Ernst & Young names VN a rising star VGP – Viet Nam is regarded as a rising star by Ernst & Young (E&Y) and the economy is forecasted to grow by about 6% over the next 25 years. Director of emerging markets research centre at Ernst & Young, Alexis Karklins-Marchay, said: “Five years ago, our investors did not care about these economies but now they change. Turkey, Viet Nam and Indonesia are good examples”. Karklins-Marchay stressed two factors helping Viet Nam attract the attention of investors. First, Viet Nam has strategic geographical position. Second, the Southeast Asian nation has abundant human resources. Viet Nam has a population of 90 million people, of which 80% had graduated from high school, but the labor costs are equal to only by half comparing to that in China and Thailand. As estimated by E&Y, the number of households with incomes of over US$30,000 per year will increase from 6,000 in 2011 to 60,000 in 2021. This promotes Viet Nam to manufacture and export higher-value products. The report of E&Y also focused on capital market and the banking sector of Viet Nam and said that the country has received strong investment opportunities from Russia, the Middle East and Asian banks. E&Y said, when confidence of investors is restored together with the government’s efforts to strengthen the banking system, the Vietnamese financial market can develop more other products and services such as monetary management and foreign currency risk reserve fund. However, E&Y in its report also warned that apart from potentials, the country is also facing the risks from investments./. (Government Web Portal) By Khanh Phuong