BY LOCALS, FOR LOCALS
2-3/2018
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EDITOR’S NOTE
By Locals, For Locals
BUSINES FEATURES 4. Vietnam’s Richest Business People 6. The Secret Lives of Drivers 8. Betting on Debt 12. The ABCs of English (Centres) 14. Can the Tax Man Tame E-Commerce? 18. Where Do Viet Kieu Fit In? 21. The +1 Mentality 22. Singapore-Vietnam Factsheet: The Lion Meets the Dragon 23. Netherlands-Vietnam Factsheet: The Dutch Connection 26. Saigon’s Best Coffee Shop Workplaces 28. The Ups and Downs of Vietnam’s Aviation Industry
MEET THE EXPERTS 16. Do You Buy It?: Marketing in Vietnam’s Digital Age 24. The Business Person Abroad: Creating a Company in Vietnam
SOCIETY FEATURE 29. Deadly Consequences: The Lack of Swimming Instruction in Vietnam
HEALTH FEATURE
When you hear the word “business”, what’s your gut reaction? Do you get excited, thinking about potential opportunities, or do your eyes glaze over, wondering how you can get to the next topic of conversation fastest? No matter how you relate to the world of finance, trade and the economy, it’s the monetary matrix that’s holding everything together. However, let’s not forget: it’s not the system itself that’s most important, but rather the people doing the work to keep it together and improve it in the future. And it’s these people we want to focus on in this edition. As Vietnam develops, the way we make money develops along with it. Just look at the rise of Facebook e-commerce, the proliferation of Grab and Uber driver careers, the abundance of English-language centres and the individual entrepreneurs working and thriving in the city. These are the people who will actually make the changes that we’ll experience in our day-to-day lives. Which is not to discount the macro scale. Vietnam’s news cycles are chock full of narratives touting new international trade deals, and the importance of strengthening foreign links. But which are the big players? We took a closer look at some of the most influential countries in Vietnam’s continual development. Which isn’t to discount the tremendous amount of work Vietnam has accomplished already. In 2018, Vietnam will no longer accept preferential official development assistance (ODA) loans from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and several other financial institutions. Loans will still be granted, but with 5 to 6 percent interest rates, rather than the previous amount of 2 to 3 percent. It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a telling sign that Vietnam is well on its way towards a more financially independent future. Best,
26. Healing a Nation: The Legacy of Agent Orange Keely Burkey
FOOD FEATURE 32. Vietnam’s Food Exports: High Output, Low Value
ENVIRONMENT FEATURE 36. Here Comes the Sun: Solar Power in Vietnam
TOURISM FEATURE 38. Goodbye, Bui Vien?
RECIPE OF THE MONTH 34. Tri-Coloured Noodle Hot Pot
RESTAURANT ADVERTORIAL 35. Making Tapas Sexy: Dining at Tomatito
EDUCATION ADVERTORIAL 37. AIS Opens its Doors
TRAVEL ADVERTORIAL 39. Choose Your Next Destination with 9Stays 2 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
HAVE FEEDBACK? CONTACT ME AT KEELY@INNOVO.VN CEO Patrick Gaveau Co-Owner Benjamin Giroux Executive Assistant & HR Manager Thao Dao General Accountant My Nguyen Content Manager Keely Burkey
Traffic Coordinator Huong Pham Marketing Coordinator Thomas Kervennic Digital Marketing Analyst Minh Tran Digital Marketing Assistant My Tran BD Manager Philippe Chambraud
Staff Writer Tran Thi Minh Hieu Sr. Writer Jesús López-Gomez Copyeditor Rob van Driesum Sr. Technical Officer Stefan Georg Sr. Developer Albus Ha
Sales Coordinators Sarah Pham Kieu Huynh Distribution Manager Tuan Nguyen Front Cover Øyvind Sveen Graphic Designer Tram Ky
E-NOVO CO., LTD 42/37 Hoang Dieu, District 4, HCMC | +84 28 3825 4316 | sales@innovo.vn
BUSINESS (nhiều tác giả)
Thanh Niên Publishing House 64 Ba Trieu - Hanoi - Vietnam | Tel: (+84 0 24) 3 943 40 44 - 62 63 1719 Publishing Liability: Director - Editor in Chief: Nguyen Xuan Truong | Editor: Ta Quang Huy License Info: Publishing Registration Plan No.: 48-2018/CXBIPH/123-03/TN Publishing Permit No.: 06/QĐ-TN | Issued on 12 January 2018 | ISBN: 978-604-64-9601-4 5,000 copies printed at HCMC Nhan Dan Newspaper Printing Co., Ltd (D20/532P, Hamlet 4, Binh Chanh District, HCMC) No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing from the publisher.
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This Month in #iAMHCMC
“I’ve always been interested in different cultures, in international relations, and [Vietnam] was the most difficult to understand.”
“If Uber and Grab stop doing business in Vietnam, many drivers like me would not know how to pay back the loans, and banks will face difficulties too.”
“Let’s say the contract has to give us until the 26th of June, so on the 25th at 11:45 p.m. we received confirmation that the rent had increased.”
Grab driver Duc, sharing his ideas about the importance of ride-sharing companies in the country.
Bar owner Steve Kinlough, noting the cutthroat real estate business practices he experienced.
Entrepreneur and business owner Jonas van Binsbergen, discussing why he was drawn to working in Vietnam.
“There is a right time to harvest the tea buds and bring them into processing.”
“The quality of most centres [is] not that good.”
Thang, a former employee of Vinatea JSC, describing the minute level of detail required to make quality tea for export.
Tuan Pham, Research Director at Asia Plus, noting the trend of English centres in the city.
“Don’t rely on what’s taught at school.” Digital marketer Paul Espinas, offering his advice for people pursuing a career in his field.
“No way. It’s just not realistic.”
“The Dutch and the Vietnamese get along quite well, because the Dutch are quite direct.”
“In the north there’s not as much sunlight.”
Dustin Daugherty, International Business Advisor at Dezan & Shira, giving his interpretation of the new e-commerce tax law.
Ngo Van Tau, Managing Partner of NWC Consulting, talking about the business relationship between Vietnam and the Netherlands.
Ocean Nguyen, Sales Executive of Red Sun Energy, when asked why the majority of solar power sales take place in Vietnam’s central and southern regions. 3
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BUSINESS FEATURE
by Tran Thi Minh Hieu
Vietnam’s Richest Business People How did Vietnam’s richest business people get where they are? Here are the biggest movers and shakers in Vietnam’s fast-growing business world.
Vietnamese people joke that half of our country must be billionaires, but just in dong. In US. dollars, the process has taken a bit longer. However, now Vietnam has not only one, but two billionaires, along with some other seriously wealthy individuals. Here are the heavy hitters you should keep an eye on.
Pham Nhat Vuong The founder and chairman of the giant conglomerate Vingroup, Pham Nhat Vuong is Vietnam’s first and richest billionaire. In 2013, Forbes named Vuong as the first Vietnamese billionaire with a net worth of US$1.5 billion. His current net worth, according to Forbes, is a whopping US$4.2 billion. Born in 1968 in Hanoi, Pham Nhat Vuong was able to secure a scholarship to study in Moscow. After graduation, he got married and moved to Ukraine with his wife. There, he started his first business, a Vietnamese restaurant. He began making instant noodles under the brand 4 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
Mivina, something completely novel to the taste of Ukrainians, and it became an immediate success. When he sold his noodle company, Technocom, to Nestle in 2009, it was making US$100 million a year. With the money from his business in Ukraine, Pham Nhat Vuong returned to Vietnam and invested in real estate, starting with Vinpearl Resort in Nha Trang in 2003, and Vincom Center Ba Trieu in Hanoi in 2004. Within a decade, Vietnam witnessed the rise of Vingroup as its largest and most efficient real estate developer. The conglomerate is now expanding into retail, logistics, agriculture, education automotive, hospitality and healthcare, making Pham Nhat Vuong the richest man in Vietnam.
2017 with a net worth of US$1.2 billion, after her budget airline, Vietjet Air, went public in February. She is the first self-made female billionaire in Southeast Asia, and remains in Forbes’ list of 100 most powerful women in the world. Her current net worth is US$2.3 billion. She also started her success with a scholarship to Moscow, and while still in university, she began trading consumer goods between the then Soviet Union and Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong, and made her first million dollars at 21.
Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao
Returning to Vietnam, she first invested in finance and real estate through Sovico Holdings, a company owned by herself and her husband. She was one of the founders of Techcombank and VIB, and is currently vice chairman of HDBank. Sovico Holdings also owns Furama Resort Danang and two other resorts in Khanh Hoa, and Ho Chi Minh City’s Dragon City project.
Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao was named Vietnam’s second billionaire by Forbes in March
However, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao is best known for being the CEO of Vietjet Air.
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She launched the airline in 2011 with a successful advertising campaign featuring bikini-clad flight attendants. It is the first private airline allowed to operate in Vietnam, and after five years it has gained 40 percent of the country’s flights.
Trinh Van Quyet A newcomer in the real estate scene in Vietnam, FLC Group’s chairman Trinh Van Quyet is in fierce competition with Pham Nhat Vuong for the number-one spot in the list of richest people on Vietnam’s stock exchanges. He started his first business, a tutor centre, while attending Hanoi Law University, and then moved to trading mobile phones. Upon graduating, he founded an investment consulting firm, which later became SMiC Law Firm in Hanoi, with offices in HCMC and Singapore.
FLC Group was established in 2010, and quickly made its name as an investor in many large-scale projects, such as its popular resorts in Sam Son, Thanh Hoa and Quy Nhon and Binh Dinh.
Tran Dinh Long Tran Dinh Long is the chairman of Hoa Phat Group, a conglomerate in the steel industry, and this earned him the nickname “King of Steel”. He is the third-richest person on Vietnam’s stock exchanges. He has been with Hoa Phat since the 1990s and turned it into one of the largest and most profitable companies in the steel industry, producing 21 percent of Vietnam’s steel market in 2016, according to the Vietnamese Steel Association. The company’s profit in 2016 was almost US$300 million.
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Doan Nguyen Duc Doan Nguyen Duc became one of the richest people in Vietnam around 10 years ago, when Hoang Anh Gia Lai was listed in 2008. In the same year, he bought the US$7.5 million Beechcraft King Air 350, realising his childhood dream of having a private airplane. He started a small business making students’ chairs and desks in 1990, after four failed attempts at entering a university. Hoang Anh Gia Lai JSC was established in 2006, as the business expanded into other industries such as minerals, hydropower, rubber, real estate and football. Since 2015, however, Hoang Anh Gia Lai has been facing losses and large debts, and and his company’s prices have fallen. Doan Nguyen Duc had to sell his shares, and now owns only 35 percent of the company.
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BUSINESS FEATURE
by Tran Thi Minh Hieu
The Secret Life of Drivers
Are ride-sharing programs like Grab and Uber irrevocably changing Vietnam’s talent pool? We talked to drivers in Hanoi to get their thoughts. Uber and Grab entered Vietnam just a few years ago, but they are increasingly popular among both users and drivers. As more people choose these services over regular taxis to take advantage of the frequent promotion codes and lower fares, more drivers also switch from their regular driving jobs to become Uber or Grab drivers, or both. Some are between jobs, some are starting their lives over, and some are looking for better means to provide for their families and save for the future.
Manh Studying IT at the Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Manh moved to Saigon to work for 15 years. A few years ago he quit his job to start a business selling electronics in installments, backed by a financial company. As the partnership went sour, Manh could no longer keep his business or his interest in starting a new one. 6 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
He blamed his business partner for betraying his trust, as well as himself: “I only looked at the profits in the short term, but could not see the risks in the long term.”
where Uber drivers often own their car, Duc said he and many other drivers in Vietnam have to take bank loans to pay for the car in installments.
After this loss, he decided to return home, hoping to find another job in his original field. However, finding an IT job has not been easy for someone at his age. While waiting for his ship to come in, he turned to Uber for a source of stable income.
“If Uber and Grab stop doing business in Vietnam, many drivers like me would not know how to pay back the loans, and banks will face difficulties too,” he said.
Duc Duc has been a driver for the past eight years. After finishing high school in his hometown in Nam Dinh, he came to Hanoi, learning to drive at the University of Fire Fighting. In the first year of his career, he drove for a taxi company. Then he worked as a driver for a pharmaceutical company, chauffeuring the director and even driving trucks. The switch, first to Uber, and then to Grab, came only recently, he explained, because of the better benefits and bonuses that these companies offer, compared to a regular driving job. However, unlike in developed countries
Duc hopes to keep working with Grab until he can finish paying the installments, and eventually, with enough money, he can buy a new car of his own, and continue driving to support his wife and himself when they get old.
