June 9, 2010
CNN
It’s been more than a decade since I was last in Ho Chi Minh City. The city then was dusty, noisy, frantic and, well, disorganized – a lot of energy but not a lot of focus.
But there are very few cities in Asia that you can return to after 10-year absence and expect things to be the same (except, perhaps, for Yangon and Colombo). Ho Chi Minh in 2010 is booming. The familiar landmarks are still there but this city is spreading - upwards and outwards.
This is what 10 years of an average annual growth of 7 percent looks like: The streets are even more clogged with motorbikes but now compete with a stream of Toyotas, Kias and Fords. The city center is clean - the dust in the air now is from building sites rather than badly-paved roads. (From my hotel room looking across the bustling Saigon River I can see perhaps 20 cranes perched on top of semi-completed high-rises.)
The brand name stores are starting to appear although still – some would say thankfully –no sign of McDonald’s.
To say Vietnam is open for business is an understatement – and this Southeast Asian growing powerhouse is deadly serious about drawing foreign business.
The World Economic Forum’s East Asia meeting chose Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon, if you prefer) for its first event in a true emerging market. Organizers were expecting about 250 to 300 business people this week, but more than 400 came from across the world.
The government is out in force too. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung is everywhere, chatting up the opportunities. He wants Vietnam to be Asia’s manufacturing base of choice after China.
It’s a tall order, and at the moment Vietnam is seen as a production base for lower value-added goods like textiles, furniture or footwear.
But times are changing. Samsung and Canon are both investing heavily in electronics manufacturing and service bases. Most of the big Asian carmakers as well as Ford are producing for the local market with an eye on exports later down the line.
I met Tom Schneider, a German businessman who has just outlaid $12 million to build a tanning factory at an industrial park on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City.
Forthright and ebullient, Schneider’s built eight factories in Asia in the past 16 years. In Vietnam it took him just 22 months, from finding the land, building the factory, and training the workforce – his fastest project anywhere.
He now produces 80,000 hides a month, enough for about 1.5 million pairs of shoes. Timberland is his biggest customer.
And he’s quick to point out that although tanning is “environmentally hostile” his new plant is greener than his existing plant in China, which has received a silver medal standard for environmental protection from Timberland.
So why move to Vietnam? It’s cheaper. Labor costs are about 60 percent of China’s although senior management is still more expensive. The country is close to many of his key customers, and there’s little state intervention, as long he observes workplace and environmental standards.
And in the long run, Vietnam has key access to a vast and cheap labor pool across the borders of Cambodia and Laos.
It’s not all upside. Transport links are still – as Tom describes – at the same level as China in 1988. And the law is still open to interpretation (nearly all big foreign investors insist in any contract on having litigation settled in an offshore court).
Foreign investment is coming. In 2008 about $70 billion was committed to Vietnam, up more than threefold from five years year. It’s fallen back to $20 billion last year. Not surprising, though, given the global economic picture.
I asked the Prime Minister how he would describe Vietnam’s economic model.
Vietnam, he replied, is a socialist system embracing capitalism. Helping the poor get out of poverty through foreign investment is key to his planning, he says.
Like China, Vietnam’s government looks long-term. And like China, it appears to be achieving its economic goals.
But there are very few cities in Asia that you can return to after 10-year absence and expect things to be the same (except, perhaps, for Yangon and Colombo). Ho Chi Minh in 2010 is booming. The familiar landmarks are still there but this city is spreading - upwards and outwards.
This is what 10 years of an average annual growth of 7 percent looks like: The streets are even more clogged with motorbikes but now compete with a stream of Toyotas, Kias and Fords. The city center is clean - the dust in the air now is from building sites rather than badly-paved roads. (From my hotel room looking across the bustling Saigon River I can see perhaps 20 cranes perched on top of semi-completed high-rises.)
The brand name stores are starting to appear although still – some would say thankfully –no sign of McDonald’s.
To say Vietnam is open for business is an understatement – and this Southeast Asian growing powerhouse is deadly serious about drawing foreign business.
The World Economic Forum’s East Asia meeting chose Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon, if you prefer) for its first event in a true emerging market. Organizers were expecting about 250 to 300 business people this week, but more than 400 came from across the world.
The government is out in force too. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung is everywhere, chatting up the opportunities. He wants Vietnam to be Asia’s manufacturing base of choice after China.
It’s a tall order, and at the moment Vietnam is seen as a production base for lower value-added goods like textiles, furniture or footwear.
But times are changing. Samsung and Canon are both investing heavily in electronics manufacturing and service bases. Most of the big Asian carmakers as well as Ford are producing for the local market with an eye on exports later down the line.
I met Tom Schneider, a German businessman who has just outlaid $12 million to build a tanning factory at an industrial park on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City.
Forthright and ebullient, Schneider’s built eight factories in Asia in the past 16 years. In Vietnam it took him just 22 months, from finding the land, building the factory, and training the workforce – his fastest project anywhere.
He now produces 80,000 hides a month, enough for about 1.5 million pairs of shoes. Timberland is his biggest customer.
And he’s quick to point out that although tanning is “environmentally hostile” his new plant is greener than his existing plant in China, which has received a silver medal standard for environmental protection from Timberland.
