Vietnam, a rising star in emerging markets: E&Y

A report on rapid -growth markets by the UK-based Ernst & Young (E&Y) has labelled Vietnam a “rising star” among emerging markets, predicting the South east Asian economy will grow by 6 percent a year for the next quarter century.

According to the report, Vietnam, together with Turkey and Indonesia are especially strong economies.

It underlines that Vietnam is no debutante in the high growth group – it has attracted over 6.5 billion USD in FDI every year since 2007.

Alexis Karklins-Marchay, leader of the Ernst & Young Emerging Markets Center, mentions two major factors drawing investor interest in Vietnam, namely ideal location and valuable pool of human capital.

Vietnam is home to 90 million people and 80 percent of children have secondary school education, yet labour costs are half of those of China and Thailand, he added.

Being able to attract and retain foreign firms in high-value manufacturing products such as electronics, computers and phones is a big plus point for Vietnam, as some of its neighbours have found it harder to move up the value chain, the report said.

The WB forecast that mobile phones and related items will bring in higher export revenue than the garment and textile sector, the country’s leading hard currency earner.

E&Y also says that potential in vestment from Russian, Middle Eastern and Asian banks will pour in Vietnam’s capital and banking markets as this is one of the country’s biggest investment opportunities.

As the investors gain confidence, more developed financial products such as cash management and foreign exchange hedges will enter the market, according to the report.