Thien Thien is from Buon Me Thuot, Dak Lak Province. In his hometown he used to own a shop selling and repairing mobile phones, after learning his trade in Hanoi. One fateful night, some burglars took away everything in his store and in his life. He was devastated after losing about VND300 million and seeing no future, his wife also left him. That’s why when his uncle in Hanoi, who lost his daughter in a road accident, invited him
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piano. But he learned his trade from people who did the same thing and he talked about it with passion. He even gives passengers tips on where to buy a good, inexpensive old piano. “Learning to play an instrument gives you pleasure in life,” he said. “You don’t have to invest too much time in it to be able to enjoy it. Just 10 minutes a day is enough.”
Hien It may be unusual to meet a female Uber driver, but Hien is a single mother, after her husband died in a mining accident when their son was less than a year old. She had lived with her son in Saigon ever since, and only returned to Hanoi for a few months to try to sell their old house. Uber provided her with the option of an immediate temporary job. As she didn’t know Hanoi’s streets very well, and GPS sometimes could not show the exact address or direction, she kept asking if she was going the right way. This is something our male drivers would never do; some would even be willing to argue with their customers over which way is right. She also keeps bottles of water in the car, insisting that passengers drink because “it’s good for your health”. *Names have been changed.
to come and stay for good, Thien agreed. He and a cousin shared the money to buy a car in installments, and take turns driving it. Having no friends in the city, on the days that he doesn’t work, he stays at home sleeping or goes to a cafe by himself. He has no intention of returning to his old way of life, fixing phones all day. Driving allows him to get outside and interact with people, especially as he is new to the city and trying to rebuild his life from the ashes.
Tho Tho’s part-time job is driving. His full-time job is repairing pianos. He even has his own advertisement for his piano repairing service inside the car. His website is called Kythuatvienpiano.com. His market is niche, and it’s not every day that someone would come to him with a broken
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BUSINESS FEATURE
by Keely Burkey
picture by Jesús López-Gomez
Betting on Debt Quick money, promised by consumer finance companies, has been appealing to Vietnamese consumers. But what happens when it turns into nationwide bad debt? When Jonas van Binsbergen first decided to found his own coffee company in Vietnam, there was one thing he knew he didn’t want to do: borrow money from a bank. It wasn’t so much a fact that he was doing business in Vietnam, but rather that he was doing business in general. “Especially for entrepreneurs, not having a loan means that you’re free in how you can spend your time, how you want to make your own decisions, what you want to do,” he said. If you take out a loan, “maybe you also become, in a way, more dependent.” Van Binsbergen attributes this business decision to a byproduct of coming of age in the heart of the financial crisis of 2007/2008. Though he was never personally affected by the debt crisis, he “heard a lot of stories”. Today, he has opened five of his Shalom coffee shops in Ho Chi Minh City, starting in District 2 and slowly expanding outward when he had enough capital to do so. 8 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
It’s the control he values most, and it’s just this control slowly slipping away from many private consumers in Vietnam.
Vietnam’s long-awaited entry meant good things for international trade, it also profoundly affected the country’s financial environment domestically.
Following the Ups and Downs
“A lot of these consumer finance companies came in, and [they would lend] anything from US$1,500 to US$3,000 if you want to buy a new bike, or whatever else,” he said. “So I think that sort of spawned it.”
The fact that van Binsbergen never borrowed money from the bank does not mean that he never borrowed money at all. Instead of dipping into a professional institution, the business owner preferred to borrow money from friends and family. “We did this in the past and we paid that back, and I think for Vietnamese business owners this is very OK,” he said. Today, personal finances have taken a more systematised approach. For Ralf Matthaes, Managing Director of consumer research company Infocus Mekong Research, the change happened in 2007 and 2008, smack dab in the middle of both the financial crisis and Vietnam’s entry into the WTO. While
The largest of these companies, Home Credit Vietnam, came from the Czech Republic and set up camp in Vietnam in 2009. Other notable companies include FE Credit (a branch of the Vietnamese VP Bank, established in 2010); SHA (in cooperation with SHB, established in 2006); and Prudential Vietnam Finance (UK, established in 2007). All advertise quick, professional service and money delivered fast. Independent lending houses have sprung up alongside a spate of financial institutions
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developed within both state-owned banks (BIDV and Vietinbank are big players) and commercial banks (Sacombank and ACB also have a part of the action)—a necessity as regulations stipulate that only certified finance companies are allowed to carry out consumer credit activities. Today Vietnamese consumers use these companies to borrow money of wildly varying amounts, and the number of customers is increasing every year. According to a market report by StoxPlus, a “robust surge” of 18 percent occurred in 2014, while the market increased 44.1 percent in 2015. Loan balances shot up alongside: US$10.5 billion in December 2014, and US$15.12 billion at the end of the next year.
Whether these loans will eventually lead to outstanding debts is another issue entirely. According to the same report, in 2016 the outstanding loan balance reached US$26.65 billion, 11.4 percent of the total loan value in Vietnam. While outstanding loans might not necessarily mean they are bad debts, it does point in a troubling direction—one that might potentially affect the current, official, very low non-performing loan (NPL) rate of under 3 percent. Though the number looks manageable, many experts believe the lack of transparency in the system, as well as a changing definition of what an NPL actually is, means that the number could actually be much higher. After experiencing a 17.2 percent official NPL rate in 2012, during the height of Vietnam’s own
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banking and real-estate crisis, encouraging faith in the financial system has been hard-fought, but also recently won.
The Catch-22 “We’ve been working with some of the banks recently, and the portfolio of products that they have is really quite astounding, what’s happened over the past 10 years,” Matthaes said. His own research company has recently focussed on mobile banking trends of 2017, and according to his numbers, the outlook for an increased presence of banking in digital form is good, and perhaps the key for companies looking to invest in consumer financing in the future. The Ministry of Finance has worked to encourage the bank account adoption for
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Depending on how late a payment is, the customer slowly travels down the tier, with opportunities to renew the loan under different terms depending on multiple factors. By level five, the loan is considered an NPL, though this doesn’t guarantee that the bank will sue the individual for defaulting on the payments; property seizure is considered a last resort. “There’s not enough transparency in the system to understand what is considered a bad loan and what isn’t,” Matthaes said. “I think it just gets shuffled around.” During Pham’s experience at ACB, one of the few banks in Vietnam that has an in-house valuation department, real estate collateral is usually used to insure a loan, typically for larger loans.
For smaller loans, between US$1,000 to US$3,000, and for people who do not own property, the system becomes a bit more nebulous—these smaller loans are exactly the ones that have been rising in popularity. Picture by Jesús López-Gomez
decades. From 2010 to 2012, interest rates soared from 8 percent to 15 percent, topping at the height of the financial crisis. Just as suddenly, they dropped precipitously down to 6.5 percent in 2015. Today, 6.25 is the average, a cut made in July 2017 despite advice by the International Monetary Fund to keep the rate where it was; the State Bank of Vietnam defended the decision, saying it would boost the economy and raise the GDP closer to the 6.7 percent targeted for 2017. Offering loans and providing credit is not in itself bad, or inherently bad for an economy; even debt, at least what is termed “good debt” (investment that will likely lead to capital gains in the future, such as a loan for a university degree or for a house to put up for lease), can actually strengthen an economy.
For Vietnam, in the past few years, the trouble has come from grey areas surrounding the lending system. “There’s a catch-22,” Matthaes said. “What is considered a bad loan? There aren’t clear bankruptcy laws, and the financial institutions 10 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
aren’t [in] positions or don’t have the resources to actually be able to collect the bad debt. So what they do is extend your loan and lower your interest rate, so they can get their money back.” Vietnamese law does reference alternative loan repayment, though the terms are vague. Sales of secured properties are committed, either through an auction centre or a “qualified enterprise”, which has set auctioning as its business line; the properties go to the lender once the value of the property is determined, though by all accounts this procedure rarely happens. Even rarer is declaring for bankruptcy, so much so that no system for financial reorganisation is in place. Huong Pham, a former employee of ACB who spent five years in the organisation’s valuation department, said that the financial system depends on a five-tiered system called nhóm nợ (group debt), organised by an overarching Credit Information Centre (CIC), launched in 1992 and controlled by SBV. Today the system is used by all banks in Vietnam, commercial and state-owned alike.
According to Matthaes’s recent debt survey done across Vietnam, 4 out of 10 urban dwellers have taken out a loan in the past year. A staggering 42 percent listed the reason as “personal”, a broad category that includes everything from vacations to new computers to upgraded smartphones. Further, 30 percent used the loan for real estate, 32 percent for business, 6 percent for automotive payments and 10 percent for education. “Obviously that doesn’t add up to 100 percent,” Matthaes noted. “It adds up to more, but that’s because people are taking out multiple loans a year.” With most loans supporting personal products that won’t lead to income in the future, if the customer defaults on the loan, this automatically becomes bad debt. Matthaes does not see it as a potential problem for the country, but rather as a necessary step as the economy continues to develop. “Everybody has to go through it,” he said. “Thailand went through it, Indonesia went through it. In many ways, I think Vietnam is ahead of the curve, simply because the people are more industrious.”
BUSINESS FEATURE
Money Management As lending practices grow and become more legitimised in daily life, and digital devices become expected parts for every urbanist, money management has become a priority for some. For Cong Le, COO of the popular app Money Lover, the creation of the account-management system was born not out of opportunity but necessity. “[Founder Ngo Xuan Huy] created the app as a personal solution, for his own reasons. He wanted to control how much he spent, his cash flow, and he couldn’t find a product on the market that did it well and simply. He wanted an app, and he could only find systems online,” Le told us. Created in 2012, the free app—it also comes with a premium version available for a monthly fee—is an intuitive system that allows customers to log purchases and deposits. By labelling the reason for each expense, the program creates a
personal pie chart, and makes suggestions on overspending or budgeting. If a personal goal has been set, the app will alert the user when spending becomes untenable. The app was voted the Best App of 2017 by Google Play, and currently has 1 million active users in Vietnam. Le said the popularity has spread abroad, mainly to the United States. Currently, the Money Lover team plans to push marketing in neighbouring Southeast Asian countries, such as Malaysia and Cambodia. Le said the app currently doesn’t work with banks, though the company is in the process of developing connections with two at the moment. He declined to specify which.
“Right now, you can only manage personal finances in cash [with the app], but when we work with banks, we can manage credit money and loans,” he said. Developing in tandem with banks in Vietnam is a major priority for Le’s team. “We’ll
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redesign the product, which will help banks provide tools for customers, and help them make loan recommendations.” Le himself says he’s never taken out a loan. Asked if he only uses cash and a debit card, he said, “I have a credit card. I like it, I can just pay for it when I get paid every month.” The benefits for credit cards are high, though Le notes that many Vietnamese don’t have them yet, simply because the requirements for approval require larger salaries than many workers have at the moment. This is likely to change in the next year. In October 2017, Korean giant Lotte announced intentions to introduce its Lotte Card to the Vietnamese market in partnership with Techcombank. FE Credit has also been pushing a credit card service. “Vietnam has gone from a cash country to a debit country to a credit country to a debt country in 10 years,” Matthaes said.
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BUSINESS FEATURE
by Jesús López-Gomez
The ABCs of English (Centres) Are we experiencing English centre overload? Are there too many English schools in Saigon? For those who’ve studied learner preferences, the research seems to point to market saturation. “I would say that we have too many English centres in Saigon,” Tuan Pham, research director at market research firm Asia Plus, wrote in an email interview.
The Most Effective Way to Learn? Asia Plus’s market research company Q&Me conducted a study in 2015 on English learners in Ho Chi Minh City titled “English study practices in Vietnam: Usage of online for 12 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
the efficient and affordable study”. While the research doesn’t deal directly with the question of whether Saigon has reached saturation for English centres, it contains a novel insight into how local Vietnamese are learning the language: it shows classroom instruction is not the most popular or effective way to learn. Exactly half of the 403 students polled in Q&Me’s research opted to learn English over a smartphone application. Less than a third, 29 percent, of learners chose to learn English through a language school, an option that polled slightly less popular than online lessons, YouTube and books.
