Re: [ksd-vn] E-business has no business, despite rapid growth in infrastructure

At 10:23 15.08.2002 -0700, joseph j hannah wrote:
-------------------------
>sent to ksd-vn by joseph j hannah <jhannah@u.washington.edu>
>
>Many thanks, Stephan, for listing *some* of the major roadblocks out
>there.
>
>It only remains for the VN government to realize that it is not losing
>just a "little additional business," but is rather missing the boat on a
>potentially very large bit of revenue. "Vietnam" is currently a hot
>commodity in international retail, but it will pass out of vogue before
>long. Most worldwide, potential customers cannot purchase from Vietnam
>bcause of the impediments you list. All that nice foreign capital flowing
>to other places instead...

Absolutely agreed.

And the cake is cut NOW.
If I would be a foreign purchaser, I'd look in the region:
Thailand: Can sell. Little language problems.
Philippines: Can sell. No language problems.
Vietnam: Cannot sell. Big language problems.
If after 5 years, the Vietnamese seller would approach me and say, that he
finally can sell, I'd say "thanks". I and my supplier in the Philippines
e.g. would have several years of knowing each other and of experience in
doing e-business. Why should I risk this and start from scratch again, just
because the Vietnamese one might be a bit cheaper?

IMHO, one of the biggest mistakes which they seem to make here, is that
they don't understand, that the market does not wait for them. Now Vietnam
has the chance to get part of the cake. In some years, they will have to
fight for every small piece and take it away from the others. When
eCommerce started in the West, the governments there just let the business
do - and risk - what the businesses themselves wanted. In parallel they
worked on legislation. In Vietnam they think, that they have to enact all
legislation first, before they can start to do something.

Sure, in the absence of special legislation, there is some additional risk
to do eCommerce. But hey, business is always some risk. The difference
between Vietnam and the West is, that in the West, eCommerce started with
private business "risking" (and earning) their own private money. In
Vietnam, with state companies, it is not the director's own money (but
state money), and in a state company he (and the other staff) does not risk
to get as quickly replaced for bad management or work like in a Western
corporation. Consequently, the government is probably reluctant to let
state companies participate in eCommerce, as long as there are more laws
(the digital red seal....) to prevent abuse, reduce risk, etc.
And surely, it is also reluctant to give private companies an advantage
over state companies, if it would make it easy for them now to use
eCommerce already....

My 300 VND
Stefan