Business
Hours
- Most
Vietnamese
are early risers, so businesses and shops open early.
- Most
businesses are open Monday through Saturday from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm
- Banks are
open Monday to Friday from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm and on Saturdays from
8:00 am to 1:00 pm. Lunchtime is usually between 11:30 am to 1:30 pm.
- Many
businesses, shops, and all government offices are closed during this
lunch period. Shops are open from about 7:30 am to 7:00 pm, with some
open longer.
Corporate
Structure
There are public and private sector organizations, although
most of the big companies are state-owned, state-run companies.
There are three types of companies: those owned by and operated by the
central government(usually large business), those owned and operated by
the local people's committees (have lower quality level of
managment)and privately owned and operated companies(new
and generally well-managed, but tend to be patriarchal with centralized
decision-making. Also are often very shallowly financed.)
It can be
very helpful to cultivate ministry contacts. Each ministry has an
international relations directors. All contacts and approvals
must go through this department unless otherwise authorized by the
minister or other senior official.
Most
foreign businesses will have to interact with the local People's
Committee, which oversees local city and district investments and
projects. The State Committee for Cooperation and Investment is
responsible for attracting foreign investment and must issue the final
approval for any transaction. Approvals can take a long time
depending on the size of the project. Your local representative
should be able to manage these business aspect for you.
Agreement
and Negotiation
Vietnamese will review your proposal and evaluate standard
business issues as well as the extent of technology transfer and
employee training. This last issue can often be a critical
factor, for few Vietnamese have specialized
training for manufacturing or management functions.
Research
is not generally conducted, for Vietnamese have few resources available
to them. They will, however, be happy to utilize whatever
information you provide. Consensus building is the key aspect of
decision-making, and the process remains very bureaucratic, with most
decisions made by committee. Realize clearly and in advance that
your time schedule will probably not be shared. Everything will
take much more time than you expect.
Although
senior officials may politely say "No," the average Vietnamese is
unlikely to say "No," and will go to great lengths to maintain
harmony. Be careful not to make erroneous assumptions. Ask
indirect questions.
Use your
local partner to make frequent visits to monitor any new or ongoing
transactions and to build relationships.
Communicating
with other countries via telephone calls and faxes is very expensive
for
the Vietnamese. For this reason, you may feel that your
Vietnamese
counterpart is not keeping in touch with you. One solution is to offer
to
reimburse your counterpart for his or her communication expenses.
Copyright, 2005
© Runckel & Associates
www.Business-in-Asia.com
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