THE GOLDEN ERA OF VIETNAM 🇻🇳 (Here's Why)

I call it the golden era of Vietnam because that's actually what is happening right now. Man I really cannot believe what they are doing, like this is gonna look amazing, if they really can build this it's gonna look so nice. This country has struggled with poverty and wars for decades and the locals carry scars that most of us can barely imagine. But now Vietnam is finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. So the goal is basically to change the behavior of the population. But not only that, the country is actually thriving and growing at an incredible speed. What is happening now is that there is a rise of the middle class. The average person in Vietnam has a stable job. In this video, I want to share with you the five main reasons why Vietnam is experiencing this golden era. So it's gonna compete with Bangkok, with Singapore, with Kuala Lumpur airport. It's gonna become like a major hub. So this really shows what's happening in Vietnam and what's gonna happen in the coming years. But there are also some negative consequences that we need to discuss. Maybe you can get around six to eight million. 6 to 8 million or not. So sit back, relax and let's dive in. good morning guys from Ho Chi Minh City Saigon i'm ordering a quick coffee now and then we'll start with the video with the first point oh nice thank you so much let's not wait any more time and let's go straight to point number one which is the factory shift because we all know that for decades china was actually the factory of the world but now things are changing because in china the wages are rising and also the companies are looking for cheaper alternatives and vietnam is quickly becoming one of the biggest winners in the world you have global giants like samsung apple nike they're all expanding their production here in vietnam so yeah guys we made it to the Bitexco Financial Center which perfectly represents point number one of this video because here you have all the major corporations of Vietnam and also foreign corporations like energy companies, oil companies, technology companies, you have like Samsung inside here, Mastercard and so as we said Vietnam is really transitioning from more like a cheap manufacturing country or like a farming country as well to a more advanced high-level digital economy, technology economy and high-tech manufacturing as well so it's a big upgrade like a big shift and this tower perfectly represents the transition that is happening. While we go up to the tower because from there I want to show you a brand new district that is going to become the financial center of Vietnam let me share with you some interesting statistics about the economy. feel on top of the world so the entrance is 240,000 Vietnamese dong, beautiful here All in 2025 Vietnam received 27 billion US dollars in foreign investment, so companies that invested into the country. Last year 2023 the GDP of Vietnam grew by 8%, which is a big number. Just to show you how big it is, Thailand for the same year grew only 2.4%, the United States 2.2%. Germany 0.2% so that's a massive growth and the total economy is currently 514 billion US dollar they are expecting to grow another 7% this year in 2024 and just to give an idea the economy in 1990 was 6.5 billion now it's 514 billion so 80 times larger which is really mind-blowing if you think about it I don't know if you can see but here they are developing the entire area and it's gonna be the financial center. It's a massive construction site now. It really reminds me of what happened in Shanghai with the Pudong miracle and I feel like something similar is happening man. I think in the next 10 years this area on the other side is going to be completely developed and very modern. Very fascinating man to witness this development and transformation. We're actually going there very soon, but first let's talk about point number two, the rise of the new middle class. So because the Vietnam's economy is doing so well and the GDP is growing year after year and there are so many jobs, what is happening now is that there is a rise of the middle class. The average person in Vietnam has a stable job, their income has grown so they can support their family, they can buy a house. They can go to the shopping mall and they can spend money and they can enjoy life. They can go to the restaurant and eat out more. So the economy now is growing so much, especially because the average Vietnamese person has a stable job and much more money to spend. A very interesting piece of data is that 74% of the workforce in Vietnam right now works outside agriculture. While in 1990 was exactly the opposite. So right now you have millions of people that have moved from the rural areas of Vietnam into high paying factory jobs, construction jobs, urban jobs. And this is definitely fueling the rise of the middle class. And also because the middle class has more money, they can afford to spend more and to enjoy life more. They're also buying a lot more cars, a lot more scooters. They go on vacation and holiday more. That's why you see a lot of Vietnamese traveling around Southeast Asia and traveling around the world now because they have more money in their pocket. And that's honestly very good to see. I'm really, really happy for the Vietnamese people because they absolutely deserve it. After so many