Harvard, Oxford graduates power Vietnam's tech startup scene

HO CHI MINH CITY -- Tran Tuan Anh has joined the vanguard of entrepreneurs reshaping Vietnam's image and role in the global economy today. But he still remembers how badly he once did years ago in an economics class for engineers after he left the communist country to study at Oxford.

Given an investment exercise, Tuan Anh selected gold -- and ended up with the second-worst result in the class. It made him realize much of the world doesn't think like Vietnam, where many parked their money in gold before the modern property and stock markets developed.