Southeast Asian country can produce 5.72 million surgical masks a day to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.
There are 70 surgical mask producers in Vietnam that can also produce 40,000 N95 masks a day, the government said in a statement on its website.
There are also 40 firms capable of producing 7 million fabric masks per day, it said, adding that they had exported 7 million masks during the pandemic. Reuters‘s Khanh Vu reported.
Vietnam is challenging China’s dominance of coronavirus diplomacy with the donation of medical supplies to Europe and Southeast Asia and even winning plaudits from U.S. President Donald Trump for a shipment of protective suits.
China is looking to burnish its credentials as a responsible power by sharing expertise and donating masks and other protective equipment to countries seeing a surge in cases and to repair an image dented by the disease that originated there late last year.
Vietnam, despite its lack of resources compared with its giant neighbour, has donated 550,000 face masks to France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain, and 390,000 to neighbouring Cambodia and 340,000 to another neighbour, Laos.
Related: Vietnam presents Myanmar US$50,000 in Covid-19 fight
It has also capitalised on the U.S. government’s purchase of 450,000 made-in-Vietnam DuPont hazmat suits by expediting the shipment of the protective equipment, and using it to highlight its medical donations in public statements and state media.
Trump thanked “our friends in Vietnam” on Thursday for that shipment.
