New Delhi, June 2 (IANS) India has lost its top position as the most attractive emerging market destination for retail investment to Vietnam, according to a study by global management consulting firm A.T. Kearney. India was pushed to the second spot in the seventh annual Global Retail Development Index (GRDI), a study of retail investment attractiveness carried out among 30 emerging markets.

“The critical factors that have powered Vietnam to the top of the index this year are rapidly growing per capita income of the Vietnamese consumer and drastically opening up of regulations for new entry,” said Saurine M. Doshi, a partner of A.T. Kearney India.

“India’s inability in opening up the FDI (foreign direct investment) regulations for foreign retailers will start to hit the industry’s competitiveness more than ever before,” he added.

Vietnam was in fourth place in the 2007 GRDI.

Published since 2001, the GRDI assesses the retail expansion attractiveness of emerging countries based on a set of 25 variables including economic and political risk, retail market attractiveness and retail saturation levels.

Though India has slipped to number two this year, it continues to be a hot destination for global retailers, said Hemant Kalbag, principal of Consumer Industries & Retail Practice, A.T. Kearney India.

Russia, China, Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Chile, Brazil, Turkey, Mexico and Algeria are the other countries that found berth in the top-10 list.