First-hand account

Claude Royer

DID posting in Vietnam from 2004 to 2005

From 2004 to 2005, Claude Royer was posted in Vietnam with a mandate from DID to carry out a diagnostic of the local financial cooperatives that would assist them in the modernization process they wished to undertake.

His mandate consisted of carrying out a diagnostic of the cooperatives designated by the project, proposing modernization strategies and studying possibilities for a federation that would eventually be able to support the network of cooperatives in its strategic operational management and its growth.

“I carried out a mandate for DID in Vietnam from June 2004 to May 2005... and if the opportunity presented itself to return, I would say, yes, without hesitating!

The experience in Vietnam was enriching in every way. I was with my spouse and our daughter, who was barely four years old when we settled in the capital, Hanoi, located in the north of the country. Each of us has kept unforgettable memories of our stay...

In Vietnam, all our senses were stimulated. First by the language which is totally foreign. Before and during my stay there, I learned the rudiments and enough to take part in a simple conversation and follow a business meeting. If there is one piece of advice that I would give to anyone thinking of traveling or working there, it is to do the same. It provides an opening on the culture and thereby the people, and is also a very enriching personal and intellectual challenge.

The food alone is reason to go. First because you find all the world's cuisines in Vietnam; a diversity that is far from tedious. Vietnamese in the north, centre, and especially the south, had me taste dishes that I would never have dared try... bees, crickets, the (internal parts) of animals and more.

The sense of smell is also called on with all the odours offered in the cities and the country, especially when you go to the market – which is also a true feast for the eyes!

Regarding the family aspect, curiously, it was in Vietnam that I felt the closest to my friends and family in Québec. This was because telecommunications were very accessible. Already in 2004 internet access was widely available. I remember that in Africa, in Mali where I had been a few years previously, it was difficult to get landline telephone service for the house... Today, happily, things are different.

I would say I did my part through the work I did there, because in Vietnam I carried out an institutional diagnostic that made it possible to establish the basis for a modernization plan for the Vietnamese financial cooperatives.

Specifically, I identified 7 financial cooperatives (some in the north of the country, others in the centre and a few in the south) to which I made several visits in order to get an idea of the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities. I met with employees, managers and also members of the boards of directors of the cooperatives.

In each milieu where I was going to perform a diagnostic, I had to inform the local authorities about my visit: the cooperative in question, but also the cooperative institutions in the milieu and the State Bank of Vietnam. Then I made sure that my collaborators fully understood and adhered to the mandate that I was carrying out: the diagnostic that I was going to perform in their cooperative. I involved them as much as possible. For me it was a way to execute my mandate more successfully, and for them it was a way to take an active part in an exercise from which they would be the first to benefit.

At the end of the mandate, I was able to present a series of recommendations concerning strategies to be deployed to modernize the network that covered work methods, employee training, governance and the introduction of technological solutions.

The modernization process that was devised for these cooperatives enabled them to develop of course, but it also served as a model for a number of other financial cooperatives in the country that also wished to modernize.

I would add that this mandate made it possible to establish the foundations for an apex institution, or federation, that was set up in 2005 as part of the support mandate of my successor in Vietnam, Michel Bélanger.”