A majority of business houses in the US consider Vietnam as a priority market in the ASEAN region for their business and investment expansion in 2017, according to the 2017 ASEAN Business Outlook Survey. According to the survey, US companies maintain a steady sense of optimism about growth and commercial opportunities in ASEAN. More than half or 53 per cent of respondents reported that ASEAN markets have become more important for their companies’ worldwide revenue over the last two years while 78 per cent executives projected profit increase in 2017. Meanwhile, close to half of the surveyed companies (49 per cent) expected to increase their ASEAN workforce by the end of 2016.

According to US businesses, Vietnam leads among ASEAN member states in attracting investment from American firms that intend to diversify their investments or businesses over the next two years from China into ASEAN.