What cultural factors affect business activities in Vietnam?

Political conservatism: we are, yes, quite scared of changes. It's one of the perks of a socialist government. However recently the government as well as businesses have tried changing in order to catch up with trends in the world, although we are nowhere near the level of developed countries yet.

Belief systems: there was a post a few days back on this subreddit asking about the major religion in Vietnam, you should check that out. Generally business people are very superstitious, examples can be made from my personal experience but that would require more time to write so again inbox me!

Foreigners: we are, honestly, racist. Although there are non-racist people, mostly those of the younger generation who are more liberal and have had more exposure to different races (students who studied abroad for example) (such as me, I am studying in New York currently). But in general, racist, towards people of color in specific. White people are not that rare of a sight anymore and people are gradually accepting them.

Gift-giving: well, it's not a culture that we are proud of but an implicated understanding between people haha. Generally a gift is a must if you are visiting business people at their house, but if you're seeing them in a restaurant then it depends. However if you are meeting government officials who can make your life as a business person easier then yeah. Don't get me wrong I am not proud of saying this, corruption is one of the problems we have.

Timeliness: we're late. Most of the time. And not fashionably late either. Punctuality is not our thing. And not the 5-minute late that you mentioned either, it varies from 10-30 minutes. But there are rare cases of punctual individuals, of course.