Article 7: Asia’s Best Business Spots
Vietnam is found to be the safest place for expatriate business leaders to reside and work, even as it is among the region’s most stressful and the most risky nations for developing and growing an investment project. That is the conclusion from reading three recent surveys about doing business in Asia. We know Vietnam well and have good reason to support its potential. We also know how difficult it is for others to see.
Reading the tea leaves has not ever been more difficult for investors. When assessing Vietnam, our almost 9 year experience shows that few outsiders fully appreciate the opportunities present.
Sadly, few people within Vietnam have clear vision either. The Expatriate community is geared towards their own employer’s or their own personal bottom line. The result is a view that is often more harsh or Pollyannaish as their corporate empires and careers are built upon and either swell or retract to their own success or failures, and not the nation’s.
Private, domestic investors are burdened with Vietnam’s 2,000-year history of invasion, flight, and loss to the point where few are able to see any tomorrow. This fuels their “living for today” syndrome. Few attempt to forge tight business ties to foreign communities, thinking it is best to take as much as they can “today” as any tomorrow remains questionable or problematic.
State owned companies are little better, mouthing the new buzz words that free enterprise is good, but yet unable to move from the Party line that demands all profits to the State. In shrinking but yet prevalent quarters remains the notion that foreign investors are invaders, or at best interlopers. To these few but powerful, the future of the nation’s foreign investor community be dammed, as they suffer from the same “live for today” syndrome, want only to retain their own power base, and hold Vietnam back from being closer to being a good, much more a best, business spot in region.
One recent but striking project that involved a deminimus investment provides an example. The total cost of renting a venue was agreed at US$ 5,000, but in spite of the small size of the project, it consumed the better part of two weeks to negotiate. That is because the foreigner felt compelled to offer his full rental authority in order to reach agreement. A tea drinking ceremony with hands a-shaking and backs a-slapping followed, as the venue manager and the foreign party planned a formal signing ceremony the next day between our two principals.
One hour before the meeting the foreign party received a call that the Vietnamese vendor demanded a 10% increase, claiming the venues director helped the manager to understand his error. The only error made was in the manager’s assessment of what the foreign party would pay. The same venue is often rented to domestic parties for half the agreed sum, or US$ 2,500.
However, the Director no doubt convinced the manager of his negotiating error in failing to fall back upon the time-honored mantra that goes like this:
All foreigners are rich. He can afford to pay more. He won’t miss the extra money and we are in our rights to charge as much as we can.”
The foreign investor rushed to the venue to try to save the deal. Offering that as the parties had already reached agreement, if the vendor kept to the price agreed to, the foreigner would agree immediately to hire the same venue for the next year. At that time he could increase his rental budget and cover the extra amount. There was no way to make the extra rent without going over budget. It did not work. The vendor would not budge.
The foreign investor knew other venues were available. There was no logical reason (using Vietnamese logic) to stay at the current venue. However, applying foreign (to the Vietnamese) logic, the investor reasoned that he could go over budget as the extra 10 per cent, only $500, was not large and the venue would remember the good will of this year’s bargain to help achieve a better price next year.
đang được dịch, vui lòng đợi..
