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Vietnam is on a journey and there will continue to be humps and bumps in the road, but today Vietnam is on almost everyone’s radar screen and if it isn’t you should be asking why.

Grant Thornton is conducting its 2018 survey on the investment outlook of the private equity sector. The survey is aimed at decision makers involved in investment activities such as corporates, advisory firms and private equity houses in addition to academics and experts across various sectors of the economy. This is the 17th consecutive private equity survey Grant Thornton has carried out on an annual basis.

Whilst the Government continues with its policy of enabling the business environment with a reduction in bureaucracy and the number of licenses and approvals the economy has overall shown some really great results.

Asia Pacific is a vast and diverse region, and one of the strongest performing parts of the global economy.

After months and years of discussion and deliberation Vietnam has finally published circular 102/2017/TT-BC, which will help guide the implementation of Decree 3/2017/ND-CP which was passed earlier in 2017. The big game changer is the fact that Vietnamese citizens will be able to enter casinos from December 2017, which up until now have been restricted to foreigners. The debate has really between balancing the communist ideals and the pragmatism of recognizing the significant tax revenue lost every year to neighboring countries and in particular Cambodia.

Vietnam will transition from paper invoices to electronic invoices, if the proposal from Ministry of Finance is accepted, from the beginning of 2018. This is effectively in less than 5 months’ time.

Last week I attended the annual M & A conference organized by VIR, which was opened by the Minister of MPI Nguyen Chi Dung who commented on the need for businesses to improve efficiency and competitiveness and for the Government to improve the regulatory environment.

On July 31st I was invited to attend the 2nd Vietnam Private Sector Forum, which facilitates dialogue between the Vietnamese Private Sector and Government and encourages a bottom up approach from grassroots business. The Forum sponsored by the Australian Government and the Asian Development Bank was chaired by the Prime Minister Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

Starting August 2017 Vietnam will have a derivatives market with four kinds of products: Futures; Options; Swaps; and Forwards and they can be traded both on the OTC or the main exchange. However according to the State Securities Commission there is a move to merge the two exchanges . Originally, it was anticipated that this new market would commence trading in May or June 2017.

This was the title of the Vietnam Business Forum, which I attended last Friday, in Hanoi. Participants included HE Deputy PM Vuong Dinh Hue, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment (“MPI”) Dang Huy Dong, World Bank Country Director Mr Ousmane Dione, IFC and other Government departments, Embassies, Business Groups and others.

The first 7-Eleven store is about to open in Vietnam, in the coming days, with a store in Ho Chi Minh City, interestingly in the lobby of a commercial office building on the edge of the CBD.

In the 16th survey on the Private Equity sector, carried out by Grant Thornton Vietnam, in March 2017, the majority of respondents (78%) were positive about Vietnam’s economy and the economic outlook.

Much has been written and discussed about the impact of the demise of the Trans Pacific Partnership on foreign direct in Vietnam. With the first quarter statistics on FDI now available we can confidently say that there has been no significant impact on FDI.

The region accounts for 90% of the nation’s coffee growing area and over 90% of the country’s beans, however most of the production is Robusta with very little Arabica and although Vietnam is the world’s second largest coffee producer it is not well known internationally because Robusta is generally blended with a loss of identity. The central highlands has really failed to attract foreign investment of any real magnitude benefiting from only US$ 3.5 billion of foreign direct investment just about 1% of the total for the country since Doi Moi in 1988 and of that US$ 2 billion has been invested into wind power projects.

The number of new SME’s continues to grow at a healthy rate with approximately 14,500 new enterprises established in the first 2 months of 2017, a year on year growth of 3.9%. In this period the registered capital of these newly established firms was US$ 6.7 billion an increase of 35% against the same period as last year. With over 600,000 registered SME’s and growing at over 100,000 per annum SME’s are an important sector of the economy. However the number of firms ceasing operations or closing has not been insignificant but over the last 12-18 months the number resuming operations has been increasing.

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