Vietnam preparing to join World Trade Organization

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Nearly four decades ago, South Vietnamese leaders mapped out their battle plans inside the presidential palace here. When they lost the war, the palace became the base for the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, which worked to impose tight communist control.

But in September it was the scene of a very different gathering: a board meeting of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. In three decades since 1975, Vietnam has gone from war to communism to quasi-capitalism — to become Asia's second-fastest-growing economy with 8.4 percent growth last year that trailed only China's.

The rate of Vietnamese exports to the United States is rising faster than even China's; American companies like Intel and Nike, and investors across the region, are pouring billions of dollars into the country; overseas Vietnamese are returning to run the ventures.

And now, after more than a decade of talks, trade negotiators from around the world are preparing to polish off an agreement, possibly by Thursday, for Vietnam to join the World Trade Organization. President Bush, President Hu Jintao of China, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and other heads of state plan to come to Hanoi in mid-November for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

For Vietnam, that meeting will be a coming-out party, critical to the country's pride in much the way the 2008 Olympics in Beijing are for China.

"I think they are the next China," said Michael R.P. Smith, chief executive of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. "It's not the scale of China, but it's a significant economy." Indeed, Vietnam's growth has surpassed that of Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea and India, its closest rival.

The latest Asian economic tiger, with a population of 84 million, Vietnam now produces and uses more cement than France, its former colonial ruler. The main index for the Ho Chi Minh City stock market and a smaller exchange in Hanoi have nearly doubled in value this year. Vietnam has become the talk of investment bankers and investors across Asia.