Trade agreements lower America's living standards to raise others. Angers me.

[Jesus Malverde]

146. I take it you haven't been to Vietnam recently

The country is vibrant and booming.

"no running water, sewer system beyond ditches" - is a stereotype.

Vietnam: Vietnam’s Economy Shows Promising Sign Ahead

In less than two generations, Vietnam has emerged from a war-torn nation to become one of the most dynamic economies in ASEAN. Our local MD takes a pulse-check of the domestic economy in this first of a two-part article series.

The world has changed a lot in four decades: yesterday's foe has become today's closest trading partner. Last year was an important one for Vietnam. Just eight years after joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the country has emerged as South East Asia's largest exporter to the US. It overtook traditional regional manufacturing powerhouse like Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia to claim a 20% market share. The country shipped $28.5bn worth of goods and services to the US (an increase of 19.6% from 2013), with textiles and garments being the key export item.

Between 1998 and 2008, the Vietnamese economy achieved an average gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 7.5%. After a decade of high growth, the country fell into recession due to high inflation in 2011, but now the tide is turning once more for Vietnam. It is set to bounce back by leveraging its strategic geographic location, ripening demographic dividend, low labour cost structure and growing foreign direct investments (FDI).

Despite the gloomy global economic outlook in 2014, Vietnam's GDP managed to grow at the fastest rate (5.98%) in four years to reach US$180.8bn. The country also saw its inflation stabilising to the lowest rate in 10 years at 4.1% (37.88% lower than 2013). The strong growth in Vietnam was driven by its record high export worth US$150bn after rising 13.6% from the previous year. This brought the country trade surplus to US$2bn.

For the next two years, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) projects the Vietnamese economy will expand at an even faster pace of 6.1% in 2015 and 6.2% in the following year. Currently, Vietnam is Asia's fifth-strongest growing economy. The ADB believes the country could become the second growth engine for Asia (besides India) as China enters a slower growth cycle. According to the ADB's Asian Development Outlook 2015, Vietnam is also the most promising economy in VISTA, a new acronym encompassing Vietnam, Indonesia, South Africa, Turkey and Argentina).

It seems foreign investors agree with the ADB's view. Last year, Vietnam attracted US$15.6bn (up 9.6% from 2013) fresh FDI inflow on top of US$ 4.6bn being injected by existing projects. Korea was the largest source of FDI with Samsung being the country's single largest foreign investor and exporter. Last November, the electronic giant announced its plan to spend US$3bn in expanding an existing factory into the largest smart phone production facility in the world. This came just four months after the company received permission to build a US$1bn display module production plant.

More on the booming Vietnamese economy at the link

http://www.mondaq.com/x/393006/Economic+Analysis/Vietnams+Economy+Shows+Promising+Sign+Ahead

Economic Boom Poses a New Threat, Among Many, to a Vietnamese Heritage

HUE, Vietnam — This is a city of edifices and their ghosts.

Straddling the Perfume River in central Vietnam, Hue was the seat of the last imperial dynasty, and it has long been known for what the Nguyen emperors left behind: the imposing walled Citadel with its former palaces and pleasure gardens; the ornate royal tombs scattered across the verdant hills; and the wooden villas of their mandarins.

These buildings have endured the infamous Hue weather — dank and misty and gray much of the year — and the brutality of modern armies. Some of the bloodiest urban combat the United States Marines have ever faced took place in the Citadel during the 1968 Tet offensive, a battle depicted in Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket.”

The monuments have also withstood decades of rule by the Communist Party, despite being symbols of the feudal traditions the party was trying to exorcise from Vietnam.

But what weather, war and ideology had not yet undone, a newer threat may: the economic boom that has been transforming the character of this central Vietnamese city of 340,000 people in recent years. Preservationists are struggling to ensure that officials, businesspeople and residents here properly protect Hue’s heritage.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/30/world/asia/economic-boom-poses-a-new-threat-among-many-to-a-vietnamese-heritage.html?_r=0

Vietnam en route to become one of four largest ASEAN’s economies

Vietnam is the rising star of the ASEAN community and the most attractive destination for investment.

With economic growth on a solid path, the country aims to transcend the ASEAN-6 countries (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) and catch up with the ASEAN-4 that include, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, said the Vietnam minister of planning and investment, Bui Quang Vinh.

According to the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook, Vietnam possesses the second highest GDP growth in ASEAN-5 countries (Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia), following the top economy of Philippines,

Already, the country is planning drastic reforms in the administrative procedures to reduce the time taken to start a business in Vietnam. At the same time, the government is standardising the criteria for doing business, and managing imported/exported goods and services in accordance with international practice.

By 2016, these changes would be in place, helping Vietnam compete with the ASEAN 4 nations in terms of business environment .

http://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/vietnam-en-route-to-become-one-of-four-largest-aseans-economies-5024/