Vietnam Business Guide E-Book

Kimberly Vierra

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 285

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Vietnam Business Guide GETTING STARTED IN TOMORROW'S MARKET TODAY Kimberly and Brian Vierra have written the most useful guide I have seen for foreigners who want to do business in Vietnam. I've spent years in the country, but I learned a lot from this book. It's full of practical information about unique aspects of Vietnam's business culture; registration, legal and tax issues; working with local business partners; living conditions in Vietnam and industry-specific opportunities. Interviews with experienced expatriates bring the issues to life. The Vierras are very frank about tough problems such as corruption, but they also convey a real affection for and understanding of this wonderful country. Raymond Burghardt Former US Ambassador to Vietnam; Director, Indochina Capital Corporation Vietnam Business Guide is the book that every seasoned Southeast Asia hand, bellied up to a Saigon bar, says he ought to write. Be thankful the Vierras made good on this common boast. Unstinting, pragmatic, penetrating and incredibly accessible, this highly readable volume may not keep you from the suffering the pain of starting up, but--if read closely, with a yellow highlighter--may very well spare you the agony of undue blood-letting. There will be blood, but Vietnam Business Guide will mitigate the flow. James Sullivan Managing Director, Mandarin Media; Author, National Geographic Vietnam and Over the Moat Vietnam Business Guide provides practical and balanced information about Vietnam for foreigners to plan their first steps to enter the market. What separate this book from others are its reality and practicality, brought about by both the authors who themselves are entrepreneurs having walked the same journey and the experts who contributed their experiences on different topics throughout the book. The business landscape in Vietnam is speedily changing. Some facts, by the time you read the book, may need updating but still it serves best in providing newcomers essential starting points--a should-read book for those who consider doing business in Vietnam! Vu Minh Tri General Director, Yahoo! Vietnam Co. Ltd. I believe that Vietnam Business Guide has been very objective and true to its purpose. It covers almost all relevant business and personal challenges that one would face in Vietnam, with the authors' firsthand experience shining through in their handling of culture issues and the Vietnamese mindset. Despite the constraints on size, it has sufficient details and a wealth of references to guide entrepreneurs and business executives in the right direction. Crisply written with interviews and real-life anecdotes, it makes for a very interesting read. A must-read book and an invaluable tool kit for anyone looking to Vietnam for business. Manish Dhawan Vice President -- Coffee Division, Olam International Limited

Leseprobe

Contents

Cover

Half Title page

Title page

Copyright page

Preface

Introduction

Structure of the Book

Part 1: Considering Vietnam—Get Ready!

Chapter 1: Why Vietnam?

A Snapshot of Vietnam’s Economy

Economic Overview

Summary

Web Resources

Endnotes

Chapter 2: Living in Vietnam—It isn’t for Everyone

Part 2: Starting up in Vietnam—Get Set!

Roadmap to Starting Your Business in Vietnam

Chapter 3: Establishing Your Presence

Getting Started: A Vietnamese Perspective

Legal Structure

Work Permits

Renting Office Space

Exit Strategy

Summary

Endnotes

Chapter 4: Navigating the Business Landscape

Business Protocol

Corruption

Negotiating with the Vietnamese

Dealing with the Different Government Departments

Import and Export Considerations

Banking and Money Matters

Summary

Endnotes

Chapter 5: The Labor of Labor

Overview of the Labor Landscape

What to Expect: Local Candidates

Summary

Skill Set Gaps

What to Expect: The Viet Kieu Candidate

What to Expect: Working Regulations

Wages

Working Hours

Overtime

Annual Leave

Other Leave

Working Age

Recruiting Procedure

Labor Contracts

Compulsory Insurances

Employment of Expatriates

Summary

Endnotes

Chapter 6: Working with Local Business Partners

Why Do You Need A Partner?

Finding A Partner

Protecting Yourself

How to Approach and Structure A Partnership

Managing Your Business from Abroad

Summary

Endnotes

Chapter 7: Legal and Other Administrative Hurdles

Permitting

Regulation and Overall Ease of Doing Business

The Post Office Metaphor

Endnotes

Part 3: The Daily Challenges—Go!

