Few countries are better placed than Vietnam to get rich
- Bong Burgundy
- Where Did All the People Go?
- Reactions: 286
- Posts: 2503
- Joined: Sun Oct 29, 2017 12:20 pm
- Location: K440 Channel 4 News
Few countries are better placed than Vietnam to get rich
A brief but revealing panic struck Vietnam this month. On January 12th the country’s 79-year-old leader, Nguyen Phu Trong, failed to meet the visiting president of Indonesia. Mr Trong’s name was removed from the official schedule without explanation. Rumours spread that he was dead. For three days noodle shops raged with speculation about who his successor might be. Would it be someone corrupt? Or more pro-China? The ruling Communist Party, a secretive bunch, revealed nothing.
Then, on January 15th, official media showed a frail Mr Trong attending a humdrum session of the legislature in Hanoi, as if to holler “I’m not dead!” like a Monty Python plague victim. The public may never know whether it was sickness or something else that made the party chief disappear from view. But it was unsurprising that his absence should scupper a meeting with a global leader. Everyone wants to be Vietnam’s friend these days.
This is partly for geopolitical reasons. Vietnam, a country of 100m, has positioned itself halfway between China and America, prompting both superpowers to woo it. In 2023 it was the only country that received both Joe Biden and Xi Jinping on state visits. In September it upgraded its relations with America to a “comprehensive strategic partnership”, putting it on the same level as Russia and China.
Although Vietnam’s ruling party has much in common with China’s, ordinary Vietnamese are deeply suspicious of their giant, bullying neighbour. China unlawfully claims parts of the South China Sea that belong to Vietnam; its ships harass Vietnamese fishermen and oil-exploration vessels. An Asian Barometer poll found that only 25% of Vietnamese have a positive view of China, whereas 85% have a positive view of America. The Biden administration, eager to deter Chinese expansion, has supplied Vietnam with coastguard ships to protect its waters. America would love to offer more help, but Vietnam rules out a formal alliance.
The country’s growing geopolitical relevance is based on its strong economic performance, as well as geography. When Vietnam started opening up in the mid-1980s, annual income per head was half of Kenya’s. On the back of pragmatic and increasingly pro-business policies, it has since grown six-fold to $3,700. The government’s ambition to turn Vietnam into a rich country by 2045 is plausible. Economically it has probably never faced a more benign global environment.
Geopolitics is driving investment towards it, as America seeks to decouple from China and private firms of all nationalities sense which way the wind is blowing. Most manufacturers cannot simply pull out of China. But to lessen the cost of trade barriers, they can hedge their bets by making things elsewhere as well (a strategy known as “China + 1”). Many also hope to reduce their exposure to arbitrary policies in China—memories of its painful zero-covid lockdowns remain fresh. “The pandemic…showed us we were too concentrated in China,” notes a foreign manufacturer in Ho Chi Minh City.
Firms that export to the West are shifting production to Vietnam. Brands such as Samsung and Apple are making gadgets there. Suppliers, including Chinese ones, are clustering around them. “Our customers insisted we move to Vietnam” for geopolitical reasons, says an electronics firm’s boss. “We were already thinking about it, since labour costs in China were rising and young Chinese no longer want to work in factories.” In the first three quarters of 2023 foreign direct investment in Vietnam as a share of gdp was twice as large as in Indonesia, the Philippines or Thailand, reckons clsa, a bank (see chart).
If the world keeps fragmenting into rival trading blocs, the global economy could be seriously damaged, reckons the imf. Given the high share of Chinese components in many products labelled “Made in Vietnam”, it is unclear how much America is really reducing its dependence on China by moving supply chains there. But so far the shift has been good for Vietnam.
gdp growth has been bumpy: it slumped during the pandemic, bounced back to 8% in 2022, fell to 4.7% in 2023 amid a credit crisis, and is expected to recover to 5.8% this year. Still, Vietnam is well placed to keep attracting investment, argues Tony Nafte of clsa. It is more open to commerce than its South-East Asian peers. Trade in 2022 was equivalent to an eye-popping 186% of its gdp, versus 45% in Indonesia, 72% in the Philippines and 134% in Thailand.
