Automotive Journal

These are rather dark days in terms of the overall business climate and I don't suppose anyone reading this needs reminding of that. But there are growth opportunities for this industry out there. In simple volume terms emerging markets continue to offer good growth potential, even if the extent to which the BRICs are 'decoupled' from the grief impacting Western financial markets and economies is a point for debate. If they are not entirely immune, they do nevertheless have very positive demand prospects in the medium- and long-term.

The fundamentals of growing per capita incomes set against low motorisation rates have not changed. These countries have crossed a critical mass point at which domestic demand develops a scale and momentum of its own so that they are less dependent on than they used to be on, say, exports of goods to the US.

And if the BRICs are getting a tad crowded right now (as evidenced by price war breaking out in China as the market cools) then perhaps eyes should also be cast elsewhere to less obvious markets presenting sizeable new business opportunities. Vietnam is one such opportunity and I can think of others.

TEN THINGS: ...worth knowing about Vietnam's fast-moving auto sector