A worker at Japan- invested Yamoto Industries Viet Nam Company in northern Bac Ninh Province. — VNA/VNS Photo Danh Lam

GENEVA (Biz Hub) — Viet Nam's economic freedom index went up 2.3 points compared to last year and reached the overall score of 54, reported the Heritage Foundation.

In its recently published 2016 Index of Economic Freedom, the foundation said that the overall score put the country in the 131st position among the economies listed in the index. Regionally it ranked 27th in the Asia-Pacific region.

The report assessed that Viet Nam has gradually been transforming itself into a more open, more market-oriented economy and is beginning to enjoy the benefits of its steady but slow integration into the global commercial system.

Reforms have included partial privatisation of State-owned enterprises, liberalisation of the trade and investment regimes, and modernisation of the financial sector, it added.

Hong Kong (China) topped the 178 economies ranked in the 2016 Index with a score of 88.6 points, followed by Singapore, New Zealand, and Switzerland.

The index report, an annual guide published by the Heritage Foundation, rates countries in 10 categories – trade, business, labour and fiscal freedoms, and monetary, financial and investment freedoms, in addition to government spending, property rights and freedom from corruption – and the results are averaged to create an overall score.

The Heritage Foundation is an American think-tank based in Washington DC. — VNS