Within the bureaucracy, most officials don't know how a market economy is supposed to work and are more interested in protecting their jobs and authority than in issuing permits. Several foreign executives say Vietnamese partners are more concerned with what they can wheedle out of the joint venture than in nurturing it. Vietnamese are said to lack business experience, to accept kickbacks from suppliers, to engage in nepotism and to hamper joint ventures by vetoing decisions. Bribery, kickbacks, tax evasion, tax collectors lining their pockets, police shakedowns and officials demanding to see account books without giving a reason are a way of life here. Others say they assumed that the party had already infiltrated their operations.
Investment counselors lament a lack of debt financing.
Vietnam has no stock market, although there has been talk of starting one. Banking is in the dark ages, with 45 percent of all cash circulating outside the system, according to the economist Le Dang Doanh. Some foreign investors are struggling to make things work.