Vietnam Business Visits Day 1

We had a full day of business visits today ranging from the US Consulate, HSBC Bank, and Harvey Nash, a company that has an outsourcing and business processing operation in Vietnam. We started out the day at the US Consulate meeting with Brian Rupert, the Economic Officer at the US Consulate. Brian shared his insights on Vietnam's current economy, the challenges they are facing, and what may hold for the future.

From Brian's perspective Vietnam has a growing economy but challenges such as inflation, currently at 19.8% and the fact that the Vietnamese economy is 50% held in cash (US dollars) and gold. The Vietnamese government's prioirity is to try and implement policies to control inflation. On a positive note Vietnam is very strong in trade, particularly with the US and they are currently the #2 rice and coffee exporter.

Vietnam is also a very young country with about 65% of the population under 35 years old. According to Brian the young Vietnamese are optimitistic about the future as they have seen vast improvements over the last few years. However, Vietnam is at a crossroads and has some serious issues with the current banking system, healthcare system, university system that need repairing if they are going to be able to sustain economic growth.

Interestingly, we heard some similar messages from Huynh Buu Quang from HSBC bank in Vietnam. HSBC has a long history with Vietnam and is currently the leading bank in Vietnam. From Quang's perspective Vietnam is also poised for economic growth but where Brian and Quang differ not surprisingly, is in their optimisism for the future. As a Vietnamese citizen Quang's is much more positive, while Brian, as a US-citizen living and working in Vietnam, he is cautiously optimisitic. It was an interesting contrast on a similar topic and I think Vietnam, even with their challenges will continue to be a country to watch and could be a challenge to China in the offshoring market.

We had quick stop for lunch between visits at the Vincom Center (very large, very expensive shopping mall). A few of us chose to check out American fast food in the food court. Carl's Jr. was actually pretty good, still fast food, but better than I expected.

Our last stop yesterday was at Harvey Nash, an international company that has established a large outsourcing and business process operation in Vietnam with offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Overall, it was a pretty impressive group. We toured several of their offices in e-town about 40 minutes outside the heart of Ho Chi Minh City. Although I am not as familiar with the services they offer, IT/software development and business process I could very much relate to their philosophy for working with customers. They believe strongly in forming a partnership with the client, working to create the team that is best going to meet that client's need, and then follow through with excellent execution. After hearing of some of their long-term relationships with clients and the shear number of clients they have, they have built a good business model centered around the customer.

I was also struck by the pride the Vietnamese people have for their work. Every person we spoke with at Harvey Nash was extremely proud of the work they are doing and their success as a company. Another indication that the Vietnamese people as a whole are very proud of who they are. Overall, everyone we have met so far has been very friendly and warm to us. We were even greated with cheers by the 2 groups of class trips that we encountered on our first day.

So, a full day again but filled with insights about the future of Vietnam from an economic perspective, including a visit to a business that is clearly succeeding in their economy and poised for further growth.

Not many picures from today, we weren't allowed cameras at the US Consulate, but on the way home from Harvey Nash we were stuck in rush hour traffic and saw seas of motor bikes and someone hauling a refridgerator on a motor bike. So I leave you with that picture for today. The pics are a little fuzzy since they were taken from a moving bus.