Vietnam healthcare expenditure to reach $23.3 billion in 2025

Healthcare spending in Vietnam rose from $16.1 billion in 2017 to $20 billion in 2021 and could rise to $23.3 billion in 2025 and $33.8 billion in 2030.

The estimates are based on a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.6%, says a November report prepared by Vietnam Report, a Vietnamese business ranking company.

Contributing factors to such growth are the government’s efforts to make healthcare more accessible and affordable, the country’s aging population, improving awareness of healthcare needs, and rising incomes.

The firm’s October-November survey found 85.7% and 78.6% of pharmaceutical businesses respectively reporting higher year-on-year revenues and profits in the first nine months of the year.

Experts attribute this trend - of buying medicines from pharmacies without doctor visits - to the Covid-19 pandemic. Other factors include people buying more supplements to improve their health and strengthen their immune systems; the government tightening rules on medicine sales and prescriptions; and drugstores selling more as hospitals became more cautious about buying medicine through a bidding process.

The report also identifies main challenges facing the healthcare sector, including risks from the supply chain and higher logistics costs, rising prices of raw materials, exchange rate pressures and stiffer competition.