McDonald's opened its first branch in the Vietnamese capital on Saturday, a conservative city renowned for its traditional — and cheap — street food beloved by food-obsessed locals.
Hungry customers lined up for Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets at the fast food chain's first Hanoi outlet, overlooking the tree-lined Hoan Kiem lake.
The restaurant is the first outside of the southern commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City, where 16 branches have opened since McDonald's first came to Vietnam in 2014 to much fanfare, especially among the rapidly-growing middle class and America-obsessed youth.
The chain received a similarly warm welcome in Hanoi on Saturday, as hungry diners crammed into the two-storey eatery for a first taste of the Golden Arches.
For 84-year-old Tran Dinh Luyen, who fought against the United States in the Vietnam War, the restaurant was a sign of warming ties with a former enemy.
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"I am happy that McDonald's has opened a restaurant in Hanoi. It's a very famous American brand, so it shows how far US-Vietnam relations have come," he said after eating a Big Mac with his daughter and granddaughter.
But not everyone agreed.
"It's a rip-off … this fast food is for kids only, it's not good at all," 90-year-old Ta Xuan Huong said, espousing his love for traditional cuisine.
Some curious tourists stopped to see what all the fuss was about, perplexed that a brand ubiquitous in the West would draw so much attention.
"It's kind of random to see McDonald's opening … it's an interesting cultural experience to see how important it is that the store is opening here," American Dan Moore said, after his wife remarked that she might not have expected to find one of the most salient symbols of capitalism in the communist country.
The one-party state has seen dizzying economic growth in recent years as it has opened its doors to foreign investment — which has included an influx of western chains like Starbucks, KFC and Burger King.
Growth in the fast food sector has been buoyed by rapidly rising incomes — annual per capita income has more than doubled in the past decade to about US$2,100 (Dh7,712) today — especially among under-30s, who make up half of Vietnam's population of 93 million people.
The fast food industry in Vietnam has seen double-digit growth annually for the past five years, and the country has the highest 2017 growth in Asia-Pacific for fast food chains, according to market research firm Euromonitor International.
Though meals can cost as much as three times the local fare, customers are still showing strong appetite.
"Young people like to hang out in fast food restaurants as they are seen as a cool and nice place … and these customers also like the taste of the food," said Euromonitor analyst Samuel Huynh.
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Two stars
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Rating: 3.5/5
The years Ramadan fell in May
ATP WORLD No 1
2004 Roger Federer
2005 Roger Federer
2006 Roger Federer
2007 Roger Federer
2008 Rafael Nadal
2009 Roger Federer
2010 Rafael Nadal
2011 Novak Djokovic
2012 Novak Djokovic
2013 Rafael Nadal
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2016 Andy Murray
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Key changes
Commission caps
For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:
• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• On the protection component, there is a cap of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated.
• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.
• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.
Disclosure
Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.
“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”
Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.
Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.
“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.
Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.
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