Vietnam is embracing 'Industry 4.0' in an attempt to create a role for itself as a technology hub within south-east Asia. 

Slow reforms and accusations of human rights abuse have forced Myanmar to take steps towards luring investors back to the country. 

Despite its landlocked status, Laos is raising its FDI game as engagement with donors and investors grows. 

Cambodia and Laos have much to offer in terms of natural resources and beauty, but with their opaque and poorly enforced regulatory regimes, not to mention poor reputations for corruption, will inward FDI to the countries remain the preserve of massive corporations that can afford to take the risk? 

Laos’s recent World Trade Organisation membership will make it a more viable FDI option, but will the investors come?

The first draft of Myanmar's new and mostly liberal FDI law was passed recently and the EU and the US are set to ease the economic sanctions put in place while the country was under the previous military regime. But despite these positive steps, Myanmar's infrastructure remains weak and investors there face a number of obstacles.

Only the most tenacious of backers have stayed in Myanmar in recent years, but a new wave of investment could follow the country's recent forays into democracy, which have included the release of campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi and the formation of a new constitution and parliament

While Thailand has been rocked politically in the past few years, industry and FDI inflows have remained stable, proving that the country is far more robust than it first appears

The small and isolated country of Bhutan has set out policies to attract FDI but has so far had little success beyond the luxury tourist market, reports Nick Freeman