Comments on: Maneuvering Through Opportunities & Traffic in Vietnam

By: charles

charles — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 05:52:49 +0000

you may be surprised to know korea is the leading FDI (foreign direct investor) in vietnam. they have created many export mfg ops, and are the leading sellers of white goods and culture (hallyu wave~).
having said that, i think the biggest resource to harvest eventually will be its smart young people. we can already see the internet taking off in a big way, despite lack of PCs and crappy networks. what, 80+million folks..

anyway, the best way to invest…buy the land across the river from downtown..near the airport. this is considered far out of town today… all i can say is.. Remember Kangnam!

By: meetjohnsong

meetjohnsong — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:15:05 +0000

Charles,
Very interesting insights on the limiting educational system there. I guess developments there will have to be monitored moving forward.
I think there are two ways to invest in Vietnam. Traditionally, people think of developing business for the Vietnamese market. The other would be to leverage the natural resources (including labor) for rendering services, solutions or products for other markets. The later, I think, is less risky than the former.
Thanks for your comment.

John

By: charles

charles — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:04:39 +0000

john~
interesting observations. i have traveled throughout se asia extensively, and i would agree that these are the most diligent & brightest workers outside the big 3 in asia (ie, china, japan & korea).

and again as you rightly pointed out they have the most attractive demographics. 70% below 30, and 2/3 below 25! always an important ingredient in a successful economy.

however, the bottleneck- is clearly the education system. bright young students who want to learn have nowhere to go. the harvard foundation is there full-time working with the gov’t to try and improve the education system. unfortunately, you will see all the bright college kids have already started their own businesses. school does not satisfy these kids. i met a very interesting search engine start-up and they learned to code straight from english texts they studied themselves~ talk about entrepreneurial spirit!

well, lately with the crash of the stock & r.e. estate markets, and continued fears of dng de-valuation, is this the right time to invest~? another million dollar question~