Q&Me’s researchers determined that communicating directly with someone in English was the best way to acquire the language, but only 10 percent of respondents chose that as their preferred way to learn English. Curiously, improving speaking was reported as the number one goal, not something you can do on DuoLingo or a similar app as specified by the students polled. Pham said that beginner students, who tend to rely on apps more, are overrepresented in the study. More experienced learners have “come to understand direction communication is a must, and they’ve pinpointed speaking [as] their
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most desired skill,” he said. “Apps [...] have [proven] to produce low performance and have been dropped by experienced learners.” But that doesn’t make English schools an obvious choice for learners. Pham said the demand for native English speakers has engendered an environment where schools are proliferating unnecessarily. “The quality of most centres [is] not that good,” he said plainly.
Branching Out It’s for this reason that language service English Star’s founder Son Le sits in on his teacher’s first lessons. “Sometimes, I learn together with the students,” he said. “I like to see how teachers teach my students, and I can see if a teacher is good or not good.” Le started English Star in October. His organisation—a network of travelling teachers who meet students rather than a physical school—has five foreign teachers who teach 40 students throughout the city. The question of whether there are too many English centres in Saigon is in some ways irrelevant to Le: he started English Star with the intention of building expertise and staff to start a school in Can Gio District, the southernmost area of Ho Chi Minh City, where Le was raised.
“My dream is I want to have school [sic] in Can Gio District,” he said. “I want students there meet foreigner [sic].”
Le himself is an autodidact in English. He used newspapers and, yes, smartphone apps to learn the language. He said Google Translate has been a game-changer for him as an English learner. It’s been his experience that students have to take it upon themselves to learn the language, that their effort plays as much if not more of a role in determining their success in the language. Le said a lack of student initiative can undermine even a great teacher or lesson. An ineffective English school is just a revenuemaking machine. English courses are a not insignificant part of a Saigonese’s budget. Le said he tried to price his services with that in mind. A teacher from English Star can be rented at a flat rate of VND500,000 per hour regardless of class size. Le said an average student or student group pays around VND2 million per month for his language services. Le estimated a student would pay at least double this rate at a competing English centre. Le could conceivably raise his prices with little impact on his business. According to Q&Me’s research, cost was not among the top concerns for the English learners surveyed.
Getting Conversational Curriculum variety and reputation were the third- and second-most popular choices for respondents when asked what the most important element in choosing a school was.
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The number one consideration was the availability of native speakers. Because speaking was ranked as English learners’ most desired ability, “this is where the demand for [...] native English teachers comes from,” Pham said.
“In order to pursue higher education or to earn better-paid jobs they’ve come to understand direct communication is a must, and they’ve pinpointed speaking to be the most desired skill,” he said. Q&Me’s research was conducted in 2015, but Pham said he expected the students’ preferences and study habits to be generally the same now. Indeed, Nguyen Minh Tri, a Saigon University student, groused to Tuoi Tre about his school’s lack of opportunities to practise conversation. “Two English lessons per week and too many students in a class do not allow us to practise,” he told the newspaper. Tri’s comments appeared in coverage related to the country’s risk of falling short of getting all graduating students to a CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) B1 level. Teachers who have to help bring this standard to fruition have said it’s not feasible. The teachers’ protests underscore how critical English is in the professional life of a Vietnamese worker. “English is now considered a must-have skill for every [student] and office worker in big cities,” Pham said. 13
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BUSINESS FEATURE
Can the Tax Man Tame
E-Commerce?
by Jesús López-Gomez
expanding into Vietnam—Daugherty spoke from his experience working with Vietnam’s tax authorities. He said the tax move might be a mere paper tiger until there are clearer rules for violation and enforcement. It may seem overly ambitious, but Daugherty said that’s a common strategy for how successful legislation is built. “That’s actually how most of those laws work,” Daugherty said. He outlined a legislative process in which the tax law for social mediabased sellers will undergo further refinement in which the National Assembly “provides further guidance for how this is supposed to work” now that the intention to tax these vendors has been made publicly. Daugherty said this was the case with other major tax changes that have been authored, so expect a “several year lag”. Daugherty said Vietnam’s tax authorities have selected an especially difficult challenge, one that still poses huge difficulties for even more well-resourced countries. “Even a rich country has difficulty taxing informal [person-to-person, cash] sales,” he said.
Looking Under the Couch for Change The push for more aggressive taxation comes at a time when Vietnam’s authorities are looking for new revenues.
Vietnamese authorities have been vocal about the need to tax and regulate e-commerce. But can it happen under the existing conditions? For Vietnam to bring vendors on social media into tax compliance, it would need a robust, tech-savvy network of enforcers and cooperation from the technology platforms that enable them. In short, it would need a lot of things that don’t exist yet.
bill of about US$400,000. But setting the celebrated victory aside, absent further guidance and stronger tools to compel enforcement, law experts like Dustin Daugherty, international business advisor with Dezan Shira & Associates, don’t see a way forward for the tax law.
Vietnamese tax officials made waves in July when they announced they would begin pursuing payments from vendors selling their wares and services on social media. About 30,000 of them have been served with demands for payment. The tax authorities racked a massive victory in December when they reportedly served one vendor with a tax
“No way. It’s just not realistic,” Daugherty said summing up his take on the new tax law.
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Although Dezan Shira & Associates aren’t directly involved in advising or representing the parties affected by this change—their clients are generally international conglomerates
In August of last year, the Ministry of Finance proposed a raft of tax hikes and fee increases, including a move to raise the VAT from 10 percent to 12 percent in 2019. VAT represents over a quarter of the nation’s revenues. Ministry officials also proposed a 15 percent CIT (Corporate Income Tax) for businesses generating less than US$132,000 annually and 17 percent for businesses earning between US$132,000 and US$2.2 million. Domestic tax collections grew to 68 percent of total government revenue in a five-year period ending in 2015. “The root of the problem is clear,” Vietnam.net finance writers opined in November citing the Vietnamese government debt’s steady climb to 64.7 percent of GDP. Vietnam’s law caps the government debt at 65 percent of GDP.
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Paperless Transactions Seeing how much the e-commerce market has grown in the last few years, it’s easy to see how the market has become an attractive target for the nation’s tax authorities. Nearly a quarter of the nation’s population are engaged in buying or selling activities online, according to market research firm Nielsen. That’s expected to grow to 30 percent of the population by 2020.
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regulations—“something went wrong in their relationship with someone,” he speculated— but the episode is still illustrative to Vietnam’s growing potency in enforcing taxation. Exhibit B: the US$2.34 million that tax authorities are collecting from Uber.
In September, the department ordered Uber to pay VND66.7 billion in unpaid taxes.
Even with the ride-hailing firm going so far as to resist collection by unsuccessfully seeking a court injunction, Ho Chi Minh City’s tax department moved forward with a push to bring Uber into compliance with the nation’s tax law.
Still, “It’s a government agency, it doesn’t have all the funds in the world, not the most tech savvy people. I don’t know how realistic it is,” Daugherty said. “They’re trying to figure this out,” he said.
Both the growing interest in taxing social media companies—and apparent early successes in that area—and the victory against Uber show an emerging acumen.
The overall e-commerce market is expected to double from its current size to US$10 billion in 2020. Sales to Facebook’s 35 million users in Vietnam were the first transactions to be targeted by this move. Authorities hope to move on to taxing vendors on Instagram, YouTube and Zalo. Authorities believe one million of these users are engaged in buying or selling items on Facebook without paying taxes. Currently, online retailers are required to obtain permits and collect a half percent income tax and one percent value-added tax on sales of more than VND100 million, or US$4,400, per year. Until a robust, active tax system can be developed, sellers are urged to report their transactions voluntarily. The sales can be hard to track given that many occur in cash and can be delivered by courier. Proper documentation to support taxation can be hard to come by. “Most online businesses using social network sites such as Facebook do not issue invoices, which has prevented authorities from overseeing their business activities,” former Ministry of Finance official Dr Ngo Tri Long told Vietnam.net in November.
Even a Paper Tiger Has Teeth But threat of enforcement may be enough to compel some of the country’s vendors to come forward. Daugherty added the country’s tax authorities may be able to “scare some people” into paying. Dezan Shira & Associates’ Daugherty said that a company’s capitulation probably has to do with more than just the new tax 15
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BUSINESS FEATURE
Questions by Keely Burkey, Answers by Paul Espinas
Do You Buy It?:
Marketing in Vietnam’s Digital Age
Paul Espinas, marketing wunderkind, has done a lot in his 28 years: former head of marketing for VietnamWorks and cofounder of two apps including TicketBox, digital marketing is his forte. A lot of what you do focuses on the digital sphere. Are there still opportunities to market successfully on non-digital platforms?
For me, marketing is marketing. Online and offline are just means or platforms for me. At the end of the day, a brand is all about a promise and performance. And marketing’s job is to make that promise so appealing that customers engage with the brand. With regards to whether using solely online or offline or a hybrid of the two, again it’s about the product, the market and, of course, the resources the marketing team has. Many marketers, I guess, will relate to the fact that we don’t have unlimited resources. So one of the key skills for a senior marketer is to be able to identify which channels or platforms will best serve their brand goals. 16 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
I believe that businesses who are following a B2B model lean towards more offline marketing investment like events and activations where they can directly have a person-to-person touchpoint with the audience. But then again, as I said, it really depends on the product, market and budget, among many other things. Are there any digital technologies currently being developed that you’re excited to market with? How do you think digital marketing will change in the next year or two?
Digital technologies on virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are what I’m really excited about. I think it’s a completely different league, although challenges on the hardware side might limit mass access of a full-on VR experience. Big players like Apple are investing on mixed reality (MR) and AR, so I believe the next trend of marketing campaigns will be in this field. Here in Vietnam, however, there are still a lot of opportunities untapped in terms of the possibilities on video ads and the mobile ecosystem.
How do you communicate effectively with a millennial audience? What do they want to hear, and what pushes them away?
Communicating to millennials for me is all about a conversational approach. This, I believe, is the impact of more personal screens like our mobile phones and laptops, which this generation is accustomed to. Hence, we call them the digital natives. We say in marketing that the type of content we publish will also depend on the type of screen it will be placed on. Less personal skills like billboards or digital out-of-home (OOH) placements, which use more “announcement” type of content, while personal screens like our mobile phones use a more conversational approach. Millennials have a “Me, Me, Me” approach to the way they behave in the online ecosystem. Hence the birth of selfie and all those other apps and product features showcasing none other than “ME”. This I believe translates to an approach in content writing where the reader, millennials in this case, can immediately relate to the subject. They have short attention
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spans and they get shorter every year. So what they see, hear and experience in the first five seconds is crucial. The news is now talking about Generation Z, the younger generation after millennials. How does this younger generation differ from millennials in terms of optimal marketing strategies?
Generation Z is a target market for me, that will materialise a 100 percent digital-only funnel. This generation is so used to using and engaging through gadgets that the need for a phone call or a meeting with a sales rep won’t be needed as much as with previous generations. This, however, poses a great challenge not only to marketers but product owners on how to make their websites or apps at their optimal level of UX/UI [user experience/user interface]. This also implies that marketers need to be, more than ever, digital savvy. Engagement is a big issue in digital marketing. What incentives (emotional or physical) are necessary to drive up engagement, and how does this potentially translate to ROI?
So in my previous answers, I tapped product, placement, price... I guess this question falls under promotion. So we completed the basic 4Ps. Not the pizza! Promotion is part of the framing strategy in marketing. A campaign may or may not have it; it depends on how it will, as you said, engage users. Now there are different levels of engagement. One of the most basic and frequently used interpretation of this is Social Media Engagement, because Facebook labelled it as such and it is easily trackable. Engagement can also be a simple ad click by your audience or it can be an actual conversation you had with the audience on the forum
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discussion panel. So it varies. What’s important is a positive touchpoint between the audience and the brand. And again, with or without incentives or promotions. Big brands like LV, Ferrari and all these top tier brands never use discounts as a promotion strategy, for example, because it goes against their brand positioning. Group buying sites, like NhomMua or HotDeal use it on a regular basis because they use low prices to initiate sales. As to how engagement converts into an actual ROI, I suggest that brands should build a proper funnel. From awareness to revenue and to repeat purchases. And this is not only a marketing job—sales and other senior leaders should be involved in this process. Your biggest advice for anyone trying to get into the digital marketing game?
