The dynamism of the Vietnamese market was evident from the moment I arrived. Ho Chih Minh City, or Saigon as the locals maintain, is young, vibrant and literally abuzz. Saigon has a population of roughly 9 million people. The city is home to a rapidly growing number of cars, trucks and busses but the primary means of transportation comes in the form of more than 3 million motorbikes and scooters. Continuously darting and weaving their way about the city in a manner only best described as organized chaos, I found myself wanting to be out in the streets almost immediately.
I recently traveled to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to participate in the U.S. Grains Council’s 2013 Asia region’s annual Unified Export Strategy (UES) planning sessions. This trip was one of my first times traveling internationally since joining the Council and I was keen to see firsthand the fastest growing market in Southeast Asia and 15th largest market for U.S. agricultural exports (and 8th largest for U.S. feedstuffs).
The non-stop hums and putters became a calming white noise. The exhaust fumes combined with smells of Saigon’s numerous street vendors and hole-in-the-wall restaurants to create a pleasant, pervasive aroma (think the newspaper on which authentic Fish and Chips are served).
But it was in actually crossing streets that I could begin to glimpse what it might feel like to be resident of Saigon. A local tour guide explained it to me using the following example: A normal person who earns $10 might spend $8 or $9 and save or spend the rest later. A Saigonese who earns $10 will spend $12 immediately, expecting that he or she would earn more the next day without any actual certainty. And so, I too tried a few times a day to leave the relative safety of the sidewalk and literally step into uncertainty, trusting that by continuing forward step-by-step, deliberately, and with conviction, would see me safely across.
While the pace and extent to which this country continues its economic emergence and expansion are still to be determined, I find it hard to believe that a people so believing, determined and optimistic can fail. That Vietnam has maintained an annual GDP growth rate of 5-9 percent maintained for 20 years should surprise no one and further bolsters the adage “When trade works, the world wins.