Vietnam has been renowned as a middle-income country and the number of high and middle-income earners has augmented swiftly. Vietnam's economic development has been mainly well known in the main city centres such as Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Binh Duong and even Can Tho where the middle and upper classes stand for almost 50 per cent of the urban population. A fresh-age group of wealthy and youthful people have grown to be extra attentive of the luxury items, with an advanced focus on quality and craftsmanship. Jewellery, lavish clothing and cosmetics shops have picked up. Requirement for wedding jewellery has been rising considerably in latest years. “The Vietnamese are not shy about showing off, using all these luxury products,” says B.K. Chow, Show Director, World Trade Fair Ltd.

Madam Bui Thuc Anh, Chief of Executives of VCCI Exhibition Service Co. Ltd, says, “International Jewelry + Watch Vietnam (IJV) offers a direct business platform for foreign and domestic jewellers to sell their latest designs. People here like to spend on luxury goods and in fact, we can see a vast jewellery market opportunity.” International Jewelry + Watch Vietnam (IJV) is held for all the industry players and public visitors to source the wide range of international quality and great value gold ornaments, diamonds, gemstones, fine jewellery and watches collections during the wedding season in Vietnam.

Foreign investment:
Vietnamese businesses still have few more years to prepare themselves for the competition with foreign businesses to come to Vietnam after it opens the gold market. However, they still feel worried as they would have to compete with very strong rivals.

A report by Vietnam Net Bridge says that the foreign jewellery firms are believed to wait in line at the border gate, getting ready to enter the Vietnamese market once the country opens the gold market by 2018, when the import tariff would be cut to zero percent.

According to the Vietnam Gold Business Association, with the $3.5 billion worth of turnover and the annual growth rate of 25 percent in 2013, the gold market has been very attractive in the eyes of foreign investors.

In developed countries, gold jewellery have been mostly exported, while Vietnam still cannot find the outlets for its jewellery products. Every year, Hong Kong exports $3 billion worth of gold jewellery, while the figure is no more than $500 million for Vietnam.

The inner problems of the Vietnamese gold jewellery market have been settled yet, thus attracting foreign investors are attempting to jump into the market. So far five groups of businesses from France, Brazil, Hong Kong, Thailand and Malaysia have come to HCM city to explore the Vietnamese market in year 2013.

Observers have noted the presence of a lot of foreign businesses at the 2013 International Jewellery Trade Fair. A report showed that 30 enterprises from Hong Kong, Thailand, India and Italy came there to look for business opportunities.

Nguyen Van Dung, Chairman of the HCM City Jewellery Association, says that the foreign enterprises came to Vietnam not to look for distributors, but for the partners who can team up with them to set up the companies which make gold jewellery products. Through the joint ventures, they would set up representative offices, or production workshops in Vietnam.

In the recent past, the foreign businesses would bring their products to display at shopping centres and supermarkets.In fact, a lot of foreign jewellery brands have appeared at shopping malls and supermarkets in Vietnam already. The products are believed to penetrate the domestic market across the border gates, i.e. they are brought to Vietnam by the travellers entering the country. Meanwhile, analysts say Vietnamese enterprises are facing big difficulties because they have not made appropriate investments in the production and they cannot control the input material sources, therefore, they cannot compete with foreign companies in prices.

Due to the current strict regulations, a lot of jewellery companies have to collect materials from unofficial supply sources at high prices. They also cannot borrow money from banks to make jewellery. Therefore, though having been warned that foreign firms may crush them when they come to Vietnam, the enterprises still cannot do anything to defend themselves.Anticipating the big difficulties, a lot of jewellery companies have left the market. 70 percent of the total 3,000 enterprises has dissolved or stopped production.

Vietnamese enterprises would not only face big difficulties in the home market, but would also find it difficult to export their products due to the high export tariff of up to 10 percent. Meanwhile, Thailand, India and China impose zero percent on jewellery exports.

Concerns:
Vietnam is a place where you can find all types of jewellery. Nevertheless, you have to be tremendously cautious when it comes to buying diamond jewellery in order to not to get cheated.

To curb this, in the year 2012, Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade and Ministry of Finance amended rules pertaining to diamond imports, exports and certification to fall in line with Kimberley Process Certification Scheme rules.

Under amended rules, individuals and organisations exporting rough diamonds will have to present the country’s custom office with an original certification, a copy of the certification issued by the Ministry of Industry and Trade's import and export management office, as well as all other necessary papers. State agencies exporting diamonds will also have to carefully check that diamonds are in line with certification standards.

Mining:
Vietnam is prosperous in gemstones and is a source for amethyst, aquamarine, corundum, jade, peridot, ruby, spinel, sapphires, and topaz.

In a research done by business-in-asia.com, it was discovered: The Aquamarines are originated in the North at Yen Bai and Nghe An Province. Topaz, Rubies, blue and green Sapphires are also found in the North.

The rubies and Sapphires are mined at Luc Yen, Yen Bai, and Nghe An (Central VN). Spinel is also found at Yen Bai in superior quality and rich colors.

Yellow sapphires are found at Phan Thiet, Dac Lac, and Lam Dong provinces in the Central Highlands of the south of VN. There are also mines for blue sapphires in the Central Highlands of the South at Daclac and Lamdong province, which are actually ‘greenish’ in color. The yellow sapphire stones and semi precious stones such as peridot, amethyst and topaz are also present.

Topaz is found at Xuan Le in Thanh Hoa where there is estimated to be reserves of 10 tons. Topaz is also found at Loc Tan in Lam Dong province. The size of topaz crystals in both locations is about 10 mm to 50 mm. The stones have high clarity, white and colour treated stones are also available.

There is a mine of dark blue sapphire at Phan Thiet, but the production is not of high quality as compared to stones from Sri Lanka or Burma.

Jade dioxide is found at Co Phuong, Song Ma, Son La Province where the reserves are estimated at 80 tons. Vietnamese Jade is classically used for handicraft items.

In addition to the above known developed reserves, Vietnam also has Amethyst, Tourmalin, Peridot, Opal, Tectit, Aquamarine and Citrine but major reserves is not commercially exploited, presently.