Investing in Vietnam gaining acceptance
It was not so long ago that people who advocated trade with Vietnam faced reprisals and denunciation by staunch anti-communists in this enclave that's home to the nation’s largest Vietnamese immigrant community.
But with Vietnam's emerging economy, boosted recently by an invitation to join the World Trade Organization, many Vietnamese are openly discussing business opportunities in their homeland.
The shift reflects the growing support among many Vietnamese Americans for strengthening economic ties with Vietnam.
"Vietnam has changed. It may not be enough to some people, but there have been dramatic improvements," said Frank Jao, a prominent developer who launched a major construction project in Vietnam this year.
Jao is based in Little Saigon, a commercial hub in Orange County formed by refugees after the Vietnam War. Some people there have been doing business in Vietnam since the nation established diplomatic ties with the United States in 1995.
Many routinely send cash to relatives to help start small businesses in the Asian nation.
Such activities have accelerated in recent years as Vietnam's economy flourished under a 2001 bilateral economic agreement with the United States. Trade between the former foes has grown from $1.2 billion in 2000 to $7.8 billion last year.
Vietnam, a nation of 84 million people, has Asia's second-fastest growing economy behind China.
As foreign investments surge into Vietnam, some Vietnamese Americans are raising their stakes in the country they fled decades ago.
Jao made his fortune through $400 million in housing and retail developments in Little Saigon. He assembled $10 million in seed money earlier this year to explore investment projects in Vietnam.
So far Jao and his silent, Vietnamese-American partners have acquired minor shares in a Hanoi-based media company and an Internet and broadcasting company called VietnamNet. They're also building a sprawling food-processing and -distribution complex outside Ho Chi Minh City.
Jao was just 27 in 1975 when he escaped Vietnam and resettled in Southern California. He started from scratch, selling vacuum cleaners door to door. He said he never thought he would see his homeland again.
Now he travels every few months to Vietnam, where he is seeing more and more manufacturing and construction activities.
In the process, the lives of his less-privileged countrymen are improving, he said.
"That is promising," he said.
In the past, many investors were discouraged by Vietnam's inaccessible, cumbersome bureaucracy.
But the nation's expected entry into the WTO has given foreign investors more confidence about working there as market reforms promise to ease business transactions.
Source: The Seattle Times |
