The medium-term outlook for the Vietnamese economy is broadly positive despite persistent downside risks, the World Bank (WB) said in its East Asia and Pacific Economic Update released on October 10.

Foreign investors’ trading on exchanges and net injecting/withdrawing value from the exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has a high correlation with a usual lag of one month. 

Starting October 15, the Ministry of Finance is scheduled to disclose the disbursement data on a 15-day basis at http://mof.gov.vn.

The US-China trade war is giving opportunities to Vietnam to diversify material supply sources, increase imports from the US to reduce the trade surplus with the country, and reduce the trade deficit with China.

Vietnam was ranked eighth among the top 20 best countries to invest in by US News & World Report, surpassing neighbours like Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore.

Commenting about the reliance of Vietnam’s economy on FIEs (foreign invested enterprises), one economist noted that “when FIEs sneeze, the Vietnamese economy catches a cold".

Existing factors in the market, especially strong FDI inflow, all are supporting the prosperity of the industrial real estate market.

Many foreign investors are interested in investing in Vietnam’s fintech market that have huge growth potential, said Han Ngoc Vu, general director of VIB International Commercial Bank, at Fintech Summit 2019 held in Hanoi recently.

The Vietnamese insurance market is heating up with many high-value bancassurance deals and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) unveiled recently.

Southeast Asia including Vietnam have emerged as destinations for investors in the reallocation of investment flow, especially capital flow from China.

Vietnam is being encouraged to focus more on developing a skilled workforce, the domestic private sector, and improvement of regulations to attract companies on the Fortune Global 500 list to serve the new development era. 

The slow disbursement of capital has stalled many projects, affecting socio-economic development.

Vietnam is striving to improve its stock market’s status and implementing measures to attract portfolio investment, and allowing FDI firms to list would help the country achieve this goal.

With the Politburo’s new orientation in the policies on foreign investment attraction, government agencies and localities are hoping to stave off potential issues in order to take the appropriate actions to add to its attraction.

Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vitas) said the total export value of textiles, fiber, and cloth reached US$25.7 billion in the first 8 months of the year, up 8.6 per cent year on year, including 60.6 per cent from FDI enterprises.

Co-working spaces have become the choice of many startups and small and medium sized businesses.

The problems caused by FIEs, such as transfer pricing and investment under others’ names, have been noted in the Party Politburo’s Resolution 50 for the first time.

Many companies are moving their factories from other countries to Vietnam, showing the potential for strong development of industrial real estate, according to Savills Vietnam.

Vietnam recorded $22.63 billion of foreign direct investment (FDI) registered in the first eight months of 2019, equivalent to 92.9 percent of the figure in the same period last year, according to the Foreign Investment Agency.

Vietnam’s production and export activities, and its trade balance, may be affected by the tensions between South Korea and Japan, according to Rong Viet Securities.