Viet Nam cements ranking as ideal investment location

In a new global survey of 523 companies representing all major industries, Viet Nam has emerged for the third consecutive year as the top investment target outside of the so-called BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Viet Nam has continued to benefit as companies have sought new sources of growth beyond BRIC, according to a report accompanying the survey, entitled “Great Expectations: Doing Business in Emerging Markets”.

“Viet Nam has been on the radar of manufacturers looking to move beyond China for some time,” said the report. “With its large, well-educated workforce, the country has good prospects for moving up the value chain.”

The survey, conducted by UK Trade & Investment in cooperation with the Economist Intelligence Unit, aimed to explore the changing outlook for businesses already operating in emerging markets or planning to expand into these markets, both in terms of perceived opportunities and the primary rationale for investing in these countries.

About 71 per cent of respondents agreed that emerging markets beyond BRIC collectively offered an opportunity too great to ignore, with 19 per cent choosing Viet Nam as an investment destination.

The Economist Intelligence Unit said Viet Nam headed a second tier of target countries it called the CIVETS, encompassing Colombia, Indonesia, Viet Nam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa.

Like BRIC, this group was geographically dispersed and contained obvious variations – but there were also important similarities. All had sizeable and young populations, diversified economies not excessively reliant on commodities, and reasonably sophisticated financial systems .

Collectively, CIVETS were forecast to account for up to 20 per cent of the G7′s total GDP, making them a significant global market in their own right, the report said. — VNS

CIVIETS: A promising outlook

	Population	GDP per head	Consumer Price Inflation	Public debt	Average annual real %
	(million)	(US$, PPP)	(percent, average)	(per cent of GDP)	GDP growth 2010-20
Columbia	46.9	8,920	2.6	47.3	3.6
Indonesia	243	4,230	5.1	27	5.6
Viet Nam	87.8	3,150	9.3	52	5.9
Egypt	84.7	5,910	11.8	80.3	5.6
Turkey	73.3	12,740	8.7	48.7	3.9
South Africa	49.1	10,730	5.8	33.3	3.3

Forecasts for 2010 unless otherwise indicated.

Source: Economist Intelligence Unit, Country Data.

Tags: Vietnam cement, Vietnam cement industry