QUOTE
Vietnam makes big push to become outsourcing centre
Its draws are low wages and staff loyalty, but weak command of the English language is a drawback
HANOI - Vietnam is making a big push for outsourcing.
Among its attractions are extremely low wages.
Chicago-based World'Vest Base, for example, hires recent graduates with accounting or finance degrees, but no experience, for a starting salary of US$100 (S$170) a month, little more than what an unskilled factory worker earns in China.
Said former United States ambassador Pete Peterson: 'You're going to see Vietnam competing with India and some of the other countries doing this within the next five years.'
Yet Vietnam still faces considerable obstacles in its pursuit of the low-skilled jobs which now keep hundreds of thousands of people in India, Malaysia and the Philippines employed, let alone higher-paid computer-programming jobs.
One of the poorest countries in the world, it still struggles under a communist government that has moved more slowly than China's to embrace capitalism.
Skills in spoken and written English, a prerequisite for a lot of outsourcing work, remain weak.
Multinationals have built some factories, including small vehicle-assembly plants for the local market, but have refrained from setting up big call centres, computer-programming operations or other service-sector outsourcing.
'You're not seeing the IBMs, HPs or Infosyses of this world charging in there,' said Mr Philip Hassey, associate director for Asia and the Pacific at International Data Corp.
A handful of companies have set up shop here.
Atlas Industries has 100 people in Ho Chi Minh City performing the technical task of turning architectural drawings into detailed blueprints for British construction companies.
Founder and chief executive Joseph Woolf said he preferred Vietnam to India because employees here were more loyal and less inclined to change jobs repeatedly or seek work overseas.
World'Vest Base has 38 employees here scanning the Internet for everything from emerging market stock prices to corporate filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
They copy data into spreadsheets and e-mail it to investor clients around the world.
Chief executive Jonathan Bloch of London-based Exchange Data International, which distributes financial information to its customers, said World'Vest's data was inexpensive and reliable.
'We outsource also in India and the Czech Republic,' he said.
'Vietnam compares very favourably; I think they're on a par.' -- New York Times
Its draws are low wages and staff loyalty, but weak command of the English language is a drawback
HANOI - Vietnam is making a big push for outsourcing.
Among its attractions are extremely low wages.
Chicago-based World'Vest Base, for example, hires recent graduates with accounting or finance degrees, but no experience, for a starting salary of US$100 (S$170) a month, little more than what an unskilled factory worker earns in China.
Said former United States ambassador Pete Peterson: 'You're going to see Vietnam competing with India and some of the other countries doing this within the next five years.'
Yet Vietnam still faces considerable obstacles in its pursuit of the low-skilled jobs which now keep hundreds of thousands of people in India, Malaysia and the Philippines employed, let alone higher-paid computer-programming jobs.
One of the poorest countries in the world, it still struggles under a communist government that has moved more slowly than China's to embrace capitalism.
Skills in spoken and written English, a prerequisite for a lot of outsourcing work, remain weak.
Multinationals have built some factories, including small vehicle-assembly plants for the local market, but have refrained from setting up big call centres, computer-programming operations or other service-sector outsourcing.
'You're not seeing the IBMs, HPs or Infosyses of this world charging in there,' said Mr Philip Hassey, associate director for Asia and the Pacific at International Data Corp.
A handful of companies have set up shop here.
Atlas Industries has 100 people in Ho Chi Minh City performing the technical task of turning architectural drawings into detailed blueprints for British construction companies.
Founder and chief executive Joseph Woolf said he preferred Vietnam to India because employees here were more loyal and less inclined to change jobs repeatedly or seek work overseas.
World'Vest Base has 38 employees here scanning the Internet for everything from emerging market stock prices to corporate filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
They copy data into spreadsheets and e-mail it to investor clients around the world.
Chief executive Jonathan Bloch of London-based Exchange Data International, which distributes financial information to its customers, said World'Vest's data was inexpensive and reliable.
'We outsource also in India and the Czech Republic,' he said.
'Vietnam compares very favourably; I think they're on a par.' -- New York Times
of course not .. but it's still poor ...