OP-ED: Vietnam: From fire zones to free zones By Greg Mills and Emily van Der Merwe
Vietnam’s reform process, known as “Doi Moi”, or renovation, started in 1986, first in the agriculture sector. Previously all tools of production — land, capital, working assets — were collectivised and owned by the state and peasants were paid in rice and other produce which “the state bought at a predatory price”, says the former deputy prime minister, Vy Khwan.
The Vietnamese Singapore Industrial Park is, as the name suggests, a joint venture with a Singapore consortium headed by that government’s Temasek fund, and is a stand-out facility in Bình Duong. Started in 1996, it now encompasses several parks in the area and farther afield, with $11-billion invested by 800 tenants, providing 200,000 jobs.
The costs of conflict were massive. Just off Route One is a South Vietnamese army cemetery, where some 18,000 people are buried, 10,000 in unmarked graves, part of some 250,000 South Vietnamese military deaths. Once neglected, more attention is being focused on the gravesite as the wounds of the war heal, the change in its name from Bình An Military Cemetery to the People’s Cemetery reflecting a change in spirit.
There are today 133 factories in the various phases of Linh Trung, with 75,000 employees. Annual exports total $2.9-billion, with $1.2-billion invested.So why did they come to Vietnam?In 1993, this was a very poor place, more like a village than the city you see today,” says Linh Trung president Yang Kai Yong. Originally from Guangzhou, he admits that the main advantage of being in Vietnam is in the comparative costs of labour.
Given that other countries also offer low wages and incentives, something more was required. Hence the stress, still today, on making it easy to invest, with one-stop shops and a welcoming attitude the norm. And the parks did not wait for investors to knock on their doors. In 2018 alone, VSIP staged 30 seminars and promotions for potential investors around the world. They have a waiting list of nearly 70 investors wanting space in their parks in Bình Duong.
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