Bright economic picture
Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said at the forum that Vietnam was a stable and sustainable country in terms of politics and society and has a dynamically growing economy. The average economic growth rate reached 7.5 percent per year from 1991-2010 and 5.6 percent from 2011-2013.
In addition, Vietnam currently has a golden population as 60 percent of it is available for work. The Vietnamese government has committed and has taken actions to create an open, favorable and fair investment environment for foreign investors, and has continuously improved its legal and institutional framework to facilitate businesses and investors.
By this April Vietnam had received 16,300 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects with total investment capital of about US$238 billion from more than 100 countries and territories. More than 100 multinational groups are currently operating in Vietnam. Foreign indirect investment capital in the Vietnamese securities market amounted to several billion US dollars via more than 17,000 accounts of foreign individuals and organizations.
Regarding the restructuring of state-owned enterprises, the government has adopted a program to equitize state-owned enterprises with a goal to transform 432 state-owned enterprises into joint stock companies from 2014-2015. The program has provided major opportunities for domestic and foreign investors to buy stakes and become strategic shareholders of equitized enterprises.
New opportunities for investors
The development, renovation and restructuring of the Vietnamese emerging economy are offering new opportunities for investors, according to Nguyen Chi Dung.
After the economic crisis in 2007 Vietnam has been among countries with the best export performing market in the region.
Dr. Marc Faber, the key speaker at the Vietnam Investment Forum 2014 who has made a variety of Vietnam-related investment forecasts spoke highly of opportunities for foreign investors in Vietnam.
In his speech about the issue of whether the world economy had entered the terminal phase of a gigantic credit and asset bubble, Dr. Marc Faber said that rapidly increasing credit would create a bubble, particularly in the real estate market. All asset markets are expanding due to extreme money and credit expansion policies. For this reason, the price of assets will likely and inevitably deflate in the near future. Given this, once credit grows rapidly, it must be closely controlled, and money policy management including interest rates must be carefully considered. Dr. Marc Faber also said that the recent decline in the securities market was a short-term change.
In a recent press interview about opportunities to invest in the Vietnamese securities market, Dr. Marc Faber said that he currently is the chairman of both Indochina Capital and the Dragon Capital-managed Vietnam Growth Fund and the investor in the Hyatt Hotel in Vietnam. “I am an investor in Vietnam and I believe the country will offer attractive opportunities in the long run,” he said.
However, Vietnam will only become one of the most developed emerging markets in the next ten years and attract many investors once the Vietnamese government reduces its administrative intervention in the economy, boosts the equitization of state-owned enterprises and creates a variety of goods for the market. This will be a good opportunity for investors, according to Dr. Marc Faber./.
Ngoc Thao