Word: vietnamize
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...That wasn't always so. Conventional wisdom has long held that Vietnam's communist north may have won the war 30 years ago, but the capitalist-friendly south won the peace. If you wanted to sip lattes by a lake or meet government bureaucrats, laid-back Hanoi was the place to be. Those serious about making money went to Ho Chi Minh City, with its bustling boulevards and entrepreneurial business culture. As recently as three years ago, Ho Chi Minh City (still informally called Saigon) took in 30% of the country's foreign direct investment (FDI) and generated...
...past year, Saigon has seen some new competition for foreign dollars. As international corporations seek alternatives to China's rising labor costs, Vietnam's north-where wages are cheaper than both southern Vietnam and coastal China-is starting to reap the benefits of slow but steady free-market reforms. Last year, Hanoi for the first time overtook Ho Chi Minh City in FDI, capturing $1.6 billion of the total $6.2 billion. Saigon's share was $738 million. In the past five years, numerous foreign manufacturers have set up shop in the capital, among them Fujitsu, LG Electronics and Daewoo. "People...
...north is riding a second wave of economic development in Vietnam. During the early 1990s, encouraged by the government's heralded doi moi (renewal) economic reforms, investors poured in and growth soared. But an arduous, corrupt licensing process plus bureaucratic meddling soured the outlook. Investment all but dried up after the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Starting in 2000, however, leaders intensified efforts to compete in the global economy. "The crisis was actually good for Vietnam," says Vietnamese-American venture capitalist Don Lam. "It forced the government to think realistically, to be proactive instead of just sitting and waiting...
...Investors' newfound interest in north Vietnam can't be explained just by simplified commercial procedures. The north has a number of advantages over the south, including lower wages, cheaper real estate and a nearby port that is less clogged than Saigon's. Sumitomo, the Japanese real estate giant, first looked to the south when it was planning to build a Vietnamese industrial park in 1997. But after comparing Saigon's infrastructure and labor costs, the developers chose Hanoi instead, and the gamble paid off. The first two phases of Sumitomo's 300-hectare Thang Long industrial park in Hanoi sold...
...Plus: there's always location, location, location. Hanoi is situated 170 km from the border with China, which last year displaced the U.S. as Vietnam's largest trading partner (two-way trade: $8.7 billion). The U.S. remains Vietnam's largest single-country export market, but many of the companies locating in the north think that, too, may be changing quickly. Most of the companies that have placed factories in the north harbor big plans of sending their finished products, from bathroom fixtures to digital cameras, to the mainland. On a small scale, that's already happening. Canon's Vietnam general...