The Ministry of Planning and Investment made the assessment based on reports from the World Economic Forum, World Bank and World Property Intellectual Organization.
In the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2017-18, released in September, Vietnam was ranked 55th overall, up five places from last year and 20 from five years ago.
According to the report, Vietnam had made notable improvements in all sectors, notably among the basic requirement factors (75th out of 137), including institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education.

Vietnam was ranked 9th in the Southeast Asia and Oceania region in the Global Innovation Index 2017.

Higher education and training also advanced (84th), as firms perceive that the lack of an educated workforce constitute a significant hurdle to doing business.
Trade also propelled Vietnam upward, with the country seventh in terms of the ratio of imports to gross domestic product, the Geneva-based WEF noted in the report. The US withdrawal from the Trans Pacific Partnership may have hurt some future trade opportunities for Vietnam, but the report stated that “the country’s growth is nonetheless projected to remain robust from strong exports”.
The report suggested Vietnam could also boost its competitiveness by closing gaps in innovation and sophistication factors with countries at a similar stage of development, such as the Philippines.
It also showed the five most problematic factors that concern investors include access to financing, inadequately educated workforce, corruption, poor work ethic and tax regulations.
Vietnam also moved up nine notches in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2017 report, which was released on October. The country climbed to 82^nd position from 91^st position last year, in the list covering over 190 economies.
In this year’s survey, the World Bank (WB) ranked economies based on ten criteria including starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.
For Vietnam, sectors that saw improvement included protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, getting electricity and resolving insolvency.
Of these, the country’s “protecting minority investors” criteria jumped 31 notches to 87^th position this year. Meanwhile, the “starting a business” dropped 10 notches compared to that of last year.
In Southeast Asia, Vietnam’s position is in the middle, following Singapore (2), Malaysia (23) and Thailand (46).
In the Global Innovation Index 2017 released by the World Intellectual Property Organization in June, Vietnam also ranked 47th out of 127 economies, climbing 12 places compared to last year. This is the highest rank Vietnam has achieved.
Global Innovation Index surveys 127 economies using 79 indicators to gauge innovative capabilities and measurable results.
Vietnam was ranked 9th in the Southeast Asia and Oceania region, one place higher than Thailand.
The survey said new Asian Tigers, such as Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines, are emerging and joining not only Asian high tech value chains but also other activities, such as information and communication technology (ICT) offshoring.
Although Singapore is still uncontested as number 1 among the smaller or emerging Asian economies, countries such as Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand are catching up rapidly, the survey said.
“Among them, Vietnam tops education expenditure in the region and does very well in ICT use, gross capital information and FDI net inflows,” the survey said.
Additionally, Vietnam was assessed to be strong in a range of indicators, including knowledge and technology outputs; market sophistication, and expenditure on education.