daniere: ho chi minh city is the economic center of the country. i is the potical, cultural, bureaucratic cente of the coury located thousands of miles away. building on its history of an economicenter, lsaigon-- and ho chi minh city-- has reemerged as a flourishing place to conduct capitalist globalization business. a mber of very large muinatnal corporatns, for example, have located in and around ho chi minh city and employ hundreds of thousands of vietnamese to work in their factories. vietnam has tried to encourage partnerships with vietnamese state-owned enterprises and private multinationals to set up jointly owned factories. shoes, clothing, paints, chemicals, radios-- i mean, you name it, they're doing it. narrator: ho chi minh city is the rice industry's center as well. rice from the provinces arrives at places like the binh tay mill. in 1994, it became the first mill in vietnam to supply rice to the united states, where this shipment is headed. other shipments go to the middle east and elsewhere in asia. daniere: it's a wonderfully located