Day 12

This morning we visited Siagon Newport shipping company which is a state owned shipping corporation. They own several ports and their market share of all goods entering the country is 50%. This makes them a very powerful company because they are able to manipulate the shipping business in any way they desire. The port visited is close to the city and it services small and medium sized cargo ships. The port is populated by many ships each holding 1000-1500 boxes of cargo. They have some advanced software that they use to run their port. It allows them to tack every single box of goods and where it is in the shipping yard at all times. The operators of this software stay in the control tower where they oversee the entire port.

The view from the control tower

The local government of Ho Chi Minh City owns an area of land that they developed into the "Quang Tang Software City". This development was very similar to VSIP that we visited earlier. Within this software city we visited a specific company "TMA solutions" that is a software outsourcing company. Clients come to TMA and tell them what type of application or program they want, then TMA produces it for them at a low cost. Employing mostly computer scientists as programmers TMA is very flexible and can accommodate many different demands from mobile applications to full fledged desktop programs. They had a few posters around the programming room that I particularly agreed with.

Model of the Software City

Inspirational posters for the programmers

Tonight for dinner we went to different kind of restaurant. You were supplied with a pot of broth and you then cooked your own dinner. Items flowed past on a converter belt and you took whatever it is that you wanted off of the belt. I took noodles, carrots, chicken, and vegetables for my pot. After the items were cooked you take them out with your own personal ladle and place them in your bowl. I got a mild bowl in terms of spiciness and it was nearly too much for me to handle. Thankfully my friend next to me let me have an extra water to cool down my mouth. Overall, today was a relaxing day.