The Chinese-style campaign against graft has been under way since 2016, but a series of recent scandals have sparked new wide-ranging investigations, unnerving government officials who now fear being accused of corruption and are reluctant to greenlight procurement and investment.
"If you don't do anything, you cannot do a mistake," Walde said of the current licensing paralysis caused by the bureaucratic anxiety.A European Commission document released in October about the bloc's free trade deals lists Vietnam's "cumbersome" rules on renewal of pharmaceuticals' licences and their implementation among the main outstanding issues in the country.
Global supply chains that increasingly rely on Vietnam, including for electronics and footwear, may be affected, compounding the negative impact of a global slowdown in orders, which has already led to cuts in the workforce in Vietnam. As investigations multiply, officials fear they could be caught if they inadvertently break rules, which are often badly written and hard to interpret.