How Vietnam is learning from the ‘extravagance and consequences’ of China’s industrialisation
- Vietnam is taking note of China’s rapid industrialisation as it positions itself to benefit from multinationals looking to diversify from the mainland
- Though Vietnam has a young workforce, improving workers’ productivity and boosting innovation will be crucial if it wants hi-tech and greener development
At a garment factory in the Vietnamese city of Tay Ninh, each step of the manufacturing process is manned by a group of young Vietnamese workers and a middle-aged Chinese supervisor.
The Vietnamese in their 20s are new to the craft and trained by the Chinese workers, who have about three decades of experience with heavy machinery at the same company’s factory in Jiangxi.
The factory in Tay Ninh, which is owned by a Hong Kong company that requested anonymity, has had two manufacturing plants in the mainland since the 1980s and opened another in Vietnam in 2019 after the US-China trade war. Since then, a number of experienced Chinese workers from mainland factories have been stationed in Vietnam to train local workers.
According to factory manager Max Lee, the young Vietnamese workers’ enthusiasm to absorb the expertise of older Chinese colleagues has even made the language barrier between the two groups a non-issue.
“It’s not that we teach the Vietnamese workers Chinese. They study it themselves so that they can learn better from the Chinese workers,” Lee said.
