Our Chairman to participate in CITYSCAPE DUBAI

Our Chairman, in his capacity as Chairman of TCK Group (www.tckgroup.org), has been invited to participate in the Roundtable discussion at CITYSCAPE DUBAI (5-8 October 2009) titled " Vietnam, Indonesia & Cambodia: Too early or too late? "

Wearing two 'hats', he will be looking for opportunities for both companies and looking forward to meeting new clients. This will be an opportunity to let people understand the opportunities in this emerging market.

If you are from Dubai or the area and would like to meet with our Chairman, please feel free to contact him (karl.john@aucojv.com), so that he can set aside some time outside of the conference.

Despite the doom and gloom, the Vietnam story is not all that bad. Transitioning from a command and control economy to a market-orientated economy has its benefits! Before the free market has been achieved, the Government is still able to have some influence.

To quote Don Lam, CEO of Vinacapital (see post below), "In terms of the macroeconomics, Vietnam saw the financial crisis take hold much earlier than elsewhere. In early 2008, the Vietnam economy was hit with inflation and together with a slight devaluation in the Vietnam Dong, the economy slowed, so the liquidity crunch started in Vietnam around the first quarter of 2008. The Government then initiated policies which reduced inflation and stabilised the economy, so Vietnam was back on track around July 2008 – but the world crisis hit with the Lehman bankruptcy in October. So although Vietnam started to go into the crisis earlier, we got out earlier, which meant by late 2008 and January 2009, Vietnam was already on the way to recovery. This is one of the reasons why in the first quarter of 2009, the Vietnam economy was actually growing about 3.1 percent annualised."

Vietnam is one of the safest countries that I have lived in. Political stability is one of the main risk factors that investors take into consideration, when evaluating an investment.

Demographics is another factor that investors take into consideration, two-thirds of Vietnam’s population are under the age of 35. As Don says, this is Vietnam’s baby boom. This is due to history and the American War, as it commonly referred to here.

Vietnam has a lot going for it, to take full advantage of all that Vietnam has to offer, it is crucial to make use of local intelligence.