Vietnam making it through

THE last time I traveled to Vietnam was more than a decade ago. Like in many other Southeast Asian countries, the first thing which caught my attention there was the vibrancy of its businesses and the colorfulness of its people’s daily lives. There were (and, I guess, still are) streets or alleys in Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, with residents along the whole stretch, specializing in certain trades or crafts such that the streets were named (at least in English) after the trade or craft most prominent there such as Ironsmith Street after the metallic craft. We arrived in the evening at our small hotel located in the middle of one such street, and were too tired to venture out later that night. After breakfast the next morning, we walked out of the hotel and were immediately greeted by many slabs of polished stones engraved with photographs and Vietnamese inscriptions. Yes, it turned out this was actually Epitaph Street, and our rooms were sitting atop these various shops, specializing in the making of tombstones. We spent a most wonderful time in Vietnam, taking in its rich history and natural beauty and wonders.

Well, fast forward a decade and more, and it is somewhat official by now as reported by many international news and ratings agencies, that Vietnam has made it to among the middle ranks in terms of the size of its gross domestic product (GDP) among the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). It goes almost without saying that the five Asean founding-member states (Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore), situated along the busiest sea routes in the world and having adopted relatively open and outward-oriented economic models, have benefited tremendously from foreign investments and global trade, making them the Dragons and Tigers of Asia (some say the world) with bulging GDPs and shooting growth rates to the envy of many other developing economies and, sometimes, slow-growing developed economies as well. Brunei, which joined Asean in the 1980s, is also blessed with an abundance of natural resources and a high standard of living.