Ho Chi Minh City: Introduction to Vietnam

Slums in Ho Chi Minh City

In June 2006, I spent three weeks in Vietnam with Entrepreneurs du Monde’s (EDM) Director and Founder, Franck Renaudin. We met with the key microfinance operators in Hanoi and HCMC as well as with select international organizations. While credit for the poor is currently being offered by several microfinance operators as well as by the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (‘SPB’), we found the demand for credit to be quite extraordinary and the market to be underserved in terms of complementary training services and savings products. When operating in Vietnam, international non-governmental organizations (‘INGOs’) must work with local mass organizations (e.g. Women’s Union, Labor Federation, People’s Committee). The most effective strategy for an INGO is to set up a partnership to work directly through a local Vietnamese operator. It is critical to find a strong local partner that has a good relationship with the mass organizations and the government at the district and provincial level. Therefore, our first challenge is to establish a partnership with an effective Vietnamese microfinance organization that upholds the same social mission as EDM. During our preliminary evaluation visit in June, Franck and I were both extremely impressed with a particular Vietnamese microfinance operator called Binh Minh Community Development Consultancy Company (‘Binh Minh’, ‘Local Partner’).