Vietnam’s plentiful, young manufacturing workers are diligent, reasonably well educated and half as expensive as those in Chinese coastal areas. Vietnam, unlike Indonesia and the Philippines at times, has had no Islamist terrorism, notes a factory boss. It offers fat incentives to foreign investors, both explicit (tax breaks, cheap land) and de facto (high-tech workers were among the first to get covid vaccines). And although it is a one-party state like China, it is friendlier. Expatriates in Beijing complain of a climate of fear; those in Vietnam seem relaxed.
Yet the country has a big political problem: its government is paralysed by indecision. Mr Trong must step down by 2026. As the panic over his rumoured demise reminded everyone, his succession is unclear. Not knowing whom to please in a couple of years, officials are reluctant to make major decisions.
A “blazing furnace” crackdown on corruption, lit by Mr Trong, has made them even jumpier. Hundreds have been arrested; last year the president (number three in the hierarchy) had to resign. Lesser officials have been loth to approve big projects in case they turn out to be tainted. In the coming reshuffle, any whiff of scandal could wreck careers, or worse. The safest thing, many conclude, is to do nothing.
Consider energy. Vietnam has done a fine job of connecting homes to the grid (nearly 100% of rural ones have electricity, up from 14% in 1993). But as industry grows, so does demand for power. The supply can be unreliable: power cuts last year were “terrible”, says a manufacturing boss.
And foreign investors increasingly want to tell customers and shareholders that they use clean energy. Here, Vietnam is struggling. It depends heavily on coal, which makes the air in Hanoi worse than Shanghai’s. A push to install more solar panels has helped a bit, but a promise to hit net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 looks fanciful unless the country harvests the wind off its blustery, 3,000km-long coast.
That may happen, but it is taking ages. The process for granting approvals to survey the seabed for suitable spots is “extremely slow”, complains a wind-power executive, adding that officials are “cautious on making any decisions now”. Little of the legal framework for erecting turbines or selling power to the grid is clear, he sighs. The relevant ministries barely talk to each other, and everything must go through the state-owned power supplier, evn, which is as nimble as Jabba the Hutt. Environmentalists gripe that vested interests (ie, bigwigs who have invested in coal) are blocking the country’s energy transition. Some of those environmentalists have been jailed, typically for “tax fraud”.
Some in the ruling party, such as the prime minister, Pham Minh Chinh, understand how gravely Vietnam is imperilled by global warming. The delta of the Mekong river, which covers much of south-western Vietnam, is sinking even as sea levels rise, meaning the sea could ultimately swallow it.
Pragmatic officials argue that if Vietnam wants to be an industrial powerhouse it should bet on the clean technologies of the future, not the dirty ones that much of the world is trying to scrap. Hence the government’s implicit backing of VinFast, the ambitious but loss-making electric-vehicle arm of its biggest private conglomerate. But faster reform is needed if Vietnam is to meet its climate pledges or prepare for a warmer world.
Vietnam is heavily dependent on trade, and the global business environment is changing fast, so policymakers need to keep up. Sometimes, they do not. Vietnam’s policy of giving tax breaks to foreign investors, for example, has become less of an inducement since the oecd, a club of rich countries, agreed to apply a global minimum corporate-tax rate of 15%. Multinationals that pay little or nothing in Vietnam may be hit with higher charges elsewhere, warns the manager of a foreign manufacturer in Ho Chi Minh City.
Rather than offer tax breaks the government should simplify the rules, he says. “The opportunities are enormous but red tape is the biggest problem,” agrees Bruno Jaspaert, the head of Deep C, an industrial zone in the city of Haiphong. Rules are often contradictory; some projects need the approval of a dozen ministries. More infrastructure would help. Public transport is still poor, so traffic in big cities is slow.