Chapter 8: Manufacturing, Outsourcing, and Agricultural Production

Manufacturing in Vietnam

Quality Concerns

Strikes

Tax Incentives

Outsourcing to Vietnam

Agricultural Production

Summary

Endnotes

Chapter 9: Selling into the Vietnamese Market

What the Vietnamese Want

Branding and Name Recognition

Local Competition

Distribution

Managing A Local Sales Force

Advertising

Pirated Products and Copies: How They Are Viewed

Summary

Endnotes

Chapter 10: Intellectual Property Rights

IPR Challenges and Realities in Vietnam

The Path to Protection

Endnotes

Chapter 11: Tax

Taxation Overview

Business Taxation

Personal Taxation

Tax-Related Resources

Endnotes

Appendix A: Industrial and Economic Sector Overview

Export Production

Agricultural Sector

Power Generation and Related Services/Products

Construction

Telecommunications Equipment and Services

Oil and Gas Services/Machinery

Airport Support Services and Equipment

Environmental Services

Health Care

Education and Training

Franchising

Information Technology

Endnotes

Appendix B :Vietnam Living Conditions

Severe Climate

Pollution, Sanitation Issues and Disease

Vaccination Schedule for Shorter Stays (Less than Four Weeks)

Vaccination Schedule for Longer Stays (More than Four Weeks)

Inadequate Medical Facilities/Questionable Pharmaceutical Products

Crime

Traffic and Transportation Concerns

Social, Cultural and Recreation Outlets

Schooling

Infrastructure Concerns

Religious Matters

Housing

Goods and Services

Air Travel from Vietnam

Endnotes

Epilogue—Can You Handle the Truth?

Index

VIETNAM BUSINESSGUIDE

Getting Started inTomorrow’s Market Today

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte. Ltd.Published in 2010 by John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte. Ltd.2 Clementi Loop, #02-01, Singapore 129809

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as expressly permitted by law, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate photocopy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center. Requests for permission should be addressed to the Publisher, John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte. Ltd., 2 Clementi Loop, #02-01, Singapore 129809, tel: [phone], fax: [phone], e-mail: [email protected].

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.

Neither the authors nor the publisher are liable for any actions prompted or caused by the information presented in this book. Any views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the organizations they work for.

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John Wiley & Sons, 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ07030, USA John Wiley & Sons, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, P019 8SQ, United Kingdom John Wiley & Sons (Canada) Ltd., 5353 Dundas Street West, Suite 400, Toronto, Ontario, M9B 6HB, Canada John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd, 42 McDougall Street, Milton, Queensland 4064, Australia Wiley-VCH, Boschstrasse 12, D-69469 Weinheim, Germany

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

ISBN 978-0-470-82452-8

Preface

On a warm evening in November of 2000, we were walking along a beach in the Dominican Republic, reflecting on the great day we had just had. We had spent most of the morning mountain biking through the hills with an adventure sports operator that ran a variety of trips in the country. In a contemplative moment I thought out loud, “I bet we could run a trip like what we did today. I’ve traveled to lots of great places where this would work. I bet we could even do it better.” And thus our first business was born.

At that time Kim was working in New York City as a human resources consultant and I was an import manager for a global logistics company. We had met in an international business master’s program in Portland, Oregon, two years previous to this, and were dutifully applying what we had learned and walking the path that many business managers before us had trodden; climbing the corporate ladder and angling for the next promotion.

It wasn’t that we were unhappy in our jobs. Kim loved the kind of work she was doing in New York and today works for the same employer in Singapore. I had just been promoted and was working on a number of interesting projects. But we wanted to create something that was our own; take what we loved to do, find a way to turn it into a business, and make a living out of it. We are avid outdoors people, so we wanted to turn what we were doing on the weekend into a job that we could do every day.

Once we had committed to the idea of pursuing a business of our own, we needed to find a suitable location. Our master’s degrees were in international business with a focus on Asia, but neither of us had any experience in trying to run an adventure business. So we decided to narrow our search in Asia to those countries where we would encounter very little competition; we wanted time to learn how to make our business work without getting into an immediate slugfest with established operators. The more we researched, the more we realized that we were going to have to forge into one of the lesser-developed Southeast Asian countries where our business model would be unique and the competition limited, or at best non-existent. We also wanted to base ourselves where the weather is conducive to year-round activities. Deciding to set up our company in Vietnam, therefore, was the logical conclusion, and, in November 2001, after a year of working on a business plan and feasibility study, we set off on our Vietnam adventure.

