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Growing Vietnam

Listed as one of the Next Eleven countries to watch for investment opportunities and accepted into the World Trade Organization, Vietnam has been dubbed the New Asian Tiger. But can it live up to the world's expectations?


It's a three-hour drive from Ho Chi Minh City to the ­catfish-farming area of the Mekong Delta. As you leave the city, the urban ­topography falls away and is replaced by a lush green landscape dotted with workers in rice fields who are wearing the familiar conical hats.

Vietnam is still a Communist country, one of a handful remaining in the world. And so, along the road, loudspeakers blare a series of motivational messages.

"?'Everyone needs to rise up and be productive and be for the betterment of the Vietnamese country,'?" repeats Tom Frese. "It's like a pep rally every day."

An aquaculture consultant based in Florida, Frese came here to observe Vietnam's ancient business of raising fish - because it's changing the way the world eats seafood.

"Vietnam's aquaculture went from essentially zero in the 1950s to its current production, which is 1.15 billion metric tons," says Frese. "It's been on a steady climb, and it's expected to grow."
Recent figures say Vietnam fisheries now export more than $2 billion worth of goods, destined for 65 countries. It's now the nation's third-largest industry.

Most aquaculture farms raise fish in giant standing ponds, but the Vietnamese have cultivated a unique and ingenious method: The fish are grown in cages beneath floating homes on the Mekong River. These dual-purpose structures are stationed up and down the river, with one person living inside each home and managing the fish 24 hours a day.