Definitely saw a different side of Vietnam last week. A steely reticent side that is in contrast to the genteel, easy-going people I met as a tourist in Hanoi just two months ago. A people who very much want to have a better life for themselves, but who are deeply suspicious of the outside world. A very proud people, though not in the same arrogant way as the Chinese. Stubborn, definitely, but not quite like the Indians. They don't make big promises like the Chinese, or out-talk you like the Indians. Indeed, their sole purpose seems to be wanting to extract hard promises out of you, and they then make you repeat the promises to them again and again, ten times, twenty times, until that point when they think can trust you.
After being in a large smokey room of many people trying to understand one another for the whole morning on Thursday, I escaped for a burger lunch break and for some alone-time in an Italian cafe near our office. It was housed in one of those old style shophouses that I love so much in Hanoi.
I looked out of the tranquil courtyard with the green hanging trellis plants and thought about work and things, especially about how it seems really difficult for people in one part of the world to understand another. It is ironical indeed that places like Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia are so near to home, and yet we Singaporeans really know so little about how people in these places think and work.
This is one of the rare occasions that I actually needed to travel for negotiations (the vast majority of my work is done on paper and through the telephone these days), but it is definitely quite an eye-opening experience to have had the chance to be on the ground to understand first hand the cultural issues of doing business in these newly emerging economies.
Here are the real Little Tigers from the jungles of our region, in my opinion.