For those folks wanting a career in digital marketing: don’t rely on what’s taught at school. This industry is very exciting but whatever we do today can be completely irrelevant tomorrow as technology and user behaviour change so quickly. Having said that, the possibilities of discovering and pioneering new things in this field are massive. Don’t try to do what’s already done. The rapid changes in the industry also mean opportunities for new bloods and the old to create and innovate new ways of communicating brand promise to your audience, be it digital or on another platform. 17
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BUSINESS FEATURE
by Jesús López-Gomez
Where Do Viet Kieu Fit In? Vietnam’s talent pool is changing. Is the job market ready for it? Julie Huynh, marketing and operations manager at Ho Chi Minh City-based bespoke tailor Rita Phil, has had a few experiences that remind her she’s not in Los Angeles anymore. Speaking to #iAMHCMC, she said one that stands out to her was working with a local photographer. Huynh has worked with photographers in the US in the past, and the interaction there usually begins with a contract and a discussion of the fee. But “photographers here [say] ‘oh, we’ll give you a good deal,’ ” Huynh said. 18 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
“I’m still learning to finesse that.” While she speaks Vietnamese well enough, “I still have a very Western attitude. I’ve been told I’m too aggressive,” a remark she said was more about her role as a foreigner in Vietnam than being a woman. She said Viet Kieu of both genders have to tread lightly here.
Untapped potential Huynh moved to Vietnam to join her sister at her a couture garment firm she founded, called Rita Phil. Huynh, a California-educated Vietnamese professional who was at that time working at an accountancy firm, made the leap to Vietnam in 2015.
Why? “It just seemed like the right time. I just wanted something different in my life,” she said, adding her mum and sister already lived in Vietnam. Nguyen Phuong Mai, managing director for executive recruitment firm Navigos Search, said family is a commonly reported reason for Viet Kieus coming to Vietnam. Those who make the journey also express an interest Vietnam’s nature and a love of Vietnamese food. There are around five million Vietnamese overseas, according to the World Bank. In 2015, the Communist Party reported around 12,000 Viet Kieu—or “overseas Vietnamese”—had come to Ho Chi Minh
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City to either relocate permanently or to live as long-term residents.
Rita Phil employees who’ve moved in from other firms with a more culturally Vietnamese setting.
This may only be a fraction of the potential size of this community. Recruitment firm Robert Walters conducted a survey in which 70 percent of overseas Vietnamese professionals expressed an interest in returning.
“It’s a culture where you have to save face,” she said. For example, “if you have an argument with a coworker, [traditional Vietnamese employees] don’t want to engage [in] that at all.”
The top reasons for returning were caring for ageing parents, a perceived ability to earn a higher salary in Vietnam and a love of Vietnamese culture. The top factors overseas Vietnamese look at in evaluating a return was a suitably high salary in comparison to local rates, a clear career path forward and flexible work arrangements. However, Nguyen said micromanagement was one of the biggest fears the Viet Kieu have expressed to her in coming to work in Vietnam. Their biggest fear is “empowerment”, Nguyen said. “They’re afraid of [a] micromanagement style.” A Western-educated employee has been invited to have a critical role and look for opportunities to innovate. So, she advised companies that want to successfully recruit and retain the overseas Vietnamese to offer recruits roles with a high degree of agency and self-determination. Like the Western classroom they come from, a Viet Kieu educated abroad will expect to have their questions and criticisms heard, something that may not be welcome in a more traditional setting. Huynh said she’s seen that with new
Rather than trying to make her employees more like her, Huynh described a process in which a middle ground is negotiated between her Western training and the Vietnamese staff she oversees. For example, Rita Phil’s work schedule does not permit afternoon naps as some Vietnamese staff enjoy elsewhere, but she is working with her staff to decide the right length of time for their Tet holiday vacation.
“That’s an example of us transitioning and adapting,” she said. “When the Viet Kieu [perform] under the Vietnamese culture better, we can adapt our perspective better.”
The Three Kinds
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Julie Huynh
Tran did. In 2010, he started eSilicon Vietnam, a semiconductor producer that Nguyen said was originally started with a group of 20 engineers. The US investors who acquired it a year later acquired a successful firm that had grown to a 100-person staff, Nguyen said. The third are highly qualified professionals who move to Vietnam and are installed in leadership positions at local firms, as Nguyen has as head of Navigos Search. Online publication Vietcetera profiled Crystal Lam, a University of Chicagoeducated Vietnamese woman who is currently managing director of lumber retailer Vinawood.
Returning Viet Kieu broadly fall into three categories. The first is what Nikkei Asian Review in 2016 called “pilot” actors helping foreign companies expand into Vietnam, such as Henry Nguyen, the prime minister’s son-in-law and McDonald’s first franchise partner.
Huynh’s role as one member of Rita Phil’s leadership team doesn’t excuse her from performing some of the business’s toughest work. “We’re still just a start-up,” she said, adding the business has been able to expand globally—her responsibilities are specifically the US, Australia, Canada and United Kingdom markets. The company has done so on a lean staff you could count on two hands.
The second are entrepreneurial actors who enter Vietnam and build something new, as Duytan
So, “any great idea you do have... you have to do it yourself,” Huynh said, laughing.
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BUSINESS FEATURE
Picture by Jesús López-Gomez
In the Office as in the Classroom Vietnamese living abroad to who come to Vietnam have a complicated relationship with their work environment almost immediately. For one, corporate structures in Vietnam tend to be more top down and hierarchical, according to Nguyen. She said Vietnamese management expects more deference from their employees and adherence on the agreed-to goals. It’s a reflection of the typical Vietnamese classroom where rote memorisation and lecture-style instruction are the mainstays of the educational philosophy.
the other big bugbear for Vietnamese who are recruited overseas is the local business culture’s tendency to mix emotions and business. It’s a conflation that a Western-educated worker steeped in a work culture with a heavy emphasis in meritocracy may bristle at.
Here, “people treasure [the] relationship,” Nguyen said. “Many Vietnamese companies here, they let the relationship or personal feelings get in” to their business dealings. Those entering the local business scene “need to be more aware of that.”
“We Need a Viet Kieu”
Because colouring outside the metaphorical lines or giving anything other than the backof-the-book answer in school would earn a Vietnamese reprimand or even punishment in a school setting, the work environment that students move into after schools tends to hew very rigorously to standardards and authority, Nguyen said.
By law, only if a company can’t find the necessary talent at the local level can they expand their search. Nguyen said companies said Viet Kieu are usually among the last candidates to be looked at, although she has in the past worked with clients who’ve specifically asked for a position to be filled by a Vietnamese abroad.
Management can feel empowered—and often is, if not officially then implicitly—to tightly manage staff. This, Nguyen said, was a key concern for Vietnamese abroad thinking of making the move to Vietnam. Nguyen said
“We’ve seen that. Companies will say, ‘We need a Viet Kieu,’” Nguyen said. These are roles where the experience of a business person living abroad while also having an understanding of Vietnamese culture are needed.
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“It’s better still if they can speak Vietnamese,” she said. For companies that are recruiting a leader who will themselves recruit and build a new department within the company, a Viet Kieu is preferred, Nguyen said.
Nguyen said it can take maybe two years for local Vietnamese to see a returning Viet Kieu as one of them. Until then, they’re just another Westerner. That’s usually the proper amount of vetting time a Viet Kieu would need to see if their life in Vietnam has legs, Nguyen said. Those who come have many reasons for living here, but after a year or two, those who have settled here either do so permanently or find a stopping point for this chapter in their lives. Huynh spoke to #iAMHCMC having recently decided to extend her stay in Vietnam another two or three years. Professionally, “I’m not really giving up […] anything.” “People [who want to] make the jump to come [...] that’s what they think,” she said. “I’m following a path I wasn’t sure I wanted,” Huynh said. “Vietnam is obviously growing. The economy is getting better. I think it’s prime time for Vietnam.”
BUSINESS FEATURE
by Maxfield Brown, Dezan & Shira Vietnam
#iAMHCMC
Vietnam, unlike China which has historically used its low wages and large size to boost export competitiveness, has a wide network of trade agreements extending to key import markets across the globe.
The +1 Mentality Setting up a production hub in Vietnam after securing a manufacturing base in China is the new trend in international business. Here’s what it means for our market. Foreign companies outsourcing operations to reduce costs and improve market share is nothing new. The only things that seem to change are the companies changing the way that operations are relocated, and the countries that manage to attract capital inflows. Among nations competing for investment over the last decade, Vietnam has rapidly emerged as a highly effective location for future relocation in Southeast Asia. Capitalising on rising costs and increasingly complex regulatory compliance requirements in neighbouring China—the former “factory of the world”—the Vietnamese government’s accession to the WTO, competitive costs and receptive investment environment have made it a the ideal location for Chinese-based investors seeking to reduce costs and diversify supply chains.
China is not out of the picture altogether. Foreign investors and domestic Chinese companies largely view China’s production capabilities in a favourable light and place a considerable value on its deep talent pools, top-tier infrastructure network and excellent sourcing options. Instead of abandoning the
Chinese market, investors are choosing to supplement Chinese operations with low-cost inputs sourced from production facilities in markets such as Vietnam. While the structures of these operations differ greatly depending on the country in question, this production model has become widely known as China+1.
Vietnamese Competitiveness and China+1 Production Vietnam’s close proximity to China, competitively priced labour and a strong network of trade agreements have proven critical to its competitiveness as a China+1 destination. Cities such as Hai Phong are just 865km away from China’s manufacturing hub of Shenzhen. While a considerable journey, this is much closer than alternatives such as Jakarta (3,300km), Bangkok (2,750km) or Kuala Lumpur (3,025km). By situating manufacturing cost centres close to traditional hubs in mainland China, investors are able to reduce costs with limited interruption or delays to currently existing supply chains. Foreign investors pursuing China+1 also generally benefit from cost reductions on wages, land pricing and inputs. Vietnam again stands out in this respect, offering investors a minimum wage 59 percent of that found in China and 70 percent of that in Thailand. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Vietnam’s network of trade agreements is among the best that manufacturers will be able to find in a country at this point on the value chain.
Among this network are trade agreements with Korea and the European Union, as well as upcoming agreements with the European Union and, should everything go according to plan, members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). As a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Vietnam also benefits from the regional bloc’s trade agreements with China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and India. Together these agreements provide a significant advantage over China that more than make up for the potential downsides.
Choosing What to Outsource Foreign investors who invest in the Vietnamese market need to have a clear understanding of the capacity and limitations of Vietnamese production. As of 2018, Vietnam’s education and infrastructure are better suited to assembly and relatively low value-add manufacturing than many of the higher value-added processes becoming popular in mainland China. Foreign investors often choose to enter the Vietnamese market gradually as a result of these limitations. Basic components or assembly are usually the first aspects of the production to be outsourced to Vietnam. As companies become more comfortable with the capabilities of their Vietnamese counterparts, production can be ramped up and more elements of the supply chain can be relocated.
Knowing What to Watch Out For As mentioned above, Vietnam’s real competitive advantage as a China+1 destination lies in its network of trade agreements. However, access to these agreements is not guaranteed. Most agreements have been negotiated recently and include “rules of origin provisions” that place limitations on what goods will qualify for tariff reductions. Most often, origin requirements relate to the value added to exports in the Vietnamese market. As a rule of thumb, investors should attempt to move as much value as possible to Vietnamese production facilities and ensure that assembly facilities result in significant changes between inputs and their final output. 21
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BUSINESS FEATURE
by Keely Burkey
Singapore-Vietnam Factsheet:
The Lion Meets the Dragon
Singapore’s interests in Vietnam go right to the root of the society. From healthcare to infrastructure construction, the citystate is altering the way this country grows. Diplomatic Ties: 45 years in 2018 Major Companies: Sembcorp, CapitaLand,
Mapletree, Keppel Land
Overview One of Vietnam’s strongest diplomatic ties is with the powerhouse city-state, a relationship that comes primarily in the form of a robust business relationship. Singapore’s FDI in Vietnam is third overall, just behind Korea and Japan, though in the first months of 2017 Singapore briefly held the top position. In 2017, FDI increased 12 percent, with US$1.85 billion; it’s also Vietnam’s sixth-largest trading partner. Most of the investments focus on HCMC, thanks to the current real estate boom—799 projects, valued at US$9.75 billion, were reported in 2016.
