The unique Vietnam trade-economic guide

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Vietnam – Trade and Investment Partner: Handbook. Moscow: ICCA RAS, 2022. 389 p. ISBN 978-5-8381-0447-2

 

First of all, it is noteworthy that this guide is unique. In the 1990s there were attempts to prepare such editions in Russia, but as their authors usually were former officials of the Ministry of Foreign Trade of the USSR, the content of those manuals, as a rule, was limited with the information on foreign trade regulation of the partner countries. In the early decades of the 21st century, mostly in response to practical demands and taking into account Russia’s “Turn to the East”, Russian Vietnamists chose the path of revival.

The reviewed guide is a clear example of the action. In Russia this edition is the first of the kind. It managed to unite deep knowledge of the country and its specificity in various aspects with a businesslike approach allowing for the interests of Russian entrepreneurs working or planning to work in Vietnam. As far as the amount of information and the depth of its analysis are concerned, this guide appears to far surpass analogous foreign works (for example, the recently published “Vietnam Business Guide” (Ho Chi Minh City, 2021), having been prepared by ACSV Legal, an international, Vietnam based law-firm, and the representative office of the British Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam).

The positive features of the reviewed guide are as follows:

• a huge amount of collected and analyzed concrete information, useful for entrepreneurs, who are going to work in Vietnam’s market both in the sphere of trade and in investment field. The authors not only have collected a big new factual material, including business cases, but also have given very informative statistical data, always greatly needed by entrepreneurs for whom figures are sometimes more significant than the text itself;
• the authors appear to have made a right move, having prepared one-of-a-kind edition, attractive to businessmen, trade and investment, because in their ideas of the market they have to assess both the trade component and the investment one;
• for the first time the authors of the reference book have paid great attention to the development of virtually all the sectors of Vietnam’s economy. At the same time, this is not their academic matter-of-fact description, but the analysis of these branches’ problems, of the measures undertaken by governments to solve them, and the assessment of prospects of developing these or those branches of Vietnam’s economy, which is most important for Russian partners;
• the authors clearly draw special attention of Russian entrepreneurs to regional features of Vietnam’s economy and the specificity of economic zones of various types. This is very important for beginners at Vietnam’s market, who sometimes do not know that Vietnam is a densely populated and very diverse (not only economically) country; it is not reduced but to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City;
• a big part on economic relations of Vietnam with its main partner countries and international economic organizations seems to have been successfully included. Certainly, it will be attractive for Russian entrepreneurs while studying the activity of their rivals at Vietnam’s market, the more so that the authors not only give broad panoramic view of trade and investment relations of Vietnam with its foreign partners, but also show their minor things sending the analysis down to the proprietary level;
• we believe that (often met in the guide) comparisons of Vietnam with other countries, first and foremost with those of ASEAN, will be very useful for Russian entrepreneurs, especially useful for potential investors who assess advantages and risks of several countries of the region;
• parts 4 and 5 in the guide will be especially useful to Russian entrepreneurs. They contain the information on the organization and condition of business in Vietnam and its administrative and legal specificity.

There is no doubt that the reviewed guide will be of invaluable aid to all Russian entrepreneurs, who are working at Vietnam’s market, and especially to beginners. This guide is a valuable practical step on the way of the realization of the “Turn to the East” doctrine.

About the authors

Aleksander A. Rogozhin

Author for correspondence.
Email: rogojine@mail.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-0736-3184

D.Ph. (Economics), Assistant Professor, Leading Researcher, Head of the Group of Economic Problems, Center for Development and Modernization Studies, IMEMO RAS

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