ships are smaller and our force is less powerful, we are still firmly standing our ground against China. Everyone should take on this attitude to reform our economy by finding other markets. 

Every cloud has a silver lining. These tough times require us to be more active against corruption and erratic administration procedures. 

And what role should consumers play?

Vietnamese consumers should start to use more Vietnamese products. This is necessary in the current atmosphere. People in border provinces must not smuggle and should refuse low-quality products from China. People must be made aware that these low-quality products from China contain many toxic substances.