The meeting
was a further sign of the improving relationship between
the Vietnamese government and the Vietnamese community
in the US, the newspaper remarked.
The private
conference, organized by the business group Vietnamese
Silicon Valley Network, included an frank conversation
with entrepreneurs over their concerns about setting up
shop in Vietnam.
The executives
also offered advice to the delegation, which included
Vietnam's Deputy Minister of Science and Technology,
about how the country can develop its high-tech
industry.
“It helped to
have the Vietnamese delegation to hear our concerns,”
said Thanh Nguyen, founder of Paramit, an electronics
manufacturing services company in the US with nearly 300
employees. “I think we all want to help Vietnam. But we
also have reservations.''
Listen and
learn
The
delegation, which toured a Silicon Valley incubator and
met with venture capitalists before the event, is part
of the entourage accompanying Vietnamese Prime Minister
Phan Van Khai's historic visit to the United
States.
Khai's
entourage includes some 200 delegates, some of which
have peeled off for road shows to entice more investment
in Vietnam, particularly by overseas
Vietnamese.
Monday's group
flew to Silicon Valley from Boston expressly for the
event, hoping to glean lessons from Silicon Valley that
can be implemented in Vietnam.
”We are here
to listen and learn,” said Tran Quoc Thang, the vice
minister of science and technology in an interview with
the Mercury News. ”We want to learn from the examples of
Silicon Valley as well as listen to the suggestions and
concerns of Vietnamese-Americans in the high tech
arena.”
The
entrepreneurs expressed concern over the lack of a legal
framework in Vietnam to protect businesses and
intellectual property rights, and to enforce the central
government's policies at the local level. They also
suggested the government could boost the high-tech
sector by offering more training and entrepreneurship
programs.
Vietnam is to
construct high-tech parks and pitched them to the group
of 20 Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.
The government
has stepped up its embrace of overseas Vietnamese and
their investments in the last few years, against the
backdrop of the United States and Vietnam signing a
bilateral trade agreement in 2000.
The United
States is now Vietnam's largest trading partner, with
$6.1 billion in trade between the two nations last
year.
“We'd like the
help and cooperation of Vietnamese living in the United
States and overseas, especially those in Silicon Valley,
to help develop the country's economy,'' said Thang,
adding that the country would like to see more knowledge
transfer from overseas Vietnamese in the high-tech,
sciences, biotechnology and manufacturing
sectors.
More open,
willing
Most of the
Silicon Valley entrepreneurs present were establishing
ventures in Vietnam or scoping out
opportunities.
Hien Duc Cung,
chief executive of Advantek in Palo Alto, California
wants to set up a high-tech training program in Vietnam.
He was looking forward to meeting the “brain trust of
the Vietnamese scientific community,'' and seeing what
they could offer.
Quinn Tran,
founder of software firm KnowledgeTek, was part of
President Bill Clinton's delegation to Vietnam five
years ago. There was a marked difference in the
delegation's willingness to listen to the entrepreneurs'
concerns than in other interactions she's had with the
government, she said.
The delegation
ended the gathering with an open invitation to the group
as well as other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to a
guided business exploratory tour of Vietnam by the
Ministry.
Added Tran: “I
certainly feel there's more of an openness and
willingness and embrace of Viet-Americans by the
[Vietnamese] government.”
(Source:
Mercury News – Compiled by The
Vinh) |