Cars and coffee!

(Baonghean)While sipping a cup of "Café @," my friend from Buon Ma Thuot, who was visiting, suddenly said: "Every time I come to Vinh, I feel something new." I joked, "You're comparing Vinh to Shenzhen!" He replied: "It's true. Last time it was the streets and houses. This time it's the cars and the coffee." Amused, I asked him about it and learned that Vinh has very modernly planned streets, not only are there many family cars, but they're also very luxurious, and the coffee shops are so impressive even the people of the Central Highlands would be envious. These are indicators of development that people from Nghe An should be proud of. I found his reasoning sound, but I was still somewhat puzzled by the development indicators he mentioned.

For visitors from afar, one of the lasting impressions of Vinh is probably the coffee culture. It's unclear when coffee shops first appeared in Vinh, but now every street corner is filled with them. Despite the abundance, finding a truly authentic cup of coffee like in Buon Ma Thuot is not easy. That's why some jokingly say they can drink a whole bowl of coffee during Euro 2018 and still feel sleepy. The quality may be mediocre, but Vinh's coffee shops are still very popular. Vinhos go to coffee shops for many reasons: some are addicted to watching each drop of coffee drip, others enjoy savoring the rich, golden-brown liquid, and many are captivated by the friendly atmosphere. Whether happy or sad, successful or unsuccessful, Vinhos can meet up for coffee. It seems that Vinhos are now seeking a new mindset, far removed from the traditional "wooden fish" culture, to better suit the trends of the times.

That could be a positive sign.

Regarding cars, Vinh currently has thousands of family cars. Compared to many large cities, that number is insignificant. But for a city that is only in the early stages of development, the sheer volume of cars, sometimes even causing traffic jams, is quite unusual.

Visitors from afar also commented that many cars in Vinh are very luxurious. There are countless cars worth billions of dong, and even "supercars" like the Rolls-Royce Phantom, priced at nearly a few million dollars – of which only four exist in the whole country, Vinh owns one.

This just goes to show how extravagant the people of Vinh are!

But that's not entirely true. Upon investigation, it's clear that there are countless reasons why people in Vinh buy cars. Some ordinary citizens carefully save up from various sources of income to buy a car for their family's transportation needs. But those are few and far between. More common reasons include selling land to buy a car to keep up with the Joneses, or business owners purchasing a car to improve their image when dealing with partners.

So, while there are many cars, Vinh isn't necessarily developed.

Vinh still has a vast hidden aspect to it. I haven't had the chance to tell my contemporary that Vinh has many laborers with extremely meager and fragile incomes. If you were to do the math, the fuel costs alone for family cars in Vinh amount to at least hundreds of billions of dong annually. That's a considerable sum, especially when compared to the fact that Vinh only collected 280 billion dong in the first six months of 2012.

At first glance, Vinh's coffee and car projects seem like very encouraging indicators of development. However, upon reflection, if Vinh had more indicators of industrial and commercial production, services, investment attraction, reduced environmental pollution, and increased vocational training and job creation, it would likely be even more respected.

Khanh Linh