Somehow I never thought of Vietnam as embracing that old American entrepreneurial spirit, but I have been wrong before. President Obama says that it is now a happening place for venture capitalists. Now I really don’t know many of those people in the venture capital world, but I’ll take his word for it. I think what I like most about how he sees technology being a growth area is his conviction that people are still the most important part of this enterprise.
And there are a lot of people here that traditional approaches in education and training have failed. If they are lucky enough to connect with a start-up like Dreamplex in Ho Chi Minh City they might find newer opportunities of their own making, or in collaboration with others. Mr. Obama told young entrepreneurs at Dreamplex yesterday that next month he would welcome eight Vietnamese entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley so that they can learn from the best entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in the world.
So it’s a new kind of foreign aid, I guess you could call it. With the hope that these American-trained entrepreneurs will return home and work to expand opportunities for others in the place of their birth.
Ray Myers
Hanoi
TechtoExpress 