banner image
Press Release

International Business Report (IBR) - Second half year of 2021

07 Jan 2022 5 min read

Grant Thornton’s International Business report, which covers around 10,000 Mid-market business leaders' views in 29 markets each year shows that whilst economic optimism has been mixed, ASEAN recorded its highest level since the records began in 2011 and Vietnam, with 80% of businesses reporting, being optimistic, ranked tie 3rd globally and joint no.1 in ASEAN.

Globally, the report shows that Economic uncertainty has decreased from H1 2021, with the easing of “red tape” and regulation easing as a constraint to business. However there are major concerns in some regions regarding increasing energy prices and globally regarding the availability of skilled labour. Firms in Vietnam are not overly concerned about these 2 issues with less than half of the firms stating these issues as constraints.

ASEAN also recorded much higher revenue and profit expectations, when compared with the Global results with an increase of 14 and 11 pp over H1 2021. Vietnam had the 2nd highest ranking for revenue expectations with 82% of survey respondents expecting increased revenues in 2022.

Export expectations increased by 18pp in ASEAN, again well above the global average. This aligns with the number of firms in ASEAN that are expecting to export to new markets up 16pp to 53%. In Vietnam 65% of firms expected an increase in exports in 2022 and 61% expecting to sell into new markets ranking no 2 in ASEAN and no.4 globally.

ASEAN investment expectations increased significantly in comparison to H1 21, with 64% of firms expecting to invest in R & D and 65% in technology. Vietnam ranks very well in both these areas and surprisingly 77% of firms expect to invest in R&D next year (no 1 globally) and 73% in technology. Vietnam firms are also very conscious of IT security with 44% of the firms reporting having invested in IT security. The rapid increase in e-commerce partly driven by Covid, 47% of the firms have also invested in online order and payments systems. Operational optimization and sales optimization were two other areas that a significant number of firms invested in.

In Vietnam 76% of firms experienced a decrease in revenues during the lock-down in the middle of 2021, with 38% experiencing a reduction of 10-50%. In terms of re-booting business post the lengthy lockdown because of Covid 60% cite the biggest challenges being cash flow and lost orders and 28% supply chain.

Investments in ERP also have been very popular with 91% of firms having made investments, 44% into SAP/MS/Oracle systems and 43% into locally developed systems.

With 45% of firms, in Vietnam, reporting that their business performance as being better in 2021 compared with 2020 and 21% unchanged their certainly seem to be positive expectations for 2022.

- END -

Should you have any queries, please contact us at Grant.Thornton@vn.gt.com. We are happy to help.

 

 

 

Experts / Authors
  • Kenneth Atkinson OBE
    Kenneth Atkinson OBE With over 42 years emerging market experience and 40 years Asian experience, Ken has undertaken corporate finance transactions in many emerging markets worldwide (Eastern Europe, the People’s Republic of China and several other countries in South East Asia). He has broad experience in advising Clients including commercial banks on project appraisal, debt finance, loan restructuring, corporate restructuring and equity funding. View Profile
Copy text of article