Vietnam beats most neighbors in best place ranking for business expats

By Nguyen Quy   October 18, 2019 | 06:10 am PT
Vietnam beats most neighbors in best place ranking for business expats
A French startup company in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by AFP.
Vietnam seems to have done a fair job of persuading global business expatriates that it is a good place to live and work.

It ranks 48th out of 68 economies, whittled down from 95, in the 2019 International Executives Mobility Study that lists the best places for expats to settle down and do business compiled by U.S. business magazine CEOWorld.

The survey, released on Thursday, interviewed 105,000 business expats and 7,000 international industry recruiters in 95 countries and territories before coming up with the final list of 68 best places.

The survey, done between April and September this year, was based on six metrics: career opportunities, earning potential, quality of life, ease of family relocation, ease of raising families, and ease of settling in. 

Vietnam scored 64.9 out of 100 to rank above neighbors such as the Philippines (52nd), Indonesia (54th), China (57th), and Malaysia (63rd).

In Southeast Asia, only Singapore (2nd) and Thailand (45th) are ahead. 

Spain tops the list followed by Singapore and Switzerland. Japan and Taiwan follow and then come Finland, Canada, the UAE, Israel, and Portugal.

HSBC’s Expat Explorer survey released in July ranked Vietnam 10th best in the list if countries for expats to work and live. It polled 18,059 overseas workers from 163 countries and territories through an online questionnaire between March and April this year.

HSBC also revealed that average salary for expats working in Vietnam is $78,750 per year, slightly higher than the global mean of $75,966.

Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs data show over 83,500 expats live in Vietnam.

Vietnamese people’s average salary in 2018 was VND67.46 million ($2,920), according to market research firm Trading Economics.

 
 
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