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Mạng lưới liên kết người Việt tại Thung lũng Silicon
VSVN đặt ra nhiệm vụ đại diện và giúp cộng đồng doanh nhân người Việt trên toàn cầu tham gia vào ngành công nghệ cao. Chiến lược của tổ chức này là tạo ra một nền tảng toàn cầu ở Thung lũng Silicon, trong đó có các doanh nghiệp, kỹ sư, nhà khoa học, nhà phát minh, chuyên gia công nghệ, giáo sư từ khắp nơi trên thế giới có thể trao đổi những ý tưởng kinh doanh và thông tin.
Vietnamese Strategic Ventures Network (VSVN) is the leading worldwide network of professionals supporting the global Vietnamese technology and business community.
About Us
VSVN is the leading hub for networking and doing business with Vietnamese professionals around the world. We have nearly 1500 members across the globe with chapters in Northern and Southern California.
VSVN’s flagship networking program is Tech Connect, which connects professionals around the world interested in exploring opportunities in the Vietnamese business community. VSVN also hosts bi-monthly meetings of various topics of interest to the aspiring entrepreneur.
VSVN’s affiliate organization, VSVN Foundation, organizes and hosts various events designed to support entrepreneurship and innovation in the Vietnamese business community through education and training under two core programs referred to as the Entrepreneurs’ Academy and the Open Books, Open I.T. project.
Through these three programs, along with other events throughout the course of the year, VSVN offers unparalleled networking opportunities as well as organizational support for the experienced and aspiring entrepreneur in the Vietnamese business community.
http://www.vsvn.org/about-us
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An Interview With Huy Do
Networking with Vietnam: Group's leader sees rewards for risks
By John Boudreau
Mercury News
When Huy Do took over as chairman and president of the Vietnamese Strategic Ventures Network in 2004, the organization's dwindling members wouldn't have been enough to staff a small start-up.
Do and other leaders turned the organization around with a lot of hard work, a shift in vision and a dash of serendipity. In other words, the usual ingredients for Silicon Valley success.
The networking group now has 1,500 members, a chapter in Southern California and plans to open an office in Vietnam soon. Do, an attorney who specializes in international and intellectual property law, did not want the organization to simply replicate other valley tech networks, such as TiE, the Indus Entrepreneurs or or the Asia America MultiTechnology Association, he recalled.
"People would say, 'They have bigger networks. And I don't care if you are a venture capitalist of Vietnamese descent or Italian descent. I just want the money!' " he said.
So Do and other members of the VSVN leadership team focused on their areas of expertise - doing business in Vietnam and the local Vietnamese community. The rebranded organization also got more than a little boost from good timing: Vietnam, which just recently joined the World Trade Organization, has become the new hot spot for global entrepreneurs.
In August, VSVN hosted a conference in Palo Alto that drew hundreds of participants, from officials from Vietnam's Communist government and Ho Chi Minh City start-ups to local VCs and representatives from Google.
Do recently sat down to talk about his vision for his growing organization, the changes occurring in Vietnam and the sometimes rocky relations between Viet Kieu, or overseas Vietnamese, and their homeland. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation:
QUnlike other groups - the Indians, Chinese, Taiwanese - many Vietnamese first came to the United States as refugees fleeing the Communists who took over South Vietnam in 1975. How has the Vietnamese community here reacted to efforts to develop business links between the valley and the Southeast Asian country?
AIn 2001, when we held a conference at Stanford, we saw an organized effort to protest. We haven't seen that since then. We see increased membership. We see increased non-Vietnamese joining our network. We see investors going to Vietnam. But we don't see proportional e-mails protesting us. I can only speak anecdotally, but it seems people are beginning to accept the fact that there is a group of people from the valley doing business in Vietnam. They are not doing it to endorse the political underpinnings of the government.
QCertainly, the United States and Vietnam have inched closer during the past six years.
AThe reality is, the U.S. government has endorsed Vietnam. The BTA (Bilateral Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the United States in 2001) laid a path for Vietnam to join the WTO because the requirements for the BTA were in line with the requirements for the WTO. I still see people having issues with Vietnamese people in the United States doing business in Vietnam. But I think they are recognizing these guys are not endorsing anything. I wouldn't say the tension has gone away, but it's definitely been reduced.
QThough the Vietnam War ended more than 30 years ago, the wounds still exist.
ADialogue about this is very hard because there is a lot of emotional turmoil. It's not un-based. These people lost a lot. They had businesses. They were professionals. They were having a good life and it was totally turned upside-down. They lost friends in the war. It's a tragedy. Those are losses you can't get back. But if you look back and see how Vietnam was in 1975 and in the early '80s, and look at what has transpired since then, it's a different place. Hopefully, it has been transformed on a permanent basis and it's not just a façade. I think it's on a permanent basis. There are too many foreign investors there now.
QIs the Vietnamese government, which realizes the important role Viet Kieu can play in the economic development of the nation, doing anything to help improve relations with overseas Vietnamese?
AI think they are. There are two types of Viet Kieu: the ones who go back and start companies, and those who are very successful in large U.S. companies. They have decision-making authority with Sun Microsystems or Texas Instruments or Microsoft or Intel. They are behind the scenes pushing their companies to go to Vietnam. The Vietnam government sees both of them. I think they are reaching out. I don't know if it's enough, but they are reaching out. There is the new visa (classification). If you are a Vietnamese and you live abroad, they will give you a yearlong visa. They also have a special Vietnamese Abroad Committee. The committee is under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When government officials visit here, they reach out to community leaders.
QDo you visit with high-ranking Vietnamese officials?
AIt's useful to talk, but given my role at VSVN, I want to keep everything business-focused. So I'm careful of what I do because what I do reflects on VSVN. I don't want my actions to reflect on VSVN in any way other than as commercial ones. We are a business support group. It's best to keep VSVN focused on what we are about.
QLike any developing country, Vietnam offers both rewards and risks to investors, multinationals and entrepreneurs. What are the risks of operating in Vietnam?
AThe biggest risks are knowing how to work with the government, and complying with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (which has anti-bribery provisions and guidelines for accounting transparency). Under the act, you can't give gifts to government officials for any purpose. But sometimes that doesn't jibe well with local practices. Culturally, you take people out to dinner and give them small gifts. So you have to put in guidelines for people to comply with.
People don't speak English very well, so there can be misunderstandings. There is a risk that disputes can't be resolved with a sophisticated understanding of international law because it's new there. They've just entered the WTO. Judges there aren't trained to the standards multinational companies are used to. So enforcement can be a tricky issue. There are still abuses in the judicial system. They don't have the independence they need without the fear of repercussions. Those are big issues companies face when they go to Vietnam. And there aren't that many licensed lawyers in Vietnam. The people there work hard and are smart, but these local lawyers aren't used to arguing big cases.
QStill, from a business perspective, Vietnam is a success story. The government expects economic growth to jump from 8.2 percent last year to 9 percent in 2007. Its population of 84 million is young and companies from Intel to Google are looking at the Southeast Asian country. How would you describe the opportunities that are there now?
AIn Vietnam, being the first mover is almost like having a monopoly hold on the marketplace. The structure in place there lends itself to incumbents. To displace an incumbent is very difficult. I don't think there will be three or four Web portals; I think there will be one or two, and
one will have a substantial market share. Here you have three big search engines - Google, Yahoo and MSN. Vietnam is not a big enough market for three.
The window of opportunity in Vietnam - to make the most money - will be in the next five years. If you have a good business plan, the right partners, you can do very well for yourself.
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