First, rich in natural resources. Vietnam's national land 1 / 3 for arable land, suitable for the development of agricultural production and export-oriented agriculture; Vietnam's tropical rainforest resources are also very rich, the vegetation coverage rate of 43.8%; Vietnam's rich mineral resources, so far, has been found to have more than 90 kinds of more than 2,000 kinds of mines, of which 120 kinds of mines 30 kinds of minerals have been designed to exploit, mainly oil, natural gas, coal, and various metal and non-metallic products. Vietnam has a long coastline with rich and diverse aquatic potential.
Secondly, human resources are abundant and cheap. Vietnam's national population (2006) is 84.1 million, with an urban population of 26.2% and a rural population of 73.8%, of which 2/3 were born after the war (after 1975). In the 1980s and 1990s, most manual labor workers earned only US$30-50 per month. In recent years, the Vietnamese government has repeatedly raised the minimum wage for workers, but it is still around US$60-100, making it the cheapest labor in Southeast Asia. As the Vietnamese government has been attaching importance to universal primary and secondary education, Vietnamese laborers, although the cheapest in Southeast Asia, have a relatively high cultural and technical quality.
Once again, the political and legal environment is stable and favorable. Vietnam has a one-party system under the leadership of the ****productivity party, with a democratic tradition and culture within the party, the ****productivity party has built up high prestige during the long revolutionary war, and the legitimacy of the regime has a very solid foundation, although some Western forces have also attempted to carry out the "Orange Revolution" in Vietnam, but they have failed to win the support of the people. The Party and Government of Vietnam have also paid great attention to improving the legal system, emphasizing the rule of law. The new Party Constitution adopted at the 10th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPPV) stresses the need to correctly deal with the relationship between Party leadership and the law as well as with people's democracy, and to "renew the Party's way of leadership, which should be focused on renewing the way of the Party's leadership of the State. The way of leadership should be institutionalized and concretized into the Constitution and laws." "The Party operates within the framework of the Constitution and laws." "Respecting and exercising the people's right to be masters and being monitored by the people." The Party and Government of Vietnam have paid particular attention to the legal system in the process of renewal, with the National Assembly of Vietnam passing 77 laws since the founding of the country in 1946 I***, more than half of which were newly enacted in the 1986-2007 period, and more than 20 others were laws that have been revised many times. For example, the Law on Foreign Investment has been amended and supplemented five times, in 1987, 1990, 1993, 1996 and 2000***, to establish a comprehensive legal system. In response to the problem of official corruption, which has become increasingly rampant in recent years, the Party and Government of Viet Nam have stepped up efforts to combat and prevent it. According to statistics, in the 2001-2006 period, the Vietnamese ****production party disciplined more than 40,000 party members in the form of condemnation, warning, expulsion, dismissal from office, and sending them to court for trial, etc. Among the punished party members, 118 were leading cadres who had held important jobs in the leading bodies managed by the Politburo or Registry, at the level of deputy secretaries of the Central Secretariat, chairmen of People's Committees, secretaries of provincial Party committees, ministers and deputy ministers. Thirteen of them are members of the Central Committee, 19 are ministers or vice-ministers, and 26 are secretaries or deputy secretaries of municipal and provincial committees.
Things are two sides of the same coin, and the favorable factors in Vietnam's investment environment mentioned above can change under certain conditions, possibly transforming from favorable to unfavorable factors. For example, because Vietnam's investment environment is good, and therefore attracts a large number of foreign investors to enter, thus creating a relatively fierce competition. As mentioned earlier, foreign investment in Viet Nam has reached as many as 80 countries and territories, with the top 10 foreign investor countries (territories) including Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, China, the British Virgin Islands, France, the Netherlands, Malaysia and Thailand. These foreign investors have invested in Vietnam to set up factories for a longer period of time, has formed a more complete production and sales network, in the competition to occupy a favorable position, such as in the early days of very low prices to rent a large area of factory land, and the local government in Vietnam to establish a good relationship with the local Vietnamese people familiar with Vietnamese local customs, etc..
