Vietnam’s stock exchange development is forecast to overtake the Philippines in 2017, stated an article carried by the US financial news agency Bloomberg.

A photo of Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: www.bloomberg.com)

Author Andy Mukherjee noted that four years ago, the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange traded just 50 million USD of equities a day, while activity in Manila was five times as brisk.

Meanwhile, soured debt of Vietnam’s banking system has declined, while privatization of State-owned enterprises has been on the rise.

Foreign direct investment in the country increased nearly 12 percent this year to 16 billion USD this year. Currently, FDI accounts for eight percent of the country’s gross domestic product of 203 billion USD.

In financial markets, Mukherjee cited Credit Suisse analysts’ estimate that there are now 12 Vietnamese stocks with volumes of three million USD a day while there were only two in 2015.

Vietnam has also plugged into the Asian electronics and smart phone supply chain. The country's strongest export is not textiles, shoes, seafood, coffee or cashew nuts, but smart phone parts, which have jumped 29 percent this year to 36.5 billion USD this year.

Vietnam can no longer be written off as marginal, Mukherjee said.-VNA