In recent years, Viet Nam’s economy has been transforming vigorously amid complicated developments of the global economic and political situation and uneven growth of large economies.

In this context, Viet Nam has gradually implemented its foreign policy of multilateralization and diversification, while taking advantage of trade, investment, integration and technology transfer cooperation opportunities in service of national economic development.

Accordingly, Viet Nam’s total import-export value reached US$3.995 trillion during the period of 2000-2019. Regarding the five years (2015-2019) alone, the country’s trade volume hit US$2.106 trillion, which was greater than the combined value of the previous 15 years (2000-2014).

In 2006, Viet Nam was the 50th biggest exporter and the 44th largest importer in the world. Twelve years later, the country reported impressive development, climbing to 26th and 23rd place, respectively.

Given the positive results, Viet Nam has continuously ranked among the top 30 countries and territories with the largest import-export value.

In the ASEAN bloc, Viet Nam comes third, only behind Singapore and Thailand. Previously, China, the United States and Japan were the three largest trading partners of Viet Nam. However, since 2013, the Republic of Korea has officially replaced Japan as Viet Nam’s third largest trading partner.

Current state of VN’s economy

Viet Nam is seeing strong growth on multiple fronts. Of particular interest to investors has been the continuing growth of Viet Nam's domestic consmer market, which has been developing by leaps and bounds.

This growth is expected to continue for some time to come – domestic consumption is predicted to increase at a rate of 20% per year.

With a population of over 95 million and Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing middle class, Viet Nam clearly represents an important market for foreign goods.

Institutional and administrative reforms prove effective

Recently, Viet Nam has become an increasingly friendly destination for investors as the Government has taken drastic measures to reform financial sector, streamline business regulations, and improve the quality of its workforce.

Since the mid-2000s, the Government has offered extremely competitive financial incentives to businesses seeking to  set up operations in the country, in addition to a 0% withholding tax on dividends remitted overseas and a low corporate income tax (CIT) rate of only 20%.

These advantages have enabled Viet Nam to become a premier “sourcing economy” in the eyes of many companies.

The Government has also directed the Ministry of Finance to coordinate with other ministries, sectors and localities to focus on synchronously implementing resolutions, such as Resolution No. 01/NQ-CP, No. 02/NQ-CP, No. 35/NQ-CP, No. 36a/NQ-CP and No. 19/NQ-CP, aiming to accelerate institutional reforms, administrative procedure reforms and modernization, thus creating a fair, open and transparent business environment and facilitating businesses’ operations.

The Government pledged to continue with institutional reforms, administrative procedure reforms and modernization, focusing on accelerating the implementation of the national single window and the ASEAN single window with the goal of further facilitating import-export activities, reducing customs clearance time, and reducing costs for people and businesses.

Besides, attention will be paid to fighting frauds of origin, illegal transportation of goods, smuggling and trade fraud, and strictly handling violations of intellectual property rights, towards creating a fair, open and transparent business climate./.