Although still expected to be among the fastest in the region, gross domestic product (GDP) growth was slower than the administration’s target of 7 per cent to 8 per cent, and down from 2014’s expansion of6.1 per cent.

“This growth is respectable given the difficult external environment, the onset of El Nino, and the challenges in government spending in the first semester,” Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said.

The year ended on a stronger note as the economy grew by 6.3 per cent in the fourth quarter. Growth was driven by strong domestic demand, led by government spending that accelerated 9.4 per cent compared to 1.7 per cent in the previous year, Balisacan said.

The increase in public and private investments more than doubled to 13.6 per cent from 5.4 per cent, household consumption rose by 6.2 per cent. Balisacan said the growth provided “ample space” to overcome challenges such as weather-related disasters, the global economic slowdown and domestic uncertainties associated with upcoming elections in May.

“Looking ahead, we are hopeful that the next leaders of this country will sustain the programmes and reforms that have gathered significant gains over the years,” he said.

More than 18,000 positions are up for grabs in the Philippines’ general elections on May 9, including president, vice president, senators, congressional representatives, provincial governors, city and town mayors and vice mayors.

– DPA

“Despite the slow pace of growth, we expect confidence and sentiment – the two main culprits of 2015’s retreat in emerging markets – to improve. China’s slowdown and Fed rate-hike expectations should become less of a concern as we move into 2016,” the bank’s chief economist, Marios Maratheftis said.

“We believe Vietnam is an attractive destination for investment, a view echoed by our clients, and expect strong foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in 2016 as well,” Nirukt Sapru, chief executive officer of Standard Chartered Bank Vietnam said.

“We believe the country is one of the few prime investment opportunities in an otherwise lacklustre global economy,” he said, adding that the central bank’s recent decision to set a daily reference rate for the Vietnamese dong will allow it greater flexibility to respond to increasingly volatile market conditions.

Standard Chartered bank’s economists noted that the domestic economy was robust in 2015, recording a faster-than-expected growth of 6.7 per cent. This beat expectations of 6.6 per cent and was the fastest pace of growth since GDP was rebased in 2013.

The report pointed out that consumption is likely to remain the biggest growth driver in 2016, closely followed by investment. The bank forecast that the contribution from investment to growth will be stronger than in 2015 as implemented FDI continues to increase this year.

The study also forecast inflation to be low this year at 1.4 per cent year-on-year, while net exports are likely to remain flat in 2016.

The bank said today’s event was part of its global briefing series, which point out socio-economic trends that will have impact on international business and trade in the year ahead.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Foreign Investment Agency told the press recently that capital from regional neighbours, such as Thailand and South Korea, into Vietnam was increasing.

Economists said China’s economic slowdown and the US Federal Reserve increasing interest rates were driving investor withdrawals from emerging markets.

They said Vietnam should further improve its business environment and enhance labour productivity to take advantage of current capital flow tendencies, especially when FDI in the country reached a record high of roughly $23 billion last year.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) revealed that foreign direct investment (FDI) in Vietnam rose impressively by 101.2 per cent to more than US$1.33 billion in January of this year.

Up to 127 new foreign-invested projects, worth more than $1 billion, were licensed as of January 20, surging 157.9 per cent against the same time last year while 56 operating ones were approved to raise the capital by $323.4 million, up 19.2 per cent on-year, the agency said it its latest report.

It added that FDI disbursement also experienced a yearly rise of 23.1 per cent to an estimated $800 million.

During the reviewed period, foreign investors pumped investments into 16 sectors. Of these, the manufacturing and processing sector took the lead with more than $905 million, accounting for 67.8 per cent of the total FDI pledged in the country.

With only one large-scale project, capitalised at approximately $211 million, the entertainment industry ranked second, accounting for 15.7 per cent of the nation’s total FDI, while the production and distribution of electricity, gas, hot water and steam, and air conditioners came third with $59.22 million or 4.4 per cent.

Out of 24 countries and territories investing in Vietnam, Singapore was the largest investor with $295.5 million or 22.1 per cent of the country’s total registered FDI. It was followed by Malaysia with $243.6 million or 18.2 per cent, and China with $179.5 million or 13.4 per cent.

In the first month, Ha Noi beat 29 localities to become the most ideal destination for foreign investors. The capital city attracted $243.5 million investments, totalling 18.2 per cent of total FDI registered in the country.

The runners-up were southern Dong Nai Province and HCM City with $183 million or 13.7 per cent, and $163.4 million or 12.2 per cent, respectively.

FIA said the foreign-invested sector recorded a trade surplus of more than $1.59 billion in January as it exported more than $9.74 billion, a year-on-year rise of 3.2 per cent, while its imports slumped 2.2 per cent to $8.15 billion.

According to the survey, the highest salary increase was in banking and financial services, with a 60 per cent increase. Legal and human resources followed with a 25 to 50 per cent rise, while jobs in accounting and finance, sales and marketing and IT saw a 20 to 40 per cent salary increase.

Robert Walters (Singapore) spokeswoman Germaine Lim explained that many IT companies would look for IT professionals along with marketers, finance and compliance workers who understood the digital business.

“English and local language fluency is important due to the growing investment from abroad, especially in sectors like e-commerce and IT. The bilingual ability will help international startups in doing projects, especially for the lawyers,” she said.

When the Chinese economy was slowing because of reduced investments, which in turn reduced demand for raw materials import from Indonesia, both Malaysia and Vietnam managed to maintain their exports of finished goods to China.

