There is nothing like a holiday to refresh the mind and body and take the time to look at a country that until now has only been glimpsed and guessed at through news reports and official figures.
In my case that country was Vietnam and after three weeks of touring using the main local method of transport -- a scooter - a sketch impression of a fast growing, economic tiger was quickly vindicated and refined.
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| Water buffalos on their way to market in Vietnam. Picture: Brian Patten |
While Vietnam is far from the wealthiest country in Asia, for more than a decade it has enjoyed economic growth rates that rival even the world's most talked about economic powerhouse, China.
The reason for that rapid growth runs deeper than the transition from a centrally planned economy to a market oriented trading consumer society -- a process known as renewal or doi moi -- and can be plainly seen in all of the faces around you.
Most of those faces are incredibly young, with Vietnam enjoying some of the most favourable demographics in the world at the same time as most Western countries are suffering the twin drags of a rapidly ageing population.
Those being an understandable fall in productive capacity and greater consumption of expensive, subsidised health services.
With less than six per cent of Vietnam's 86 million over the age of 65 and a high birth rate, the natural entrepreneurship of the people is rapidly flourishing as are exports of manufactured goods, textiles, shoes, oil and IT services as the traditional and still important agricultural exports are gradually crowded out.
And while tourism is growing quickly, Vietnam's natural beauty, sensational cuisine and friendly, welcoming and well-educated population mean the sky is the limit here.
Naturally Australia figures large in the growth in trade as the fourth biggest destination of Vietnam's burgeoning exports behind the US, Japan and China.
The Australian Trade Commission's chief economist, Tim Harcourt, in his recent book The Airport Economist pointed out that Australian companies have been very quick to set up substantial beach-heads in Vietnam as the country opened up for foreign investment and joined ASEAN and the World Trade Organisation.
ANZ Bank, Bluescope Steel, QBE Insurance, Foster's, Commonwealth Bank and Visy Packaging are some of the largest of more than 100 Australian companies with bases in Vietnam.
And in one memorable example of adaptation, I spied a scooter sporting the new ANZ blue livery and lotus flower logo on the streets of Hanoi.
Perhaps an innovation in mobile lending that could return to Australia?
