A worker at Maz Asia car manufacturing and assembling factory - a joint venture between Vietnamese and Belarus investors in Hung Yen. (Photo: Pham Kien / VNA)

The paper said Vietnam’s annual economic growth has been 7%, a figure that's twice as much as the world average. While agriculture continues to be a dominant source of employment, much of Vietnam’s economic growth in the recent past has been driven by the services and industrial segments. The country’s profile as a low-cost manufacturer has gained steam. Vietnam’s labor costs are half that of China and also considerably lower than its other manufacturing competitor - Mexico.

Seeking Alpha said Vietnam’s dominance lies in the electronics manufacturing (36%) followed by footwear. Some notable US names that have recently made inroads into Vietnam include Sourcify, Cooper Tyres, and Key Tronic.

The webpage quoted a American Chamber of Commerce survey as saying that Vietnam as the primary choice for relocation grew from 17% in 2018 to 36% in 2019. Vietnam’s export to EU is predicted hit 60 billion USD by 2025. Long term it would be healthy for the country to have a more diversified source of export customers and not rely on the US and China alone, according to Seeking Alpha. The EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement opens up a market with a combined GDP of close to 2.2 trillion USD. Tariff on Vietnamese products such as garments, computers, phones, apparel, footwear, textiles, general electronics, and farm devices fall from 9.7% to 2% in 2025.

Seeking Alpha said COVID-19 has had a limited impact on Vietnam’s tourism. It cited data from Vietnam as showing that in July more than 26,000 flights are expected to transport more than 5 million people. This represents annual growth of 16% and 24%, respectively.