Michael Sieburg

I’m not sure this is breaking news nor does it necessarily require a study by the Royal Bank of Scotland that is published in Business Week to prove- but apparently, Vietnam will not have the same impact as China on the global economy. Vietnam’s relatively small population is cited as one reason. Even though Vietnam is one of the 15th largest countries in the world with approximately 84 million people, the article notes that Vietnam’s population is smaller than the population of China’s Guangdong province. That said, a small population alone does not necessarily correspond to a country’s impact on the global economy. See Singapore or UAE for counterexamples. In the case of Vietnam though, given that its economy is roughly similar to China’s in that low-cost manufacturing is a key attraction for global investors, the country’s smaller population is a fair reason, among others, why its economy will have a lesser global impact.