years of struggle and poverty and wars, they absolutely deserve it. But that's not all sunshine and rainbows because later on in the video we will also see that many people earn between 200 to 300 US dollars per month and they can barely survive in Vietnam, especially now that the cost of living is increasing significantly. so the third reason why vietnam is experiencing this golden era is because of tourism like the tourism in vietnam is literally exploding in 2025 it had a record year of 21 million tourists coming here to vietnam and this year 2026 they say is gonna even surpass that so they're expecting 25 million visitors which is crazy because it's becoming like the leading tourist destination here in Southeast Asia. It's literally on the way to surpass Thailand and Malaysia and these major countries. So this really shows what is happening in Vietnam, because it's not only an industrial growth and development, but also people are excited to come here to visit the country and to enjoy this beautiful culture, the people, the scenery, the nature, because Vietnam has so much to offer. I've done a road trip in 2022. with the motorbike from here Saigon all the way up to Da Nang and it was like mind-blowing. Absolutely beautiful. Let's find another location and let's talk about point number four because this one also is extremely important and it's playing a huge role for the development of Vietnam. Point number four is transportation and infrastructure development. But before we talk about this, let's meet Elvis because with him we're gonna experience first hand about this transport revolution. So guys, I'm here with my new friend Elvis from Singapore. Yeah, from Singapore. We met yesterday on the plane and he's such a cool guy. Young but super cool. Yeah, he's a very interesting guy as well. All right. And we are having a Vietnamese breakfast here in Saigon. Yeah. Let me show you. And this is our Huynh Hoa Banh Mi. popular yes it's quite famous district one yes in district one wow it's very enormous It's almost like a lunch for me. and you say you are half Vietnamese and half Singaporean yes man this banh mi is really really good and now i understand why it's so popular and so many tourists come here After that Elvis wanted to show me his childhood neighborhood where he was born and where he went to school and where he spent the first 10 years of his life. To get there we jump on a bus and he told me one thing that really shocked me because now the buses are completely free for everybody in Saigon. So yeah Elvis was explaining me that basically the government is transitioning so the people will get used to use the buses more that's why they make it free. So by doing it free then people will use it more and more and leave the and stop using the motorbikes scooters and cars and the city will become cleaner and less polluted. While we go catch the bus, let's talk about some massive infrastructure projects that are happening in Vietnam. The first one is the expansion of the expressway. The goal is to connect the north of Vietnam to the south of Vietnam, so Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, in the fastest and best possible way. More than 5000 kilometers of national expressway target by 2030. so you literally jump on a bus in Ho Chi Minh and you don't have to pay anything you can go wherever you want and Elvis is saying that it might continue like this for many months or even years actually but we're not sure when the government will stop this but it might be permanent yeah it might be permanent that's really good so the goal is basically to change the behavior of the population of the people because now many people They prefer to use the scooter, the scooter is very popular in Ho Chi Minh, or the car, which of course they are very, they create a lot of pollution. So they want to slowly change the behavior so people use more public transportations and then the city will become greener and smarter and less polluted and less noisy as well because now it's still quite noisy. The next mega project is the high-speed railway which will connect Hanoi in the north to Ho Chi Minh City in the south. It's gonna be like super fast, 350 kilometers per hour, it's gonna cost a lot of money, 67 billion US dollars and even though they didn't start the construction yet, they say it's gonna start very soon. The third one is the construction and expansion of mega ports in the north, in the center and also in the south. This is also going to be a game changer for the economy of Vietnam in the coming years. Then with Elvis we made it to his childhood hometown which is actually in the heart of Saigon as you can see here from the map. We just took 20 or 30 minutes with the bus. Here he showed me his school where he went during the first years of his life. Primary school, ex-primary school. How many years you spent here? I spent around five years. Five years? Yes, five years. How many years you lived in Vietnam, in Ho Chi Minh? For around 10 years. 