Major Industries of Influence Real Estate: Look at the skyline and you’ll see the investments at work. The proof is in the numbers: Keppel Land has 20 licensed projects across Vietnam with 25,000 homes being constructed; CapitaLand has recently acquired land banks in District 4, a move in tandem with its 20 percent stake in Thien Duc 22 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
Trading Construction; Mapletree acquired Kumho Asiana Plaza for US$215 million in June, 2016; and most recently, Lion City has jumped into the game as well, investing US$1.85 billion in commercial properties. Residential developments have been the main priorities for Singaporean real estate companies, though that hasn’t stopped CapitaLand from investing in commercial lands as well. Manufacturing Development: We’re not talking about manufacturing specific products: we’re talking about manufacturing the manufacturing plants themselves. The Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Parks (VSIP), a joint-venture between Sembcorp Development and Vietnamese-owned Becamex IDC, are the jewel in the crown of cooperation between the two countries, a statement fully supported by the numbers. In an email correspondence with Tran Thi Quynh Thanh, Senior Marcom Officer for VSIP, Thanh said the infrastructural offerings have helped to attract more FDI into the country while providing employment opportunities. VSIP have generated US$10 billion in investment from 738 multinational companies in 30 nations, though 11 percent of the companies in the industrial parks come from Singapore. At the moment there are seven different projects around Vietnam, and in 2017 they received an investment certificate for VSIP III in Binh Duong, totalling 1,000 hectares. Healthcare: Although it’s not leading the pack in terms of money invested, Singaporean interests in healthcare have ramped up in the
past years. In January, 2017 the Singapore Medical Group signed to create a second Careplus Clinic Vietnam in HCMC, to go along with the first clinic established in Tan Binh District. Chandler Investor, Clermont Group and Parkway all have presences in the country and have been investing in existing Vietnamese hospitals. Perhaps most visibly, Hanh Phuc Hospital, since its opening in 2011, focusing on paediatrics and maternity care, has been touted as “the first Singapore-standard hospital in Vietnam” thanks to its hospital management agreement with Thomson Medical Centre Limited. As Vietnamese regulations continue to improve, investment in this sector is likely to grow. Michael Sieberg, Project Director of Solidiance Vietnam, said, “There’s a lot of interest to play a part in private-public partnerships [in healthcare], but I think the framework is still being worked out. Right now it’s mostly local investors.”
Social Issues While business ties are the bedrock of the relationship, cooperation has taken social forms as well. The Singapore-Vietnam Strategic Partnership was solidified in 2013, in honour of the two countries’ 40 year diplomatic anniversary. Cooperation has strengthened in areas like armies, counter-terrorism efforts, piracy, human trafficking and money laundering. Unfortunately, we could find no updates documenting concrete results of this partnership.
BUSINESS FEATURE
by Keely Burkey
#iAMHCMC
2017, however, Vietnam’s first commercialscale wind farm broke ground in Tra Vinh Province in the Mekong Delta, which will be partly funded by Dutch fund management company Climate Fund Managers.
Water Management The Netherlands has a lot of experience with water management, and it’s putting it to good use in Vietnam—especially in the South. Climate change reports indicate that Ho Chi Minh City will primarily be affected by changing water levels along with the Mekong Delta. Royal HaskoningDHV and Deltares have signed on to investigate the problem on the Saigon River, and have recommended creating 170km of dyke reinforcements with 12 tidal gates along the canals. The project, a public-private partnership between the Vietnamese government and Trung
Netherlands-Vietnam Factsheet:
Nam Group, was started in 2015 and will likely be completed around 2035 according
The Dutch Connection
to Truong Tuan Duy, Project Manager of the
The seafaring nation has made its way to Vietnam, and the two countries are making a splash. Here’s why the Netherlands might be Vietnam’s most important EU connection.
US$7.7 billion into the country in 2016. According to Ngo Van Tau, Founder and Managing Director of NWC Consulting, The Netherlands has pinpointed both Vietnam and China as key partners for trade and investment in Asia, although some Dutch companies are also currently looking into Myanmar as a future investment site.
occurred when Vietnamese chicken products from
Major Industries of Influence
influence by establishing a pig farm in Vung Tau
Diplomatic Ties: 45 years in 2018 Major Companies: Heineken, Unilever, Royal
Dutch Shell, Royal Philips Electronics, De Heus
Overview: Over the past four or five years, the Netherlands and Vietnam have established good business connections that have strengthened in recent years. Once a major donor of overseas development assistance to Vietnam, the Netherlands has transitioned the relationship to a partnership since the World Bank Organisation officially announced Vietnam as a lower middleincome country (a step up from the previous title of developing country) in July 2017. Today, interaction between the two countries has taken two major forms: investment in technology and consultation, and bilateral trade. The Netherlands is currently Vietnam’s biggest European investor behind Germany, putting
Above all, Tau pointed to three sectors the Netherlands has been pursuing within Vietnam: clean energy, water management and agriculture. Let’s look a little deeper. Clean Energy Having made clean energy a high priority in its own country, the Netherlands has been committed to spreading this technology abroad. “It’s part of their global development goals,” Tau said. According to Power Engineering International, Vietnam’s renewables target of 10 percent, which it aims to attain by 2030, has followed a slow start, due to a low feed-in-tariff rate (the rate of money paid to traditional energy consumers who choose to switch to renewable energy; see page 36 for more details). In October
Royal HaskoningDHV case study.
Agriculture As Vietnam works to expand its food exporting business, Dutch companies have taken a consulting interest in efforts to improve the food safety chain from start to finish. Major news Koyu & Unitek, a Japanese-Australian company operating in Dong Nai Province, were officially allowed to be exported to Japan in June 2017. De Heus, a Dutch feed company, provides logistics and storage systems for the chicken products as they’re being transported from Vietnam to Japan. Additionally, in 2016 De Heus expanded its Province, starting with 400 sows.
Trade, and the Future According to the World Trade Organisation Centre, the Netherlands is Vietnam’s secondbiggest European trade partner after Germany. Two-way trade reached US$6.7 billion in 2016. In July, 2017, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc visited The Hague to strengthen diplomatic and trade ties. Over the course of the visit with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the two leaders affirmed future commitments, especially in terms of the upcoming EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), a resolution discussed since 2012 that will come into effect in 2018, eliminating customs duties, among other agreements. 23
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BUSINESS FEATURE
Questions by Keely Burkey, Answers by Jonas van Binsbergen
The Business Person Abroad:
Creating a Company in Vietnam Entrepreneur and founder of Shalom Coffee, Jonas van Binsbergen knows what it takes to be successful in Vietnam. Now he’s spreading his knowledge to start-ups in HCMC. What brought you to Vietnam?
I consider myself a product of the time and the places I grew up in. Born and raised in the Netherlands, I graduated and started visiting Southeast Asia just before the financial crisis, in 2006. When the investment bank I was working for in the Netherlands started to run into difficulties at the end of 2007 and in 2008, I had heard of this large Vietnamese company that received support and relationships from international banks such as HSBC and Deutsche Bank. The owner and founder became known to me through the parents of my ex-girlfriend who was living in Australia at the time. We got introduced to each other, and he offered me a job. After that, I joined the export team of a multinational Dutch company responsible for the sales and trade of raw materials and ingredients of several countries in Southeast Asia. About 10 months into the job, this company also started to reorganise. I decided to stay in Vietnam because I was just engaged to my fiancee and strongly felt my time in Vietnam was not finished yet. 24 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
What is important when doing business
Do you feel that foreign businesspeople are
in Vietnam? How does it differ from your
at a disadvantage here because they don’t
experiences in Europe?
share the same culture?
First of all, to pay attention to the people, to the relationships. In Germany, in Switzerland we would give a PowerPoint presentation with four or five reasons why they should buy our product. Here, it’s all about who you are, where you are from, your family background, and then after that maybe the business things. Here the relationship comes before the transaction.
Well, language is one thing. The system is another thing. So, you have a slight disadvantage if you don’t know the language, but you can bring in good local people to work with you. You can have translators, you can have assistants. If you’re looking at the system, I think it’s getting a lot better. Where you might think people would be disadvantaged as a foreigner, Vietnam has already done all the reforms. In the past few years a number of large international chains have entered Vietnam’s marketplace. Do you think these will hinder local growth, or create unreasonable competition for local companies?
Picture by Jesús López-Gomez
I think local businesses still have a unique chance. They can get local support and they can also develop well because they are local. The local consumer is also buying local, I think. You see that more and more. You see a lot of people are very open to trying new things. You see a new restaurant to try. But I think in the long term, people will be more conscious about buying local products, and the government has already campaigned for a while now about Vietnamese people building local brands, and things like that.
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What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve encountered since doing business in Vietnam? What advice would you give people to avoid these obstacles?
In terms of life and investment advice, I would say: know your priorities and know your limits. Time is probably our most valuable asset. How we spend our time can say a lot about us. In the past, I often thought in terms of sacrifice. Sacrifice time for business, sacrifice money and give priority to the happiness of the family or the wife. But this is not right thinking. Right living is a life which is in balance. We intentionally choose to spend time with our loved ones; we cultivate relationships, healthy habits, healthy living. Our priorities become visible through our daily choices. And what we can do should be within our limits. Unrealistic expectations or behaviour and risk which is beyond limits is dangerous and not a sustainable way of living and working. What is Saigon Startups? Why did you create
Right now HCMC is seeing a surge of
this company?
start-ups. Is there enough room in the market for everyone?
I have noticed from my own experience, and from my friends here that we, start-up companies, small and medium-sized companies, all need the same things: product development, design, sales and marketing, bookkeeping and other services. The idea of Saigon Startups is sharing of resources, knowledge, experiences between entrepreneurs and companies. The idea is that, things that I have overcome already, or that I know already, can help you to grow your business faster. Saigon Startups is going to be a network of small and medium-sized companies, some invested by myself, some invested through friends or through fund investors. Together sharing information and targeting the same things: sustainable growth, good business, stability, health, wealth, happiness and profit in Vietnam.
It is a normal part of market growth, company growth and country development. Competition enhances performance and productivity. One thing that I would like to share is that each person and each business is unique. We do not have to copy or emulate one another. We have to find the one thing that ‘only I can do’, the one ‘calling’ that life has for us, our ‘passion’. Once we find that, there is no competition. There is only ‘doing what you love’ and other people sharing the same mission. What sorts of start-ups are you seeing being developed at the moment? Which start-ups tend to be successful in Vietnam’s business environment?
A lot of people are focused on technology. My personal interest is still mostly old-fashioned business such as manufacturing of agricultural products, healthcare products, things like that, but then combining it with and/or applying the modern tools available such as online marketing, online shopping or mobile phone apps. I think a lot of different types of start-ups can be successful in Vietnam. The key issues which I think are important are: long-term commitment of the team, financial pressure, great innovation... In my opinion, often things go wrong here when people change. No money or borrowed money, try for three to six months but then give up. An entrepreneur needs to have the ability to create, to have a dream, to create a vision, to create a product. If finance, commitment and creation skills are lacking, it’s going to be much harder for a start-up business to be successful.
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BUSINESS FEATURE
by Sivaraj Pragasm
Saigon’s Best Coffee Shop Workspaces There’s no end to coffee shops in Saigon, but not all are conducive to a good work session. If you’re looking for a spot to get that project done, try one of these.
Location: 21 Phan Ke Binh, D1 Pricing: VND50,000-VND150,000 Ambience: Cosy and feels like a simple roadside cafe in Japan.
Kamakura
Variety of Coffee: Espresso, cappuccino and if you’re feeling exotic, a matcha latte will do the trick.
At a quiet corner of Dakao Ward in District 1, Kamakura is a Japanese coffee and dessert shop where you can get really good matcha-based ice cream, cakes and lattes and, of course, coffee.
Food Options: Plenty of desserts to choose from. They also have pancakes, toast and ice cream.
Although the cafe is small and a little narrow, it features a very relaxed ambience thanks to its decor and is a very good place for the creative professional to get inspiration thanks to its cosy atmosphere. Origami models of koi fish, black pine walls and a glass wall with plenty of natural light give the place a rather homely feel. The items on the menu are affordably priced and delicious. You can sit on a couch if it’s around, or at a table and there are sockets available should you need to plug in your laptop or charge your phone. 26 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
Thinker & Dreamer
pockets of space that allow your mind to wander The staff are also really warm, approachable and friendly. Besides the usual coffee, they are also famous for their flowerpot cakes and most items on the menu are really affordable, considering its location. This is one of those places where you could spend hours in and not even realise it. Kind of like a home away from home. Location: Level 4, 42 Nguyen Hue, D1 Pricing: VND50,000-VND100,000 Ambience: Cosy yet roomy with pockets of space.
