Vietnam has emerged as a lucrative retail market suitable for financiers from abroad, with Japanese businesses recently unveiling several billion-dollar investment projects throughout the country, according to insiders. 

Japanese retail giant AEON plans to pour further investment into Vietnam in future

This comes after a socio-economic report compiled by the General Statistics Office (GSO) indicates that despite the complicated nature of the COVID-19 pandemic globally, Vietnam has maintained positive import-export growth.

October alone witnessed total retail sales of consumer goods and services increase by 2.4% in comparison with September, representing an annual rise of 6.1%.

Tetsuyuki Nakagawa, general director of AEON MALL Vietnam Co. Ltd., therefore expressed optimism about the future of the country’s business environment, saying his firm will conduct an investment survey in Ho Chi Minh City by 2021 to build a third AEON shopping mall in the southern metropolis.

With the latest AEON Mall poised to open in Hai Phong city on December 14, AEON Group is currently planning to open 20 shopping malls nationwide by 2025, Nakagawa said, revealing the Japanese enterprise intends to inject US$2 billion into Vietnam. It is expected to export goods worth US$1 billion from Vietnam to Japan and other countries.

The AEON head highlighted Vietnamese efforts to combat the COVID-19 epidemic as a means of helping the retail sector to bounce back, noting that among shopping mall chains throughout Asia, the Vietnamese retail system has recorded a swift recovery.

Most notably, the number of customers shopping at AEON Mall chains nationwide in recent times has risen again after COVID-19 was brought under control, reaching over 90% in comparison to last year.

According to the latest report released by Nielsen Vietnam that surveyed the impact of COVID-19 on global consumer actions during the second quarter of the year, there appears to be a positive outlook for the local retail market.

The report indicates that 56 out of 68 markets in the survey reported confidence levels under 100, therefore signaling greater pessimism among consumers globally.

Despite the plunge in confidence across all markets in the Asia-Pacific region, the area remains vastly polarised as it is both home to many of the most optimistic as well as the most pessimistic consumers in the world.

The report outlines that while confidence levels in India, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia remain over 100, confidence levels in markets such as Japan and the Republic of Korea are below 50, the lowest globally.

Although there has been a sharp decrease from 126 to 117 points compared to the previous quarter, Vietnam still ranked among the most optimistic globally, overcoming Philippines and Indonesia to finish second, just behind India, for having the most positive consumers globally.