Top 500 fastest growing companies in Viet Nam announced

FAST500 recognises and honours the enterprises with their contributions to the economy. Photo baodautu.vn

The news comes from the Viet Nam 2015 Growth Report, announced yesterday at the FAST500 event in Ha Noi. The event also released this year's list of the top 500 fastest growing companies in Viet Nam.

The Ministry of Information and Communications, the Viet Nam Report JSC and the online newspaper VietNamNet co-organised the fifth occasion of the FAST500 business event.

FAST500 recognises both the contributions of enterprises to the economy as well as reports and forecasts business development trends in the country.

Vu Dang Vinh, CEO of the Viet Nam Report JSC says FAST500 enterprises are the "rising stars" of the economy, one which is still recovering from several years of recession.

Vinh believes positive economic growth will return in the coming period of 2015-2018.

The telecommunications industry saw new providers entering the market as the country continued its integration into the WTO, therefore keeping up with new trends and fighting fierce competition on local and international levels will be necessary to stay afloat.

The beverage industry, in contrast, continues to grow, easily attracting more and more investment. The report estimates that beer and other beverage sales will increase 7.5 per cent and revenues will increase by 10.5 per cent by 2016.

The report's analysis declared that consumers are starting to demand beverages with higher value and beer will continue to dominate the market, both in terms of sales and revenue. By 2016, the beer and liquor sector is likely to increase by 32.8 per cent.

Though Viet Nam is among the top ten countries in the world in beer consumption numbers, the forecast argues that with increases in income, consumers will change their alcohol habits, switching from beer to higher value alcoholic beverages.

The report also draws a promising picture for the agricultural sector, which attracted considerable foreign direct investment, especially as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) moves forward.

The report argues that development of the agricultural sector will do best with an export-oriented strategy but it will also face several challenge of low technology, poor infrastructure, lack of skilled workers, and severe environmental issues like pollution, climate change, rising sea levels, deforestation and soil erosion.

Besides representatives from the honoured enterprises, the event also attracted foreign trade promotion offices like the Japan External Trade Organization, Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency and Malaysia External Trade Development.

Figures to remember

More than 56 per cent of the FAST500 enterprises last year are back on the list this year.

More than 24 per cent of FAST500 enterprises are listed in the local stock market, up from the 22.9 per cent last year.

As much as 11 per cent of CEOs of FAST500's enterprises were born in the year of the rat (1960, 1972, 1984). The report goes so far as to analyse the 12 Zodiac symbols, concluding that people born in the year of the rat are safe investments as they have the ability to adapt to any situation, while remaining cautious, calm and serious in their work.

A majority of the listed CEOs in the construction and real estate industry are under 40.