Despite the crackdown, corruption still hurts business. One foreign entrepreneur grumbles about having to play by two sets of rules: the formal ones, such as paying taxes and ensuring his warehouse doesn’t catch fire, and the informal ones, such as paying off local officials so they don’t throttle him with inspections.
Vietnam has risen from dire poverty to modest prosperity in a single generation. But it needs to keep on reforming. Geopolitical winds can change. Rivals can grow more competitive. Vietnam is greying fast: its working-age population will shrink after 2038, by one estimate. And its citizens may tire of their ruling party if living standards do not keep rising rapidly. Regimes, like leaders, do not last for ever.
https://www.economist.com/asia/2024/01/ ... o-get-rich
Then, on January 15th, official media showed a frail Mr Trong attending a humdrum session of the legislature in Hanoi, as if to holler “I’m not dead!” like a Monty Python plague victim. The public may never know whether it was sickness or something else that made the party chief disappear from view. But it was unsurprising that his absence should scupper a meeting with a global leader. Everyone wants to be Vietnam’s friend these days.
This is partly for geopolitical reasons. Vietnam, a country of 100m, has positioned itself halfway between China and America, prompting both superpowers to woo it. In 2023 it was the only country that received both Joe Biden and Xi Jinping on state visits. In September it upgraded its relations with America to a “comprehensive strategic partnership”, putting it on the same level as Russia and China.
Although Vietnam’s ruling party has much in common with China’s, ordinary Vietnamese are deeply suspicious of their giant, bullying neighbour. China unlawfully claims parts of the South China Sea that belong to Vietnam; its ships harass Vietnamese fishermen and oil-exploration vessels. An Asian Barometer poll found that only 25% of Vietnamese have a positive view of China, whereas 85% have a positive view of America. The Biden administration, eager to deter Chinese expansion, has supplied Vietnam with coastguard ships to protect its waters. America would love to offer more help, but Vietnam rules out a formal alliance.
The country’s growing geopolitical relevance is based on its strong economic performance, as well as geography. When Vietnam started opening up in the mid-1980s, annual income per head was half of Kenya’s. On the back of pragmatic and increasingly pro-business policies, it has since grown six-fold to $3,700. The government’s ambition to turn Vietnam into a rich country by 2045 is plausible. Economically it has probably never faced a more benign global environment.
Geopolitics is driving investment towards it, as America seeks to decouple from China and private firms of all nationalities sense which way the wind is blowing. Most manufacturers cannot simply pull out of China. But to lessen the cost of trade barriers, they can hedge their bets by making things elsewhere as well (a strategy known as “China + 1”). Many also hope to reduce their exposure to arbitrary policies in China—memories of its painful zero-covid lockdowns remain fresh. “The pandemic…showed us we were too concentrated in China,” notes a foreign manufacturer in Ho Chi Minh City.
Firms that export to the West are shifting production to Vietnam. Brands such as Samsung and Apple are making gadgets there. Suppliers, including Chinese ones, are clustering around them. “Our customers insisted we move to Vietnam” for geopolitical reasons, says an electronics firm’s boss. “We were already thinking about it, since labour costs in China were rising and young Chinese no longer want to work in factories.” In the first three quarters of 2023 foreign direct investment in Vietnam as a share of gdp was twice as large as in Indonesia, the Philippines or Thailand, reckons clsa, a bank (see chart).
If the world keeps fragmenting into rival trading blocs, the global economy could be seriously damaged, reckons the imf. Given the high share of Chinese components in many products labelled “Made in Vietnam”, it is unclear how much America is really reducing its dependence on China by moving supply chains there. But so far the shift has been good for Vietnam.
gdp growth has been bumpy: it slumped during the pandemic, bounced back to 8% in 2022, fell to 4.7% in 2023 amid a credit crisis, and is expected to recover to 5.8% this year. Still, Vietnam is well placed to keep attracting investment, argues Tony Nafte of clsa. It is more open to commerce than its South-East Asian peers. Trade in 2022 was equivalent to an eye-popping 186% of its gdp, versus 45% in Indonesia, 72% in the Philippines and 134% in Thailand.
