VIETNAM is poised for an economic boom, yet Singapore's presence in this country is no more than a footprint.

So says someone who knows Vietnam intimately - American businessman Tony Salzman, 55, who has been doing business in this Southeast Asian country for 14 years.

In a recent interview with AsiaOne in conjunction with the upcoming APEC summit in Hanoi from Nov 17 to 19, Mr Salzman who has a law degree from Yale University, said that although Singapore investment has been going into Vietnam, it is nowhere near the sizeable and varied ones made by countries such as Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and possibly Australia.

"This is a pity," says Mr Salzman. "Singapore has a destiny to fulfill in Vietnam and I hope it does so. There is no reason in the world why Singapore should not be the gateway of the world to Vietnam. It is one and a half hours away from Ho Chi Minh City and three hours from Hanoi."

"There are so many opportunities for Singapore companies in Vietnam but they are not doing much so far."

Mr Salzman is the founding father of the Vietnam Business Forum established in 1998 as a tripartite association, comprising World Bank member countries which donate money to Vietnam, businesses located in Vietnam and the government, to facilitate economic growth and iron out kinks in the bureaucracy.

His own company New Markets Pte Ltd, of which he is the founder and managing director, is a distribution and investment company formed in 1992. It is involved in a number of Vietnamese import, retail and leasing initiatives. This company has its regional headquarters in Singapore and has an annual turnover of $S150 million.

Mr Salzman, who is also the president of Caterpillar's Vietnam business, V-Trac Holdings Ltd, said this heavy equipment business is one of the most promising in Vietnam as infrastructure development in the country will continue for the next 50 years and beyond.

There is a crying need for roads, drainage and flood control systems, bridges, port development, mining and so on, he said.

Already all the big business names are there, he added and rattled off corporations such as Hewlett Packard, Nokia, Samsung, GE, Airbus, Microsoft, Siemens, Panasonic, Lufthansa, Mitsubishi, Ford and IBM. Also, a whole slew of trading companies are there.

He added that Singapore companies included SingTel, Keppel, SembCorp and SIA.

Of the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP), he said it is an impressive industrial model but most of the activities are "government-to-government stuff."

Asked why he was so sanguine about Vietnam, he said that the Vietnamese are hungry to improve and to get ahead.

He recalled that in 1995, Vietnam's Finance Minister Sy Hung explained to him the problem of the troubled open door policy this way: "We want to open the lock but something inside it is broken."

Not so today.

He said: "Other than China and India, I see the third Asian economic boom as happening in Vietnam. It will not happen overnight but it will happen one day."

Mr Salzman conceded that the Vietnamese bureaucracy is still in need of improvement. There are still problems but they want things to get better.

"For example, the customs and immigration service at the airport has improved appreciably after Vietnam sent their officers to school in Australia to learn how to operate this service smoothly and efficiently," he said.

"I tell you, they are going to be the economic engine. They are going to outstep everyone!"

On Hanoi being the venue for the APEC Summit, Mr Salzman said it was a significant development for Vietnam, likening it to "their coming out party, and a major turning point" for the country.

He said that as Vietnam prepares for accession to the World Trade Organisation later this year, the growth possibilities are even more promising.

His final advice was again directed at Singaporean companies: "Don't just say you want to invest in Vietnam. Keep your eyes open, do the homework. Find out what Vietnam needs and see if you can supply it. Then you make a business proposition."

He also observed that some of the bigger Singaporean companies can be a little arrogant. "They already have their own ideas about how to do things and they can be impervious to suggestions on alternative methods," he added.

"It's better for them to take a questioning and learning approach."

Of New Markets Pte Ltd, he said his company has the reputation of being clean and transparent and its accounting and audit are of international standards.

"We can help people do business in Vietnam with our connections and long experience in the country. I hope to develop it into a regional holding company for all the operations that I have been running in Vietnam over the last 14 years."

"If everything goes well, we our turnover might double or even triple."

This is no pipe dream. During his 14 years there, he has developed an intimate knowledge of how the Vietnamese do business, how the bureaucracy works, and is well connected and knowledgeable on the hurdles foreign investors, manufacturers and brands must clear to compete there. He is one of only two members of the high-level Council on Foreign Relations, a US think-tank, who lives in Vietnam.

Married to Ruby Shang 40, an American Chinese, who works for the William J Clinton Foundation, a charitable organisation, they have a daughter Zana, 17.

Mr Salman makes it a point to return to New York at least once a year so "my family and friends can remember what I look like."

"I am sometimes greeted with 'so that's what you look like and sometimes 'how is Mr Vietnam doing?'" he quipped.

And he speaks Vietnamese.