Posted by Mark Silva at 6:05 am CST

HANOI – What would a regional economic summit in the Communist-controlled Socialist Republic of Vietnam be without a few sponsors?

The banners lining the road from the airport en route to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit here fly with the names of familiar corporate sponsors: Citigroup, Microsoft, Federal Express, General Motors, Boeing.

The signs that welcome world leaders arriving at the airport outside Hanoi for the Pacific Rim economic summit getting underway this weekend. Photo by Mark Silva

And the road into Hanoi that courses through corn fields and rice paddies is lined with old towns sprouting new houses erected in Technicolor and tall – four- and five-stories they rise in some places, because property here is taxed according to the size of the footprint of land that a building occupies.

Houses are taxed according to the land they occupy, which drives some higher. Photo by Silva

In the few decades since the United States signed a peace accord with the Vietnamese (1973) and abandoned the city then known as Saigon in the South (1975), the communist regime of the unified Vietnam has discovered the benefits of a market economy, with the nation's economy now ranking among the fastest-growing in Asia. As the 21 Pacific Rim nations of the APEC alliance assemble here this weekend, the subject highest on everyone's minds is expansion of these economies and the breaking of trade barriers.

Indeed, arriving here, one gets the impression that this place is open for business. The billboards sprouting from the cornfields tell the tale: Ericcson: The Way Forward. The factories on the farm side of the Red River, the muddy waterway that separates the city of Hanoi from the countryside, repeat the tale: Canon. Panasonic. The parking lots are filled with the motorbikes, preferred method of transit, of the workers.

Hanoi is open for business. Photo by Silva

Yes, roast dog is available, and well advertised, in restaurants here. The smallest dogs serve as pets, our guide explains on the way into town, and "the large dogs end up as guard dogs or dinner.''

Beer is the equivalent of 10 cents a glass, and a good meal costs a few bucks.

But it's big-dollar world trade that Vietnam is eyeing as the leaders of the United States and Asian power-houses arrive here. President Bush has checked in. The presidents of China, Russia and Japan, too.

Since President Clinton normalized relations between the U.S. and Vietnam in 1995, and since the U.S. signed its first bilateral trade agreement with Vietnam in 2000, the pace of business ties between the two has accelerated. Bush hoped to arrive here with a new gift: recognition of Permanent Normal Trade Relations for Vietnam. But he couldn't pull enough votes in the lame-duck Republican-run House to pull that off.

The Bush administration promises that normal trade relations will come in time. And Bush has arrived voicing hope that, someday soon, not only Vietnam, but also all of the nations that comprise APEC, can take part in a regional free trade agreement. When that goal was first voiced by APEC in 1994, leaders set the years 2010 and 2020 as benchmarks for achieving it. That time is not nearly so distant as the years when the U.S. military withdrew from the south of a nation that has prevailed against centuries of occupiers – the Portuguese, the French, the Chinese, the Japanese and of course, the U.S., returning today in search of new business.