On the fourth floor of the iconic 42 Nguyen Hue building, Thinker & Dreamer could come across as a hipster joint with a neat Instagram page and plenty of followers. However, the establishment was set up as an artistic space for customers to think, relax and daydream. Another go-to spot for the creative professional, the decor oozes inspiration and although a tad small, the layout is well-planned to create
Variety of Coffee: Espresso, cappuccino and their own creations called Mr Dreamer, which contains soymilk, and Mr Thinker, which is comprised of a secret recipe. Food Options: Snacks such as pastries and cakes.
Work Saigon Cafe Probably the most aptly named establishment on this list, Work Cafe was created for the
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purpose of… you guessed it, customers to get their work done away from the home or office. Located off Dien Bien Phu in District 3, this place is primarily a co-working space with the upper floor hosting office spaces for actual companies whereas the bottom floor remains open to the public. A sprawling layout with open tables and plenty of power sockets, this is also the quietest venue on the list, to the point where the silence might just seem a little tense. All you need to do is make your order, pick a table and it’s all yours; you’ll hardly get disturbed. Perfect for the introverted freelancer or the hermit who likes working in peace. There is also a free swimming pool that nobody actually uses, and a resident dog that walks around, offering a pleasant distraction every now and then. Location: 267/2 Dien Bien Phu, D3 Pricing: VND40,000-VND100,000 Ambience: Spacious and very quiet. Variety of Coffee: Standard fare from cà phê đá to long black. Food Options: All-day breakfast, pizzas, sandwiches and main-course dishes like pasta.
[a] Cafe
Hoang Thi Cafe
A quaint and classical-themed cafe, [a] Cafe is at Dakao Ward in District 1 and feels more like a home than an actual establishment. It was actually a home before it was refurbished into what it is today.
This entry might be a little debatable for some. Unlike the other establishments, it doesn’t have air-conditioning and its open-door concept means you get quite a bit of noise from the road. However, this is an ideal spot if you’re a writer, musician or artist.
With two levels available, the bottom floor features long, flat tables with upright chairs while you get a more lounge-like experience upstairs with comfortable seats and a chilled-out atmosphere. This is where you get a slow-drip coffee and get a seat and then let your creative juices flow. If you’re feeling hungry, there’s a limited food menu but there is a bánh mì stall just a short walk away that offers a pretty neat bánh mì Bảy Hổ every afternoon.
Perfect for those who have just moved to Saigon and are working or looking for opportunities in the city’s burgeoning arts scene, this cafe was opened by an artist and is frequented by creative types. Featuring a very local clientele, on a typical day you would see someone writing tunes with an acoustic guitar, and another person engrossed in writing an article on her laptop. It’s colourful, inspiring and addictive so you might keep coming back.
Although there is some music that fills the cafe, it’s mostly classical music at a moderate volume that’s loud enough to be heard but not loud enough to distract you.
The woody interior and vintage decorations give the whole place a very artistic yet cosy vibe, but the biggest selling point would be that this is a decent place to work, but a great place to find a collaborator or maybe even a creative partner.
Location: 15 Huynh Khuong Ninh, D1
Location: 33/73 Nguyen Trung Truc, D1
Pricing: VND15,000-VND50,000
Pricing: VND50,000-VND100,000
Ambience: Classical, and the top floor feels like a lounge.
Ambience: Cosy and bohemian.
Variety of Coffee: There’s a diverse menu of ‘special’ brews such as Kenyan, Laotian, Red and Yellow Bourbon, Sidamo and others. Food Options: Cakes, cookies and tiramisu.
Variety of Coffee: Lattes to americanos, featuring local and foreign beans. Food Options: The cafe doesn’t really serve food although it’s surrounded by really good street food stalls. 27
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BUSINESS FEATURE
The Ups and Downs of
Vietnam’s Aviation Industry
by Keely Burkey
Qualifying for a Cat 1 from the FAA requires passing its strict International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) program, a rigorous checklist connected with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). Conducted yearly, IASA focusses on eight different criteria to determine a country’s fitness for international travel, including the country’s aviation legislation, personnel qualification and training and the effectiveness of safety concern resolutions. This adoption for Vietnam would be a major feather in the country’s cap.
Keeping in the Club
Jubilant news broke out in January, citing Vietnam’s intentions to develop nonstop flights to the continental United States. The Federal Aviation Administration in the US might have other plans. Vietnamese news agency VNExpress published several stories in January 2018, announcing that the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) was initiating plans to set up nonstop routes from Vietnam to the United States, eyeing San Francisco and Los Angeles in particular. The organisation, which oversees Vietnam’s domestic and international aviation industry, said that the expansion would likely lead to increased growth of tourism; plans are also in the works to increase available routes to China, Australia and Europe. For aviation industry insider Pierre*, a French national with more than 30 years experience working as an engineer for Airbus, the decision was a no-brainer.
“Everybody knows that if you cannot go to the US, you cannot develop your business,” he said. AAV’s decision was not spur-of-the-moment: it followed a long history between Vietnam’s aviation authority and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the United States’ own aviation regulation committee. Since 2003, when Vietnam and the US signed 28 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
an air transport agreement to allow airlines to operate direct flights between the two countries, Vietnam’s authorities have sought permission from the FAA to start scheduling routes to the US. Each year, their request has been denied, the FAA citing safety concerns. For many in Vietnam’s aviation history, 2018 is gearing up to be the year CAAV finally succeeds.
Ups and Downs of Air Travel The FAA’s decision would follow in the footsteps of other victories achieved by Vietnam’s aviation industry, most notably the adoption of the EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) regulation to fly to Europe. This is roughly the equivalent of the FAA’s Cat 1 (Category 1, a title that allows airlines to charter airplanes to the North American country), and a sign that Vietnam could soon step up from its current position of Cat 2. However, though Pierre asserts that Vietnam Airlines itself is an internationally competent airline, he said that for the FAA, it’s not just about the airline itself. “The FAA, [...] they don’t care about the airlines,” he said.
“They care about the authority. It makes sense, because these guys are the regulators. So if the system is not good, how can you guarantee that the operators are good?”
“It’s kind of a club,” Pierre said, referring to the FAA certification. “When you’re outside of the system, of course it’s not easy to get in, but still, you see, the possibility is there. But once you are inside, if you lose it, then you are in big trouble.” Pierre references the recent troubles of Thailand. The country’s flagship airline, Thai Airways, originally developed nonstop services to New York and Los Angeles in 2005. In 2015, Thailand’s aviation industry was downgraded from a Cat 1 to a Cat 2, a blow that Pierre says has been hard on the country, both economically and in terms of its reputation. “It’ll take years for them to get it back.” For CAAV, it isn’t so much an issue of investing in aviation equipment, but rather one of personnel. Pierre notes that investing in training can be tricky.
When the employees are well-trained, they often move to other countries, where they have the opportunity to earn 20 times as much salary as they receive in Vietnam. In December 2017 it was announced that Vietnam Airlines, Vietnam Airlines Engineering Company and the University of Science and Technology of Hanoi (USTH) had signed a cooperation agreement to create a Bachelor of Aviation Technology and a Masters of International Aviation Transport Management at the university. “I hope that they get [the certification],” Pierre said. “Here, when you ask people, they always say, ‘OK, this year we got it’. And it’s been like that for 10 years now.” *Name has been changed.
SOCIETY FEATURE
by Tran Thi Minh Hieu
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Deadly Consequences:
The Lack of Swimming Instruction in Vietnam Drowning is the leading cause of death among Vietnamese children. Is anything being done to change this tragic statistic? The then-18-year-old swimmer Nguyen Thi Anh Vien made national headlines in 2014, when she won the first ever Asian Games medal for Vietnam in swimming. Born in Can Tho, Anh Vien was one lucky Vietnamese child, as she began swimming with the guidance of her grandfather. The majority of Vietnamese children, however, do not receive swimming lessons at a young age. A recent survey found that only 35 percent of children in the Mekong Delta and 10 percent in the Red River Delta can swim.
A National Epidemic This lack of swimming skills is closely linked to the consistently high number of drowning cases among Vietnamese children and teenagers. In 2005 and 2006, a total of 7,249 children died from this preventable cause, as reported by the Ministry of Health (MOH). A 2016 report by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) shows that this shocking number has not fallen after a decade: an average of 6,400 people die from drowning in Vietnam each year, over 50 percent of whom are children. This means that everyday, about 10 Vietnamese children die from drowning, the highest rate in Southeast Asia.
There are numerous reasons why this is such an epidemic across the country. Vietnam is famous for its 3,260km coastline, as well as for its bevy of rivers, springs and lakes throughout the country.
swimming facilities are few and far between, hence the lack of adequately trained teachers. Children who manage to learn to swim are mostly taught by their family members or even their friends, in a pond or river near their village.
These landscapes of scenic beauty are potentially dangerous environments, as children like to spend time there during summer months, often without adult supervision.
Many believe that swimming can be self-taught, as our “reflexes” kick in when thrown into water. However, these reflexes are only seen in babies for a short period of time underwater, and more importantly, babies are not strong enough to be able to swim.
Preventable but not Prevented According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), drowning is the leading cause of death among Vietnamese children aged 5 to 14. Yet, swimming lessons are not a compulsory part of the school curriculum, and generally Vietnamese parents do not view swimming as an indispensable survival skill. Only parents in big cities like Hanoi, Saigon and Danang are likely to send their kids to private swimming classes held during the summer at various swimming pools around the city. These range from inexpensive and overly crowded public pools to highly priced private pools inside hotels or condominiums. The price for a basic swimming course is not cheap compared to the average monthly income, around VND2 million (US$90) per child. However, many parents would rather pay more than this amount for their children to join a summer English course instead. In rural areas,
Baby Steps in a Shallow Pool While there are no policies in place to encourage and facilitate swimming instruction to Vietnamese children, the alarming statistics have spurred some to action. This January more than 550 students, disabled children and elderly people took part in free group swimming lessons put on by the Australian Water Safety on the Mekong (AWSOM) Project in My Tho City. Another organisation, SwimSafe, has stepped in to provide primary school children in Danang with free swimming lessons. As Nguyen Thi Anh Vien said during the launch of the “Fund for Drowning Prevention and Swimming Literacy for Vietnamese Children” by the Vietnam Aquatic Sports Association in 2016, “I wish that more and more Vietnamese children would know how to swim, and there would be no more heartbreaking accidents caused by drowning.” 29
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HEALTH FEATURE
by Keely Burkey
Healing a Nation:
The Legacy of Agent Orange Walking through HCMC, it’s hard not to notice. Agent Orange has left an undeniable wound on Vietnam. What will it take to let it heal? When Le Minh Chau, 26, meets someone for the first time he doesn’t shake hands, but it’s not a choice based on attitude. Chau’s full stature is under four feet tall. He rests his full weight on his knees, and his arms, underdeveloped and limp, hang permanently and without use at his sides. As he quickly climbed the stairs to his art studio, a modest flat located in Saigon’s increasingly trendy District 2, he apologises for the mess: “I’ve been working a lot,” he said through a translator. Afflicted by disabilities attributed to prenatal exposure to Agent Orange, Chau’s body might make his daily life more difficult, but he avers that he’s not a victim. Chau is an internationally recognised and sought-after artist, thanks mainly due to the Oscar-nominated documentary based on his life, Chau, Beyond the Lines (2015). Shot over the span of eight years, the 30-minute movie documents Chau’s journey from the Tu Du Peace Village for disabled youth in Ho Chi Minh City to the fully independent life he enjoys today. The movie worked to shine a spotlight at an issue previously swept under the rug. 30 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
The Orange Stripe In District 12, an hour from the city centre by motorbike and a lifetime away from the boutiques and coffee shops of District 2, the narrative is a bit different. Sister Kim Chi, founder and director of Thien Phuoc Orphanage, an organisation that houses and cares for 60 disabled children, many thought to be affected by Agent Orange, said, “Most of these children will be dead before they turn 17, 18. For us it’s about providing love and care while they’re here.” Although Chau and the children at Thien Phuoc Orphanage were born long after the American War ended 43 years ago, they represent the conflict’s damaging legacy. Between 1961 and 1971, it’s estimated that the US Army sprayed around 20 million gallons of herbicides, loosely categorised as “Agent Orange” due to the colouring of the pesticide barrels, to deforest large tracts of densely covered land. Exposure to the chemical’s chief component, tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD, referred to today as dioxin), has only recently been officially linked to “presumptive diseases” like cancers, heart disease and diabetes in veterans who dealt with the chemical directly; less studied, and more politically volatile, are the intragenerational birth defects, ranging from fused digits to spina bifida.
