Friday, January 18, 2008
From Shanghai: Era-Intersection of Time
I wanted to post this entry about a show we saw while in Shanghai. It's called Era-Intersection of Time and you can find the website here: ERA-Intersection of Time. It was a pretty amazing show. There are actually a couple of YouTube videos up. Here's one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNKsZi1Vrn8. If you ever get the chance to get to Shanghai, you've got to see this show. It's pretty amazing.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Company Visit - TNS
Our last company visit of Vietnam, and of the trip, was with TNS, a global marketing information company (http://www.tnsglobal.com/). We were given a presentation by Mr. Ralf Matthaes, Managing Director of TNS Vietnam. The presentation was an overview of Vietnam and its key sectors. This was a really interesting overview of Vietnam and spoke to many of the advantages that Vietnam has for foreign businesses. Ralf took us through a series of slides showcasing the "Advantage of 1" of Vietnam. Some of them are:
- 1 language - Viet
- 1 government - Communist
- 1 highway - HW#1
- 1 Coastline - South China Sea
- 1 Religion - Pragmatism
- 1 Direction - Market Capitalism
There were a few others but this gives the general idea.
We also learned some interesting facts for businesses to consider for setting up shop in Vietnam. The Vietnamese government won't block the internet like China will because they don't want bad press. Vietnamese are tech savvy with a 58% urban mobile phone ownership and with Internet usage in-home at 21%, which doubled in 2007. And interestingly, the biggest role model for the Vietnamese is Bill Gates.
There are 3 big things that are no-nos for coming to do business in Vietnam:
1. "Do what you say" - Don't talk about something unless you can do it
2. The Vietnamese don't like comparisons to China
3. Never talk down to the Vietnamese
Overall, Vietnam seems like a very hospitable place to do business in. The only thing you can't really do is criticize the government, although you can voice a positive opinion about something. The government is working to crack down on corruption, although they call it "transparency" and not "corruption". It goes back to the fact the government doesn't like negative press.
I'll compare China to Vietnam here only because it seems that Vietnam is making a bolder move to open up it's economy and markets to foreigners. The Vietnamese are much better at protecting the environment and are keenly aware of protecting the environment as they grow and start building more factories. This may seem small but after having spent 5 days in Shanghai and experienced the smog there, it's refreshing to know that Vietnam is taking a more active role to avoid that.
- 1 language - Viet
- 1 government - Communist
- 1 highway - HW#1
- 1 Coastline - South China Sea
- 1 Religion - Pragmatism
- 1 Direction - Market Capitalism
There were a few others but this gives the general idea.
We also learned some interesting facts for businesses to consider for setting up shop in Vietnam. The Vietnamese government won't block the internet like China will because they don't want bad press. Vietnamese are tech savvy with a 58% urban mobile phone ownership and with Internet usage in-home at 21%, which doubled in 2007. And interestingly, the biggest role model for the Vietnamese is Bill Gates.
There are 3 big things that are no-nos for coming to do business in Vietnam:
1. "Do what you say" - Don't talk about something unless you can do it
2. The Vietnamese don't like comparisons to China
3. Never talk down to the Vietnamese
Overall, Vietnam seems like a very hospitable place to do business in. The only thing you can't really do is criticize the government, although you can voice a positive opinion about something. The government is working to crack down on corruption, although they call it "transparency" and not "corruption". It goes back to the fact the government doesn't like negative press.
I'll compare China to Vietnam here only because it seems that Vietnam is making a bolder move to open up it's economy and markets to foreigners. The Vietnamese are much better at protecting the environment and are keenly aware of protecting the environment as they grow and start building more factories. This may seem small but after having spent 5 days in Shanghai and experienced the smog there, it's refreshing to know that Vietnam is taking a more active role to avoid that.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Company Visit: Quang Trung Software City (QTSC) Development Corp
This was the first of our company visits on January 14th. The QTSC was created in 2001 as a software park, the biggest of eight software parks in Vietnam, to have all the infrastructure and people co-located to serve clients and enable Vietnam to bring more IT work to the country. You can read more about them here: http://www.quangtrungsoft.com.vn/home.jsp. Below are a few snapshots of the park as we drove in and from when we sat through the presentation.
The presentation was given by Mr. Lam Long, Chief Investment and Trade Promotion, and Ms. Pham Thi Kim Phuong, Sales Manager, pictured here.
It was very interesting insight into how Vietnam is trying to develop their resources and become a major option for outsourcing. It reminded me of an article I read a few months ago about how Vietnam wanted to become the next China. After visiting this park, I can see how they are going about doing that.