Serious lagging infrastructure is also a problem that must be noted. I went to Vietnam with the scholars have come to a *** with the conclusion that the Vietnamese government's national income distribution policy is an important feature of the "hide the wealth of the people", the people are relatively rich, private housing are very beautiful, and the government's annual budget is not enough to make ends meet, the fiscal deficit of about 5% of GDP, the government does not have the financial resources to engage in large-scale infrastructure development. The government does not have the financial resources to engage in large-scale infrastructure development. For example, located in Ho Chi Minh City around Binh Duong Province, the industrial zone, the transportation roads are relatively poor, local investment in Taiwan businessmen said, to engage in road repair and other infrastructure construction, generally by the manufacturers of half of the pooled funds, the local government to pay half of the money. In addition, Vietnam's geographic location and conditions also caused the inconvenience of north-south transportation, Vietnam's land from north to south is more than 1,600 kilometers long, like an elongated Latin letter S. North and south ends are wide, narrow in the middle, coupled with Vietnam's topography is high in the west and low in the east, determining the direction of most of its rivers flow from west to east, therefore, to the north and south of the land transportation of the construction of a number of obstacles. So far, Vietnam does not have a single highway, and the railroads are still the narrow-gauge railroads built during the French colonial era, which are very slow. In addition, the problem of power shortage in Vietnam has still not been fundamentally solved, with power outages common in major medium-sized cities and many villages not yet connected to roads and electricity. In addition, there are still some unsatisfactory areas in the soft environment, such as bureaucracy and corruption at all levels of government.
At present, investment in Vietnam must also pay attention to the following issues:
First, according to Vietnam's national development strategy to determine the focus and direction of business investment.
Vietnam's development strategy for the next 10 years or so focuses on accelerating the pace of industrialization and modernization, in particular to "encourage the development of high-tech industries, manufacturing, software and other subsidized industries that have high competitive advantages, export products and absorb a large number of labor; develop open economic zones and special economic zones; and encourage and create smooth conditions for the development of daily-use products with the participation of all economic components. components to participate in the development of daily and export products; produce important means of production in accordance with the direction of modernization; give priority to attracting investment from economic groups and multinational companies; and attract domestic and foreign capital as soon as possible to invest in important projects in oil refining, petrochemicals, smelting, machine building, fertilizers, construction materials, and infrastructure construction." According to the 5-year development plan for 2006-2011 announced by the Vietnamese government, the following five areas will be the focus of encouraging investment: first, electronic industry and high-tech investment projects. A factory to produce electronic medical equipment is to be built in Hanoi, and foreign investors are welcome to invest in the fields of information, biochemistry, new materials, microelectronics, automation, and optical processes in the Hoa Lac High-Tech Industrial Zone and the Ho Chi Minh City High-Tech Industrial Zone. Second, oil refining and chemical projects. It is proposed to build an oil refinery with an annual capacity of 7 million tons of petroleum products in Yishan District, Thanh Hoa Province, and petrochemical enterprises in Tau Ton and Thanh Hoa. Thirdly, the power industry, it is proposed to attract investment to build five thermal power plants and a transformer production plant; fourthly, the manufacturing industry, including attracting investment to build automobile engine and parts production plants, shipbuilding plants, tractor factories and so on. Fifth, infrastructure construction, the main projects include: building a 78-kilometer-long railroad from Bien Hoa to Tou Don province, a 49-kilometer-long railroad from Dong Nai to Ho Chi Minh City, a 176-kilometer-long, 4-6-lane highway from Ho Chi Minh City to Dong Nai and Bat Dieu - Tou Don province, and a 176-kilometer-long, 4-6 lane highway from Ho Chi Minh City to Can Tho city. highway.
Secondly, the location and position of business investment are determined according to the advantages of location and resources across Vietnam.
On August 13, 2004, the Vietnamese government issued a decision on the establishment and development of three key economic zones, according to which the country is divided into three key economic zones, aiming to take advantage of the potentials, geographical advantages, and resource strengths of each locality in order to accelerate the pace of socio-economic development.
