Ninh Hoa Sugar in the central Viet Nam is listed as one of the 200 best SMEs in Asia.

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Ten Vietnamese enterprises have been included in Forbes Asia's list of 200 Best Under a Billion (dollars) of small to medium sized companies this year.

They are Binh Dinh Minerals, Dinh Vu Port Investment & Development, Education Book JSC in Hanoi City, National Seed, Ninh Hoa Sugar, Pan Pacific, Sea & Air Frieight International, Southern Seed, Vegetable Oil Packing and Vietnam Container Shipping.

The financial magazine said prospects for an economic rebound in Japan were looking better. The country jumped to 17 slots from four or fewer in recent years.

Meanwhile, Chinese and Hong Kong firms again dominate the list with 63 names. Taiwan has 26 names.

The magazine described the Philippines as weak for scoring only one. In contrast, Viet Nam, struggling to regain recent economic-growth rates, has 10 names on the list.

The editors, drawing on databases of 15,000 stock-traded companies in the Asia-Pacific with revenues between US$5 million and $1 billion, winnowed the choice to 873 that satisfied the following criteria - a five-year average return on equity and pretax margin greater than 10 per cent, positive sales and earnings per share growth for both the most recent fiscal one and three-year periods, debt less than 75 per cent of shareholders' equity, and a trading history of at least one year.

The final 200 list is not ranked, but qualified firms are measured comparatively.— VNS