Toward Trade With Vietnam : Pacific Rim: A Newport trade consulting firm specializes in business prospects with Hanoi. With normalization expected, a former U.S. enemy becomes a promising business target.

Vuong H. Tran says that every piece of information he can collect about Vietnam may one day help to build a bridge between the United States and the country he fled in 1975.

As relations between Washington and Hanoi begin to thaw, Tran has joined two other Southland businessmen to form a trade consulting firm in Newport Beach that specializes in business prospects with Vietnam.

“American companies that plan to trade with Vietnam must think in the long term,” said H. Frank Chew, a co-owner of the business--Vietnam 2000--and a former program director at USC’s Graduate School of Business Administration.

Trade between the United States and Vietnam has been prohibited since 1975, the year the Americans withdrew from South Vietnam.

But there have been increasing signs that the Bush Administration is preparing to restore trade relations with Vietnam. Last month, the two nations said they would set up an office in Hanoi to resolve cases of U.S. soldiers missing in action, and Washington announced that it will send the first U.S. economic aid to Vietnam since the war’s end--$1 million for artificial limbs for those wounded in the war.

In the near term, business opportunities in Vietnam will probably include food processing equipment, telephones, satellites and medical technology, Vietnam 2000 executives said.

“Vietnam will need machines to repair its infrastructure--like airports and ports--to conduct its trade,” Chew said. “I believe that repairing the infrastructure will take some time, and the real impact of establishing a new business there will not be effective until the year 2000.”

The Vietnamese government will also need sophisticated drilling equipment to extract offshore oil and minerals, he said.

Vietnam 2000 was founded in January by Chew and two Vietnam natives, who believe that there will be normal Washington-Hanoi relations by early 1992. The company provides consulting services and market studies on Vietnam.

Vietnam 2000 is already advising several Southern California companies, including hotel and high-tech companies, said Buu Q. Do, a tall, energetic former high-ranking military officer in South Vietnam. Do, a co-founder, declined to name which Southland companies.

International investors have begun to consider Vietnam one of Asia’s most promising trade areas. Vietnam’s oil, mineral and marine life are largely untapped. The country’s approximately 66 million people are highly literate--and are paid even less than China’s workers.

Tran, who also operates a travel agency in Garden Grove, said Vietnam offers a wealth of low-cost labor for U.S. high-technology, apparel and other labor-intensive industries.

Kenneth Kraemer, a UC Irvine professor, warned that U.S. businesses should be cautious about viewing Vietnam as a promising market to sell their goods. He compares Vietnam to China in the 1970s and early 1980s, when many self-proclaimed China experts painted a rosy picture of Peking’s economy and charged hefty fees for trade seminars and consulting services.

But many U.S. companies found that the Chinese have little disposable income, so China turned out not to be the huge market that had been predicted.

“This does not mean that there were no business successes in China or that there will be no successes in Vietnam, but there will be few, especially few in proportion to what people are led to believe,” said Kraemer, director of UCI’s Public Policy Research Organization.

Since 1987, when Hanoi passed its first foreign investment law, the government has been trying to lure investors to develop its tourism industry and revive its exports. With the United States out of the picture, most of the investment came from Japan, Taiwan and Europe.

Personal experience has shown Tran that promoting trade with Vietnam is not always easy--and is not always popular within the large Vietnamese community of Orange County. Two years ago, his Westminster office was destroyed by arson after he began advocating normal relations.

Vietnam 2000 is working on the assumption that the U.S. trade sanctions will soon be lifted. The restrictions do not bar Americans from talking about business with Vietnam, meeting with Vietnamese officials, gathering information or entering into non-binding agreements with Vietnamese companies.

“It’s like courtship in Asia,” Do said. “You can only look at the woman, but you can’t touch her.”

Products and Prospects Trade between the United States and Vietnam has been prohibited since 1975, but there are signsthat the barriers may soon come down. The principals at Vietnam 2000, a new established consulting firm, hope to guide firms looking for opportunities there. North Vietnam is rich in mineral resources and timber. Coastline holds significant oil deposits. Port cities need harbor dredging, engineering and reconstruction of facilities. Fisheries are rich, but industry needs industrial refrigeration, canning equipment. Major Vietnamese Products Estimated 1990 annual production: Transformers (units): 1,700 Ocean fish (thousand tons): 633 Sugar (thousand tons): 377 Fish sauce (million gallons): 41.6 Fabrics of every kind (millions yards): 345.4 Source: General Statistical Office, Hanoi Imports Desired by Vietnam Telecommunications equipment Hotel and tour operators Medical equipment Oil and mining technology Food processing equipment Equipment for the fishing industry Timber processing equipment Capital investment in textile and steel industries