The TNS Executive Director, Ralf Matthaes, also held an optimistic view on the purchasing power of the Vietnamese market while saying on the sidelines of the Vietnam-EU seminar on building trademarks at the time of economic recession in Hanoi on April 20. “Vietnamese people are still spending more than they did last year,” Matthaes said.

He cited research results that show the number of rich Vietnamese people currently accounting for 30 percent of urban dwellers while the figure stood at just 5 percent ten years ago when TNS did research on the Vietnamese market. He also pointed to the fact that Vietnam’s GDP doubled in the past four years and the country also posted the highest growth rate of 19 percent in Asia in terms of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG).

In June 2008, the A.T Kearney named Vietnam as the globe’s most attractive retail market in its 2008 annual research, above India, Russia and China, the winners in 2007.