Sectoral Analysis of Trade, Investment and Business in Vietnam

With the emergence of Vietnam as a major (even though, currently, a developing and transitional) economy in the Association of the South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in particular and in the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) region in general, the trading countries of the world have taken a keen interest in this new and important change. This interest arises from the fact that Vietnam is a country in an early stage of economic development, a huge market of 76 million people (as at 1996), with vast untapped physical, natural and human resources, the achievement of spectacular output growth rates since the introduction of Doi Moi (renovation) in the mid-1980s, a fast-rising income per head, and a conspicuous consumption tendency. In addition, Vietnam is geographically situated at the hub of important sea and land routes in South East Asia, linking the subcontinent in the west, Oceania in the south, and the largest and some of the richest and most advanced countries in the world in the north and the north-east. Strategically and politically, Vietnam is, within a 2000 km radius, at the centre of activities in the neighbouring regions, and a buffer zone for any potential disputes, large or small, between the continental mass of Central Asia and Eastern Europe and the Indian and Pacific oceans.