“Vietnam is our overall biggest mover worldwide, climbing 12 spots in the rankings, while Thailand improves by 10 places and India by six,” the Economist Intelligence Unit said in a report. — VNA/VNS
HANOI: Vietnam jumped 12 places in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) latest business environment rankings, which measure the attractiveness of doing business in 82 countries with 91 crucial indicators.
According to EIU, Vietnam, along with Thailand and India are among Asian countries that have improved their ranking the most over the past year.
“Vietnam is our overall biggest mover worldwide, climbing 12 spots in the rankings, while Thailand improves by 10 places and India by six,” the EIU said in its report.
“Vietnam and Thailand, which have favourable policies for foreign investors, are benefiting from firms pursuing a China+1 policy of having supply chains in both China and another Asian market.
“Vietnam’s score rises on the back of an improving economic outlook, and Thailand’s as a result of greater economic stability,” it said.
It added that Singapore has retained its position as the best business environment over the next five years while Australia, Taiwan and South Korea ranked in the global top 20.
“As a region, Asia’s score for policy towards foreign trade is improving.
“This partly reflects the impact of regional free trade agreements adopted in the past five years, the effects of which will be reflected in our five-year forecast period (2023-2027),” the EIU noted.
Over the past four months, Vietnam attracted 750 new foreign-invested projects, worth over US$4.1bil (RM19bil), up 65.2% in the number of projects and 11.1% in the level of capital, according to Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Planning and Investment Ministry.
The growth of the number of new projects was much higher than that of investment capital, which demonstrated that small and medium-sized foreign investors continued to believe in the country’s investment environment, the FIA has said.
During the period, the country allowed 386 operating projects to raise their capital by nearly US$1.66bil (RM7.6bil), up 19.5% in volume but down 68.6% in value.
A decline in adjusted capital in four months, however, was lower than 70.3% seen in three months; 85.2% in two months and 76% in the first month, according to the agency.
Besides, the number of operating projects which saw capital added increased sharply instead of a modest rise of 2.6% in three months and a slump of 6.3% in two months.
That once again confirmed investors’ confidence in Vietnam’s investment environment and continued to expand their existing projects in the country, the FIA noted.
At the same time, foreign businesses were also approved to pay over US$3.1bil (RM14bil) for capital contribution and share purchases in a total of 1,044 transactions, marking yearly increases of 70.4% in value and 2% in volume. — Viet Nam News/ANN
