Vietnam ranked prime global destination for third year running

Vietnam has once again been selected as the number one investment destination, outside of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC), according to a report published by the UK Trade & Investment and Economist Intelligence Unit.

This is the third consecutive year that Vietnam has enjoyed the designation from the British agency.

The ‘Great Expectations: Doing business in emerging markets’ report offers new insights from international investors about which markets they see as being the global growth engines of the future.

The report is based on a survey of more than 520 global executives from every sector. All respondents are already doing business in emerging markets or plan to do so in the next two years.

The UK Business Secretary Vince Cable said: “The balance of global economic power is shifting toward emerging markets and this is recognized in UK Trade & Investment’s report. UK firms are using their expertise to help promote growth and prosperity in these markets.”

The report’s authors found that the top three markets for investment, in the next two years, are China, Vietnam, and India.

Emerging markets are viewed as sources of new consumer demand. Seventy-six percent of investors see emerging markets as a source of new business growth.

By 2030, 93 percent of the world’s middle class will live in what we now consider “emerging markets,” the report said.

Companies are now shifting their priorities toward a range of other developing countries outside their well-established operations in the BRIC countries.

For many firms, emerging markets are increasingly familiar places. Nearly half of the respondents reported having operations in one or more emerging markets over the course of the last decade and two thirds said they had been working in the areas for six or more years.

Institutional knowledge of these countries is far higher than it was at the turn of the century, the report found.

More executives than ever believe that the potential rewards far outstrip the risks within both the BRIC countries and other emerging markets. Fifty-two percent expect growth prospects in their once-risky emerging market businesses to be "significantly better" over the next two years.

Local companies in emerging markets are sought after for partnerships and alliances. Despite a greater ease with the risks of new places, the need to tap into local knowledge and contacts quickly remains strong, the report found.

Emerging markets are not just for big business. One in three small- and medium-sized enterprises polled by the authors planned to expand into a new emerging market in the next two years through joint ventures or partnerships with local companies.

Related Articles

• Vietnam ranked prime global destination for third year running
• Naval forces boost global co-operation
• FDI disbursement tops $8b first nine months
• Assoc insists on power price hike despite protests
• Timber-product exporters sign $3b deals

Vietnam ranked prime global destination for third year running

Vietnam has once again been selected as the number one investment destination, outside of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC), according to a report published by the UK Trade & Investment and Economist Intelligence Unit.

This is the third consecutive year that Vietnam has enjoyed the designation from the British agency.

The ‘Great Expectations: Doing business in emerging markets’ report offers new insights from international investors about which markets they see as being the global growth engines of the future.

The report is based on a survey of more than 520 global executives from every sector. All respondents are already doing business in emerging markets or plan to do so in the next two years.

The UK Business Secretary Vince Cable said: “The balance of global economic power is shifting toward emerging markets and this is recognized in UK Trade & Investment’s report. UK firms are using their expertise to help promote growth and prosperity in these markets.”

The report’s authors found that the top three markets for investment, in the next two years, are China, Vietnam, and India.

Emerging markets are viewed as sources of new consumer demand. Seventy-six percent of investors see emerging markets as a source of new business growth.

By 2030, 93 percent of the world’s middle class will live in what we now consider “emerging markets,” the report said.

Companies are now shifting their priorities toward a range of other developing countries outside their well-established operations in the BRIC countries.

For many firms, emerging markets are increasingly familiar places. Nearly half of the respondents reported having operations in one or more emerging markets over the course of the last decade and two thirds said they had been working in the areas for six or more years.

Institutional knowledge of these countries is far higher than it was at the turn of the century, the report found.

More executives than ever believe that the potential rewards far outstrip the risks within both the BRIC countries and other emerging markets. Fifty-two percent expect growth prospects in their once-risky emerging market businesses to be "significantly better" over the next two years.

Local companies in emerging markets are sought after for partnerships and alliances. Despite a greater ease with the risks of new places, the need to tap into local knowledge and contacts quickly remains strong, the report found.