10 years, your first 10 years of your life. First 10 years of my life here. Then we also walked through the neighborhood where he was born and where he was raised and it's so fascinating because we are in the heart of Saigon but the vibe is completely different. It's like super local, very quiet and it doesn't really feel like you're in Saigon. It's really like a big change of scenery compared to the District 1 with all the modern buildings. And while we walk through this local neighborhood we can talk about another massive infrastructure project that is happening right now. It's actually going to open very soon within a few weeks and that's the Long Thanh International Airport right here in Ho Chi Minh City. Until now Vietnam was not like a real hub in Asia in terms of airport but this one is gonna change the game Completely and in the coming years Ho Chi Minh City is going to compete with Bangkok, with Kuala Lumpur, with Singapore and it's going to become a major hub in Southeast Asia. Across the street right, my house on the street. Honestly it has been a beautiful afternoon with Elvis and it was so nice to go with him and experience and feel his childhood neighborhood, the school. the home and just spend some time with him and get to know another side of Saigon. After that we went back to District 1 and here we have to talk about another massive infrastructure project that is happening right now and that's the metro in Ho Chi Minh City. I was in Saigon already a few times in the past few years but I've never seen the metro. They opened the first line last year in 2025 but the plan is to keep expanding with line number two line number three and so on not only in Ho Chi Minh City but also in Hanoi. So basically they already map out the entire metro system for the coming years now only the blue one it's open but they already prepared the entire plan for the coming years. This is so exciting man, knowing that in the coming years all these new lines will open and the city will completely transform and connect like in a brand new way. So the goal by the government, by the Ho Chi Minh City, is to open six more lines by 2030. So now they just opened one and I guess they have to open five more. I think you can see the pattern here that the government is heavily investing into public transportation so the people don't need to use their private vehicle and everybody will benefit from that. But later on in the video we also have to talk about private vehicles because that's another big transformation that is happening in Vietnam. But before we continue to point number five, which is going to be also the end of this video, I want to quickly bring you to the other side of the river to show you this new district that is coming to life right now. They are literally building it right now and it's going to become the business and financial center of Saigon, but also of Vietnam. Man, it's really unbelievable to see what they are doing in this area. Here used to be just a... Empty land and now they are building everywhere. I just found the master plan of what's gonna happen here in Thu Thiem in the coming years. I mean it's already happening but there is still a lot of construction going on. So we are like stage one. So in a few years this place might look completely different from how it looks today. Now it's just cranes everywhere as you can see. Actually yeah this part is already open. I think there are some luxury residences and a hotel probably. So you can think of it as the financial district of Singapore, the one right next to the Marina Basin, all that area full of corporations, banks, investment banks, and all offices basically. I think they're building something very similar here, but also what they've built in Shanghai, you know, the Pudong area. So it feels like these major cities, they're all building and developing like a separate financial district. So they can attract more foreign investment, more business and more money. And I really cannot believe what they are doing. Like this is going to look amazing. If they really can build this, it's going to look so nice. For me, it's super fascinating to see how these Asian countries and Asian cities Because they are developing so much and so fast, they just pick like a plot of land and say all right let's build a financial district over here and within like 10 years they build a completely brand new super modern city. If you think what China has done in so many cities actually like Shenzhen, Shanghai, in Hong Kong as well, because Asia and Southeast Asia is growing so much there are so many Foreign investment coming in, so much money pouring into those countries. The economy is doing very well, the GDP is growing year after year, so they quickly have to expand and grow and modernize and develop and it's really fascinating to see that. And those cities like, I don't know, London, Paris, New York, Milan, they've been developed already like centuries ago so there is not much... development happening you know they're just building like a new modern building here and there but not so much you cannot really touch the historical center it's really hard to grow and expand they're kind of in a stagnant situation they've been built and developed already I don't know how to explain this but in Asia it's happening right now so you just witness this and wow And this is why I call it the golden era of Vietnam, but the golden era of Asia and Southeast Asia in general, because it's like Europe and America in the 1800 and 1900, you know, when there was so much growth and development. I then met with Nung and she's a local from Saigon. When I travel, I try to meet local people to get their perspectives and to learn more about a place. And she was telling me that she's very