(Bloomberg) -- As Asia-Pacific leaders gather for a summit in Vietnam on Friday, they'll be greeted with an economy that's following the same old development track that propelled development in regional neighbors from Japan to China.
Having sustained double-digit export gains for most of the past five years, Vietnam is hitting its stride as a 6 percent-plus growth economy, International Monetary Fund estimates show. Vietnam is the 12th biggest exporter to the U.S., ahead of others including Taiwan, Malaysia and Switzerland.
With billions of dollars of foreign investment going into the transport and electronics industries, led by Samsung Electronics Co., and a swelling middle class driving consumption, the country is on the move. And so are its stocks, which have climbed this year -- even in excess of the U.S. equity gains that President Donald Trump has been claiming credit for in recent days.
“There's a lot of money that wants to come to Vietnam, and there's still potential for the market to go further next year," said Kevin Snowball, chief executive officer of PXP Vietnam Asset Management in Ho Chi Minh City. "There's still a lot of upside out there," he said.
Among the temptations: further state-owned asset sales; read about the latest one here.
To contact the reporters on this story: Christopher Anstey in Tokyo at canstey@bloomberg.net, Nguyen Kieu Giang in Hanoi at giang1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Anstey at canstey@bloomberg.net, Vivek Shankar
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