Emerging markets are not just for big business. One in three small- and medium-sized enterprises polled by the authors planned to expand into a new emerging market in the next two years through joint ventures or partnerships with local companies.

Related Articles

• Vietnam ranked prime global destination for third year running
• Naval forces boost global co-operation
• FDI disbursement tops $8b first nine months
• Assoc insists on power price hike despite protests
• Timber-product exporters sign $3b deals

Global investors still prefer Vietnam

HCMC - Global investors have again picked Vietnam as the number one emerging investment destination beyond Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) for the third year in a row since 2008 as indicated in a recent report by the UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) and the Economist Intelligence Unit.

More than 520 global executives representing all major industries participated in a survey conducted from July to August this year to explore the changing outlook for businesses already operating in emerging markets or planning to expand into these markets.

The executives expressed in the “Great Expectations: Doing business in emerging markets” report the markets they think are representing the best opportunities and the primary rationale for operating.

Aside from the BRIC bloc, global investors ranked Vietnam above Indonesia, Mexico, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Nigeria, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates and Turkey when they were asked about the emerging markets in their main targets for new and/or increased investment over the next two years.

In the top 10 investment targets for 2010, Indonesia advanced to second from fourth in last year’s survey and Argentina to fourth from twelfth while Mexico stood unchanged. Malaysia slid to eighth spot from fifth and the UAE to eighth from second in 2009.

On the global scope, the executives selected China as the top market for investment with 20% of them opting for the world’s second-largest economy, followed by Vietnam with 19% and India with 18%.

The survey points out up to 76% of global investors see emerging markets as a source of new business growth, and these markets are also viewed generating new consumer demand for the global economy.

According to the report, 71% of the respondents agreed that emerging markets beyond the BRIC countries collectively offer an opportunity too big to ignore. As a result, companies are prioritizing a range of other countries alongside their well-established operations in the bloc.

Many global firms are increasingly familiar with emerging markets, as recognized in the survey that shows nearly half of the respondents have been operating in one or more emerging markets for at least a decade and two thirds have been there for six years or more.

Far more executives believe that the potential rewards far outstrip the risks within both the BRIC countries and other emerging markets. The findings show 52% of them expect growth prospects for their once-risky emerging markets business to be “significantly better” over the next two years.

The UK Business Secretary Vince Cable said in support of launching the new report in London last week that the balance of global economic power was shifting towards emerging markets.

Emerging markets magnetize not only big companies but also small and medium enterprises. One in every three SMEs polled plan to expand into one new emerging market over the next two years through joint ventures or partnerships with local companies.

The survey found local companies in emerging markets are sought after for partnerships and alliances. Despite a greater ease with the risks of new places, the need to tap into local knowledge and contacts quickly remains strong.

The UKTI notes by 2030, 93% of the world’s middle class will live in emerging markets and the 30 fastest growing cities will be in emerging markets in the 2008 -2025 period.

Late last year, PricewaterhouseCoopers released a study showing that Hanoi and HCMC would be the top two cities having the world’s highest average real GDP of 7% in 2008-2025 in the list of the top 30 fastest growing cities in terms of economic growth.

Related Articles

• Naval forces boost global co-operation
• Assoc insists on power price hike despite protests
• Gold deposit interest rates increase
• Viet Nam cements ranking as ideal investment location
• Vietnam Air accepts web check-in for int’l flights

Fund sees bargains arise in growing Vietnam, Romania

Templeton Asset Management's Mark Mobius has said he sees big bargain-hunting opportunities in Vietnam and Romania due to good growth prospects, with a large potential in their equity markets.

Mobius, a prominent emerging markets fund manager who oversees about US$40 billion in assets, said he does not see an asset bubble appearing in Asian shares, but investors should watch out for volatility and instability in emerging economies.

The fund manager oversees the Romanian government's compensation fund – Fondul Proprietatea – with a size of 4 billion euro ($5.13 billion) in assets, or about 20 percent of the market capitalization of Romania's stock market.