Vietnam’s plentiful, young manufacturing workers are diligent, reasonably well educated and half as expensive as those in Chinese coastal areas. Vietnam, unlike Indonesia and the Philippines at times, has had no Islamist terrorism, notes a factory boss. It offers fat incentives to foreign investors, both explicit (tax breaks, cheap land) and de facto (high-tech workers were among the first to get covid vaccines). And although it is a one-party state like China, it is friendlier. Expatriates in Beijing complain of a climate of fear; those in Vietnam seem relaxed.
Yet the country has a big political problem: its government is paralysed by indecision. Mr Trong must step down by 2026. As the panic over his rumoured demise reminded everyone, his succession is unclear. Not knowing whom to please in a couple of years, officials are reluctant to make major decisions.
A “blazing furnace” crackdown on corruption, lit by Mr Trong, has made them even jumpier. Hundreds have been arrested; last year the president (number three in the hierarchy) had to resign. Lesser officials have been loth to approve big projects in case they turn out to be tainted. In the coming reshuffle, any whiff of scandal could wreck careers, or worse. The safest thing, many conclude, is to do nothing.
Consider energy. Vietnam has done a fine job of connecting homes to the grid (nearly 100% of rural ones have electricity, up from 14% in 1993). But as industry grows, so does demand for power. The supply can be unreliable: power cuts last year were “terrible”, says a manufacturing boss.
And foreign investors increasingly want to tell customers and shareholders that they use clean energy. Here, Vietnam is struggling. It depends heavily on coal, which makes the air in Hanoi worse than Shanghai’s. A push to install more solar panels has helped a bit, but a promise to hit net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 looks fanciful unless the country harvests the wind off its blustery, 3,000km-long coast.
That may happen, but it is taking ages. The process for granting approvals to survey the seabed for suitable spots is “extremely slow”, complains a wind-power executive, adding that officials are “cautious on making any decisions now”. Little of the legal framework for erecting turbines or selling power to the grid is clear, he sighs. The relevant ministries barely talk to each other, and everything must go through the state-owned power supplier, evn, which is as nimble as Jabba the Hutt. Environmentalists gripe that vested interests (ie, bigwigs who have invested in coal) are blocking the country’s energy transition. Some of those environmentalists have been jailed, typically for “tax fraud”.
Some in the ruling party, such as the prime minister, Pham Minh Chinh, understand how gravely Vietnam is imperilled by global warming. The delta of the Mekong river, which covers much of south-western Vietnam, is sinking even as sea levels rise, meaning the sea could ultimately swallow it.
Pragmatic officials argue that if Vietnam wants to be an industrial powerhouse it should bet on the clean technologies of the future, not the dirty ones that much of the world is trying to scrap. Hence the government’s implicit backing of VinFast, the ambitious but loss-making electric-vehicle arm of its biggest private conglomerate. But faster reform is needed if Vietnam is to meet its climate pledges or prepare for a warmer world.
Vietnam is heavily dependent on trade, and the global business environment is changing fast, so policymakers need to keep up. Sometimes, they do not. Vietnam’s policy of giving tax breaks to foreign investors, for example, has become less of an inducement since the oecd, a club of rich countries, agreed to apply a global minimum corporate-tax rate of 15%. Multinationals that pay little or nothing in Vietnam may be hit with higher charges elsewhere, warns the manager of a foreign manufacturer in Ho Chi Minh City.
Rather than offer tax breaks the government should simplify the rules, he says. “The opportunities are enormous but red tape is the biggest problem,” agrees Bruno Jaspaert, the head of Deep C, an industrial zone in the city of Haiphong. Rules are often contradictory; some projects need the approval of a dozen ministries. More infrastructure would help. Public transport is still poor, so traffic in big cities is slow.
Despite the crackdown, corruption still hurts business. One foreign entrepreneur grumbles about having to play by two sets of rules: the formal ones, such as paying taxes and ensuring his warehouse doesn’t catch fire, and the informal ones, such as paying off local officials so they don’t throttle him with inspections.
