But whereas investors feel they need to be in China, now they can avoid Vietnam. Foreign companies are charged a premium for everything, including their water and housing. Advertising rates are six times those of their local competitors. Last year the labor ministry cut the working week by eight hours, to 40 hours - odd for a country where the main attraction is cheap labor and employees are desperate to work long again to earn money. Employers say workers complain they do not have the cash to do anything on their new day off.
Every investor has a different horror story.
This makes it more expensive than the same Post-It Note smugglers bring in from Thailand. Vietnam permitted only last October. Vietnam's 11 car companies, most of them joint ventures with foreign firms, sold a total of only 5,000 vehicles in 1998. Mercedes Benz Vietnam has sold only 500 cars since it started in 1996. Most of Vietnam's 60 industrial zones have failed to attract investors.