“It’s ironic for us. Our exports to China are experiencing a negative growth because of low demand. We really need to change immediately and start trying to export finished goods,” he said.

At the same time, Bambang continued, Indonesia should attract more capital or foreign direct investment (FDI) from China. Despite the high volume of capital inflow from that country, it is still less than what comes from Singapore, the US, Japan and some European countries.

Furthermore, he added that the Investment Coordination Board (BKPM) recorded a lot of investment commitments from China, but only few of them were realized. Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and the US are among the countries with a high number of actual investments.

“Our challenge is to attract potential investment from China and realize the investment in the field. Unfortunately, China is below 10 percent. It means from 100 commitments only 10 become real investments. Too many commitments, but few achievements,” said Bambang.

Also, another 115 billion dong ($117,251 million) will be given for support industry enterprises to become suppliers of support industry products for multi-national companies and other local and foreign support industry producers.

In addition, a programme on investment and trade promotion and support in seeking markets of consuming support industry products will receive 115 billion dong ($117,251 million).

Assistance in training managers and staff; and building and updating databases on support industries at home and abroad at websites specialising in the support industry will get funds of 220 billion dong ($223,335 million) and 80 billion dong ($81,517 million), respectively.

Deputy Director of the Vietnam Maritime Administration (VMA) Bui Thien Thu stated that seaport co-operation between Viet Nam and Japan would likely see a boost as soon as Japanese firms began shifting investments to the country.

The VMA will actively co-ordinate and support Japanese businesses in the future.

In addition, it noted: “For Netflix to take off, a good video streaming experience is critical, which requires backing of strong telco networks – this is still missing in many parts of Malaysia.”

Astro’s shares had come under pressure since Netflix, which is an American multinational provider of on-demand Internet streaming media, announced its launch in the Malaysian media market early this month.

Year-to-date, the counter had lost around 7% to close at RM2.56 on Friday.

Besides Malaysia, Netflix would also be making its foray into the rest of Asean.

Despite the contained near-term risk, Nomura said, Astro would still be considered as the most vulnerable among its Asean counterparts to competition from the Netflix.

“Both companies have similar revenue models, driven by subscription-based average revenue per use; plus there is a considerable overlap in their content types – international TV shows and movies,” Nomura explained.

With regards to international content, Nomura said, Netflix had the capacity to outspend and outbid pay-TV incumbents like Astro given its much bigger scale, and hence its ability to realise much better economies of scale.

“Another risk to be mindful of is if Telekom Malaysia starts to offer Netflix like Singapore Telecommunications Ltd and StarHub Ltd do in Singapore,” the brokerage added.

“We have a ‘buy’ on Astro, but don’t think the stock will do much until there is a meaningful improvement in Malaysian sentiment,” Nomura said.

The export value to the 29 countries hit $147.4 billion, accounting for nearly 90.9 per cent of the total export value of Vietnam, according to the General Department of Customs.

The US is the largest importer of Vietnamese goods with total turnover of $33.5 billion, increasing by 16.9 per cent compared to 2014.

This is also the market in which Vietnam recorded the largest surplus with $25.68 billion.

Key products exported to the US include textiles and garments with nearly $11 billion, a year-on-year increase of 11.7 per cent and accounting for 32.7 per cent of the country’s export value to this market.

Exports of footwear ranked second with export value of over $4 billion, up 22.5 per cent; followed by computers, electronic products and components with $2.8 billion, up 33.7 per cent.

Other large export markets of Vietnam are China and the Republic of Korea (RoK) with turnover of $16.6 billion and $8.9 billion respectively.

Exports to the Americas hit $55.4 billion, a year-on-year increase of 18.6 per cent.

Export value with Europe and Africa reached $46.6 billion and $5.1 billion, growing 9.4 and 9.8 per cent respectively.

Meanwhile, exports to Oceania decreased by 16.2 per cent to $5.79 billion.

In terms of importing, there are 19 markets that Vietnam imported commodities from of more than $1 billion, with a total value of $150.4 billion, accounting for 90.8 per cent of the total imports of the country.

China continued to be the leading market in supplying goods for Vietnam with an import value worth $49.5 billion, increasing 13.9 per cent compared to 2014.

Main commodities imported from China are machinery, equipment, tools and spare parts with turnover of $9 billion; telephones and accessories with $6.9 billion; fabrics with $5.2 billion and computers, electronic products and components, earning $5.2 billion.

The second largest exporter to Vietnam is the RoK with a value totalled $27.6 billion, increasing 27 per cent compared to 2014.

Other large exporters included Japan ($14.4 billion), Taiwan ($11 billion) and Thailand ($8.3 billion).

Mentri Besar Datuk Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the state should not be too dependent on certain economic activities in view of the unfavourable global economic situation.

“We will review of investment strategic plans from time to time according to the global economic scenario,” he told reporters after opening the Multimedia University Nusjaya @ Johor at EduCity Hub.

Mohamed Khaled said it was becoming more challenging to continue attracting new investments into Johor nowadays but it could be accomplished with the right strategic plans.

He said that “everyday was a challenge” for Johor to attract foreign investors as other states in Malaysia and countries in the region were also aggressively attracting them.

“Like businesses big or small which are diversifying their products or services, we also have to do the same to remain relevant and attractive,” added Mohamed Khaled.

He said Johor has the right ecosystem to continue attracting domestic and foreign investors, adding that the state had always been the preferred investment destination in the country.

Last year, the state received about RM30bil investments in the manufacturing sector and RM24bil in 2014.