HANOI ROCKS

The Vietnamese capital’s profile – and economy – are on the rise

- Michael Allen

When veteran Hanoi-based lawyer Tony Foster went to his office during the last week of February 2019, he had to make his way past machine gun-toting Vietnamese and North Korean guards and armoured cars while snipers manned the rooftops. It was the week of the two-day summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un that, despite not ending favourably for the US president and North Korean supreme leader, drew the attention of the global community to Vietnam’s capital.

“Our office is right next to where Kim was staying, so it was a major inconvenience because we were told originally that we were not going to be able to go to the office for three days – but we complained and got special passes,” recalls Foster, a partner at Magic Circle firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

The summit may have been a temporary irritation for workers in the area but, as Filippo Bortoletti, deputy manager of Dezan Shira and Associates’ international business advisory in Hanoi, points out, it has done wonders for the city’s standing on the global stage, showing that Vietnam can be relevant in international politics and economics. “Even if in that meeting nothing happened specifically, the fact that they met in Hanoi is significant,” Bortoletti says. “It had a big impact, maybe not on Vietnamese people but on how foreign people perceive Vietnam.”

BRIGHT FUTURE

Those living and working in Hanoi didn’t need the summit to tell them that their city, where some 39.8 per cent of the population is below 24 years old, is on an exciting economic growth trajectory. Nor can first-time visitors fail to notice the buzzing atmosphere of youthful optimism that pervades it.