TEN Northern Ireland companies have just taken part in the first ever IDB trade mission to Vietnam, which is regarded as one of south east Asia's fastest growing markets.

The companies' representatives spent five days in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, before leaving at the weekend for the second Part of the mission, to the Philippines and Singapore.

The companies represent a wide cross section of Northern Ireland industry, ranging from F.G. Wilson, Europe's largest manufacturers of diesel generators, to the veterinary pharmaceuticals company Norbrook Laboratories.

Mission manager Mr John McKenna said the visit proved that business opportunities for Northern Ireland companies in the region were very favourable but it was a market which would take some time to develop.

In Saigon, members of the delegation met two Irish businessmen who were already doing business in the country - Mr Pat Donnelly, the chief representative for the electrical engineering company, ABB, and Mr Sean McCormack, of Powerscreen International. Mr Donnelly said companies looking to do business in Vietnam had to look on it as a long term project in which there would be no immediate returns.

Brothers Noel and Roy Stinson from Carnteel, near Aughnacloy, in Co Tyrone, have already developed markets in south east Asian countries such as Thailand and the Philippines for their secondhand agricultural machinery. They found customers who were anxious to trade up from the very unreliable Russian and eastern European tractors, but without the money to do it.

"Eighty per cent of the population is employed in agriculture," Noel Stinson said, "but it's still very labour intensive. Also, the government is worried about increased mechanisation, and that it could lead to large scale unemployment. There is a market here, but it will take some time before it becomes very significant for us. Even so, we will definitely be coming back."