Vietnam jumps up to #59 in the Global Competitiveness Report

Here is a big shocker, in the latest 2010 Global Competitiveness Report by the World Economic Forum, Vietnam jumped from #75 to #59 in one year. In SE Asia, Singapore (3), Malaysia (26), Thailand (38) and Indonesia (44) rank higher than Vietnam.

Yeah, doing business in Vietnam does seem to get easier and easier day by day but Vietnam still has a long way to go.  Government policies are ineffective when their is a lack of transparency among the various government agencies.  Corruption and graft are ripe.  It is a shame that laundered money is still considered as FDI in Vietnam (I am not pointing fingers but just take a look at the many projects "sponsored" by East European and Chinese Malay "investors" around the country).

If Vietnam signs the Hague Convention, doing business could become even easier but does it really want to at this time?  That is for the Vietnamese government to decide...

Anyway, I bet my Turkish friends are wondering how a Democratic Turkey (60) is ranking below a Communist Vietnam in global competitiveness.

View the full report here: -> http://www.weforum.org/documents/GCR10/Full%20rankings.pdf

Despite this report, the Vietnam Index remained unchanged by the end of trading session.