European Union enterprises were positive about the business environment in Vietnam as a large number of them planned to increase investment in the country, according to a Business Climate Index (BCI) survey for Q2 of the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham).
Accordingly, the majority of European enterprises acknowledged that the country’s macroeconomic stability will likely continue, with 56.3% of respondents forecasting “stabilization and improvement” and just 9.4% of respondents expecting declining macro-economy.
EuroCham reported that around 49% of the respondents expect the number of orders or revenue to increase slightly in the next quarter. Up to 15.6% of them were even more optimistic. The trend is considered as a good sign for the implementation of the EU-Vietnam free trade agreement (EUVFTA), that is expected to boost business and investment activities by foreign enterprises in Viet Nam.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoTT) reported that as of early July, the two-way trade touched US$ 21.2 billion, up 9.05% percent compared to the same period last year. Of this figure, Viet Nam exported US$16.2 billion worth of goods to the EU, a year on year increase of 8.68% while importing over US$ 4.97 billion worth of goods, up 10.28% against the same period in 2015.
Foreign investment funds saw an average growth of 11.28 percent in the first half of 2016, according to Hanoi-based DoBF Stock Academy's latest report. The report noted that the growth was due to investments in blue-chip and basic stocks.
The report said that among the 31 funds with an investment of about 4 billion US D on the local market, 25 funds had a better net asset value (NAV) growth above the VN-Index, which was 7.5 percent in the first half of the year. In terms of the largest increase, SFC fund of Vietnam Holding reached a growth of nearly 20 percent. Further, Vietnam Holding had total assets of 146.8 million US D , as of June 30, 2016.
Ranking No 2 in growth, VOF, a fund of VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund Ltd, with total assets of 610 million US D , posted a 17.9 percent increase thanks to its investment in PNJ and HPG, which recently rose sharply.
Those funds with net assets of 100 million US D were SFC and VOF, long associated with the 351-million-USD Elite Mutual Fund, which increased 14 percent, 932-million USD VEIL of Dragon Capital was up 13.37 percent, 353-million USD DWS Vietnam Limited rose 12.95 percent, 180-million-USD JP Morgan Vietnam Opportunities fund surged 11.8 percent, and the 119-million-USD VEEF increased 9.86 percent.
Established in Viet n am over 20 years ago, VEIL is not only the oldest foreign fund, it is now the largest in net assets. The fund, is focused in the local F and B industry, real estate and finance industries. In 2015, thanks to the tremendous growth of 60.8 percent of Vinamilk, which accounted for 18.8 percent in its investment portfolio, the fund grew 5.6 percent.
The report also said that in 2015, many foreign funds were affected by the unexpected exchange rate, however, they did not see the same problem this year because of stable exchange rates.