Vietnam has risen from dire poverty to modest prosperity in a single generation. But it needs to keep on reforming. Geopolitical winds can change. Rivals can grow more competitive. Vietnam is greying fast: its working-age population will shrink after 2038, by one estimate. And its citizens may tire of their ruling party if living standards do not keep rising rapidly. Regimes, like leaders, do not last for ever.
https://www.economist.com/asia/2024/01/ ... o-get-rich
1
1
Bringing the news. You stay classy, nas, Cambodia.
-
- I live above an internet cafe
- Reactions: 19
- Posts: 247
- Joined: Sun Oct 29, 2023 7:39 am
Vietnam is an interesting example, where its fortunes have been very much driven by the industriousness of its people in my view. Like Hano, I was on contract in Hanoi in '95 when I started being sent in here 2 weeks a month.
At the time, my first impressions were that Hanoi was poorer than Phnom Penh. It was still under UN embargo and also recovering from a horrible recent history.
3 things changed that very suddenly shortly afterwards. First, Clinton visited and the embargo was lifted. Then the gov allowed overseas Vietnamese to buy property, attracting a heap of foreign investment. The third was the government announced that farmers could profit from farming. Very rapidly Vietnam went from a nett rice importer to the biggest exporter in the world. These things are from memory and may not be 100% accurate.
The explosion of money and activity was extraordinary to observe.
As an aside, I've never met Hano but would like to, though he likes beer so we must have stood shoulder to shoulder somewhere in Hanoi since there were very few places to go and also we both like tweety birds.
At the time, my first impressions were that Hanoi was poorer than Phnom Penh. It was still under UN embargo and also recovering from a horrible recent history.
3 things changed that very suddenly shortly afterwards. First, Clinton visited and the embargo was lifted. Then the gov allowed overseas Vietnamese to buy property, attracting a heap of foreign investment. The third was the government announced that farmers could profit from farming. Very rapidly Vietnam went from a nett rice importer to the biggest exporter in the world. These things are from memory and may not be 100% accurate.
The explosion of money and activity was extraordinary to observe.
As an aside, I've never met Hano but would like to, though he likes beer so we must have stood shoulder to shoulder somewhere in Hanoi since there were very few places to go and also we both like tweety birds.
1
1
- Hanno
- I am a Special Snowflake !!?!
- Reactions: 208
- Posts: 8104
- Joined: Sun Sep 16, 2012 4:07 pm
- Location: Siem Reap
- Contact:
RobW The Pub? White Horse?
I agree with your observations. I was in Phan Thiet in 1996 when Viet Kieu were allowed to send money and to invest. The town exploded overnight!
I agree with your observations. I was in Phan Thiet in 1996 when Viet Kieu were allowed to send money and to invest. The town exploded overnight!
"I realized that If I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes."
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh
- Hot_Pink_Urinal_Mint
- I need professional help
- Reactions: 74
- Posts: 1044
- Joined: Tue Nov 10, 2009 3:19 pm
- Location: Right behind you
The article doesn't mention the suitcases of cash coming over the Northern border from the Chinese nor the large amount of North Korean "super dollars" that were moving through the banking system in the early 2000s.
The Pub opened around 2005/6? after Matt did a CELTA course and realized he was never going to be a teacher - then he met Jimmy who had already started KOTO.
Most people drank around bia hoi corner and Ta Hien street. There was also the awesome Phuc Tan Bar over the dyke road, until the government dynamited it live on TV. Those were some great days in Hanoi, now not so much.
The Pub opened around 2005/6? after Matt did a CELTA course and realized he was never going to be a teacher - then he met Jimmy who had already started KOTO.
Most people drank around bia hoi corner and Ta Hien street. There was also the awesome Phuc Tan Bar over the dyke road, until the government dynamited it live on TV. Those were some great days in Hanoi, now not so much.
Last edited by Hot_Pink_Urinal_Mint on Sat Jan 27, 2024 1:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Hah. The White Horse was my first Hanoi hang out, constantly banging my head on the roof. What a shithole. I was a sprightly young dude with money in my 20s and couldn't score in a brothel. Could never understand why the horrible old alkies had beautiful women hanging around them. Now I understand better.
