Vietnam holds 16th position in the latest Grant Thornton emerging markets opportunity index, which rates world markets in terms of size, development pace and economic growth.
In the Grant Thornton International Business Report 2010 released on March 31, the auditing and consultancy company said Vietnam has increasingly opened its economy and trade, especially after joining the World Trade Organisation in 2007, despite a large portion of its GDP--20 percent—being in agriculture.
According to the report, the top five countries in the emerging markets opportunity index are China , India , Russia , Mexico and Brazil.
Up to 57 percent of private businesses in 14 of the world's leading emerging markets indicated that they were optimistic about the prospects for their country's economy in the year ahead.
Emerging economies, the report said, occupy four of the top five places in terms of optimism for the year ahead, including Chile, 85% percent; India 84 percent; Vietnam, 72 percent and Brazil, 71 percent.
Ken Atkinson, Managing Partner at Grant Thornton Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City, said the importance of the emerging markets to the world economy has been proved as the world emerges from recession.
Not only have these economies been less severely hit, but they are also recovering more quickly, with growth rates over the next two years forecast to be double that of more mature economies, he added.
However, the survey also reports that businesses in emerging markets fear their growth prospects are being hampered by poor access to finances and a lack of highly-skilled workers.
The Grant Thornton report was based on surveys of 7,400 managers of medium-to-large private companies in a broad range of sectors in 36 economies./.