VietNamNet Bridge – In its March edition, Bloomberg Markets Magazine ranks the top 25 frontier markets for investors. Vietnam ranks first in the list.



Frontier markets could also be termed as “pre-emerging” markets. These countries are distinguished by capital markets that are underdeveloped compared to emerging markets.

However, the scoring system the magazine used indicates that these frontier markets are more desirable investment destinations than the emerging market counterparts.

Bloomberg Markets used a variety of criteria to rank these countries, from government debt to labor force participation ratios. The countries are evaluated in each of these criteria, then the points in each category are added together to determine the total score on a scale of 0-100.

The data used by Bloomberg Markets Magazine as a basis for assessment includes data from the World Bank (WB), International Monetary Fund (IMF), Transparency International (TI), the financial news agency Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal and Heritage Foundation, etc.

The list is dominated by African and Asian nations, though a few European and South American countries also made the cut.

The top ten countries in the list: Vietnam, Qatar, Lithuania, the UAE, Botswana, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan and Estonia.

Compiled by S. Tung