Mr Warrick Cleine - CEO, KPMG in Vietnam

Fifteen years after arriving in Vietnam, 2009 could be viewed as a special year for KPMG in terms of localising human resources. It recruited 250 graduates from Vietnamese universities and announced seven new partners - a record for KPMG and evidence of its commitment to Vietnam and its belief in its business potential in 2010 and beyond. “You have to be confident in Vietnam in order to succeed here,” said Mr Warrick Cleine, CEO of KPMG in Vietnam. Importantly, the new partners are all Vietnamese, with most having built their career with KPMG since graduating from university 10 or 12 years ago.
Mr Cleine can remember arriving in Vietnam himself around 12 years ago and meeting these young and inexperienced new graduates in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. At time they were just starting out in their careers in untried fields, especially in the services KPMG were offering to its clients. “How proud I am that those young people are now KPMG partners,” he said. “Almost half of our 19 partners are Vietnamese, as are over 95 per cent of our staff. We are very much a ‘local’ firm nowadays, although our membership of the global KPMG network gives us access to the international expertise that our clients demand.”
This, together with the development of the country’s finance sector in recent years, has added significant value to KPMG’s successes in Vietnam. The economy’s finance sector continues to develop in line with Vietnam’s status as an exciting new, emerging economy. Banking and insurance have continued to flourish, with foreign players entering the market either directly or through strategic investment, and local players responding to the new competitive environment. The securities sector, meanwhile, remains at a less mature stage, hampered by the performance of equity markets, and this is an area where consolidation remains likely. In such a context, KPMG continues to be at the forefront of the provision of professional services to Vietnam’s finance sector, in terms of audit, tax and advisory services. “By maintaining specialist financial services teams in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, our financial services clients are able to access world-class experience and expertise right here in Vietnam,” said Mr Cleine.
2009 was a good year for KPMG, as it continued to grow and cement its presence as the leading professional services firm in the country. It was also very proud to be appointed to audit a number of Vietnam’s leading domestic companies, and it is working with others on projects ranging from capital raising to performance improvement. “We aim to ensure our clients are as proud to work with KPMG as we are to work with them,” said Mr John Ditty, Chairman of KPMG in Vietnam. “This means protecting our brand by selecting our clients carefully, and then building long term and trusting relationships with them.”
Looking at the overall economy in 2009, KPMG partners agreed that 2009 has been a very difficult year for the global economy, and as Vietnam has increasingly integrated into the global economy it was inevitable that local businesses would feel the effects. Thankfully, according to Mr Cleine, the export sector has remained relatively strong and the government moved quite early in the crisis to implement various fiscal stimulus policies, in line with other governments throughout the world. Unfortunately, it has been difficult to sustain foreign direct investment (FDI), especially in the more productive sectors such as manufacturing, as global companies have had to scale back their investment plans. “The economic crisis has also highlighted Vietnam’s competitive challenges, especially in public policy, infrastructure and cost structures, as global companies are examining these things more closely when deciding where to invest,” said Mr Cleine.
Looking to the Year of Tiger, KPMG leaders believe that maintaining Vietnam’s competitiveness is a key issue for success in 2010. “We expect foreign consumer demand to continue to grow, which should help exports, but unless Vietnam maintains competitive cost structures in areas such as labour, land and infrastructure, there is a risk that other countries will have more success,” said Mr Ditty. Vietnam also needs to continue to attract capital, either domestically or from abroad, in order to finance economic growth and deliver jobs to Vietnam’s young and talented workforce. “This means supporting local entrepreneurship, continuing with the equitisation program recently announced by the Prime Minister, and attracting FDI,” added Mr Cleine. Investors - both local and foreign - also rely on a stable and consistently applied tax regime, and Vietnam, according to KPMG, should remain vigilant in ensuring the tax system is properly developed, and that tax administrative procedures such as investigations are run in accordance with the law and uniformly undertaken across business sectors.
 “Vietnam made huge commitments when it entered the WTO in terms of trade and domestic investment reforms. As a result, its exporters have been able to enjoy unprecedented and fairer access to world markets. It is critical that Vietnam honours its commitments in areas such as investment liberalisation - allowing foreign participation in the retail, financial services, banking, and distribution sectors to compete on a level playing field with Vietnamese players, for example. Throwing up false administrative barriers may create an impression of short term gain, but longer term this will not be good for business.”  Mr Warrick Cleine CEO, KPMG in Vietnam