Ho Chi Minh City. According to the report, Nigeria topped the list as the most popular pick for multinationals, followed by Argentina and Viet Nam.— Photo vov5

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Viet Nam has emerged as one of the top three frontier-market economies that are attracting the most attention from American and European multinationals, according to the latest Frontier Markets Sentiment Index.

The Index, published last week in the Wall Street Journal, is developed by Washington DC-based advisory firm Frontier Strategy Group (FSG). It tracks the level of interest that major American and European multinational companies show in 70 frontier-market economies.

According to the report, Nigeria topped the list as the most popular pick for multinationals, followed by Argentina and Viet Nam.

Of the 20 countries attracting the most interest from multinationals, nine were in sub-Sahara, while Asia accounted for just three markets. Viet Nam was the only country in Southeast Asia among the top three economies, with 24.7 per cent of companies including it on their watch lists.

The Index is based on information collected from FSG's roughly 200 multinational clients, which include giant corporations like Coca-Cola, General Electric, Novartis, Dell and Akzo Nobel.

Matt Lasov, FSG's global head of advisory and analytics, said: "We collect data about which countries the companies are watching for potential future investment. Over time, that gives us a clear picture of their market priorities – which countries are they including in their future plans and which they are dropping."

Two major insights provided in the research were the current state of sentiment towards countries in the frontier markets, and the change in sentiment over time (corporate perception of markets in response to the changing business and macroeconomic environment).

Overall, sentiments toward frontier markets among the 200 multinationals in the survey declined. About 80 per cent of the countries covered in the survey have seen the level of corporate interest subside since last year. — VNS