There are about 60,000 Vietnamese people working and studying in the Czech Republic. Most of them are students and workers. Tran Quang Hung, Executive Director of the Sapa Commercial Centre in Prague said that the Vietnamese in the Czech Republic earn their livings mainly through trading, after the Velvet Revolution in 1989. As a consequence of the changes, these people had to stay and turn to different businesses. In 1992, the Vietnam Business Association was established and has gradually become one of the most important associations in the community.
Despite being known as a close-knit community, the Vietnamese in the Czech Republic has had to face a lot of difficulties especially since the country became a member of the European Union (EU) and opened borders with its neighbouring countries. Thuy Ngan, who has been living there for 20 years and has witnessed a lot of changes said that each time the government issues a new policy, the foreign community have to change the goods they sell, upgrade their shops and invest more to adapt to such changes.
Many of the Vietnamese people have created a reputation there with their own hands; however, some of them have to work very hard to make ends meet. The family of Dang Thi Hang moved to Czech in 1993. At first, their lives seemed extremely hard as they did not know the language. They sold garments and textiles and learnt Czech every time they had free time. Now, they have a food store with food stuffs from Vietnam, Thailand, China and the Czech Republic. Vietnamese food is very popular not only in the community but also across the country, therefore, their business has become more successful.
Nguyen Son has been there since 1987, when he studied chemical engineering. Now he owns a textiles and garments business. Despite the difficulties that he has to face during the economic downturn and changes in the country’s policies, he is still very optimistic about the future and sees a chance of investing in his homeland. He said that it is necessary to study the market very carefully in any particular country if you want to succeed. As Vietnam has adopted a very open policy aimed at creating favourable conditions to for people from overseas to do business in the country, he believes that many people will go home.
Although the community in the Republic has gained some remarkable achievements, Tran Quang Hung, Executive Director of the Sapa Commercial Centre in Prague is still aware that there are a lot of things awaiting him. He wanted that his Centre will become one of the model centres in the EU with increasing assistance from Vietnamese Business Association. To preserve the Vietnamese cultural identity, it has organised classes and cultural programmes for their children.
However hard their lives maybe, the Vietnamese overseas are always proud of their origins and will do their best to create a good image of Vietnam in the countries where they live.