Week 10 - Yufei Liu

Startup Vietnam: Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Socialist Republic by Andrew Rowan captures the challenges, efforts, and successes of Vietnam’s youth, local startups, and foreign entrepreneurs during a time of transition between tradition and modernity. Having significantly evolved during the last 20 years, Hanoi's leadership is committed to making Vietnam a “startup nation” in an attempt to accelerate the country’s growth over the next 20 years. The spirit and promise of a resilient, improvisational, driven, and entrepreneurial people in this Southeast Asian nation are presented within an understandable operational landscape, in addition to creating a vision for what a 21st century Vietnam might become. Rowan talks about how Vietnam has developed significantly over the last 20 years. Many people outside of Vietnam first and foremost think of the wars fought there. But that’s not the everyday Vietnam that is undergoing massive change. The urban changes in Vietnam that are visible on the surface level and they are raw, real, and deep-rooted. In fact, it would be hard not to notice the hustle and bustle as well as omnipresent noise pollution in the most populous cities.It can be confusing for foreigners to reconcile what they read or hear with what they see once landing in Vietnam: it’s changing literally right before your eyes in the major cities. Vietnam is more than just a collection of rice paddies, conical hats, and water buffalo. "VC" used to mean VietCong but now it stands for Venture Capitalists in Vietnam.