“There’s a lot we don’t know about it,” Charles Bailey, Agent Orange victims advocate and former Ford Foundation representative in Vietnam, said. “Once it’s in human bodies, it’s more complicated.” While the chemical does not affect the cellular structure of plants grown in previously exposed soil, it also does not dissolve on its own. During Vietnam’s annual months-long rainy seasons, heavy rains have transported much of the chemical to nearby water sources. Drinking this water, or eating the ducks and fish that live in and around it, can allegedly change the genetic make-up of offspring. “It’s been found in blood, and the milk samples of lactating women. And we don’t know how many generations will be affected,” Bailey said.
Help, By Any Other Name... The lack of definitive intragenerational medical studies, paired with the lack of funding from the US government to care programs for the disabled, has not been an oversight. To allocate funds, by association, leads to an admission of guilt and responsibility—a political arena the United States does not step into easily. Today, millions of dollars of funds are transferred to foundations and care programs as part of humanitarian efforts rather than political reparations to ensure that at least politically, the United States will be cleared from blame.
HEALTH FEATURE
“For the people working with these victims, I don’t think it matters where the money comes from, or the political discourse surrounding it,” Bailey said. “They just want to help people.” While the Vietnamese government has consistently connected dioxin exposure to disabilities, in 2007 a former US Ambassador to Vietnam told the press, “I cannot say whether or not I have myself seen a victim of Agent Orange. The reason for that is that we lack good scientific definitions of the causes of disabilities [...] that have occurred in Vietnam…We just don’t have the scientific evidence to make that statement with certainty.” Although the Vietnamese government has pressured Washington DC to recognise intragenerational disabilities as dioxin-related, researcher Michael F Martin pointed out in a Congressional Report in 2012 that Vietnam’s Department of Agriculture has hedged away from these implications. The ministry “is concerned that by drawing attention to the continued pervasive presence of dioxin in the am’s [sic] environment, other nations may restrict or prohibit the import of Vietnamese crops, aquatic products, meats and poultry, and processed foods supposedly for health reasons.” In 2017, Vietnam’s domestic food market was rocked by several high-profile food scares, including evidence that thousands of pigs
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had routinely been given sedatives to reduce weight loss. As of yet, no cases have involved references to dioxin. Rather than dwell on the weaknesses incurred by the long-lasting drug, leaders in Hanoi typically focus on the environmental factors instead. Centres for the disabled subsist primarily on Vietnamese government funding, although the United States does allocate a small percentage of overall appropriations to rehabilitation centres. Sister Kim Chi’s Thien Phuoc Orphanage, for her part, subsists entirely on volunteer donations. “When I built the orphanage, people said I should make it in a old building that had leaks and problems. They said I would get more funding that way,” she said grimly.
Cooling Down the Hotspots This October, ground officially broke on the environmental cleanup of the Bien Hoa Airport, the country’s most dioxin-saturated area. It’s estimated that the cleanup will take 10 years to complete; a USAID Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) estimated that the cleanup will cost US$500 million. So far, the United States appropriations committee has committed to helping fund the extensive cleanup efforts in all three of
Vietnam’s dioxin hotspots: airports in Danang (a cleanup that was finished in 2012), Bien Hoa and, further down the line, Phu Cat. “Now that the Bien Hoa cleanup is underway, I’m turning my attention to people with disabilities,” Bailey said. “I want people to focus on recognising that they’re people too, with normal human needs. They need greater comfort and dignity.” To that end, Bailey recently published From Enemies to Partners: Vietnam, the U.S. and Agent Orange with Dr Le Ke Son, a work he hopes will be a landmark for Vietnam-US Agent Orange relations. In District 12, Sister Kim Chi remains practical in her work, if not optimistic. She discusses the recent death of a 12-year-old boy in the orphanage with the same matter-of-fact tone she uses to discuss the educational classes she has set up on the third and fourth floors of her orphanage. More than anything, Chi speaks of changing the narrative of Agent Orange. “I don’t really like talking to reporters, because when I read the articles, it’s always the same. They talk about how sad the kids are, how disabled. But the kids don’t know about Agent Orange, or their disabilities. When you look at them, they’re happy. They just want love.” 31
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FOOD FEATURE
by Tran Thi Minh Hieu
Chasing After High Value However, high quantity doesn’t equal high value, and the story of Vietnamese tea is also typical of other agricultural products aimed at exports. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Nguyen Xuan Cuong, told Vietnam.net that even though Vietnam is one of the 15 largest agricultural exporters in the world, 90 percent of export products are in “crude” form, with a low level of processing and low value. These products are often further processed and distributed under foreign brands, bringing the added value to the importers.
Vietnam’s Food Exports:
High Output, Low Value Vietnam is one of the 15 largest agricultural exporters in the world, but food companies could be getting much more value for the products. Here’s what’s holding the industry back.
final products for direct consumption. The high volume exports are black tea in primary forms, used as ingredients for further processing by the importers, to add more value and suit their customers’ taste,” Thang said.
Vietnamese people drink tea on a daily basis, and you’ve probably tasted the slightly bitter Vietnamese green tea, not to mention its watered-down iced version in Saigon’s restaurants. But have you ever heard of a brand of Vietnamese tea?
“We still lack the final-stage technology to produce black tea for consumption, so our products are exported at a low value. We only process green tea and some speciality varieties such as oolong tea for consumer products, but the output is low.” He added: “Green tea and black tea are produced from the same plant, but with different technical processes.”
Even though Vietnam is one of the top 10 tea exporters in the world, branded, industrially produced tea is still a foreign concept. Thang*, a former employee of Vinatea JSC, the largest tea producer and exporter in Vietnam, talked to us about the market for Vietnamese tea. The company exports to over 50 countries. The biggest markets are Pakistan, Taiwan and Russia. “Most of the tea products from Vietnam are exported under our brand, but they are not 32 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
With more than 125,000 hectares of tea plants in Northern and Central mountain provinces, such as Thai Nguyen, Son La and Lam Dong, Vietnam produces more tea for export than for domestic consumption. Thang explained, “In these mountainous provinces, the land is most suitable for growing tea plants, so the plant provides the livelihood for the people there. That’s why we grow more tea than we consume domestically.”
For example, according to the Vietnam Cashew Association, Vietnam has been the number one cashew exporter for the past 12 years, processing more than 50 percent of the world’s output. However, Vietnam only participates in the preliminary processing stage, equal to 18 percent of the value chain. The most profitable stages of salt roasting and distribution, accounting for a total of 60 percent in value, are not the strengths of Vietnamese companies. Vietnam is also the second-largest coffee exporter of the world, behind Brazil, taking up 10.5 percent of global coffee exports. However, according to the Vietnam CoffeeCocoa Association (Vicofa), processed, roasted, ground and instant coffee only account for over 10 percent of total export value.
FOOD FEATURE
Jonas van Binsbergen, owner of Shalom Coffee in Ho Chi Minh City, who has had many years working with Thai Hoa Group and contributed to making it one of the largest private coffee exporters in Vietnam, said that the company produced and exported for big global brands such as Nestle, Kraft Foods and Lavazza. Similarly, though vegetable and fruit exports reached their highest ever peak of US$3.45 billion in 2017, Vietnam mainly exports fresh vegetables and fruits, with few companies investing in processing technology.
Due to the short storage time of fresh products, most vegetable and fruit exports from Vietnam go to China, the largest importer with over 75 percent market share.
Defining Quality Another challenge is in ensuring the quality of export products, especially regarding food safety. Quality assurance in every stage of production and packaging is the first step for Vietnam’s agricultural products to penetrate more discerning markets. Van Binsbergen said, “A lot of [previously] state-owned enterprises are active in inspecting export products, such as CafeControl and VinaControl.” Industry groups including Vicofa are also involved in setting standards. On the
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other hand, inspection on the importing side is not done by the government of the destination country. “Usually the buyers have, and inspect by, their own standard.” As Thang put it, “Quality of tea depends on everything from the material to the process. There is a right time to harvest the tea buds and to bring them into processing. We must also follow industry standard and international standard, including criteria for food safety such as pesticide residue and concentration of metal elements.” This has to be done at the local farms and factories, before delivery to headquarters for packaging and shipping. Thang also shared how each importer has different requirements for packaging. For example, some require five protection wrapping layers or wooden boxes, and for consumer products, some specify exactly how they want the tea bags made.
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Without proper investment in processing and packaging technology, as well as development in marketing and branding solutions, Vietnamese agricultural exporters will likely remain in the lower links of the global value chain. This also applies to the domestic market with an increasing presence of international brands, filling in the gaps for processed food that local producers are leaving open. *Name has been changed.
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RECIPE OF THE MONTH
Tri-Coloured Noodle Hot Pot No matter where you are in Vietnam, you’ll find a hot pot culture, each different in the own way, but similar at their core.
DIRECTIONS
THE GOLDEN SPOON AWARD
Serves: 4 Cooking Time: 4 hours Difficulty: Hard INGREDIENTS For the broth • 2kg chicken bones • 200g lotus roots • 100g dried shiitake mushrooms • 70g red dates • 40g Goji berries • 300g shallots • 5g rock sugar • 5g salt • 5g seasoning powder • 10g ginger • 4 litres water
For the noodles • 375g wheat flour • 100g spinach • 100ml water • 200g carrots • 4 chicken eggs • 15ml olive oil • 1.5g salt Hot pot additions • 200g king oyster mushrooms • 200g enoki mushrooms • 15ml good fish sauce • 500g chicken fillets • 10g green bird’s eye chili • 2g seasoning powder • 2g ground black pepper
Prepare the Ingredients Clean the chicken bones and poach them in boiling water. Remove the chicken bones and set aside. Soak the shiitake mushrooms in the water until they swell; boil them for 15 minutes, take them out, rinse in cold water and squeeze out excess liquid. Peel the lotus roots and soak, along with the red dates and Goji berries, for 10 minutes. Clean and drain all thoroughly. Peel the shallots and clean them thoroughly; smash the ginger with the blade of a knife. Wash the bok choy, chop it, then put it into a blender with 100ml of water. Blend thoroughly and wring out the liquid to collect 50ml of green pulp. Peel the carrots and use a food processor to collect 50ml orange pulp. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites.
Make the Noodles Cook the Broth Pour 4 litres of water into a pot and bring to a boil. Add the chicken bones, shallots, lotus roots and smashed ginger. Cook until the broth boils again. Skim off the foam and simmer on medium heat for about one hour. Add the shiitake mushrooms, red dates and Goji berries and simmer for an additional two hours. When the broth has reduced to about 1.5 litres, use a sieve to separate the broth from the bones. Pour the clear broth into another pot. Add the lotus roots, red dates and shiitake mushrooms, and bring to a boil. Season the broth with 5g of salt, 5g of seasoning powder and 5g of rock sugar to taste. Remove from heat. 34 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
To make the white noodles, put 100g wheat flour into a large mixing bowl. Add 0.5g salt, 1.5ml olive oil, one-and-a-half white yolks and mix until smooth. Coat the mixture with 25g flour to prevent the dough from sticking. Knead the flour thoroughly and let sit for 30 minutes. To make the green noodle dough, put 100g of wheat flour into a separate bowl. Add 0.5g salt, 1.5ml olive oil, 1 egg white and 30ml of the bok choy extract. Mix well and coat the dough with 25g flour to avoid sticking. Let sit for 30 minutes. Make the orange noodles, mix 100g wheat flour with 0.5g salt, 1.5ml olive oil, one egg white and 30ml of the carrot extract in a third bowl. Coat the dough in in flour, knead until smooth, and let it sit for 30 minutes.
After all three dough portions have rested, knead each dough again. Use a pasta maker to make noodles of your choice with each of the dough colours. Boil the noodles for five to seven minutes, and remove when the noodles float to the top of the water. Remove the noodles, clean them with cold water, and drizzle with olive oil to prevent them from sticking together.
PRESENTATION Pour the broth into a hot pot and heat until boiling. Arrange the chicken, vegetables, mushrooms and noodles on a plate. When the broth boils, add the chicken. When the chicken is cooked, add the vegetables and mushrooms into the boiling broth. Divide the noodles into serving bowls and add the broth and additives. Garnish with chili slices to your taste.
