Vietnam, (officially called the Socialist Republic of Vietnam), has a dynamic story, as one of the fastest growing economies in Asia.. It is well positioned to be one of the hottest manufacturing zones in Asia, for the next 25 years.

In the mid to late 20^th century, Vietnam was nearly destroyed by decades of war, which changed the country and set it back several decades.

But that is all in past now, and there is an amazing energy in the country, building for the future. Their GDP growth rate has been at about 6 to 7 percent, over the last decade.

Vietnam is comprised of 58 provinces, with provincial governments and a parliament system at the Federal Level.

It has a populaton of over 96 million people. The two largest cities, Ho Chi Minh City (12 million people) in the South, the business hub, and Hanoi (8 million) in the North, the government capital city. Central Vietnam has the dominate seaside city of Danang at about 1.5 million people.

Although a one-party government, it is very progressive in its export centric economics policies, in ways very similar to China. It provides a somewhat easy path for doing business Vietnam, whether importing or exporting from the country.

The evolving government policies have made it very inviting to Foreign Direct Investment. Because of this, it is fast becoming a major manufacturing hub for many types of goods, and a good choice for diversification or re-location of manufacturing or contracting manufacturing, moving away from places like the China supply chain.

Vietnam is though, heavily dependent on China for many raw materials. It also exports about 30% of its goods to China.

The United States is Vietnam’s largest export market, with US$28.5 billion. The EU is second with US$27.9 billion, ASEAN is third, China is fourth and Japan is the fifth largest export market of Vietnam.

Vietnam has just signed a major free trade agreement with the EU.  The USA was supposed to be connected to Vietnam in free trade, via the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), but that was eliminated due to the USA pulling out of the TPP. 

Western brands are well respected for quality and safety, and established brand name products have strong pull in the country.  New brands should expect to invest in heavy channel marketing for the first 2 years.

For many reasons Vietnam makes an opportune place to do business as a manufacturer or contract purchaser.