Viet Kieu forced to work secretly
Nearly 30 years after the U.S.-Vietnam war ended, entrepreneur Thinh Nguyen does business in both countries and catches fire from both sides.
Nguyen, a Vietnamese-American, started a software company in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, about two years ago. But in Vietnam, the secret police have trailed him and given him the nickname "bald-headed scientist." And in the United States, where he has a Fremont office, relatives give him the "communism is evil" speech and Vietnamese-American customers will not say they do business with him.
Nguyen is one of a small but growing number of Viet Kieu, overseas Vietnamese who are quietly exploring technology business possibilities in their former homeland. There are several reasons for the growth: Vietnam's tech infrastructure is improving, its government now wants a stronger tech sector and a new generation of Vietnamese-Americans has the capital and know-how to invest overseas.
But wounds from the war have prevented Vietnamese-Americans from following in the steps of Indian, Chinese or Taiwanese immigrants, who have used their success in Silicon Valley to help build impressive tech economies in their countries of birth.
"A lot of my friends see the opportunity," says Nguyen, who fled Vietnam when he was 17 in 1975. But, he adds, "They don't want to challenge the community. ... The backlash is real."
Vietnam has officially been communist since South Vietnam fell to the North and thousands of residents escaped, mostly by boat. But many younger Vietnamese-Americans now believe the country is becoming more capitalistic. One telling sign: Consulate officials in San Francisco no longer refer to each other as "comrades" in conversation.
There is still a lot of red tape, and the government at times seems conflicted about inviting outside investors into Vietnam, mainly an agricultural country. But it has launched a campaign to attract capital _ financial and intellectual _ from overseas Vietnamese.
For instance, it is considering allowing dual citizenship for overseas Vietnamese, says Nguyen Manh Hung, Vietnam's consulate general in San Francisco.
"Vietnam is changing," Nguyen Manh Hung says. "The war is behind us. We have reconciled with the Americans ... There is no reason why we can't reconcile with each other."
On average, 20,000 new companies are registered with the Vietnamese government every year. There are 114 government-licensed business ventures run by Viet Kieu, a jump of more than 40 percent from the previous year, according to the government.
"Their intention is to come back and turn Vietnam into another India, China or Taiwan," says Than Trong Phuc, Vietnam manager for Intel, who grew up in Santa Clara, Calif.
Thinh Nguyen, who has about 70 employees, can quickly think of at least 25 tech companies headed by overseas Vietnamese. Most come from California, often the valley, home to the second-largest Vietnamese community outside Vietnam.
One reason for the influx of techies is the reliable Internet connections now available in Vietnam, although at a high price. As with India or China, another attraction is a young, cheap and talented work force.
"I believe that Vietnam has a great talent pool," says Quinn Tran, co-founder of KnowledgeTek Software, a Redwood City company with operations in Hanoi, Vietnam, and Ho Chi Minh City. "They have the capacity to compete. And I suddenly feel the connection and desire to help entrepreneurs there succeed."
But history still gets in the way _ particularly for the generation that fought in the war. Older government leaders in Vietnam are wary of opening up to outsiders. And older Vietnamese-Americans point to continued human-rights violations and oppose those seeking business opportunities in Vietnam.
"They just smell the money, not the blood of the people who were killed by the communists," says Vu Tru Nguyen, 57, a former South Vietnamese naval captain who spent three years in a "re-education" camp before fleeing by boat in 1981. "We don't do business with them. We don't talk to them."
And so Viet Kieu do business with some secrecy.
The Vietnamese Silicon Valley Network of tech professionals recently organized a meeting with an executive from the Corporation for Financing and Promoting Technology, or FPT. The company was founded by the son-in-law of Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, the famed commander who fought against the United States, and the government owns 10 percent of it.
Fearing protests, organizers asked those invited to RSVP by e-mail and then call someone else for directions to the Mountain View, Calif., gathering.
"It's not on the Web site," says Huy Do, president of VSVN, which is planning a December visit to Vietnam.
Yuric Hannart is considering the FPT's invitation to do business in Vietnam he is looking for partnerships for his Santa Clara software and IT support start-up, Ontelix.
"Many people caution me about doing business in Vietnam," says Hannart, who changed his Vietnamese name for personal reasons. But, he adds, "All the major companies are doing business in Vietnam. Does that mean Intel believes in communism?"
In fact, entrepreneurs worry more about the business climate in Vietnam _ including lax intellectual property laws and inconsistency. Though the government offers a five-year tax break, the rules are vague and can change suddenly.
"They are just coming out of a system in which it wasn't really necessary to think about a global economy," says David Dapice, chief economist at Harvard University's Vietnam Program. "It was a closed one, except to the Soviet Union. Those habits of thought change slowly."
For instance, Intel was charged a 5 percent value-added tax on imported microprocessors in Hanoi, but a 10 percent tax in Ho Chi Minh City. Intel won an appeal; a bureaucrat had misread the law.
"I think Vietnam still has some way to go," says Intel's Than. "A lot of Viet Kieu are reluctant to come back. They are not sure of the law of the land."
Thinh Nguyen, though, is betting about $500,000 on his belief the government is serious about building a tech economy. These days, officials are even willing to hear his criticism of their policies so long as it is in private.
"I've put in a lot of money, a lot of time in there," Thinh Nguyen says. "They take it a lot better from me than someone who just gets off the plane. ... A lot of my friends ask me: Is this based from your heart or your head? I think it's both."
By John Boudreau - Contra Costa Times - October 13, 2004.
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