Day 2 Ho Chi Minh City

It was time to get down to business today. We had meetings all day long with some of our professor's contacts in the business community. The day started with a trip to Saigon Cosmetics. After receiving an overview about the company, we took a tour of the factory where they manufacture perfume, hand sanitizer, shampoo, and a few other products. Everyone got free samples.

Next, we met with Sesto Vecchi, a founding partner with the firm Russin & Vecchi International Legal Counsellors. In addition to his many other projects, Mr. Vecchi is the attorney of record for Loyola University Chicago for our center in Ho Chi Minh City. Vecchi provided some interesting statistics about the demographics in Vietnam including:

• 60 percent of the population in 30 years old or younger,
• Vietnam has a growing middle class, and
  
• literacy in the country is quite high.
  

Finally, we met with Jeff Prunty, finance director for Intel in Ho Chi Minh City. Prunty is an expat who has been living in Asia with his wife and children since 2001. Intel will manufacture chips for consumer electronics once the factory is up and running. Prunty said Intel chose Vietnam because it is one of the fastest growing economies in Asia, has low labor costs, and a trainable workforce. It's worth noting that minimum wage is approximately $60 per month, and Intel pays its employees at least $300 per month. Although I enjoyed hearing about Intel, I would have preferred to learn more about Prunty's life as an expat.

These meetings provided an opportunity to see more of Ho Chi Minh City. The traffic was unbelievable, and the number of people on motorbikes was staggering. I'm still amazed that there are not more traffic accidents. I don't think you could pay me to ride on a motorbike on some of these highways.

Tomorrow is another business day with visits to Dragon Capital, the LUC Center, the Harvard Fulbright Center, Saigon South and the Tan Tuan Export Processing Center.