Navigating Vietnam calls for flexibility and people skills, say insiders

[HO CHI MINH CITY] Flying to Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam from the northern capital Hanoi takes more than 2 hours – longer than the trip from Singapore. With 3,260 km of coastline, the South-east Asian country is vast and diverse. As startup adviser Nguyen Phi Van said with a laugh: “I think Vietnam has 3 countries in one.”

The hubs in the north and south are themselves very different; then there is the “third country” of central Vietnam, said Nguyen, who chairs the Vietnamese government-backed Saigon Innovation Hub (SIHUB).

Speaking to Singapore reporters over tea in the central district of Ho Chi Minh City, she said: “You have the big cities like Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City. Those are, you can consider, probably on par with Singapore in terms of understanding the market or consumer behaviour.