happy how the government is taking care of the country and their people. For example, she told me that they are investing heavily not only in infrastructures but also So in education, in health care and they're really trying hard to increase the salaries as well of the people and this is actually one of the current struggle of Vietnam the salaries starting salary if you have a degree so you can get about 8 to 10 million per month but with a degree yeah yeah for example a normal job in Coffee. Yeah, if you have a full-time job in cafe, maybe you can get around 6-8 million, 6-8 million per month, so a little bit lower than the degree. Just to give you an idea about those salaries we are now at Vinhomes Central Park and to rent just one bedroom apartment here it will cost you between 15 to 25 million vietnamese dong per month so if you're vietnamese you have a college degree and you have a full-time job your entire salary cannot even afford one bedroom apartment here and we are not talking about a super luxurious condo. So this gives you a pretty clear idea of the situation in Saigon. And when you find all those YouTube videos of expats bragging about how low their rent is, keep this in mind. If you work part-time, normally it will be around 30,000 VNĐ for each hour. Okay, so 30,000 VNĐ per hour. I think it's not high. Yeah, it's not high. I think the expense in Saigon is growing faster than our salary. Than the salary. Yeah. Every year after year is increasing the cost. Yes. It's finally time to talk about point number five. This point number four lasted so long, but we had so many things to talk about. guys i was about to end the video here but there is actually a fifth point that is extremely important for this video and that's the electric revolution because in the past few years vietnam is going through like a massive transition from combustion engine cars and motorbikes to fully electric cars and motorbikes it started like two three years ago with the cars but now it's happening like very heavily also with the scooters because as you can see around the city Thank you. Saigon, but the entire country of Vietnam, is packed with scooters. There are like millions and millions of scooters. Most of the Vietnamese people, they move around with the scooters. So the government now is really pushing for this transition from petrol and combustion engine scooters into electric one. And of course, with the cars as well and also with public transportation. So also buses are becoming all electric now in Vietnam. and the leader is one company and it's a vietnamese company and it's called vinfast the owner of vinfast is the richest person of vietnam and is also the owner of vingroup which is the largest company of vietnam they own so many things like we can definitely call VinGroup, a business empire because it's the largest private company of Vietnam It's very government friendly as well, meaning that it gets a lot of support from the government and as you can see here it has so many companies under the group, so we have the VinFast, then they have VinHomes and we've seen some of them in the previous video about the rich side of Vietnam and they are developing literally all over the country, then VinPearl with hotels and resorts, VinCom with shopping malls, Vinmec with healthcare, VinSchools, VinUniversity, VinBus and yeah man they're really taking over the country and to be honest this group is really helping Vietnam to become a first world country to develop so much to modernize so much I will probably make like a big statement right now but I would say 50 to 60 percent of Vietnam's development the reason why it's becoming so modern and so advanced is thanks to VinGroup probably even more but let me know your comments down below As you can see guys all around the city you have the Vinfast charging stations and it's full of Vinfast cars, the electric car revolution of Vietnam. And in just a few years probably like two three years they took more than 30 percent of the entire automotive market of Vietnam so they enter very aggressively as we mentioned already in this vehicle manufacturing here it's huge in Vietnam so they produce the cars and the scooters here in the country so they can keep the price very low and very affordable at the same time the middle class of Vietnam is also growing very fast so you combine all these things and then you have this massive company that is taking over the the market basically and it's so popular everywhere you go probably one every two or three cars is a VinFast car and also the scooter so It's really fascinating to witness that because it's very unique. There are not many companies that are scaling so fast around the world. Another one that comes to mind is BYD, the Chinese brand, but of course that one is much bigger than VinFast. so these are my thoughts about the golden era of Vietnam guys a country that has been struggling for many decades and now is finally thriving and developing extremely fast as i said many times during this video i'm really really happy for Vietnam and especially for the people of Vietnam which absolutely deserve all of this But let me know your thoughts and your opinions down below, I'm really curious to hear different perspectives, to learn more about the country and the current situation of Vietnam. I'll send you a big hug and I will see you in the next video. Bye bye.