Vietnam -Official appellation: Socialist Republic of Vietnam -Capital: Vietnam -Area: 329.

560 km2 -Population: -National Day: September 2 -Geographical location: Vietnam stretches over 1600km in length in an S-shaped form contouring the eastern seaboard of the Indochina peninsula. It borders China to the north, Laos and Cambodia to the west. -Topography: Mountains, hills and highlands cover two-thirds of the territory. There are two major plains: the Red River Delta in the north covering 16.654 km2 and the Mekong River Delta in the south covering 39.586 km2. -Climate: tropical monsoon. Southern Vietnams climate shows close equatorial features with two main seasons, rainy and dry. Northern Vietnams climate is of four distinct seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter. -Administration: The State structure of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam includes four levels: Central, provincial, district and communal. There are 64 provinces inclusive of 5 municipalities under the central government jurisdiction. -Demography and religions: there are 54 ethnic groups of which the Kinh (majority of Vietnamese) make up to 90% of the population. Major religions helping fulfill the spiritual needs of the Vietnamese include Buddhism, Catholic and Protestant churches, Confucianism, Cao Dai and Hoa hao faiths. With that being said, ancestor worship is probably their predominant religion, although they may not realize it. -Vietnamese economy: Vietnam initiated economic renovation in 1986 shifting from the centrally-planned economy with state subsidies to socialist-oriented market economy in implementation of industrialization, modernization of the country, diversification and multilateral development of economic external relations for an open-door, world integration policy. For more than a decade, GDP has grown notably year-on-year: 6.9% growth in 2001, 7.0% in 2002, 7.3% in 2003, 7.7% in 2004, 8.4% in 2005, nearly 8.2% in 2006, 8.5% in 2007, 6.2% in 2008, 5.32% in 2009, 6.8% in 2010. Along with high GDP growth, the economic structure has significantly evolved. From 1990 to 2007, the proportional weight of agriculture has slipped from 38.7%to under 20% of GDP, giving way to industries and construction increasing their takes of the share from 22.7% to 41%. The service sector has remained nearly constant at 38.6% in 1990 and 38.3% in 2007. Economic sector structures increasingly orientate toward the development of a multi-sector commodity economy, which operates through a state-managed market mechanism whereby private businesses freely develop in scale and operational territory in endeavors legally approved. Vietnam maintains diplomatic relations with 169 nations, signed bilateral and multilateral trade agreements with 80 countries, exchanged most favored nation privileges with over 70 countries and territories namely those with high capital, industrial resources, and large markets such as found in the US, Japan, EU and the newly industrialized economies of East Asia.

Since implementation of the open-door economic policy, Vietnam has signed cooperative economic and trade agreements with EU(1992), engaged in ASEAN(1995) and AFTA, ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (2001), gained APEC admission(1998), sealed a US-Vietnam bilateral trade pact(2000), and won WTO admission as the 150th member of the organization with official recognition in November 2006. -Business regulations in Vietnam: 1.Business establishment: