Life was looking grim for Leng Diep in 1980. He, his wife, Pheap, and child were in a refugee camp on the Thai border.
Thirteen years later is the owner of a Canberra-based computer company employing 16 people (Australian-born and Cambodia) and turning over $3 million a year.
Marion Le calls him one of the many success stories.
He came with virtually nothing in April, 1981, sponsored by the Indo-China Refugee Association and the Uniting Church. He did English full-time for 12 weeks and got a job as a gardener-maintenance man at the Girls’ Grammar School. He did English a night.
After six years he had scraped enough together to enrol full-time in TAFE doing computing studies. He opened his computer store in Belconnen in 1990, eight months later he expanded to Braddon and last year to Cabramatta.
And now he is managing director of Australian Micro Systems. About 75 per cent of his business is with Government, but the non-Government sector benefits because AMS can keep a wider range of stock and provide wider services. The business constructs computers to order from components.
“”It is hard work,” he said. “”I work 16 hours a day sometimes.”
He proves the point about English being critical for success. The Dieps speak English at home because of the children: one born in Cambodia, another in the camp and another in Canberra. Though the children are keeping up with Cambodian, too.
The Dieps came as the wave of Indo-Chinese refugees began. Since then immigration in general has tapered because of economic conditions in Australia.
Leng Diep has helped sponsor 22 relations to Australia, and employed several of them in his business, training them and helping with education. That was when economic conditions were better. He is waiting for the recession to end before expanding. The link between migration and economic conditions is inescapable.