Northern key economic zone. It includes 8 provinces and municipalities including Hanoi, Hai Phong, Quang Ninh, Hai Duong, Hung Yen, Ha Tay, Vinh Phuc and Bac Ninh. The economic zone focuses on areas such as high-tech industries, high-quality services such as the software industry, information equipment, automation and products of scientific and technological research results, production of automated equipment, robots, new materials, high-quality iron and steel, shipbuilding, and machinery manufacturing.
Central Key Economic Zone. It includes 5 provinces and cities including Da Nang City, Thanh Tien-Hue, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh provinces. Among them, Da Nang is one of the largest ports in Vietnam. The focus of the zone's development is to drive economic development in the central and western regions centered on the port. It will accelerate the construction of the Chu Lai Economic Development Zone in Quang Nam Province, the Yung Orange Economic Zone in Quang Ngai Province and the Trinh Mai Linh Economic and Trade Development Zone in Quang Ngai Province, and plan for the construction of the Nhon Hoi Economic Zone in Binh Dinh Province, so that it will be gradually developed into the core of the region by 2011. At the same time, the role of Da Nang, Hue and Quy Nhon cities in trade centers, services and international trade will be vigorously promoted to make the region a center of trade, services and tourism in the central and western plains.
Southern key economic zone. Including eight provinces and cities, including Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Toum Ton-Ba Di, Dong Nai, Tay Ninh, Binh Phuoc, Long An and Tien Giang provinces, it aims to build the region into an economically active, fast-growing and solid area, taking the lead in the nation's industrialization and modernization business, integrating into the international economy ahead of the rest of the country, and serving as an engine to drive the economic development of the southeastern region. In line with this goal, an integrated economic zone will be established in the northwestern part of Ho Chi Minh City, including Long An, Tay Ninh and Ho Chi Minh City; high-quality training centers and medical centers will be developed in Binh Duong Province; high-level vocational training centers will be developed in Toum Ton-Ba Di Province; adjusted highways from Ho Chi Minh City to Toum Ton-Thon, Trung Luong and Tay Ninh will be built; and the airport of Long Thanh City will be constructed.
Third, focus on labor-capital relations. In the early days, of the three relations between labor, capitalists and the government in Vietnam, the relationship between the government and capitalists may be closer, and the government generally favored the capitalists in case of labor disputes. In recent years, the Vietnamese government has amended the Law on Trade Unions and the Labor Law, giving more power to trade unions at all levels. In general, when there is a labor dispute, the trade unions will side with the workers, and if a strike is approved by the trade unions, the factory must also pay the workers their wages during the strike. A Taiwanese manager who used to work in mainland China compared workers in China and Vietnam, arguing that while Vietnamese workers are cheaply paid, they are far less technically qualified than their Chinese counterparts, and that while Chinese workers can easily be trained to become skilled, Vietnamese laborers are much more difficult to train. The reason for this is that there is a lot of land in the rural areas of Vietnam, and the living environment and conditions of the farmers are relatively favorable. Most of the farmers regard working in factories as a kind of adjustment and a supplement to increase their income during their farming time, so they do not attach much importance to working in factories, and they do it as soon as they are satisfied, and then leave if they are dissatisfied, because going back home to work in the fields is also not a bad choice for Vietnamese workers. Unlike workers in mainland China, who are often landless or landless peasants, working in the city is their only means of earning a living, so they tend to value the job and won't quit at will.
Also, we must look at Vietnam's abundant human resources in a dialectical way. In recent years, there has been a surge in the number of Vietnamese laborers working overseas. According to Vietnamese authorities, about 500,000 Vietnamese are now working in 40 countries and regions around the world, mainly in Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia and Japan, with an annual remittance of US$1.5 billion back home. Labor export is a strategic approach for Vietnam to solve the problem of employment of surplus labor, and there is a trend of continued growth in the future. Some bosses investing in Vietnam to set up factories are also worried that Vietnam will experience a labor shortage in the next few years, skilled and technical workers have always been in short supply. According to the author's observation, to Vietnam to invest in labor-intensive industries, such as clothing, electronics, household appliances, etc., in the last few years there may still be some competitive advantage, but the advantage will not exist for a long time.