Viet Nam was classified as an outperforming emerging economy together with 17 others, according to a McKinsey Global Institute report released on Tuesday at the ongoing World Economic Forum on ASEAN (WEF ASEAN) in Ha Noi.

McKinsey found 18 of 71 major emerging economies that the report analysed had exceptional GDP per capita growth performance over the past 50 and 20 years and were classified as “outperformers”.

Among them, seven achieved more than 3.5 per cent per capital GDP growth over 50 years, including mainland China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand. Eleven others grew at a faster pace for a shorter period – 5 per cent annually in 20 years, namely Azerbaijan, Belarus, Cambodia, Ethiopia, India, Kazakhstan, Laos, Myanmar, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Viet Nam.

The report found pro-growth policy agendas created a virtuous cycle of productivity, income and demand, which encouraged savings, ensured stability and fostered competition and innovation in these outperforming economies.

“Good policy is a must,” said Jonathan Woetzel, a director of the McKinsey Global Institute, the report’s lead author. “But one of the insights of our research is that highly competitive businesses have also played a critical role in propelling GDP growth—a role that is too often overlooked.”

Extending the winning formula of outperformers to all emerging economies could add US$11 trillion to the global economy by 2030, a 10 per cent boost equivalent to the size of China, according to the report.

The report also found that 18 outperforming economies identified in the report have lifted about one billion people out of extreme poverty since 1990. — VNS