"We'll be investing probably most heavily in raw materials, oil, gas as well as electric power, because of big demand for electric power in the country," Mobius, executive chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group, told a news conference.

The Romanian fund is diversified, with the largest holdings in oil companies. The fund also invests in gas and gas transmission companies and property firms, he said.

Templeton is also looking to invest steadily in Vietnam, Mobius said.

"Vietnam's stock market is now down from the peak in '07 and there is a good opportunity now because of low prices," he said.

Mobius said Vietnam's population is increasing by 1 percent a year and the country's stock market is growing at a good pace.

Vietnam has a weighting of 7 percent in the Templeton Frontier Markets Fund, with total assets under management of $442.45 million as of July 31.

The fund sharply outperformed the benchmark over the past year, producing a return of 21.8 percent against the benchmark of 4.8 percent.

"We've been investing in a pretty wide variety of companies (in Vietnam). Liquidity is very difficult and small, so it takes patience," Mobius said.

He said he has been looking at property and harbor firms.

The fund manger was in Vietnam last week to also look at furniture companies.

Templeton does not see an asset bubble occurring in Asian shares, but sees it as hard to avoid volatility in emerging markets.

Investors must be ready for volatility and must be patient, Mobius said.

"We try to encourage people to buy when things look bad when markets are down, because as you can see the recoveries in these bear markets can be very rapid," he said.

Related Articles

• PM foresees bright future for co-operation with Africa
• Intel to fund high-tech computer lab at RMIT
• Competition serves sustainable agenda
• Dollar struggles, hovers near 15-year low vs yen
• New decree hopes to protect holders of convertible bonds

Fund sees bargains arise in growing Vietnam, Romania

Templeton Asset Management's Mark Mobius said on Sep.3 he sees big
bargain-hunting opportunities in Vietnam and Romania due to good growth
prospects, with a large potential in their equity markets.

Mobius, a prominent emerging markets fund manager who oversees about 40
billion USD in assets, said he does not see an asset bubble appearing
in Asian shares, but investors should watch out for volatility and
instability in emerging economies.

The fund manager
oversees the Romanian government's compensation fund – Fondul
Proprietatea – with a size of 4 billion euro (5.13 billion USD) in
assets, or about 20 percent of the market capitalisation of Romania
's stock market.

"We'll be investing probably most heavily
in raw materials, oil, gas as well as electric power, because of big
demand for electric power in the country," Mobius, executive chairman of
Templeton Emerging Markets Group, told a news conference.

The Romanian fund is diversified, with the largest holdings in oil
companies. The fund also invests in gas and gas transmission companies
and property firms, he said.

Templeton is also looking to invest steadily in Vietnam , Mobius said.

" Vietnam 's stock market is now down from the peak in '07 and there
is a good opportunity now because of low prices," he said.

Mobius said Vietnam 's population is increasing by 1 percent a year
and the country's stock market is growing at a good pace.

Vietnam has a weighting of 7 percent in the Templeton Frontier
Markets Fund, with total assets under management of 442.45 million USD
as of July 31.

The fund sharply outperformed the benchmark
over the past year, producing a return of 21.8 percent against the
benchmark of 4.8 percent.

"We've been investing in a
pretty wide variety of companies (in Vietnam ). Liquidity is very
difficult and small, so it takes patience," Mobius said.

He said he has been looking at property and harbour firms.

The fund manger was in Vietnam last week to also look at furniture companies.

Templeton does not see an asset bubble occurring in Asian shares, but sees it as hard to avoid volatility in emerging markets.

Investors must be ready for volatility and must be patient, Mobius said.

"We try to encourage people to buy when things look bad when markets
are down, because as you can see the recoveries in these bear markets
can be very rapid," he said./.

Related Articles

• Fund sees bargains arise in growing Vietnam, Romania
• PM foresees bright future for co-operation with Africa
• Intel to fund high-tech computer lab at RMIT
• Dollar struggles, hovers near 15-year low vs yen
• Competition serves sustainable agenda