According to the CEO of CEL Consulting – Julien Brun, the business environment low interest rate and credit growth of 22% are favorable conditions for enterprises to get loan from commercial banks. In 10 months of 2017, there are 105,125 enterprises established with total capital of more than 1 trillion VND, up 14.6% and 43.8% compared to the same period of 2016. Despite getting loan from commercial banks, but there are considerable number of enterprises experiencing loss, with 52,782 enterprises declaring bankruptcy in the first 10 months. 

In the Doing Business 2018 report issued by the World Bank, the ease of doing business ranking of Vietnam has 67.93 score out of the maximum 100 score, at the rank of 68th out of 190 economies, an increase of 14 places compared to the last year. Vietnam economy is among countries improving the most across three or more Doing Business topics in 2016/2017, implemented regulatory reforms making it easier to do business. Specifically, Vietnam has improved 8 out of 10 performance indicators with 39 reforms in recent 15 years. In the Doing Business Report 2017, Vietnam is placed at 82nd out of 190 economies with score of 63.83, up 9 places compared to 2016. This year Vietnam’s rank is in the fifth among ASEAN countries, after Singapore (2nd rank globally), Malaysia (24th), Thailand (26th), and Brunei (56th). The ranking of Vietnam is also higher than China as the second largest economy in the world only ranks at 78 out of 190 economies. 

With positive result from the economic development, foreign direct investment (FDI) to Vietnam has significantly increased and reached 23.5 billion USD in the first 10 months, up 33.8% compared to the same period of last year. Notable projects in 2017 are Samsung Display with registered capital of 2.5 billion USD; Thermal Power plant Nghi Son 2 with capital of 2.8 billion USD; Thermal Power plan Nam Dinh 1 with investment of 2.07 billion USD. 

Industrial manufacturing in the first 10 months of 2017 up 8.7% compared to the same period of last year. Total revenue from retail sector and consumer services increased 10.7% compared to last year, while revenue from retail sector in Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi also up 9.1% and 5.6% respectively. Goods transport also up 10% compared to previous year. 

According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, the trade balance of Vietnam in October has been positive for an amount of 900 million USD, thus increase the trade surplus of Vietnam until the end of October to be 1.23 billion USD.

Despite the remarkable growth of Vietnam’s economy, but the country should pay more attention to sustainable development objectives, which is the common trend of the world against the risk of climate change. As such, Vietnam is expected to be one of the most vulnerable country in ASEAN  against the pollution issue from coal mine.