HANOI, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam has jumped five spots to the sixth place in the annual Global Retail Development Index (GRDI) conducted and published by U.S. consulting firm A.T. Kearney.
Accordingly, Vietnam came behind such large markets as India, China, Malaysia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, but overtook some strong competitors in the region such as Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, the Communist Party of Vietnam online newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The results showed the Vietnamese market has regained its growth momentum after falling off the top 30 retail markets in 2012.
Earlier, it topped the list in 2008, and ranked sixth in 2009, 14th in 2010 and 23rd in 2011.
According to local experts, Vietnam's higher ranking this year is supposed to be driven by liberalized investment laws that have helped boost the country's attractiveness to foreign retailers.
For instance, the government has allowed a 100-percent ownership by foreign retailers.
In 2016, Vietnam's retail revenue rose 10.2 percent year-on-year to 118 billion U.S. dollars, according to the country's General Statistics Office.
