Recap: Business Townhall with Amb. Elsbeth Akkerman and DBAV Chair Alexander Koch

On Tuesday the 7th of September, the Dutch Business Association Vietnam hosted a Special Covid Briefing called “DBAV Business Townhall”. DBAV Executive Director Guido van Rooy hosted the event, which also included special guest speakers Ambassador Elsbeth Akkerman of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Vietnam, DBAV Chair Alexander Koch – Managing Director of Heineken Vietnam, and the honorable guest Mr. Viet Anh Pham – the Vietnamese Ambassador in The Netherlands.

Christoph Prommersberger, Deputy Head of Mission at the Dutch Embassy, and Guido van Rooy, Executive Director at DBAV open the webinar and highlighted the challenges that DBAV members are facing since the fourth wave of COVID-19 hit Vietnam. This was taken from our Covid Digital Roundtables for DBAV members in the previous week. Prominent challenges included:

• Lack of clarity and predictability in pandemic communications
• Logistical & operational challenges of the “three-on-site” policy
• Logistical issues at (mainly) provincial borders
• Business Development Problems
• Difficulties with expat immigration
• Partner and Family unhappiness

Read the one page of the report here

After that, a poll was made for the audience to choose their 3 most important issues. Not surprisingly, the top 3 challenges included the lack of clarity and predictability in pandemic communications, “three-on-site” rules for manufacturers as well as difficulties with expat immigration. Ambassador Elsbeth and DBAV Chair Alexander Koch had shared their valuable insights and best practices around these issues. These prominent concerns would also be brought to the meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, together with the EU ambassadors and EuroCham on Thursday, September 9, 2021.

In order to support Dutch enterprises in these challenging times, the Embassy together with DBAV will continue providing a solid network to smooth out problems of Dutch businesses that were caused by the pandemic control measures and being a bridge between Dutch and Vietnamese enterprises to promote investment and trade opportunities.

In the future, DBAV might organize more roundtables, pinpointed towards:

• Customer behavior post-pandemic
• Protocols and SOP for post super lockdown
• Policy and regulation advice

Kindly let us know if you are interested to join our Roundtables in the future via exec.director@dbav.org.vn