The park was created in order to offer a number of advantages to customers: tax breaks, office rental, one-stop service, dedicated infrastructure from fiber optic to uninterrupted phone and Internet, government support, and Human Resources. The park has strong relationships to 33 universities and colleges and their are 6 IT training centers in the QTSC. Their target outsourcing is for BPO, IT Training and Data Center. They are also partners with Cisco, Sun, and Microsoft. They have advantages for foreign investors in that they can own the land and houses, a plus from the way it's done in China where I don't think foreigners can own the land. They also offer the advantage of cheap labor since the typical salary for a software developer there is $250-$300 per month.
It's interesting to see how the government is supporting this whole effort and coordinating these efforts. I think comparing Vietnam to China, one can see that the Vietnamese government has a much easier time to lead the effort and enforce policies than the government in China. Vietnam is much smaller and doesn't have the independent provinces to contend with. Both countries have infrastructure problems with poor roads but it seems that Vietnam could more quickly catch up to China because of that. In China, the main problems expanding into the interior are the poor roads. Scott Jenkins from our Lowe's visit talked to us about that. Vietnam also has poor roads but they are starting to build major highways, one of which we road on going to the Mekong River for our tour.
The presentation was given by Mr. Lam Long, Chief Investment and Trade Promotion, and Ms. Pham Thi Kim Phuong, Sales Manager, pictured here.
It was very interesting insight into how Vietnam is trying to develop their resources and become a major option for outsourcing. It reminded me of an article I read a few months ago about how Vietnam wanted to become the next China. After visiting this park, I can see how they are going about doing that.The park was created in order to offer a number of advantages to customers: tax breaks, office rental, one-stop service, dedicated infrastructure from fiber optic to uninterrupted phone and Internet, government support, and Human Resources. The park has strong relationships to 33 universities and colleges and their are 6 IT training centers in the QTSC. Their target outsourcing is for BPO, IT Training and Data Center. They are also partners with Cisco, Sun, and Microsoft. They have advantages for foreign investors in that they can own the land and houses, a plus from the way it's done in China where I don't think foreigners can own the land. They also offer the advantage of cheap labor since the typical salary for a software developer there is $250-$300 per month.
It's interesting to see how the government is supporting this whole effort and coordinating these efforts. I think comparing Vietnam to China, one can see that the Vietnamese government has a much easier time to lead the effort and enforce policies than the government in China. Vietnam is much smaller and doesn't have the independent provinces to contend with. Both countries have infrastructure problems with poor roads but it seems that Vietnam could more quickly catch up to China because of that. In China, the main problems expanding into the interior are the poor roads. Scott Jenkins from our Lowe's visit talked to us about that. Vietnam also has poor roads but they are starting to build major highways, one of which we road on going to the Mekong River for our tour.
Well, I'm back stateside and trying to get back into the swing of things again. I'll be posting up analysis of the company visits I had on my last day that I didn't have time to post before and also organize the photos better. In the meantime, I thought I'd post a video of traffic in HCM. I have another longer one that is like 180 MB that I can't post. I'll try to find a way and get the URL out. It's pretty neat.
It was really something to see. The national vehicle, it seems, is the moped. There are so many of them and it's amazing to watch people, including me!, cross the street. You have to look both ways constantly in order to catch that stray driver. Plus, even with the crossing light. What was really amazing was that the moped drivers act like schools of fish you would see on some nature show. They can all shift together to avoid someone or something. Anyway, enjoy.
It was really something to see. The national vehicle, it seems, is the moped. There are so many of them and it's amazing to watch people, including me!, cross the street. You have to look both ways constantly in order to catch that stray driver. Plus, even with the crossing light. What was really amazing was that the moped drivers act like schools of fish you would see on some nature show. They can all shift together to avoid someone or something. Anyway, enjoy.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Thoughts on Ho Chi Minh City
I am totally diggin' this city. The vibe and the people is are totally awesome. It's amazing how many places to eat, hang out at and see are around here. On the way to today's company visits, we stopped at a Cantonese Temple (pics below).
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Tour of the Mekong River
On Saturday we took a tour of the Mekong Delta. It was very cool to ride in a little boat on the river and meet some locals. We got a tour of Unicorn Island and watched where some people made Coconut Candy. We also got a little entertainment. I managed to record a few and am posting them here.
