Viet Nam en Vogue [p.2]

While meandering about during the holidays in Pier 1, one of America’s top emporiums, I found quality Vietnamese imports competing with those of China, Indonesia and India. A woven Sonita Dining Chair advertised for US $140 lustered in the gallery, catching my particular attention. The top-notch quality and workmanship of the piece stood above the rest, as did a rare-wood dining table with a lofty price of US $550.

Moreover, other handiworks and traditional crafts of Vietnamese artistic vision are appearing elsewhere in the market as well as online. Garden furniture of fine wood, bamboo and rattan (worth over US $800 million this year alone), garden pottery, ceramics, pots, lacquer wares, silver-coated articles, silk products, and hand-knotted carpets are all being offered by Vietnamese companies to import business owners and financial investors abroad.

Overall, Asian art and export products can be sighted from coast to coast. Californians have taken to the interior decorating schemes of their Pacific Rim neighbors; affluent New Yorkers have been doing so throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Organizations such as the Asian Society, as well as other groups like the Asian American Arts Center and the Asian American Arts Alliance, pay homage to those artists of Asian heritage. Artistic fusions of modern Asian and American movements are appearing in galleries nationwide. With their trendy arts and wares, along with their export prowess, Viet Nam is unquestionably en vogue. It has surpassed its neighbors on many levels and is leading the way to securing a top spot in the international marketplace for this competitive millennium.

Fun Facts about Exports

Viet Nam has a population above 80 million and has access in Southeast Asia to well over half a billion consumers

Viet Nam is a member of ASEAN (Southeast Asia Regional Grouping), APEC, and is becoming a member of the World Trade Organization.

Viet Nam ranks third in oil exports in Southeast Asia at well over 15 million tons of crude oil.

Viet Nam earns over $2.2 billion dollars in seafood exports yearly.

Viet Nam is the world’s third-largest exporter of rice.

America is Viet Nam’s number one export market.

How far and how fast Viet Nam will grow will be mainly dependent upon the internal collaborations of provincial governments and outside investors according to a study by foreign and Vietnamese analysts and academics.

Investments in Viet Nam are gaining like wildfire. One-stop investment shops in both English and Vietnamese are being set up all over the country and online.