So why move to Vietnam? It’s cheaper. Labor costs are about 60 percent of China’s although senior management is still more expensive. The country is close to many of his key customers, and there’s little state intervention, as long he observes workplace and environmental standards.
And in the long run, Vietnam has key access to a vast and cheap labor pool across the borders of Cambodia and Laos.
It’s not all upside. Transport links are still – as Tom describes – at the same level as China in 1988. And the law is still open to interpretation (nearly all big foreign investors insist in any contract on having litigation settled in an offshore court).
Foreign investment is coming. In 2008 about $70 billion was committed to Vietnam, up more than threefold from five years year. It’s fallen back to $20 billion last year. Not surprising, though, given the global economic picture.
I asked the Prime Minister how he would describe Vietnam’s economic model.
Vietnam, he replied, is a socialist system embracing capitalism. Helping the poor get out of poverty through foreign investment is key to his planning, he says.
Like China, Vietnam’s government looks long-term. And like China, it appears to be achieving its economic goals.
13 comments:
It is not a new China but it will be China's new province. That is why another story said South VN was discovered by Chinese fisher men long before Khmer empire.
China needs more space for her 1.3 billion mouths.
Things may be twisted like a thunderstorm, and after all Ho Chi Minh is a real Chinese hero. Chinese or Viets were one family before and they will soon unite. Whatever Viets earned it will be part of China.
KI media,we are not Vietnam colony...don't degrade Khmer land! We are a member of the UN are we not?!
We keep watching this KI for the past few years. Many of readers circulating mail around and said that KI's members could be Yuon spies. Very often KI plays Hanoi's games. Why does it say our country is Yuon colony? Unless some Yion spies in KI try to scare us.
VN leader thinking:
if I pro to China I will lost the land to China and If I pro to United State I will lost Communist!!!
remember one day Vietnam will lost his land to China coz now China want to invade VN
China does not have to invade Vietnam by force, her people are now lead Vietnam. Almost every day the Viet fishermen're shot by the Chinese, and no Viet government can caugh.
FDI is considered as a major driving force of capital sources in the developing countries besides Aid. Lots of advantages can be brought by FDI such as technology transfer, stimulates domestic investment and also facilitates improvements in human capital and institutions. As shown in the VDO, FDI 2008 figure, Vietnam is significantly high while others were hit during economic recession. According to the report, after one year joining the WTO, Vietnam was the 6th largest country attracted FDI. Figure released in 2008 forum, Vietnam is only behind China, India, Russia, Brazil and the US in regard to Foreign investment.
Cambodia has recently been remarked with the increasing foreign investment mainly from neighboring countries. This could precisely explicate the existent of the positive institution laws/policies. Many against the raising outcome from such investments by mixing the economic integration progress with a national invasion.
Vietnamese spies on KI Media?
Sometimes I am really laughing about Khmer People.
Khmer People are still poor because MOST of them are lazy and do not work as hard as Chinese or Vietnamese Workers!
They are also missing discipline.
In Cambodia the Khmer are missing discipline for work and in the USA the Khmer are missing discipline so they are getting fat.
Why so many Khmer in USA are fat but not Vietnamese or Chinese People?
Why People from other countries looking down to Khmer and say they are stupid and dirty?
OF COURSE, NOT all Khmer like this.
But there is a reason why everywhere you can hear this.
Think about this!!
"...(nearly all big foreign investors insist in any contract on having litigation settled in an offshore court)."
=Tell me if the Vietnamese government can win the offshore court if they want to fuck with the investors!ahahhah
"Like China, Vietnam’s government looks long-term. And like China, it appears to be achieving its economic goals."
=How can Vietnam become powerful country if the Vietnamese going around copying the Chinese! Like I told you before and I will tell you again that without the Chinese influence the Vietnamese is just another Asian monkey!ahahhahhahah
Now you know why the Vietnamese women like Chinese men!
Vietnam is a republic of banana, it needs a lot of jobs for Yuons, Yuon companies will not come in Cambodia and Laos to create jobs for Cambodians and Laotians.
Only POLUTING and DANGEROUS Yuon companies come build their factories out of their country.
Fertilizer factory is one of them.
12:16PM! BECAUSE YOUR FATHER IS A MONKEY AND YOUR MOTHER IS A HOOKER!
aFTER LIGHNING STRIKE YOUR LEFT EYE YOU WILL BE CLEANR!
THINK BEFORE YOU FUCK YOUR MOTHER , ANIMAL!
I see alot of nay-sayer comments here... Anti-Capitolist... True too many American's are obese/fat/over-weight,, don't follow their direction,, most that are, are Union Workers/Federal Employee's/State Employee's/County & City Employee's/Teachers With'in Teachers Union.. Like Greece.. Were heading that way.. That's why I have started seeking employment with'in Vietnam... Have A Productive Day!!! almontybreshears@gmail.com
Vietnam is like a country of worm. When is their government taking the action of controlling their population?
The chinese are the are slaves of the western world. they have no creative mind, all they do is rely on western companies and technologies to survive. of course their contribution to the word is cheap labor hahaha slaves slaves slaves make more cheap iphones computers, and whatever good we need. the chinese sent thief around the world to steal industrial technology coz they are not capable come up with anything innovative.
Post a Comment