It was probably better that we had no idea of what we were getting into. Vietnam had very recently opened its doors to foreign investment and was beginning to recover from the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997. There were few books about doing business in Vietnam. There were very few people who could advise us on how to set up a private business. In fact, Vietnam had just made it legal for private Vietnamese businesses to exist in 2000—the year before we arrived.

Undaunted, we spent a couple of months traveling throughout the country searching for a suitable location. After dismissing several of our previous location ideas, we stumbled upon a beautiful, old hill town in the central highlands, a colonial retreat where the French escaped the heat of Saigon back when Vietnam was a part of French Indochina. The climate was temperate, and traveling out into the hills on our mountain bikes we found an abundance of natural places to explore and a small town, alive with adventure possibilities. We fell in love with the place. But this is where the easy part of our plan ended.

Although we initially spoke with lawyers in Ho Chi Minh City about setting up a business in Vietnam, we decided to pursue the task on our own. We thought that our independent natures and intense curiosity would help us navigate the path we had chosen. In reality the experience was exhausting, frustrating and bewildering. The only thing that kept us going was having no idea how much more we would have to go through. From the massive amount of documentation required for licensing to the ambiguity of what our responsibilities would be, the process of making our business legal nearly got the better of us. Still, we refused to give up simply because we had already come so far. Eventually, in November 2001 our company was established. We could finally experience the joy of working in a business that was our very own.

In 2003, we created our second business; a corporate training company addressing the training needs of multinational firms operating in Vietnam. This time we used a lawyer. The process was still frustrating, but with the compass of our previous experience, and with the help of a good lawyer things were more expeditious and less confusing.

Fast forward to 2009. We had gained valuable knowledge with our hands-on approach—from the licensing of our business to the intricacies of the tax regime and labor contracts—but we had also learned that it’s better to get help. After such a long and interesting journey, we decided our experiences and insights should be passed on to others, which is why we’ve written this book.

Vietnam is a beautiful country that is developing quickly and offers a plethora of opportunities to the bold and adventurous business person. An adventure is guaranteed to all who seek business opportunities here, but going in with a good understanding of what to expect will increase the chance for success. We hope our book serves as a guide to avoiding pitfalls and surmounting obstacles. Most importantly we hope to help entrepreneurs enter into the modern and rapidly-evolving Vietnamese business world.

Special thanks are due to all those who helped make this book possible. To our publisher John Wiley and Sons and especially CJ Hwu. To our editor and friend, Mary Murakami. To all of those who took the time to speak to us about their experiences in Vietnam and act as the experts on different topics including Vu Minh Tri, Aidan Lynam, Chad Ovel, Luzius Wipf, Seth Restaino, and Amanda Tucker. To ORC Worldwide, for generous contributions to the Living in Vietnam section. To our parents, who said “You’re quitting your jobs, moving to Vietnam and doing what?” and then fully supported us anyway. And finally to the many others who took the time to speak with us and chose to remain anonymous. We thank you all.

Introduction

“When the prison doors are opened, the dragon will fly out.”

Ho Chi Minh

The battle still rages on in Vietnam, although the theatre of operations is different. It’s a true fight to succeed in the Vietnamese business environment. The opportunities of a populous and quickly developing country lure many a naïve investor into what inevitably proves too grueling an experience to overcome. The big multinationals have the resources, lawyers and accountants to capitalize on the opportunities, but even they suffer casualties. While a particular project may not fail, many expatriates, brought in as country managers and paid top dollar, do.

Simply applying the strategies that have worked for a company elsewhere in Asia could prove fatal in Vietnam. The culture and history of the country have sculpted a workforce and workplace unlike anything else seen in Asia. Most readers are familiar with a brief history of the country through the Vietnam War (called the American War in Vietnam), and have seen Hollywood’s interpretations. It’s critical to know that the conflict ended fairly recently (1975), and the Vietnamese people that you want to work with are very much a product of their country’s history. Vietnam is still a communist country, and one that is just emerging from a long period of isolation and an even longer period of war. Capitalism is in its infant stages.