INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image caption
Entrepreneurs like Ms Thanh are the lifeblood of Vietnam's economy
As US President
Donald Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un prepare for a historic summit in Vietnam, the TheIndianSubcontinent takes a look at how
the host country could act as a role model for North Korea's future.Duong Thi Thanh has built a global textile business from a tiny room
in the backstreets of Hanoi with what is essentially several large buckets of drunk bacteria.She makes traditional indigo tie-dye clothing
using techniques that many thought had been lost
First, she employed workers in a small mountain town called Sapa to collect the indigo plant leaves
She then ferments the leaves in plastic buckets using rice wine, which she pours in every night before giving it a stir."The bacteria always
sleep," she said with a giggle when I visited her workshop
"They don't want to work as they're very lazy
But they like to drink."She bends down and cups the water from the bucket in her hand
It was a weak shade of blue with hints of green
But as she stirred in the alcohol it changed to a real blue hue
"See, the wine wakes them up," she said.She then pushes a piece of bright white cotton into the blue liquid - the start of a ten-day
process to turn this cloth into a unique piece of indigo dyed clothing
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Duong Thi Thanh's fabric is sold all over the world
Behind her, sewing machines buzzed
as her staff made cushion covers, long cotton dresses and scarves
Further back, I could hear the hiss from an iron on the production line
When Ms Thanh started her business she struggled to make a few hundred metres of fabric a year
24 years later, her customers are ready to order online and come from all over the world
One of her biggest markets is in Australia and Japan.From black market to international tradeMs Thanh is just one of thousands of female
entrepreneurs who are the lifeblood of the Vietnamese economy
Restrictions on running an enterprise were lifted in the 1980's and the country was opened up to international trade and investment
Women who had run small businesses in the black or grey markets to supplement their household income could operate legally.There are now
more female business owners in Vietnam than anywhere else in Asia and they own many of the small to medium businesses which make up 40% of
the country's GDP.There is a lesson here for thousands of North Korean households where women have become the main breadwinners
Image caption
Small to medium businesses make up 40% of Vietnam's GDP
Men still call the shots in what
is a very patriarchal society, but women are making the money as informal markets continue to spring up across the country
A famine in the 1990s killed hundreds of thousands of people and some lost faith in the state's ability to distribute food and wealth
They looked for other ways to survive
Women as the main breadwinnersOften men had to continue working in state funded jobs or in the military, so it was left to the women to find
other ways to earn an income
One South Korean government survey once estimated that women earn more than 70 percent of a household's income in North Korea.Jessie Kim
Her mother died when she was 11 years old and her father neglected her
She would go days without food, she said
So she foraged berries and herbs in the mountains and sold them to make a little money
Then she spotted a gap in the market as she watched men gathering to drink one night
Aged just 12, she went to the city and bought Korean rice wine called soju
She diluted it and sold it for a profit."If I want to survive in North Korea, then I have to earn money
I don't want to die," she said.Image:Jessie Kim escaped North Korea after a childhood selling alcohol at local marketsShe earned enough to
help buy food for her grandmother
She defected to South Korea in 2014, and her drive to run a business remains - she is studying economics at university.The emergence of
these markets could have a lasting effect on politics in North Korea
Van Tran Ngoc helped train budding North Korean female entrepreneurs in Vietnam with the not-for-profit organisation Choson Exchange
She was surprised by how engaged they were
"In many ways, they remind me of businesswomen in Vietnam," she said
"Both seem quiet at first, but are very eager to learn and hardworking
They didn't take their break between workshops, and spent all of the time trying to learn more
When I brought them around Hanoi, they constantly asked me about different business models, and how Vietnam transformed the economy after
the wars."Responsibility and ambitionShe sees a lot of comparisons between Vietnamese and North Korean businesswomen
Both are in charge of the finances for their families and that is their main motivation."One common thing I've seen is that they dream big
and are not shy of sharing their ambitions," she said.For Ms Thanh, that dream is quality over quantity
There is a lot of demand for her products but she wants to avoid moving towards mass production
Image:Could crickets help to solve world food shortagesBy the time Vietnam's economy opened up to the outside world, China and India had
already grabbed a large share of the textile market, so the Vietnamese looked for smaller, lucrative buyers
I asked Ms Thanh what advice she has for those in North Korea where textiles have become the second largest industry in the country."Don't
think about the cheap market," she said
You need to make something that's special
And you need to learn about the International market."Hundreds of thousands of jobs in North Korea depend on both small markets and on
So much focus over the next few days of this summit between US President Trump and the North Korean leader will be the big business offers
But just as the Vietnamese have proved, it is the small to medium-sized businesses, run mostly by women, that can make all the difference.
