18 Aug 2022
Halong Bay, Vietnam

Chapter 1: Carrying the torch

18 Aug 2022

When the 6th Party Congress was held at the end of 1986, Vietnam was in the midst of major economic difficulties. Despite strictly enforced price ceilings, inflation was hitting 700% a year. The country’s exports amounted to some US$500 million, less than half of its imports (US$1.22 billion). While the Government had recorded several notable achievements in healthcare and education, the country's economic growth was not sustainable due to the fiscal deficit. There was virtually no foreign investment and visits by Vietnamese nationals to international markets were rare. Apart from a handful of diplomats and aid workers, there were few foreigners from developed markets working in Vietnam. 

The reforms passed by the 7th Party Congress in 1991 greatly improved investment incentives, increasing the efficient and quality of production. Economic growth accelerated to 6%, thanks to previous investments in oil & electricity financed by Russia Government (formerly the USSR). Exports, of just over US$2 billion, were about four times as much as in 1986. Nevertheless, Vietnam was heavily dependent on three main commodities (crude oil, rice and seafood), casting doubt on the sustainability of this growth. 

The 1986 economic reforms resulted into insignificant impacts on foreign investment in Vietnam. Aid from Russia (formerly the USSR) and other Eastern European countries was cut off. Meanwhile, international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) restricted aid to Vietnam to consultancy without financial aspects. This left Vietnam in a difficult position as the country was still healing from the war, using up much of the resources that could have aided economic growth. 

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Gross domestic product (GDP) Growth and Inflation rate (1989 – 2014)

At first, foreign investors were hesitant to put their faith in Vietnam’s transition from from a centrally planned to a more market-oriented economy. Total approved Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in 1992 was not much more than in 1988 when Vietnam granted the first licence for one foreign project, with implemented capital moving at an even smaller margin. This showed that foreign markets were somewhat uncertain about the Vietnamese market.

Only a small proportion of FDI commitments were disbursed in the early years. Apart from global economic upheavals, the bottlenecks in the local business environment cast doubts on foreign investor confidence.

FDI Approved and Implemented capital in Vietnam

The decision taken by EY organization to set foot in Vietnam was audacious, yet strategically visionary. The local landscape showed little promise for international investors at the time. However, the firm’s first founding leaders set the cornerstone by founding two representative offices of Ernst & Young Vietnam in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City as a strong vote of confidence in Vietnam’s Renovation (Doi Moi) policy.

This decision, while venturesome, was based on the numerous breakthrough policies the Vietnamese Government passed to support its vision of “untying” thinking by granting business rights to people and private businesses. EY, the first foreign auditing firm to invest in Vietnam, was proud to be on the Government’s side on its Doi Moi journey, aiming to abolish ordinance norms and grant autonomy to state-owned enterprises (SOEs); promote the transparency of business activities and policy mechanism; establish standards on operation, management and business culture. 

EY Vietnam journey witnessed the “open-door” policy, economic reforms and development of Vietnam over the past 30 years. The firm has been on the country’s side in good times and bad, through US embargo and global economic crises. 

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When the global leading audit and consulting firm entered Vietnam, the independent audit sector was still in its infancy. Few were aware of such services and related regulations were non-existent. This created a myriad of challenges for auditing firms, especially for such a foreign organization, as auditing is a service impacting many sensitive areas.

In those days, Vietnamese people had little idea of the concept of audit and its terminologies. A quick search in the Vietnamese dictionary would yield a generic, ambiguous definition along the lines of “accounting examination, inspection or financial inspection”.

(Source: The report analyzing the 30-year development of the Vietnamese economy and its economic position, written by Associate Professor, PhD Tran Dinh Thien and Chu Minh Hoi)

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What drove EY to invest in Vietnam 30 years ago?

Quote by Lenard Xieu Tan, Founder, Managing Partner, Ernst & Young Indochina

Dear big EY Indochina Family! 

The story of EY Indochina is the story of a small startup persevering in the face of overwhelming odds to build the foundation of the great EY Indochina of today. 

Mai Anita (Lenard Xieu Tan’s spouse) and I would like to applaud our big EY Indochina family for its success. Our history started in 1988 in a small office in Ho Chi Minh city with just two members. At the time, Vietnam was still under the US embargo. We opened our Hanoi office in a small room at the Government’s guest house with four members, among them your current Country Managing Partner, my great colleague and friend: Cuong Dinh Tran. Vietnamese people are unparalleled in their dynamism and the country has a great strategic position. Being adjacent to China, having a long coastline and less than a two-hour flight from Hong Kong and Singapore, we had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to develop the financial market under Doi Moi. Then and now, Vietnam needs to have a solid, independent  accounting and auditing services industry to support its growth and face its challenges head-on.  

To enable this independence, it was crucial to leverage the strength of a trusted business partner who is a leader in the field. EY Vietnam was born through close collaboration and relations with EY Hong Kong and through them EY Singapore and EY Australia, cementing the 100% buy-in from the EYGlobal.

This partnership brought a readily available global client base. From the very start, business is about relations and trust. Through our partnership and talks with EY Hong Kong, we brought the global weight of the firm and matched it with local strength to foster trust and create a leading-class auditing and accounting offering. This is not to say that the start was without difficulty. We fought to make the firm financially viable, drawing upon our client base and personal investments to make it successful. We fought for several years before we obtained our SCCI (State Committee on Cooperation and Investment) license and outlived the US embargo. We fought and advocated to build a strong local  team without bringing in overseas teams to run the operation. 

Through all this, EY Vietnam became the leading firm in the market. We were the first accounting firm with a full-service operation license under the representative office license from the Ministry of Commerce and the first accounting firm to be licensed by the SCCI. We bet on Cuong, sending him to the US, investing in his growth and creating the strong Managing Partner and Chairman of EY Indochina that he is today.

My belief is that when you’re following your inner voice, doors will open for you even if they were closed on you before. If you are analyzing and auditing a business, you need to understand how it works, how it flows and how to make it work for your audit. Also, never forget that you must work on the business before it works for you. The core values are the glue that will hold the business together. Business value will allow you to soar above the competition.

Not only has EY Vietnam performed exceedingly well in the market, but the firm has also played an important role in the evolution of Vietnam following the Doi Moi. Specifically, we created our impact via: 

  • Facilitating the change of Foreign Investment Law to allow foreign investors to become 100% foreign-invested companies 
  • The establishment of the Assurance services 
  • Assisting with the establishment of the Vietnamese stock market 
  • Supporting the privatization and reforms of SOEs and many other various roles.

Just remember: Success is not final, and failure is not fatal. Having the courage to pioneer and continue should be the principle to have! The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph!  

Taking this opportunity, I am very proud and happy that our EY family continues as one of the leading accounting and consulting firms in Indochina, and would like to send my warm wishes for continued success for many years to come.

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