Enjoy,
C
(These vids are pretty big so I can only post one now. I'm off to breakfast and an early departure for our first company visit today. I'll post the others later)
Enjoy,
C
(These vids are pretty big so I can only post one now. I'm off to breakfast and an early departure for our first company visit today. I'll post the others later)
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Company Visit - IDG Ventures Vietnam
Our first company visit in Vietnam was IDG Ventures Vietnam (http://www.idgvv.com.vn/). We met with Thu Huong Duong, PR & Operations Director, Hiep Do, VP of Business Strategy, and luckily a guy who was a client. I can't remember his name but, funny coincidence, he's a Virginia Tech grad living in Vietnam and married to a local woman (he's Korean). He started a company called iSphere. IDGVV is the first IT venture capital fund in Vietnam. They talked a little about their portfolio and it sounds like they have some good companies coming up that they hope to spin off either through IPOs or M&A. We got some valuable insight into what it would take to start doing business in Vietnam, and it's very similar to doing business in China. If you're one of the big boys, i.e. one of the true multinational companies that has a lot of money and clout, Vietnam offers you some amazing and lucrative opportunities. If you're a small or medium-sized company, than you do business at a much greater risk. One must also find the right local partner to do business with. This is crucial as they would be someone who would understand local culture and life and could keep one on the right path and avoid pitfalls.
And that's the tricky part.
Finding a good partner, just like in Vietnam, can be hard with the bad side of things leading to a disaster.
But, the opportunity and potential is there. The IT market in Vietnam is booming. Some interesting facts about Ho Chi Minh City is that about 65% of the population is below 35 years of age, and that in a city of about 8 million. The Internet penetration of the country is about 28%, which is actually pretty darn good. The mobile phone penetration is about 30%.
The strategy that IDGVV is following is to not reinvent the wheel. They copy what works and make it work for Vietnam. But, it remains to be seen if it will work outside of Vietnam.
Some of the issues that affect the IT sector and what IDGVV does is the Vietnamese education system. It doesn't encourage punctuality, professionalism, etc. IDGVV tries to set up companies to be in good positions and that involves working with the founders to make them better businessmen. That sometimes doesn't sit well with them. This is all in contrast to China where the government pushes the education system to develop more engineers, as detailed in Friedman's book The World is Flat, and even go so far as to sponsor national business contests where students design and develop a business plan and product and the winning team gets a cash prize. I read about that briefly when I was in Shanghai and got The China Daily. However, I have no doubt that Vietnam will soon follow China as they wish to be the next China. In fact, the folks at IDGVV told us that the government is letting private universities open up and they are passing tax legislation to allow for 0% taxes for education spending.
IDGVV is focusing on what they refer to as TMT - Telecom, Media, and Technology. The folks we met with told us that in the next 3 to 5 years, their biggest issue will be resources.
The folks also gave us some tips on how to do business in Vietnam. First, one has to establish a trust relationship with people. That's done by first having coffee with someone and learning about each other's families. Next they gave us these tips:
1. Find the right partner
2. Have patience since everything is done at a much slower pace
I think there was a third tip but I can't quite remember it. I'll try to ask around and get that down.
Anyway, these are my thoughts and impressions on the visit with IDGVV. It was great and the people were interesting.
And that's the tricky part.
Finding a good partner, just like in Vietnam, can be hard with the bad side of things leading to a disaster.
But, the opportunity and potential is there. The IT market in Vietnam is booming. Some interesting facts about Ho Chi Minh City is that about 65% of the population is below 35 years of age, and that in a city of about 8 million. The Internet penetration of the country is about 28%, which is actually pretty darn good. The mobile phone penetration is about 30%.
The strategy that IDGVV is following is to not reinvent the wheel. They copy what works and make it work for Vietnam. But, it remains to be seen if it will work outside of Vietnam.
Some of the issues that affect the IT sector and what IDGVV does is the Vietnamese education system. It doesn't encourage punctuality, professionalism, etc. IDGVV tries to set up companies to be in good positions and that involves working with the founders to make them better businessmen. That sometimes doesn't sit well with them. This is all in contrast to China where the government pushes the education system to develop more engineers, as detailed in Friedman's book The World is Flat, and even go so far as to sponsor national business contests where students design and develop a business plan and product and the winning team gets a cash prize. I read about that briefly when I was in Shanghai and got The China Daily. However, I have no doubt that Vietnam will soon follow China as they wish to be the next China. In fact, the folks at IDGVV told us that the government is letting private universities open up and they are passing tax legislation to allow for 0% taxes for education spending.
IDGVV is focusing on what they refer to as TMT - Telecom, Media, and Technology. The folks we met with told us that in the next 3 to 5 years, their biggest issue will be resources.
The folks also gave us some tips on how to do business in Vietnam. First, one has to establish a trust relationship with people. That's done by first having coffee with someone and learning about each other's families. Next they gave us these tips:
1. Find the right partner
2. Have patience since everything is done at a much slower pace
I think there was a third tip but I can't quite remember it. I'll try to ask around and get that down.
Anyway, these are my thoughts and impressions on the visit with IDGVV. It was great and the people were interesting.
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