The Pub - later became Polite Pub, opened in '95? It's still there, but now quite upmarket for the gilded youth.
- Hanno
- I am a Special Snowflake !!?!
- Reactions: 208
- Posts: 8104
- Joined: Sun Sep 16, 2012 4:07 pm
- Location: Siem Reap
- Contact:
I have the scars to prove I was at White Horse......RobW wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2024 12:54 pmHah. The White Horse was my first Hanoi hang out, constantly banging my head on the roof. What a shithole. I was a sprightly young dude with money in my 20s and couldn't score in a brothel. Could never understand why the horrible old alkies had beautiful women hanging around them. Now I understand better.
The Pub - later became Polite Pub, opened in '95? It's still there, but now quite upmarket for the gilded youth.
Hot_Pink_Urinal_Mint I can assure you that I have never had a beer at bia hoi corner and probably never will.
"I realized that If I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes."
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh
- spitthedog
- Is the World Outside still there ?
- Reactions: 124
- Posts: 5722
- Joined: Mon Feb 17, 2014 10:19 pm
What about the thieving though??....Bong Burgundy wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2024 6:48 am
Vietnam’s plentiful, young manufacturing workers are diligent, reasonably well educated and half as expensive as those in Chinese coastal areas. Vietnam, unlike Indonesia and the Philippines at times, has had no Islamist terrorism, notes a factory boss. It offers fat incentives to foreign investors, both explicit (tax breaks, cheap land) and de facto (high-tech workers were among the first to get covid vaccines). And although it is a one-party state like China, it is friendlier. Expatriates in Beijing complain of a climate of fear; those in Vietnam seem relaxed.
"I don't care what the people are thinking, i ain't drunk i'm just drinking"
-
- I live above an internet cafe
- Reactions: 19
- Posts: 247
- Joined: Sun Oct 29, 2023 7:39 am
Thailand is the biggest rice exporter in the world not Vietnam.RobW wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2024 11:52 amVietnam is an interesting example, where its fortunes have been very much driven by the industriousness of its people in my view. Like Hano, I was on contract in Hanoi in '95 when I started being sent in here 2 weeks a month.
At the time, my first impressions were that Hanoi was poorer than Phnom Penh. It was still under UN embargo and also recovering from a horrible recent history.
3 things changed that very suddenly shortly afterwards. First, Clinton visited and the embargo was lifted. Then the gov allowed overseas Vietnamese to buy property, attracting a heap of foreign investment. The third was the government announced that farmers could profit from farming. Very rapidly Vietnam went from a nett rice importer to the biggest exporter in the world. These things are from memory and may not be 100% accurate.
The explosion of money and activity was extraordinary to observe.
As an aside, I've never met Hano but would like to, though he likes beer so we must have stood shoulder to shoulder somewhere in Hanoi since there were very few places to go and also we both like tweety birds.
-
- I live above an internet cafe
- Reactions: 19
- Posts: 247
- Joined: Sun Oct 29, 2023 7:39 am
I’ve worked in Shanghai and there’s no “climate of fear” just absolute nonsense,foreigners dancing on the bar at Zapata’s with girls going around giving free shots of tequila didn’t seem very scared to me at all,plus the prerequisite bar girls hanging around looking for stragglers?spitthedog wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2024 6:48 pmWhat about the thieving though??....Bong Burgundy wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2024 6:48 am
Vietnam’s plentiful, young manufacturing workers are diligent, reasonably well educated and half as expensive as those in Chinese coastal areas. Vietnam, unlike Indonesia and the Philippines at times, has had no Islamist terrorism, notes a factory boss. It offers fat incentives to foreign investors, both explicit (tax breaks, cheap land) and de facto (high-tech workers were among the first to get covid vaccines). And although it is a one-party state like China, it is friendlier. Expatriates in Beijing complain of a climate of fear; those in Vietnam seem relaxed.
