For so long China has been seen as the region in which to make an Asian investment. But now it appears that Vietnam might just be “the new China” vis-à-vis business. Vietnam has low costs and a government which is eager to please. As well, licensing and operating in Vietnam are substantially easier these days than they are in China. Thus manufacturers are flocking to the region and rejecting China that is increasing costs. Thus it is not all that surprising that economic growth in China dropped to 7.4 percent in 2014 which is a 24-ytear low.
Some examples of successful investments in Vietnam in the manufacturing industry currently include making cars for both Ford and Toyota. The tech industry is also booming there with Samsung Electronics putting $11billion into production in the region.
Although China is still ahead of Vietnam in FDI, the gap is closing. For example, Vietnam’s FDI increased 60% year over year in the2014 fourth quarter, totaling around $8 billion. Given all this data, Beijing officials are thus trying to put together a new FDI law to offer foreign projects “more equal treatment alongside domestic peers,” which could result in the elimination of case-by-case reviews of foreign projects, and provide fewer restrictions.
