Wednesday, May 9, 2012

This morning we visited the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park. VSIP houses over 400 tenants from a variety of countries, including Vietnam, Singapore, the USA, Japan, China, the UK, the UAE, and Germany. The industrial park includes factories and offices as well as a customs service and residential areas. We toured VSIP-I with the VSIP representative, and she pointed out different companies that are housed in VSIP, such as Siemen’s and Mitsubishi. Next, we toured II-VI Vietnam Co., which is one of the companies within VSIP. II-IV works primarily with optics, with applications in lasers for hair removal, tattoo removal, and eye surgery. The II-VI representative, who was American, told us that the minimum wage in Vietnam is about $94 per month. He told us that they pay their workers about $150/month. Also, he explained that many workers rely on the meal that they receive at work as their main meal of the day, and they always receive requests for larger portions and better quality during their employee surveys. The most violated labor law in Vietnam is the overtime law. Workers can only do 200 hours overtime per year by law. The II-VI representative told us that when workers are told that they are not allowed to do anymore overtime hours for the rest of the year, they quit and find work elsewhere. He said that they have difficulty keeping labor because oftentimes when workers go home to their families for Tet, they do not come back. One of their primary concerns with labor is finding incentives for workers to stay at II-VI.

Next, we had a buffet lunch at the hotel. I had noodles, rice, and some more banana bread. We then went to another UEF campus to listen to a lecture (“Doing Business in Vietnam: Key Market Drivers”) by Frank Joseph, Commercial Officer, from the U.S. Department of Commerce. The Department of Commerce provides market intelligence, helps U.S. companies find partners abroad, and promotes U.S. companies to the Vietnamese government. He also told us a little bit about how he got involved in this work. I’ve started to think that living abroad for a year or so might be something that I want to do.

We stopped back at the hotel then a few of us went over to Ben Thanh market. The market was packed with people selling fabric, clothing, lots of knock-off Prada and Ray-Bans, produce, fish, and souvenirs. The market was incredibly crowded, smelly, and hot. I bought some souvenirs to take home that I won’t mention yet.

At night, we rode on the backs of the Vietnamese students’ motorbikes to a Barbeque restaurant. I rode with Nahn (18) this time. It looked like a really expensive restaurant that probably would have cost about $20 USD in America. There were while Christmas lights and red Chinese lanterns hanging from all of the trees. There were burners built into the table that we cooked skewers of meat on. I tried some of the chicken, beef, and goat. They were all very good. Dang and Dam bought corn and Vietnamese pizza from street vendors and brought it to the restaurant. They were both very spicy. From what I could tell, the Vietnamese pizza was like a Vietnamese pancake with cheese and chives and other spices on the inside. Dinner was $79,000 VND ($3.83 USD). After dinner we walked around a little bit in District 1. We stopped to take a group picture in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral of Ho Chi Minh City. It was a similar style as Notre Dame except it was built with red brick.