Vietnam
The Ascending Dragon
One of the former names of Hanoi, the historical and political capital of Vietnam, was Thang Long, meaning the Ascending Dragon, an apt name for present day Vietnam itself. This war-ravaged country is at the threshold of emerging as a new star in the Asia-Pacific economic galaxy.
Like China, Vietnam is a communist country that is fast developing a market economy and is turning to the markets and investment of non-communist countries to spur its growth. While the United States and a few other countries maintained an embargo on trade and investment with Vietnam throughout much of the 1990s, other countries rushed in to take advantage of Vietnam's low wage rates and natural resources. (Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea are among the largest investors to date.) In 2001, however, the United States and Vietnam entered into a bilateral trade agreement that has normalized their relations. With the embargoes now lifted and diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Western countries returning to normal, many analysts predict that Vietnam's growth will soar in the coming decade.
Communicating with the Vietnamese presents a number of difficulties. First, as a developing country that has spent decades at war, its transportation and communications infrastructure is inferior or nonexistent. Roads, bridges, port facilities, electrical power, postal services, telecommunications, and their related management organizations, are all inadequate. Second, because of the country's long preoccupation with war, few Vietnamese possess the technical knowledge and management skills needed to interact with business counterparts from other countries. Third, few Vietnamese speak English, the lingua franca of international business. Their principal foreign languages are French and (especially in the north) Russian. Fourth, although the government now embraces capitalist concepts in developing a market economy, residual strains of communist ideology often present barriers to efficient business communications.
[Tip — Response Time: Language difficulties, inadequate infrastructure, and lack of business sophistication in Vietnam emphasize the importance of allowing plenty of time for communicating with the Vietnamese. Before setting schedules and making plans for meetings or transactions, carefully scout out the available communications media for the business you expect to conduct, then make generous allowance for unexpected delays.]
The Vietnamese are descendants of members of China's Han and Viet kingdoms who migrated from the north over the course of centuries. Regional kingdoms were established as early as 2879 B.C. They managed to maintain their independence at times, and at other times they were subjected to long periods of Chinese occupation. Following a long period of Chinese domination, a series of dynasties ruled Vietnam from 939 A.D. until the last century, with constant internal struggles and border conflicts with the Chinese.
The French entered the scene in 1801 when a French missionary, Pierre Pigneau de Behaine, began expanding the church's influence in the region. Colonial occupation of Vietnam by the French commenced in 1858 and continued until occupation of the country by the Japanese at the beginning of World War II. Anti-colonialist sentiment grew throughout this period, spurred by news of the Russian Revolution and the earlier Kuomingtang Revolution in China. Ho Chi Minh first became active in the anti-colonialist movement in 1919 and gradually rose to power in the Vietnamese communist movement.
The disastrous modern history of Vietnam followed World War II. Commencing in 1946, the French sought to reassert control over Vietnam and wound up in a nine-year war with communist forces, supported in part by China. The conflict ended in 1954 with the division of the country into the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the Republic of South Vietnam. The United States, pursuing a global policy of containment against communist influence, began supporting South Vietnam militarily, and itself became embroiled in all-out war, finally withdrawing in 1975. For fifteen years following the American withdrawal, Vietnam allied itself with Russia and continued in military conflict, occupying Cambodia and confronting China. Finally, in 1990, as a result of the crumbling of Soviet power and peace efforts of the United Nations in Cambodia, Vietnam entered its present course of social and economic reform.
[Tip — Business Communications: Because Vietnam was preoccupied with war and civil disruption for much of its recent history, there is little business sophistication or business expertise in the country as yet. Moreover, many businesses are state-owned and managed by government officials. International business people should therefore not assume that common business terminology is understood by a Vietnamese. Business transactions should be carefully discussed and explained.]
Notwithstanding Vietnam’s presently weakened economic foundations, look for its large and industrious population to lift the nation’s fortunes markedly in the next few years. Vietnam lies at the center of the world’s most dynamic economic region, and many of the region’s economies — for example, those of Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea — now seek low cost labor in other countries to maintain industrial expansion because wage rates at home are high. With such fertile economic conditions prevailing in the region, Vietnam is clearly an Ascendant Dragon.
Additional resources: