Date: April 9, 2008 - 7:40pm Location: Hoi An, Vietnam

This town is bustling, and full of tourists! But where Nha Trang was a bit too souvenir-shoppesque, Hoi An has the history of handicraft to back its many shops.

I wandered around by the river today and saw shops selling woodcarvings where the artist was sitting at his bench making them on site. Hoi An’s famous lantern shops were the same way: women stitching silk panels and stretching them across the wooden ribs of every shape and size lantern you can imagine.

I think that comes from Hoi An being an old port town, where trade brought customers, and many different peoples.

I have to say, walking around the older section of town was not unlike walking through the winding streets of a small Tuscan village. Because the river silted up, and the port was moved up the coast, Hoi An stayed off the radar during the Vietnam War, and therefore, many of the old buildings survived…

This is part of an update I sent from my trip to Vietnam in April 2008.

Apparently Hoi An was still full of tourists when the typhoon hit…

After devastating the Philippines, leaving 246 people dead in its wake, Typhoon Ketsana made its way across the South China Sea to strike Vietnam on its central coast. There the storm battered the cities of Hue and Hoi An, along with Da Nang and the infamous China Beach.

From the International Herald Tribune:

Many foreign visitors had been trapped in Hoi An, some doubling up in hotel rooms as water rose on the lower floors. Others were sequestered in luxury hotels on China Beach in Da Nang. Vietnamese television showed Westerners in raincoats wading through the waist-deep water in Hoi An, taking pictures of each other.

“I had to jump from the second floor of a hotel to get into a boat,” said Mr. Trong, the photographer, who visited Hoi An Wednesday. “People were trapped in their homes and the police and army were bringing them instant noodles and water.”

So far, the count of those killed by Ketsana in Vietnam stands at 41.

This typhoon isn’t the only devastation the Asian Pacific region is facing right now.

An 8.3 magnitude earthquake deep underwater sparked a tsunami that pummeled Samoa and American Samoa. Some witnesses reported a 20-foot high wave that swept whole villages off the coast.

More than 100 people were killed in the floods on the islands.

The damage done by Mother Nature on the Samoan islands, in Vietnam and in the Philippines is extensive. Clean up has already begun, and the next step is to build infrastructure.

Infrastructure Development

Back in April, I recommended VinaCapital’s Vietnam Infrastructure Fund (VNI:London). This fund is connected with urban development: telecommunication, utilities and transportation. It can buy a stake in existing projects, like those operated by the government. Projects like this offer really safe and steady gains.

The fund can also buy projects that have stalled, many times at a discount. If a company begins a project, and it’s having trouble getting it started, Vietnam Infrastructure Fund can often sweep in and pick up a partnership on the cheap. These projects can offer stellar gains.

And lastly, Vietnam Infrastructure Fund can create its own infrastructure projects. The fund prefers to develop “Greenfield sites” or sites that are on land that has not been developed, and will undertake projects with a highly regarded partner.

This fund bears watching as the number of projects in the region has just skyrocketed.

Word to the wise, though… It’s not quite liquid enough for a stand-alone recommendation. We’re going to watch it, and see if it picks up any extra business from these unfortunate disasters.

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Originally published October 28, 2009.

Other Related Topics: Construction Industry , Investment Funds , Philippines , Sara Nunnally , Taipan Insider , Vietnam Investments

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