Merger and acquisition activities are now blossoming in Vietnam thanks to the clearer economic recovery, thriving GDP growth, newly signed free trade agreements and the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) at the end of this year.

Following the conclusion of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement negotiations in July and expectations that it will be signed later this year, Liliana Lizarazo Rodriguez, a free trade agreement specialist at Belgian law firm A–Law International and the firm’s managing partner Patricia Leers discuss the challenges facing Vietnamese companies once this agreement takes effect.

Foreign direct investment inflows into Vietnam are expected to spike in the coming months thanks to the new legal investment framework and free trade agreements in effect.

E-Mart, the Republic of Korea’s largest retailer, will officially open the doors to its first supermarket in Vietnam this December.

Life insurance giant Prudential Vietnam yesterday officially sealed a deal with the Ministry of Finance (MoF) for a VND3.2 trillion (GBP 100 million) long-term investment of 20-year government bonds (G-Bond) in the presence of UK Prime Ministers David Cameron and his Vietnamese colleague Nguyen Tan Dung.

The luxury river cruiser “Anawrahta”, owned by Heritage Line, has left Ho Chi Minh City aboard the heavy lift vessel, Rolldock Storm, bound for a 5-day journey to Myanmar where it will ply the Ayeyarwady and Chindwin Rivers beginning mid-September 2015.

Vietnam has reaped substantial economic benefits from its 20-year membership of ASEAN, which has provided opportunities to participate in many regional and global economic links.

ASEAN investment inflows to Vietnam are expected to surge in the coming months, when many large projects are licensed and the ASEAN Economic Community is established.

Doubts are raising about the viability of state-owned enterprises equitisation plan this year.

The implementation of the revised Law on Real Estate Business is expected to attract a range of new investors to the office for lease market.