HANOI, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam expects its retail sales to expand by 2.5 times to around 350 billion U.S. dollars by 2025, Vietnam News reported on Monday, citing the country's Ministry of Industry and Trade.

A vendor stands by a bicycle loaded with flowers for sale in Hanoi on March 8, 2023. (Photo: AFP)

The Vietnamese retail market, currently worth 142 billion dollars, has an untapped potential due to economic and population growth.

Vietnam's population is going to reach 100 million soon in April, marking it as the 15th most populous country in the world. A population of 100 million would mean a sizable domestic market, and possibilities to attract more foreign direct investment, said the United Nations Population Fund.

Over the next decade, 36 million more may join Vietnam's consumer class who spend at least 11 dollars a day, according to a 2021 report by consulting group McKinsey, noting that Vietnam's consumer class would grow rapidly from 10 percent of the population in 2000 to 75 percent by 2030.

Vietnam's total goods retail sales and consumer service revenues increased 19.8 percent year on year to approximately 5,679.9 trillion Vietnamese dong (about 239 billion dollars) in 2022, higher than an official target of just 8 percent and the previous year's growth of 10.15 percent, according to the General Statistics Office.

HSBC analysts saw multinational corporations in Asia looking for ways to make new investments in both retail and manufacturing sectors in Vietnam including semiconductors, electronics, mobile components, plastic, renewable energy, and logistics industries.

Thai retail conglomerate Central Group has recently announced an additional investment of 1.45 billion dollars to expand its selling platform in Vietnam. The retailer sees its operations in the country making the largest contribution of about 22 percent of the group's total sales, said its country chief executive.

Vietnam's economic growth is backed by public investment, exports, domestic consumption and foreign direct investment. Companies with investments from foreign firms account for about 70 percent to 80 percent of the country's total exports and 25 percent of domestic investment, according to government data.

Vietnam's economy grew 8.02 percent last year, exceeding the average of 7.1 percent from 2016 to 2019, mainly due to a rebound in domestic consumption following COVID-19 and solid performance in export-oriented manufacturing, said the World Bank.