Hanoi (VNA) - Financial website wealthbriefingasia.com published anarticle on October 28 outlining the views of several UK-based asset managementfigures regarding future investment prospects in Vietnam.

According to the article, the Southeast Asian country has become one of theleading emerging markets to invest in recently.

With half of its population under the age of 35, coupled with a rapidlyexpanding middle class, Vietnam is one of the most dynamic frontier economies, andhas not suffered as dramatically from COVID-19 as other nations. Several wealthmanagers are interested, and doing business in Vietnam, including Swiss privatebank Bordier & Cie.

The article quoted Khanh Vu, co-manager of VinaCapital Vietnam OpportunityFund, as saying that the main attraction of investing in Vietnam is that countryis following in the footsteps of other “Asian Tigers” that came before it, suchas Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Taiwan (China).

Sothe future trajectory of Vietnam's per capita income, consumer spending, and ofthe general wealth of its citizens is fairly clear. Furthermore, Vietnam isessentially the only Asian Tiger country left to invest in – given how fareconomic development of other Asian Tigers has already progressed.

Emily Fletcher, portfolio manager of BlackRock Frontiers, stated that Vietnamhas been a poster child for frontier markets, having experienced strong economicand social development over the previous two decades. The country has also seenthe benefits of more than 149 billion USD in foreign direct investment inflowsover the past 20 years. This has driven huge increases in manufacturing production, suchthat exports have grown at a compound annual growth rate of 15.8 percent overthis period. Domestically, demographics are in favour of sustainable growth.

Craig Martin, manager of Vietnam Holding, said that Vietnamese GDP per capita isexpected to reach 5,000 USD by 2025, and by 2035 there could be a further 35million middle-income consumers nationwide. Vietnam is avery open economy from a trade perspective, with more than 200 per cent of itsGDP in exports and imports. Over the last three decades it has transformed froman exporter of raw materials, to a producer of finished and semi-finishedgoods, as well as exporting services – such as information technology.

With regard to the handling of COVID-19, Ewan Markson-Brown, manager of PacificHorizon, described the country as one of the more successful in dealing withthe threat of the pandemic. It has registered just over 1,000 cases and 35 deaths.

Craig Martin, manager of Vietnam Holding, emphasised that Vietnam’s handling ofCOVID-19 has rightly won praise and admiration from many other nations. It istoo early to attribute any one factor as the key success factor, but certainlythe cohesiveness of society and the single-mindedness of the people in takingon a threat has been a key part of the resilient response.

According to Martin, Vietnam, an early victim of SARS in 2003, regularly facesdisease risk from avian flu and swine flu, so it has arguably developed betterresponses, protocols and communications to deal with emerging infections, and pandemics./.