Along Bay legend that a dragon, being wonderful and beneficial, would be lowered into the sea to domesticate marine currents. What is currently happening to the Viet Nam might look like in the legend. After much turmoil, this country, one of the most populous Asia with more than 80 million inhabitants, is successful IRAP for a radical change in stability. And in relative anonymity, both Chinese and Indian growth focus attention. The Viet Nam yet accumulated the records: more growth behind China with more than 7 per year on average for ten years, more than 8 in 2005. More than two-thirds of the Vietnamese people have less than 35 years, with a high scientific level. Finally, a flow of foreign investment of nearly $ 5 billion in 2005 per capita, it is more than in China.
Which is to pass to the Viet Nam might look like, proportionally, to what we saw in China upon accession to the world Organization of commerce in 2001: awareness among investors as sudden as brutal. We live in the Viet Nam months pre - WTO, and the country prepares to host the Summit of Asean (association of Southeast Asian Nations) with great pomp in November with George w. Bush in "guest star", what symbol! An event with significant consequences. The legal environment, including the right of companies, was unified on July 1, placing national and foreign companies on equal ground. Finally, the last Congress of the Communist Party in May confirmed the continuation of the "Doi me". This policy of openness initiated in 1985 was accelerated with numerous privatizations and a boom in business. There were thousands of SMEs in 2000, against nearly 200,000 today.

The strengths of the Viet Nam are many, but they are an exceptional dimension when looking magnifying glass a few specificities. While keeping a very steady pace, Vietnamese growth seems balanced between investments in infrastructure and extensive use. A real internal market emerges. The political system at first glance less dynamic and open the Chinese system appears by itself able to retain a certain "meaning" to development. There is probably no crisis of values in the Viet Nam. More subtly, the national conscience, as everywhere in Asia, is little revenge: contributed to the successive victories on foreign troops. And geographic factors are as always determinative. One could compare the Viet Nam with a long coastal fringe, with a development necessarily less heterogeneous than a continent. Finally, the Vietnamese diaspora, the Viet-kieu, returned and is investing heavily in the country nearly 4 billion dollars in 2005.
Of course, the reality is complex. All the workings of the country have worked according to the Communist logic, but over a relatively short period, from 1975 to 1990's. Vietnamese traditional values remain very present, but also the Confucian values and Western. There are also significant differences between North, Centre and South. The country is difficult to understand. This complexity and the aftermath of the Asian crisis led many investors to withdraw in 1997-2000 while it promised already in the mid 1990 a bright future to the Viet Nam. Many leave therefore zero.
Today, the metamorphosis of the Viet Nam seems irreversible: development of the private sector, nesting in the global fabric of trade and emergence of a true class of consumers. The old recipes, mixture of industrial know-how, capital input, a certain dose of paternalism and corruption sometimes, might not be long applicable. It is before any delivery capacity on square that will count more than the money, which keeps flowing. And the ability to understand the mechanisms of decision (such as the subtle property law) without having to rely on partners remained "too" local. Human capital will become both success factor and bottleneck.
It can therefore expect that the Viet Nam again becomes a strong pole of attraction for investors. Europe and the France in particular are already very involved in terms of private investment and cooperation. The Japan became the first foreign investor. Even though the wounds of the past are not completely closed, the United States fascinate as shown by the recent visit of Bill Gates, received as a head of State to full meetings of the PC. In this context, the strengths of French companies in areas such as the specialized distribution, hypermarkets, logistics and retail banking, sectors in the heart of the future Vietnamese consumerist dynamism are to operate without delay.