Vietnam - In economic crisis, businessmen rush to go studying, travel

VietNamNet Bridge – A lot of Vietnamese businessmen have “taken full advantage” of the economic downturn, when the more products enterprises put out, the bigger losses they incur--to spend time on training courses or traveling.

The global financial crisis has covered a dark shadow on all the economies in the world, including Vietnam. Most businesses have to scale down production and lay off workers. However, a lot of enterprises, especially the ones in service sector, have been prospering in the crisis.

When VietNamNet’s reporter called Dr Phan Quoc Viet, President of Tam Viet Group, an education and training institution specializing in giving advice in life and work sills, last weekend to invite him for café, Viet said he was in HCM City to run a training course.

Viet also said that he would be very busy with the fully booked schedule for the weeks from now to the end of the month, and he would have to work on weekend and holidays as well.

As businessmen now have more spare time in the economic downturn, they tend to go to training courses to get more knowledge and experience which would be useful for their jobs. Therefore, the businessmen like Viet have become busier.

Not only Tam Viet, but many other life and work skill training schools have become in much demand. The professional training courses have attracted a lot of businessmen who wish to improve their management skills.

Nguyen Tat Thinh, President of PTI School, also said that the number of learners at PTI has been increasing in the last few years. The economic crisis can provide living examples for the training courses.

Thinh went on to say that as Vietnam has open its market under the WTO’s commitments, businesses understand that they need to change their ways of doing business and understand that learning is a very important task. Therefore, consultants have got more jobs.

Some kinds of other services have also become the regular choice of people. Golf courses these days attract a lot of businessmen. Hoang Van Ha, General Director of the Tam Dao golf course has noted that businessmen now tend to go to the golf course more regularly.

According to Ha, golf courses are not only the places for businessmen to play sports and relax, but also to seek new investment opportunities, because the golf courses gather businessmen from different business fields.

“At this moment, this would be a big waste of your time if you don’t go to golf courses,” said Ngoc Anh, a real estate businessman.

Tam Dao, Phoenix Golf Resource in Hoa Binh province both have reported high growth rates and high revenues, despite the crisis.

In economic difficulties, when there are less business opportunities, it’s the time for people to spend time to go out or relax. More Vietnamese people take domestic tours, while more foreigners flock to Vietnam.

According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), despite the disadvantages, the number of foreign travelers to Vietnam has been increasing unceasingly. The number of travelers, both domestic and foreign, reportedly increased by 15 percent in the first quarter of the year. Especially, the new tourism site of Dong Van Stone Plateau in Ha Giang province witnessed the increase of 20 percent in the number of travelers.

A businessman in Khanh Hoa Province, where there is the wonderful sea city of Nha Trang, said that he has never been so busy before. Especially, travel firms have been over head and ears in work, receiving the groups of travelers from Russia who tend to stay longer in Vietnam.

Dao Hong Tuyen, President of the Tuan Chau Group, has said that thousands of travelers have booked rooms in advance and there has been no unoccupied room.

Phan The Hai

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