Key Figures
- Population: 88.1 million (UN, 2009)
- Median age: 25.9 (75% < 35 years old)
- Litteracy rate: 91%
- GDP: $102 billion (est 2010)
- GDP/capita: $1,052 in 2009 (HCMC: +$ 2,500)
- GDP growth: +6.5% (Asian Development Bank, est 2010)
- Foreign Direct Investment: $22 billion (est 2010)
Rising Vietnam
Vietnam enjoys a number of competitive advantages in the global market. Thanks to its impressive political stability, a young homogeneous and peaceful civil society, good international relationships with its neighbors, and fervent political will to open its growing economy to the world, Vietnam’s GDP growth has reached an average +7% per year since late 90’s, even more than 8.2% between 2005 and 2007.
Its accession to the WTO in 2006 and its continued compliance with its WTO commitments have considerably increased the country’s attractiveness to investors. With a continuously rising GDP, significant presence of natural resources, strong need for infrastructure development, rising tourism, a large educated human resources pool and a supportive policy towards private initiative, Vietnam has become a favored destination for foreign direct investments.
As part of CIVETS (comprising Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa), Vietnam is projected to be an exciting growing economy of the next decade, following the tier formed by BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China). The Economist Intelligence Unit believes that CIVETS will report an average annual GDP growth of 4.5% over the next 20 years, while the Asian Development Bank presents a growth forecast for Vietnam of 6.7% in 2010 and 6.8% in 2011.
Legal and judicial development
The past two decades bear witness to the evolution of Vietnam’s modern commercial legal system vis-à-vis the efforts towards the establishment of a market economy. The ongoing development of the civil law-based Vietnamese legal system has broadened its scope, conduct and approach to deal with new and emerging concerns while supplementing judicial as well as administrative recourse for legal issues.
Vietnam’s entry into the WTO has likewise prompted the adoption of a new whole body of laws that provide for a unified legal framework governing both Vietnamese and foreign invested entities, that has further stimulated foreign investment in the country. The government continues its efforts to pave the way for the progressive evolution of Vietnam’s legal system by addressing issues such as equitization, M&A and public-private partnerships (PPP).