Vietnam: Next generation of tiger economy

Việt Nam and other CIVETS countries are being touted as the next generation of tiger economies, according to the online Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

The newspaper recently published an article “After BRICs, CIVETS”, forecasting that CIVETS investors could prosper.

The article says that ten years after Brazil, Russia, India and China were dubbed the BRICs, any early mover advantage for investing in those economies has long gone.

But lovers of acronyms will be relieved to learn the latest investment theme claiming to steal a march on emerging markets also has a catchy name CIVETS which groups Colombia, Indonesia, Việt Nam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa.

According to the WSJ, these nations all have large, young populations with an average age of 27.

This, or so the theory goes, means these countries will benefit from fast-rising domestic consumption. They also are all fast-growing, relatively diverse economies, meaning they shouldn’t be as heavily dependent on external demand as the BRICs.

Out of the CIVETS group, Việt Nam has been one of the fastest-growing economies in the world for the past 20 years, with the World Bank projecting 6% growth this year rising to 7.2% in 2013.

The country’s proximity to China has led some analysts to describe it as a potential new manufacturing hub.

The Southeast Asian nation became a member of the World Trade Organization in 2007.

Tags: Vietnam economic, Vietnam economic growth, Vietnam economy, Vietnam economy 2011