Business confidence and outlook among European businesses in Vietnam
have been stabilised and shown a modest increase after a steep 11 point
drop in the last quarter of 2011.
The results were released by the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham) on Feb. 1
Concerns
about the current business situation and outlook appear to have eased
slightly among EuroCham member companies that participated in the
survey. However, their business outlook and assessment of the current
situation remains sombre, the EuroCham said.
Forty percent of the
businesses that participated in the survey engage in the services
industry, about a quarter in manufacturing and trading and the rest in
other activities.
Of the surveyed businesses, 38 percent
considered their current business situation ‘neutral’ and 36 percent
described it as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’.
The number of
respondents having a negative view on their current situation has
remained nearly unchanged since last quarter, but at 26 percent, it is
14 percentage points higher than a year ago.
Although inflation
remains a major concern for businesses, only 8 percent of the
respondents said that inflation was actually threatening their business
in the country.
EuroCham Chairman Alain Cany commented on the
survey “The slight increase of the EuroCham Business Climate Index at 56
points shows a halt in the downward trend in business confidence we
have seen in 2011. However, the business confidence is still far below
last year’s level. This shows that uncertainty amongst investors
remains.”
EuroCham Executive Director Matthias Dühn said that the
European debt crisis has added to investors uncertainty and impacted
European investment in Vietnam .
European investors are
increasingly looking for alternative investment destinations in ASEAN.
Therefore Vietnam has to increase its efforts to remain competitive
in the region, he said./.
