Video: Money Manager Says It's Really Vietnam's Time

[k98nights]

10/24/2014 @ 12:01PM 50 views

Video: Money Manager Says It's Really Vietnam's Time

It was early 2003 when I published a cover of Forbes Asia headlined, “Vietnam’s Moment.” This story was not the last premature call of that economy’s reawakening from its post-war Communist slumber. The always industrious Vietnamese people have gone through boom and bust cycles since, as trade and finance is opened up a bit, enough to get into trouble.

There remains a long way to go to an open, transparent economy (and society) but more is going right now. The property market is shaking off the worst of the last credit binge, big state companies are being opened up to outside investment and scrutiny (one even made a Forbes Asia top-performer list) and consumer and export sectors are showing strength. Multinationals are increasingly present (here’s the latest news of Japanese interest in the textile output). Individual enrichment is still a sore point, but acceptance of the profit motive, by same name or another, is inevitable.

Bill Stoops, whose business it is to tout the prospects for Vietnam in his role as chief investment officer of Dragon Capital, one of two big money-managers there, makes the case that this time, the growth story is real. Early this year he also was optimistic in a discussion with one of our contributors; though there’ve been further fits and starts since in the emerging and frontier markets (Vietnam is considered the latter), he’s staying on message. And it’s a tight one.

In this video discussion, we go over the macroeconomic shifts and some elements of the Vietnam story to watch out for, including its role as a China alternative: Click the link below to watch the video.

http://onforb.es/1wl7tvC

Read more: http://dongtalk.com/forums/index.php/topic/14616-video-money-manager-says-its-really-vietnams-time/#ixzz3H5ok1iED