VinaCapital was composed of two main companies: VinaCapital foundation and VinaCapital fund. We did not spend much time discussing the VinaCapital fund and instead focused on the economic outlook of Vietnam. The head economist was very interesting because he was an engineering and math major at Stanford, so he was a middle ground between the business and engineering majors. In addition to the facets of the economy we know very well-the dependence on FDI and exports-he also talked about age demographics and how that paints a promising future for the Vietnamese economy and a poor picture for other economies. The number of people in the 45-50 age range tend to be the most productive producers and the most active consumers and this demographic is expected to rise very quickly in Vietnam over the next twenty years. The increase of productive consumers is a good indication that the growth and development in Vietnam is sustainable.
VinaCapital foundation is funded primarily by the VinaCapital fund. The fund pays all of the overhead for the foundation, and is run by the same person. The foundation works closely with the government to help children in Vietnam. One of their most impressive feats is the funding of education for minority girls. There has been a vast amount of research done which shows that in order to develop a middle class the best investment to make is into young females and so that is why the foundation has focused on investing in them.
The relationship with the Vietnamese government seemed to be very strong and all of the people in the room viewed the government favorably, dismissing any problems that they had to deal with (envelope culture) and emphasizing the good parts. This surprised me because it contrasted with my initial impressions and with what some of the Vietnamese students had told me about the government. Since VinaCapital is an already established company their relations with the government might be easier and so that could be one of the reasons why they view the government so well.
