Vietnam new Asian tiger: Business Times

Illustrative photo. (Source: VNA)

Hanoi – Vietnam is expected to accelerate its economic recovery from the pandemic this year after having recorded a 2.6 percent increase in gross domestic products (GDP) in 2021, Singapore’s Business Times reported.

Once among the poorest countries in the world, its economy is now booming and the World Bank describes it as one of the most dynamic and emerging countries in the entire East Asia region, Business said in an article published last week, calling Vietnam a “new Asian tiger.”

Singapore’s DBS Group Research forecasts Vietnam's GDP growth to reach 8 percent in 2022, boosted by an accommodative monetary policy. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted that Vietnam will climb three spots to rank third in GDP among ASEAN member states this year, thanks to the fast-growing middle class and the rise of ultra-rich people.

Knight Frank’s latest Wealth Report estimates there were about 19,500 high-net-worth individuals in Vietnam in 2020, defined as those with assets of at least 1 million USD, the article said. By 2025, that number is expected to grow by almost 25 percent to top 25,000, it added.

Business Times attributed the robust growth of the economy to increasing flows of foreign investment into the country. Many Singapore companies, including CapitaLand and Keppel, have invested heavily in the country as they seize the abundant opportunities.

“Vietnam has long been known as Southeast Asia's coding farm, where talent and wages are in a sweet spot for companies to use it as a base for their technical development,” it noted.

The article also referred to Vietnam as the largest solar power producer in Southeast Asia today with 16.6 gigawatts of installed capacity as of 2020. Vietnam's construction industry is set to continue its recovery in 2022 as several large-scale infrastructure projects move through different stages of development, it further said.