Thailand’s retail giants are making plans for further expansion into the Vietnamese retail market to seize opportunities ahead of the advent of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).

Central Group and Berli Jucker retailers have given high priority to Vietnam and are projected to see a high growth rate in the coming years, evidenced by their recent acquisitions and buyouts.

In its recently-released development strategy, the Central Group, known for its high-end shopping centres, plans to open two more large-scale shopping centres with a total investment of 400 million THB (12.3 million USD) in Hanoi and HCM City this year.

The company previously opened two shopping centres in both cities and merged the Ho Chi Minh city-based chain of electronics shopping centres Nguyen Kim with its branch Power Buy.

The group is also planning to open shopping centres at borders with neighbouring countries such as Laos and Myanmar to take advantage of customers from Vietnam and China.

These initiatives are intended to tap the purchasing power of 300 million people in Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam to compensate for the shopping decline in Thailand caused by economic difficulties.

Meanwhile, Berli Juncker is channelling their resources into small-scale retail with the introduction of a chain of convenience stores in HCM City. The chain had 95 stores by the end of 2014.-VNA