Italy’s financial news website Firstonline recently posted a story byanalyst Ciro Caliandro giving his valuations on Vietnam’s economy aswell as opportunities that Italian businesses can gain from theirinvestments in the country.
Ciro Caliandro wrote Vietnam hasestablished itself as one of the most dynamic Asian economy with grossdomestic product growth rate at 5.4 percent in 2013.
He saidthe country is a leading player in regional integration in Asia-Pacificsince it is now a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN), the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), and the Asia-Pacific EconomicCooperation (APEC) forum.
Vietnam, deemed as a competitivecountry in Asia, received about 230 billion USD in foreign directinvestment between 2000 and 2013, the story said, highlighting suchadvantages as good basic education, young workforce, low costs, andwell-managed industrial parks.
Ciro Caliandro said most ofItalian businesses have so far invested in Vietnam’s energy (oil andgas), infrastructure building, machinery, and fashion industries.However, they could benefit from more incentives when pouring money intoconstruction and housing sectors as the urbanization process in thecountry is happening fast.
Italy currently ranks tenth amongcountries and territories exporting goods to Vietnam. In 2013, itshipped 674 million EUR (840.6 million USD) worth of commodities toVietnam, and the figure is expected to reach 1.4 billion EUR in 2018.
However,the European country is only the 20th largest importer of Vietnamesegoods and services. The Southeast Asian country’s export revenue toItaly is forecast to grow at an average pace of 16 percent from 2014 to2018, the analyst said.
The story was posted on the occasion of avisit from November 23-26 by Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Benedettodella Vedova and 200 entrepreneurs to seek investment opportunities inVietnam.-VNA