Vietnam has topped a performance index for greenfield foreign direct investment, leading all other emerging markets by a wide margin.

The southeast Asian country ranked number one in a study by fDi Intelligence, an FT data division, which looked at inbound greenfield investment since 2003 relative to the size of each country’s economy. Vietnam scored 8.14 in the index, far ahead of next placed Romania and Hungary, as well as its regional competitors Malaysia and Thailand.

Vietnam’s economy has been growing quickly, fuelled by investment and exports. Between 2003 and 2014, the country attracted more than 2,000 greenfield FDI projects. Almost half Vietnam’s inward FDI is in manufacturing, attracted by abundant and relatively low-cost labour. Vietnam has also taken steps to improve its business environment, reducing its corporate tax rate from 25 per cent to 22 per cent as well as establishing a new credit bureau to improve its credit information system.