Vietnam spoke Chinese for 2,000 years or more before they broke away that’s why they hate and distrust the Chinese,it was a foreig monk I think French that invented their language,which has 7 tones as opposed to Thai’s 5 tones?
- Mike Farce
- I have Cheap Mobile Internet
- Reactions: 74
- Posts: 445
- Joined: Sat Feb 18, 2023 11:36 pm
No, India is by a long shot.Chroy Changvarite wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2024 6:59 pmThailand is the biggest rice exporter in the world not Vietnam.RobW wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2024 11:52 amVietnam is an interesting example, where its fortunes have been very much driven by the industriousness of its people in my view. Like Hano, I was on contract in Hanoi in '95 when I started being sent in here 2 weeks a month.
At the time, my first impressions were that Hanoi was poorer than Phnom Penh. It was still under UN embargo and also recovering from a horrible recent history.
3 things changed that very suddenly shortly afterwards. First, Clinton visited and the embargo was lifted. Then the gov allowed overseas Vietnamese to buy property, attracting a heap of foreign investment. The third was the government announced that farmers could profit from farming. Very rapidly Vietnam went from a nett rice importer to the biggest exporter in the world. These things are from memory and may not be 100% accurate.
The explosion of money and activity was extraordinary to observe.
As an aside, I've never met Hano but would like to, though he likes beer so we must have stood shoulder to shoulder somewhere in Hanoi since there were very few places to go and also we both like tweety birds.
^ We're talking mid '90s but the point remains. Once the farmers were able to keep the profits, production exploded.
- Hanno
- I am a Special Snowflake !!?!
- Reactions: 208
- Posts: 8104
- Joined: Sun Sep 16, 2012 4:07 pm
- Location: Siem Reap
- Contact:
Vietnamese has six tones, it goes back a couple of thousand years, the Vietnamese always spoke Vietnamese, it was the romanized alphabet that was introduced by priests in the 1700's before being formalized by Alexandre de Rhodes, a French Jesuit priest, in the 18th century.Chroy Changvarite wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2024 7:25 pmI’ve worked in Shanghai and there’s no “climate of fear” just absolute nonsense,foreigners dancing on the bar at Zapata’s with girls going around giving free shots of tequila didn’t seem very scared to me at all,plus the prerequisite bar girls hanging around looking for stragglers?spitthedog wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2024 6:48 pmWhat about the thieving though??....Bong Burgundy wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2024 6:48 am
Vietnam’s plentiful, young manufacturing workers are diligent, reasonably well educated and half as expensive as those in Chinese coastal areas. Vietnam, unlike Indonesia and the Philippines at times, has had no Islamist terrorism, notes a factory boss. It offers fat incentives to foreign investors, both explicit (tax breaks, cheap land) and de facto (high-tech workers were among the first to get covid vaccines). And although it is a one-party state like China, it is friendlier. Expatriates in Beijing complain of a climate of fear; those in Vietnam seem relaxed.
Vietnam spoke Chinese for 2,000 years or more before they broke away that’s why they hate and distrust the Chinese,it was a foreig monk I think French that invented their language,which has 7 tones as opposed to Thai’s 5 tones?
"I realized that If I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes."
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh
-
- Similar Topics
- Replies
- Views
- Last post
-
- 11 Replies
- 3015 Views
-
Last post by Lucky Lucan
Fri Feb 26, 2021 8:43 am
-
-
Vietnam Airlines to resume flights between Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos
by Londo » Fri May 26, 2023 3:58 pm » in Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Lao forums - 0 Replies
- 1030 Views
-
Last post by Londo
Fri May 26, 2023 3:58 pm
-
-
- 5 Replies
- 3531 Views
-
Last post by Devo
Tue Jul 25, 2023 5:44 pm
-
-
The countries most in debt to China.
by Lucky Lucan » Thu Nov 21, 2019 6:06 pm » in Cambodia Speakeasy - 5 Replies
- 3754 Views
-
Last post by Guru Meditation
Sun Nov 24, 2019 11:12 pm
-