After two decades of reform, Viet Nam’s “dramatic” economic growth – as assessed by Michel Camdessus, former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – together with its stable political situation has helped the country confidently integrate into the global economy. The country’s economic growth has gone a long way in persuading other Asian countries to support Viet Nam’s representation for Asian-Pacific region at the United Nations Security Council for the 2008-09 term as a non-permanent member.

In 2006, Merrill Lynch called Viet Nam a “ten-year buy”. The Citigroup described the country a “new powerhouse of Southeast Asia” while according to the IMF’s chief economist Viet Nam is an “emerging China”.

These remarks showed Viet Nam has become a hot spot on the map of the world economy, said Manraaj Singh, an expert from Profit Hunter.

Viet Nam’s economic growth rate has exceeded 7 percent during the past four years, and the country this year expects to record an 8.5 percent growth rate.

Improving its policies on investment and exports, Viet Nam has seen a boom in exporting, attracted more foreign direct investment (FDI) and firmly developing its economy.

In the first eight months of this year alone, the country fetched over 31.2 billion USD from exports as compared with the 2006 figure of 39.5 billion USD. Vietnamese major export staples such as crude oil, textiles and garment, aquatic products, rice, coffee, cashew nuts and footwear, now have firm foothold in world markets.

Alongside expanding trade ties, Viet Nam now has investment cooperation with some 70 countries and territories worldwide. FDI capital has surged to new height of late, surpassing the 10 billion USD mark in 2006 and is forecast to exceed the projected 12 billion USD this year.

Especially, increases were seen not only in the number of FDI projects but also in the average capital scale for each project. According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, some 50 FDI projects capitalised at over 50 billion USD are queuing up to Viet Nam.

In addition, Viet Nam also rushed up its overseas investment with over 1.1 billion USD in 227 valid projects abroad. Besides traditional markets such as Laos and Cambodia, Vietnamese businesses are looking at potential markets in the Middle East, Africa and America.

The Asian Development Bank’s Country Deputy Director to Viet Nam Omkar Shrestha said Viet Nam’s economy would continue its firm development in 2007.

He said the main reason is the constant resolve of the Vietnamese Government to develop and reform the country.

The 20-year“doi moi” renovation process towards a market economy has put Viet Nam on a new position in the international arena. The country now has diplomatic ties with more than 160 countries and is member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Asia-Europe Economic Meeting (ASEM) forum, the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), the Francophone Organisation and the United Nations.

The membership of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the success of the Year of APEC Viet Nam 2006, and the single candidacy of Asia for the non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council marked a new stage in Viet Nam’s development path.-(VNA)