Office of advertising firm Bates raided in Vietnam
HANOI - The Vietnam offices of top international advertising firm Bates Worldwide have been raided by Vietnamese police investigating possible trading violations,
company sources said on Tuesday.
Around 15-20 uniformed police entered Bates Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City offices last Wednesday morning and removed files, one witness said.
Telephones were cut for the duration of the raid and calls to mobile telephones belonging to expatriate staff were diverted, the sources said.
Foreign staff were subjected to long questioning at a police station over the contents of the files.
Officials from the Market Control Unit in southern Ho Chi Minh City refused to comment on the investigation when contacted by telephone on Tuesday. The Market Control Unit is a regulatory body under the municipal authorities.
Bates Vietnam also declined to comment.Bates Worldwide is part of the British-based Cordiant Communications Group Plc.
Foreign advertising agencies have not had an easy ride in communist Vietnam, and are viewed with suspicion by ideologues who still carry grave misgivings about consumerism and other capitalist activities.
``This is nothing new (in Vietnam) but there were more police than usual,'' a source close to the firm said.
He added that company executives had been advised not to talk to journalists.
``They just took two pieces of work and the correspondence files, nothing very exciting at all,'' the source said, adding that representatives from the Ministry of Trade and economic police were present.
``It's not the first time it's happened, we know it's happened to other agencies before as well.''
The source close to Bates said the investigation centred on standard representative office violations and police were looking for proof of business activities that generated profit or revenues.
Bates Vietnam became the first international advertising agency in Vietnam when it set up in Ho Chi Minh City in 1993.
Agencies are barred from establishing joint ventures or opening branch offices and
prohibited from conducting revenue generating business.
Most agencies, in order to service major international clients, work through a Vietnamese firm to buy advertising space and time and then do all their billing offshore.
Agencies have been common targets in the state-controlled press, accused of raking in huge profits at the expense of local firms and then not paying any tax.
``It's crazy, it's insane. Give us legal status in this country and we can pay taxes,'' a senior foreign advertising executive said.
By Andy Soloman - REUTERS, April 28, 1998.
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