Supply chain in Vietnam in post-COVID-19: Governance and regulation opportunities and challenges

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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent geopolitical shifts have promoted the restructure and reorganization of global supply chains, and Vietnam has found out chance to take advantage of cooperation with the Chinese economy as the “China + 1” strategy (Ahmad & Hien, 2025). However, foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction and assembly-oriented exports reinforce structural vulnerabilities, thereby limiting long-term sustainable economic development. As a result, the Vietnamese economy shows a ‘shallow integration’ paradox. Employing global value chains (GVC) theory, the analysis points out five core characteristics of this paradox: 1) supply-chain disruptions due to low supply chain maturity; 2) profound dependency on imported inputs; 3) high sensitivity to global demand fluctuations; 4) a widening capability gap between FDI lead firms and a fragmented domestic supplier base; and 5) prevalent organizational misalignments hindering strategic supply chain management (SCM). Although Vietnam has adapted to global shifts, it coped with challenges in joining the global supply chain.

Keywords: Vietnam, Supply Chain Resilience, Global Value Chains (GVCs), Economic Upgrading, Shallow Integration, Post-Pandemic Economy, China Plus One

Authors’ individual contribution: The Author is responsible for all the contributions to the paper according to CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) standards.

Declaration of conflicting interests: The Author declares that there is no conflict of interest.

JEL Classification: M16, M38, O308, D78, H23

Received: 14.07.2025
Revised: 13.12.2025; 25.02.2026
Accepted: 02.04.2026
Published online: 06.04.2026

How to cite this paper: Nguyen, B. T. (2026). Supply chain in Vietnam in post-COVID-19: Governance and regulation opportunities and challenges. Journal of Governance and Regulation, 15(2), 233–240. https://doi.org/10.22495/jgrv15i2art20