Foreign investors on a bumpy ride in Vietnam

SINGAPORE - Nguyen Thanh Trung brings Vietnam's only privately owned plane level at 7,315 meters over the Central Highlands towns of Pleiku and Dalat before swinging right and bringing the Beechcraft King Air 350 in for a smooth landing at Ho Chi Minh City airport.

Trung is familiar with the landscape: Thirty-five years ago he was a fighter pilot who recalls dropping two bombs on Saigon, one of the last skirmishes before the end of his country's civil war.

Today, Trung, 62, is on a mission that symbolizes his country's transformation: He's the personal pilot for Doan Nguyen Duc, an entrepreneur who is one of Vietnam's richest men.