17 May, 2018
Vietnam’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanded by 6.81 per cent last year, marking its highest growth rate in a decade. The country continues to impress, with the economy growing by 7.38 percent in the first quarter of 2018 – one of the fastest rates in Asia – and total growth is expected to be in the region of 6.7-6.8 percent for the year. It could even hit 7.1 percent, according to the Asian Development Bank.
Looking ahead, the Vietnamese Government is seeking to maintain the country’s good growth until at least 2020, with the Prime Minister encouraging private companies – currently accounting for 43 per cent of GDP – to grow and increasing investment into rural areas.
There’s much to celebrate about Vietnam’s growth over the last few years, and many investors have already taken note and got in on the action. For those still on the fence, here’s just three reasons why a bet on the country’s economy may pay off handsomely.
Switched on to electronics
Other countries in the region tend to export raw materials or components to China, where they are assembled into other products. Vietnam exports mainly finished goods.
One such producer, the Samsung Electronics factory in Thai Nguyen, in northern Vietnam, employs more than 60,000 people and produces more mobile phones than any other facility in the world. Samsung Electronics’ combined factories in Vietnam produce almost a third of the firm’s global output. So far, the company has invested a cumulative US$17 billion in the country.
The relationship has been mutually beneficial, helping to make Vietnam the second-biggest exporter of smartphones in the world, after China. Samsung alone accounted for almost a quarter of Vietnam’s total exports of US$214 billion last year.
The company’s presence in Vietnam will not stop there, with co-CEO, Koh Dong-jin, recently informing the Prime Minister of plans to expand production and open further plants.
Samsung isn’t alone in Vietnam’s exciting electronics landscape. The export turnover of electronics and household electrical appliances accounted for 28.9 percent of total export turnover. Mobile phones & components, cameras and other machinery brought in revenue of US$61.8 billion, an increase of US$14.45 billion compared to the year before.
An international mindset
Vietnam received FDI worth 8 percent of GDP last year — more than double the rate of comparable economies in the region. Foreign-owned firms now account for nearly 20 percent of the country’s output. They have grown more than twice as fast as state-owned enterprises over the past decade, despite the country’s nominally communist government.
In contrast to China, a large rival in the cheap manufacturing stakes, Vietnam is liberalising its economy to welcome foreign industry. In 2015 the government opened 50 industries to foreign competition and cut regulations in hundreds more. It sold a majority stake in the biggest state-owned brewer, Sabeco, to a foreign firm last year. Similar sales are expected in the coming months.
Vietnam’s enthusiasm for free-trade deals has made it especially alluring to foreign investors. It is a founding member of the Trans Pacific Partnership, a multilateral trade agreement that includes Australia, Canada and Japan, among others. Although the agreement fell apart without US support, it was quickly repurposed and renamed. A significant trade pact with the European Union is also on the horizon. The deal signed with South Korea a few years ago has made it South Korea’s fourth-biggest trading partner.
Fertile ground for start-ups
The government has put forward a number of regulations and programmes to support start-ups, especially innovative ones, including Decree 38/2018/ND-CP (Decree 38) on innovative start-up investment. Decree 38 identifies and recognises innovative start-up investment activities as a business, and cements the legal status of innovative start-up companies and funds.
The decree is expected to provide a legal basis for private investors when jointly contributing capital to establish a creative start-up fund and streamline capital flows for creative start-up activities.
According to the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the country boasts a strong entrepreneurial drive and ranks among the 20 economies with leading entrepreneurial spirit.
Up to US$291 million was poured into Vietnamese start-ups last year, a year-on-year increase of 42 percent. However, this figure lags behind the region as whole, which saw investment of US$7.86 billion. The number of M&A deals remains small and no startup has yet made an IPO. Clearly, there is still a lot of room for growth in this sector.
The great potential hasn’t gone unnoticed and the government has recognised the tremendous importance that the start-up movement has to the economy and accelerated its development.
As well as a young, cheap and plentiful supply of workers, the Vietnamese economy possesses a dynamism unlike others in the region. Nurturing such domestic entrepreneurship is the key to sustainable growth. The Vietnamese government has already set out ambitions of creating a vibrant ‘start-up nation’, with a million new enterprises being born by 2020.
These are just a few of the reasons why smart investors should be seriously considering Vietnam as their next investment destination. In addition to the above, economic growth will be driven by manufacturing and export expansion, rising domestic consumption, strong investment fueled by foreign investors and domestic firms, and an improving agriculture sector. These is an abundance of optimism over the country’s future, and the signs are that this year Vietnam will be one of the strongest performers in the region.
For further information, please contact:
Giles T. Cooper, Partner, Duane Morris
gtcooper@duanemorris.com