RESTAURANT ADVERTORIAL
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Making Tapas Sexy: Dining at Tomatito Part modern gastronomy, part retro kitsch, Tomatitos Saigon brings the best parts of Spanish cuisine to HCMC’s doorstep. An ultra-mod, white-and-red polka dot vintage scooter and sidecar rest prominently in the middle of the vast, high-ceilinged dining room, a room sectioned by a hip open kitchen and a couched lounge area in one corner. The walls are dark-red burgundy, with sprightly flamenco dancers, fans and bullfighters speckled throughout. It might look it, but it’s not a portal back to 1980s Barcelona, all kitschy and cool. This is Tomatitos Saigon, the newest authentically Spanish restaurant overlooking Calmette Street in the heart of District 1.
“It’s Spanish culture, but done in a contemporary and quirky way,” said Chef Willy Moreno, founder and creative force behind Tomatitos. Eleven years ago Willy moved to Shanghai, and has since opened nine unique restaurants across Asia, each a special part of the El Willy brand, bent on bringing a taste of Spain to countries including the Philippines, China and Hong Kong. El Willy’s eponymous flagship restaurant based in Shanghai, part of the elite Diners Club established by the 50 Best Restaurants organisation, was for Willy the taking-off point during the creative development of Tomatitos Saigon. “It’s like El Willy Jr.,” Willy said. “It’s more casual, more fun, for a younger crowd.”
Case in point is the restaurant’s unofficial secondary name, Tomatitos Sexy Tapas Bar. “Sexy is attractive, it’s sensual, it’s fun, it’s cool,” Willy said. “We’re playful and fun, and that’s what makes it sexy.”
A Mix of Old and New When conceptualising the menu with Tomatitos’ Head Chef Julio Gómez, the first order of business was defining a fine and delicate balance between old and new. “We have the traditional tapas, the traditional Spanish recipes,” Willy said, referencing the classic delicacies like chorizo, gazpacho and tortilla de patatas that have helped make Spain one of the culinary powerhouses of the world. “But we also make use of new techniques.” He serves up one such creation, a twist on the traditional baguette-and-salsa combo available in Spanish cocinas. At Tomatitos, the bolsa de pan has been hollowed out, with delicious fillings inside. When a diner takes a bite, they enjoy an unexpected explosion of flavour. But let’s face it: the true magic comes once the tapas start hitting the table. Perfect for an informal gathering of family, colleagues or friends, a fun night starts when you pick four or five of these bad boys along with a one-litre cocktail pitcher for the table (might we recommend the passion fruit sangria, which mixes red and white wine with fresh passion fruit and a kick of vodka? It’s a steal for VND220,000).
For the full Tomatitos experience, indulge in the atún con gazpacho (seared tuna loin with avocado mousse, gazpacho and black olives, VND145,000) and Salmon TNT 2.0 (explosive Balik salmon with sour cream and truffle honey, VND195,000, a recipe taken straight from El Willy in Shanghai).
A Spanish Taste, Abroad More than anything, the minds behind Tomatitos are adamant about one thing: quality. Head Chef Julio sees this as integral to his profession, which he has carried over from the previous restaurants he pioneered with Willy. “It’s impossible to get that exact similar taste from another country, but you can get close. The trick is to locally source some ingredients, and import the essential ingredients, the ingredients that give the food that Spanish flavour.”
While the cheese comes straight from the Spanish countryside, the patatas are local, fresh and straight from Vietnam’s premium food markets. “The best compliment I’ve gotten here yet happened when a Spanish expat stood up after his meal and thanked me for giving him a taste of home,” Julio said. “That’s when you know you’ve really done your job.” 171 Calmette, 1st Floor, D1, 028 6288 1717 | www.crhcmc.com/tomatito 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Tuesday to Sunday. 35
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ENVIRONMENT FEATURE
by Keely Burkey
Vinamilk is one high-profile company with a commitment to solar, having introduced sun energy in its dairy farms; others are likely to follow suit. With a stated commitment to improving renewable energy usage, the question becomes: why isn’t the adoption coming quicker? In September 2017 a highly publicised pilot auction program was circulated, announced in a conference held by The World Bank and the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The main takeaway from the document was the introduction of an official Feed-in-Tariff—the amount of money per kilowatt-hour paid to owners of solar energy sources who sell their energy to EVN.
Here Comes the Sun:
Solar Power in Vietnam If 2017 wasn’t the year of the rooster in Vietnam, chances are it would have been called the year of the sun. Solar power initiatives took off recently, but the jury’s still out on whether they will have an effect on the power grid. Vietnamese electricity is cheap and—largely— dependable, but is it green? At the moment, government-owned Vietnam Electricity (EVN) is the sole provider in the country, and this job is getting more and more demanding by the day. In 2000, the energy usage per capita was listed at 294.04kWh. In 2014, when the data ended, usage had skyrocketed to 1,439.16kWh, propelled by expansive electricity coverage in rural regions and the proliferation of highenergy manufacturing plants. At EVN, coal reigns. More than half of the energy in the country comes from coal burning, the rest from oil and gas; renewable energy sources are negligible. 36 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
The Vietnamese government aims to raise the renewables rate to 6.5 percent by 2020, and 10 percent by 2030. In terms of megawatts, the current 850 MW generated by clean energy would be increased to 4,000 MW by 2020, and 12,000 MW by 2030. Experts doubt whether even the new numbers will be met.
Full of Energy This isn’t for lack of trying. As Ocean Nguyen from Red Sun Energy JSC told us, “Our government wants companies to use solar energy. They want to reduce the amount [of traditional electricity] they use.” So far, this has been a primarily top-down approach. For one thing, government subsidies are available for companies committed to producing alternative forms of energy. Additionally, Nguyen said that a plan is in place to use solar power for government buildings, as well as large government-owned companies.
At 9.35 US cents, the rate falls below the standard of other Southeast Asian countries, and by fixing the price in USD, potential investors worry that the rate could be affected by shifting foreign currency rates. Nguyen recognises that some potential customers are turned off by the fact that setting up solar power capabilities is still relatively expensive compared to using traditional electricity, though in five years he says enough energy has been generated to pay for itself. For the time being, it seems focussing on companies rather than individual consumers will make the most impact.
The Domestic Sun Rising Despite potential problems, multinational companies like GE have been turning to Vietnam as a potential place of business, though at the moment local companies are most active. In October, Sao Mai Group partnered with USAID to invest in a 210 MW solar power project worth US$193.35 million, to be located in An Giang Province. HCMC-based TTC Corporation is also getting some skin in the game, initiating several projects in central and southern Vietnam. The projects will be worth around VND3 trillion (US$133,500 million) and will start construction in Q1 of this year. However, until residents begin to embrace alternative energy sources as readily, the country will likely be looking at coal for some time in the future.
EDUCATION ADVERTORIAL
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AIS Opens its Doors AIS Open Day Saturday, 10 March, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., all campuses. Shuttle buses available from District 7 to Thu Thiem Campus. Campus 1: 264 Mai Chi Tho, D2 028 3742 4040 Campus 2: APSC Compound, 36 Thao Dien, D2 028 3744 6960 Campus 3: 190 Nguyen Van Huong, D2 028 3519 2727 enrolments@aisvietnam.com aisvietnam.com
learning about a school? By asking the teachers, all of whom are fully certified, native Englishspeaking, Western teachers. While the majority come from Australia, Dr Crouch said, “A good teacher is a good teacher. We hire the best teachers available, so in the end it doesn’t matter too much where they grew up.”
How do you find out if a school is a right fit for your child? By exploring the campus yourself! The Australian International School is opening its doors to show you what it has to offer. As a parent, one of your biggest and most important decisions will be determining which international school in Ho Chi Minh City is the right fit for your child.
universities, so our curriculum focuses not just on pure academics. We also want to encourage arts, music, drama, sports. We believe in the well-rounded child.”
So how best to present AIS to current and prospective parents so they know exactly what the school is all about? Invite them in with open arms, of course.
For Dr Roderick Crouch, Executive Principal at the Australian International School, it all comes down to providing the right atmosphere for intellectual and personal growth. When discussing education options with parents of different nationalities, who grew up in different educational cultures, it’s all about understanding what the student needs.
Opening the Doors
“When I’m talking to a Korean family, for example, they might be used to a more hierarchical structure [when it comes to education],” Dr Crouch said. “We’re less hierarchical. Our students go to a range of
“The first question [the student] usually gets asked is, ‘Are you happy here?’” Dr Crouch said. “And I’m really proud that in our last parent survey, 95 percent reported that their child likes being here.” Step two to
For Dr Crouch, the first step to showing students and parents the spirit of AIS is through total transparency, led first and foremost by the students themselves. Students will lead groups of parents through the school campus, open to every question a parent might have.
Teachers at the Open Day will be present in their classrooms, ready to answer questions and give children a taste of what it would be like to take classes at AIS. For a kindergarten classroom, this might mean building an impromptu sculpture out of Play-Doh. For older students, they’ll learn about some of the biology experiments in play, and get to look at the menagerie of animals cared for in the science classrooms. And, true to AIS’s emphasis on the performing arts, choirs and bands will perform around the school to give visitors a sense of just what a well-rounded student looks like. Although AIS’s upcoming Open Day will show both new and returning parents AIS’s stunning facilities and internationally recognised teachers, for Dr Crouch there are some things that can’t be shown in a tour. “We run a culture here where you’re expected to get on with people, and that’s a culture typical of Australia. We treat everybody the same, we treat everybody fairly… We’re very accepting of difference,” he said.
“In a sense, every day is like an open day — parents can always come and visit. But now, we’re really opening our doors.” 37
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REAL ESTATE FEATURE
by Keely Burkey
Goodbye, Bui Vien? Land speculation is nothing new, but in the grab for easy money, innocent people can get hurt. When Steve Kinlough, owner and proprietor of The Crazy Dutch on Bui Vien, thought about closing up shop, he didn’t think it would be like this. After two years operating his bar and hostel on the world-famous backpacker hangout, Kinlough announced on January 24 to his loyal band of patrons that he was closing up shop. He’s not pursuing other business options or retiring. The rent has been raised VND13 million, from a previous VND45 million to VND58 million.
It’s not a rare story on a street currently getting a touristfriendly facelift, but it’s one that’s unsustainable for small business purveyors like himself. “I asked, ‘How are we going to add 13 million, with a small bar downstairs and some private rooms?’” Kinlough said. “We would really need to jack up all our drinks and food and everything. We won’t do it. Nobody else [on Bui Vien] is doing that, so we’re not going to start doing that.” As rent prices grow and business faces shift, what will Bui Vien look like when the prices 38 | iamhcmc.com/gazette
start to level off and the game of real estate musical chairs finally stops?
Walking Street of Dreams As tourism in the country steadily rises—13 million tourists arrived in the country in 2017, the highest number in Vietnam’s history—pressures have been mounting to increase the quality of attractions to keep visitors entertained. This agenda culminated last year with the decision to turn Bui Vien into a pedestrian walking street every Saturday and Sunday from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. The city spent VND13 billion on upgrades, including granite pavement, free WiFi and public toilets to make Bui Vien more appealing to a larger variety of spenders. The decision to do so has paid dividends. Some 2,000 people visit the site on high-traffic days, though for Kinlough, the extra foot traffic hasn’t led to extra business. “It’s a lot of [foot] traffic,” he said, talking about the decision to block off the street to vehicles. “The only thing is that mostly Vietnamese people come down here, and they don’t come in, they just look. I don’t think we’ve had one or two Vietnamese customers in since the walking street thing.”
With a different target clientele, bigger, more mainstream companies have zeroed in on the area.
Picture by Jesús López-Gomez
Kinlough suspects that in the coming years, we’ll likely see less hole-in-the-wall pubs and more two-storey nightclub bars, which have been doing well among travellers passing through the city. According to VNExpress, land prices on Bui Vien have increased 34.7 to 130 percent, and the real estate values of surrounding areas have likewise followed suit.
Keep on Walking Due to the popularity of the walking street, plans are being established to expand the zone and lengthen the time. The city government of District 1 has recently proposed to extend the pedestrian zone to three days a week instead of two, and expand the walking zone section to Nguyen Quang Dau. De Tham has also been earmarked for possible pedestrian expansion. Although Kinlough has begun to consider running another business in Saigon, Bui Vien has lost its appeal. Instead, he has been looking towards the other side of Tran Hung Dao as well. “I think we might start a little coffee shop, a hole in the wall, on Co Bac, or somewhere near there,” he said. As speculation continues, chances are Co Bac will be a Bui Vien Jr in the coming years.
TRAVEL ADVERTORIAL
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