European firms upbeat about Vietnamese market: survey

      Scooters at a Piaggio factory in the northern province of Vinh Phuc. Photo by Reuters/Kham

Many describe the state of the market as good and are positive about the future.

European companies in Vietnam are showing more confidence in the local market and its future, with many describing the situation as good or excellent.

The Business Climate Index, which measures the sentiment of European businesses about their situation in Vietnam, increased nine points from the second quarter to 86 in the third quarter, according to the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham), which represents around 900 European businesses that include some of the world’s leading companies.

According to the latest EuroCham survey, 71.5 percent of respondents described their current business situation as “excellent” or “good”, while only 5.5 percent said the market was “not good.” The rest classified the state of the market as “neutral” and there were no responses describing it as “very poor”.

Many companies are also positive about the near future, with 16.5 percent giving “excellent” responses to questions about their company's business outlook for the next quarter. Another 64.2 percent said it would be “good” and only 2.7 percent of the responses were negative.

Almost 60 percent of the respondents said they expect Vietnam’s macroeconomy to be stable and improve in the next quarter,

More than half of the companies also have plans to hire more staff in the last quarter, and less than 3 percent said they would be laying off workers.

Also, 55 percent of the companies surveyed plan to increase their investment in the last quarter of the year, with 16,5 percent of the respondents planning a “significant increase”.

The European Union is a major investor in Vietnam with more than 1,800 projects effective as of the end of April, mostly in industry and construction. Their registered capital totals over $23.16 billion.

The E.U. and Vietnam inked a free trade agreement in August of last year. It will take effect in late 2017 or early 2018, with tariffs cuts on most goods between the markets. Annual trade between Vietnam and the E.U. is worth around $31 billion.

By VnExpress