One of the topics of interest to the business community, after US President Joe Biden's state visit to Vietnam, is the implementation of the Vietnam-US Joint Statement upgrading the relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership, including contents on economic, trade and investment cooperation.
From the perspective of a lawyer who has worked with international partners and multinational corporations in Vietnam, I think that economic, trade and investment cooperation with the United States should not only be considered in a narrow perspective as cooperation with a specific country, but should be considered as cooperation with the Western world in general, with a way of thinking and laws that have certain differences from ours.
It is undeniable that the United States is the world's leading economic power, and the Vietnamese business community has, is, and will benefit greatly when Vietnam strengthens economic cooperation with them. Westerners have a familiar saying that "It takes two to tango", which means that for mutually beneficial cooperation, there must be initiative and harmony from both sides. To cooperate successfully with American partners, we need to understand the characteristics of their foreign and business culture, with one of the characteristics being pragmatism and efficiency. And another equally important characteristic is compliance in all actions, prioritizing rationality over sentimentality.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh takes a souvenir photo with a business delegation of the US-ASEAN Business Council, March 2023 (Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac)
This characteristic is somewhat different from the traditional customs of Vietnamese society and business community. However, this characteristic is not unique to businesses from the United States but is common to developed economies in the Western world, with a history of developing market economy for hundreds of years. The market economy is the midwife of competition and is also promoted by competition itself. The corridor of healthy competition is compliance with the law, compliance with the rules of the game.
A few years before Covid, I joined an inspection team of an American company at a Vietnamese company to check the labor situation and legal origin of raw materials. When we met, the director of the Vietnamese company spoke quite naively and simply, saying, " We are committed to providing you with the right quality and quantity of goods as committed, and if we are wrong, we will be punished. Why do you have to inspect our production and business organization in our house?" I am sure that this is not the only company in Vietnam that thinks like that.
Having had the opportunity to advise many Vietnamese businesses in the process of doing business with partners from the United States and Europe, I have found that one issue that is favorable and often goes smoothly is price, but it is very difficult in issues related to origin, commitment to compliance against negativity, transparency...
There are Vietnamese businesses that choose to "nod randomly" to sign a contract and then find a way to deal with it later. But that is not the business culture of most businesses from the United States and Europe. Their culture of compliance and commitment is much better. Personally, I think that this is something that Vietnamese businesses need to learn rather than find a way to deal with it.
The compliance habits of Western businesses have become a business culture, not a trick in commercial behavior. That culture comes from many factors, first of all the laws and culture of the host country that the business itself must comply with if it wants to survive in their country. Compliance is to protect their own interests. Of course, there are also Western businesses that do business in an unserious manner, even fraudulently, but this situation is not common.
To do business successfully with companies from the United States, it is necessary to understand them, respect their culture and know how to harmonize the interests of both sides.
"It takes two to tango", Vietnamese enterprises need to identify compliance culture as something to learn rather than to deal with. Compliance with legal regulations, contractual regulations, and commercial rules that both sides have established in a consistent and steadfast manner is the work that needs to be done to establish a new culture for our own enterprises. Moreover, we need to change quickly to take advantage of the opportunities that come from cooperation with the United States, from the Vietnam - United States Joint Statement.
The cooperation here is not only exporting goods to the US market but also cooperating with US businesses in Vietnam. It is predicted that in the near future, many US and European investors will participate in the Vietnamese market and that is a great opportunity for our economy. Whether we can take advantage of the opportunity or not depends entirely on us, and for the benefit of the Vietnamese business community and of Vietnam.
Author : Mr. Ha Huy Phong is currently a member lawyer, CEO of Inteco Law Firm LLC, arbitrator, lecturer at Hanoi Law University.
Dantri.com.vn
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