It’s July 4th, Independence Day in America, which is generally the day we celebrate our freedom to take a day off work and barbecue. It’s a bit ironic then that I’m in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) presently. Rest assured, they’re not celebrating the United States today or, frankly, any day. But then again, I don’t sense even a hint of anti-American sentiments here, and in fact everyone has been very hospitable, delightfully engaging. Notably, Vietnam, with a population of 84 million, is decidedly young; the median age is only about 25 (meaning, most were born after the war ended in 1975). In contrast, the median age in the US is 36.
It’s also interesting to note that the Vietnamese-American population is surging currently in the US due to improving relationships with the United States and Vietnam. This is in large part due to fully normalized relations between the US and Vietnam as a result of a recent bilateral trade agreement between the two countries. This serves to illustrate the cultures of our two countries are beginning to more comfortably intermingle, opening the doors to some of the business opportunities (predominantly mobile tech) our team’s developing here in HCMC and Hanoi, as well as fueling the buzz that “Vietnam is the next ‘China’.” More to come….
Posted by: Colin Mangham
[Note the family of five on the lead scooter below. Anyone game for that in L.A. traffic?]
