Profit from the new Vietnam

Article Excerpt

Vietnam’s economy is growing quickly, largely due to the country’s rising exports and low wages: its labour and production costs are as little as one-third of similar costs in China. Vietnam also has a large future labour pool: over 50% of its population of 85 million is under 25 years of age. The country’s high inflation rate is slowing, and could fall below 10% by the end of 2012. That should let the central bank cut interest rates, which could spur the economy to grow by more than 6% this year. MARKET VECTORS VIETNAM ETF $19.18 (New York symbol VNM; buy or sell through brokers; www.vaneck.com) holds shares of Vietnamese companies or foreign firms that get a significant amount of their revenue from Vietnam. Market Vectors Vietnam ETF was launched on August 11, 2009. Its expense ratio is 0.76%. The ETF’s top 10 holdings are Vietin Commercial Bank, 8.2%; Vincom Corp. (real estate), 7.9%; JSC Bank, 7.5%; Baoviet Holdings (Finance and insurance), 6.7%; PetroVietnam…