Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 9, 1995 TAG: 9504070038
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
That's important, because, as economists tell us, we will interact on a more regular basis with people from foreign lands. By extension, the communities best prepared to compete in the global economy will know how to handle visitors from exotic places.
The visit's chief local organizer, Roanoke lawyer William Poff, doesn't claim perfect success. He said he was embarrassed by one company's lack of preparedness for the high-level guests, who included Minister of Energy Thai Phung Ne and Truong Quang Duoc, who governs the Da Nang province.
"Overall, it was a B performance," Poff said.
Yet, those scheduling future Vietnamese delegations are considering adding a regular stop in Roanoke, said Gary Hauptman, a lawyer with the American Trial Lawyers Association in Washington, D.C., who sits on the Vietnam trip-planning committee.
That could only help the Roanoke area's present and future exporters.
A play-by-play review of the visit is an interesting study in the need for community leaders to think ahead in the global village.
To be sure, Roanoke is no foreign-relations novice. Through the Sister Cities International program - which pairs American cities with communities abroad - it has established ties with Wonju, Korea; Kisumu, Kenya; and Pskov, Russia. Sister-city relationships flourish worldwide as an engine of peace.
In Roanoke, this has provided fodder for classroom projects and objectives for medical missions, public service projects and fund-raisers.
Last month, however, Roanoke was asked to show the Vietnamese brass American industry and life outside big cities. This was different from the feel-good stuff of sister cityhood.
Vietnam's leaders had come to the United States for 10 days to court foreign investment needed to rebuild the country's infrastructure. The group's itinerary came to include the Roanoke Valley at the urging of Virginia Tech and Poff's firm, Woods, Rogers & Hazlegrove. (Poff is the husband of Roanoke Times & World-News staff writer Mag Poff.)
The Hanoi government never before had sanctioned a trade delegation to the U.S. And no prior, unofficial delegation ever had ventured outside a major U.S. city.
Almost from the start of the Roanoke leg of their trip, however, the Vietnamese might have wondered what they were in for. As their bus headed south on Interstate 81 on the afternoon of March 9, a state trooper pulled it over. Authorities had learned of a threat against the group and the possibility of a demonstration outside the Asian-French Cafe, a restaurant in Roanoke's City Market. That's where the group had planned to eat that evening.
It was no secret that the Vietnamese would be in Roanoke. The dignitaries had been scheduled to present a five-hour conference on trade issues at the Sheraton Inn Roanoke Airport the next morning in Roanoke and Woods, Rogers & Hazlegrove had publicized the event for weeks in advance.
The delegation's bus continued toward Roanoke accompanied by state police, who handed off escort duties to city police. Poff, who had received a call from the FBI regarding the possibility of protest, had arranged the previous day to move the dinner to the Jefferson Club.
About 100 business and community leaders attended. Mayor David Bowers spoke and gave some dignitaries stars commemorating Roanoke's landmark neon sign. A police car escorted the bus to the Sheraton.
The Vietnamese never saw about 40 protesters who assembled outside the cafe. The group, led by the Vietnamese Community of Washington, D.C.; Maryland; and Virginia, argued that the U.S. companies should move cautiously to establish economic ties with Vietnam, which they said commits human rights and other abuses on its citizens.
As it turned out, the protesters apparently had learned of the original location of the dinner through the cafe owner's son. Poff had invited that man, Tai K. Nguyen, a graduate student at Virginia Tech, to assist the delegation as a translator. Nguyen said he had publicized the planned trade conference because he thought it would be important to Roanoke's small Vietnamese community. He said he was surprised and saddened that some had used the information to plot a protest.
Poff said the protest attracted the attention of the FBI, which investigates threats against foreign diplomats. The FBI would not comment.
In a second unexpected turn of events, the following morning's conference had been cancelled due to a lack of interest. Four people had signed up.
So the group set out early on a planned tour of local industries. They had to squeeze into the Sheraton airport shuttle bus and private cars, however, because their bus driver had not been told of the earlier departure time, Poff said.
At the first stop, Connex Pipe Systems Inc. in Botetourt County, a woman in blue jeans answered the door. It took several minutes for a company official to retrieve the group from a cramped waiting room. The tour led through a machine shop within a few feet of work areas. One dignitary covered his face with a notebook when he thought he saw a shower of welding sparks come his way.
"It was somewhat chaotic," said Poff, who had lined up the stop at Connex. "I was embarrassed by it."
Coming from a technology-poor home country, other dignitaries said they were impressed, however.
"They know it's very difficult to weld parts that thick," said Luong Van Ly, deputy directory of the Foreign Affairs Office in Ho Chi Minh City.
Before the day was over, the group had gazed over the city from the vacant top floor of the First Union tower, visited Woods, Rogers & Hazlegrove and saw the high-tech control room of Appalachian Power Co. in Roanoke.
But it was Carter Machinery Co. Inc. in Salem, a Caterpillar equipment dealer, that stole the show.
Sharply dressed executives greeted the dignitaries at the curb, led them inside past a sign reading "Welcome" in Vietnamese and handed them hangars for their coats. A large table was set with sweets, cigarettes and Jasmine and Lotus tea, popular beverages in Vietnam.
Sherry Seib, the company's promotion and advertising manager, had studied up on her guests at the library and shopped at two Asian markets to prepare the spread.
"It's just the Carter way," she said.
by CNB