The recently-published Ireland - Asia Business Yearbook 2014, an annual guide for Irish companies doing business in the emerging region, has proclaimed Vietnam to be a dynamic and growing market.

A profile in the publication wrote that Vietnam has successfully transformed from a centrally-planned economy into a socialist-oriented market economy which has recorded average annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 7 percent over the past two decades, with international trade exceeding 160 percent of GDP.

The yearbook also hailed Vietnam as the world’s top exporter of rice, coffee, and black pepper, and a major exporter of textiles, seafood, electronics, software, crude oil and furniture.

The country is regarded as one of the top investment destinations in the region, attracting an estimated 6.5 billion USD in foreign direct investment in each of the past five years.

The feature noted that an Ernst & Young report 2012 on rapid growth markets called Vietnam a rising star, and expected to see GDP per capita increase six times over the next 25 years and the number of households earning over 30,000 USD to rise from less than 6,000 in 2011 to more than 60,000 in 10 years’ time.

According to the yearbook, infrastructure, agriculture, energy, information technology and human resource development continue to be the sectors that will offer the best opportunities for Irish businesses both over the short and long-term.

It commented that the ongoing equitisation of state-owned enterprises enables foreign investors to join in the restructuring of its economy.

As the 150 th member of the World Trade Organisation, Vietnam is integrating deeper into the regional and world economy, it said.-VNA