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Vietnam is not a bastion of high paying employment opportunities. The labor force, while highly motivated, young and to a degree, educated, is paid little and the work is long.

There have been opportunities in past years for almost anyone who speaks English and with little if any experience in teaching to get a job in the country as an English teacher. Many an expat has come to Vietnam who was previously working in a totally unrelated field and suddenly found themselves capturing a wage in Vietnam that was HIGHER than what they were accustomed to in their home country and living a sort of idyllic upscale lifestyle while in reality contributing very little to the people they were being paid to teach and help. This is changing. Vietnam's government has recently been cracking down on non professional teachers and demanding real background checks on the teachers who are staying in the country or demanding these background checks before they step foot in the country. Various scams abound in the private school systems which cater to these types of people and unfortunately the ones who are losing the most are the people of Vietnam who by and large will work a regular job during the day and make Herculean efforts at self help by going to school at night, in some cases paying incredibly high prices for this education only to find it of poor quality.

That said however, there is a need and desire to import quality people who are honorable and talented enough to do a wide assortment of jobs such as teaching IT (Intel is now investing more than $350 Million USD in chip manufacturing in the country and the training that goes with it). Quality educators for English are in demand and the pay is fair. The government is becoming quite liberal with regard to entrepreneurs who work from their home offices online, exporters of Vietnamese products will find it a hot bed of activity and there is a real need in many other private sectors although your own creativity and willingness to overcome the odds will be needed. Even opening your own company has become significantly easier in the last few years. Whereas in 2000 you would have needed thousands of dollars just to open a 'rep office', nowadays for someone to open a 100% foreign owned company it is not only easier but furthermore the cost to open is now in the hundreds, not thousands.

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Information courtesy of VietVentures - www.vietventures.com

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