Reporter's Notebook: Vietnam's rapid rise

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The first couple of times I visited Vietnam at the end of the 1990s, even in the busy commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon, the sight of woman, back's rod straight, elegantly cycling along wearing flowing, white silk "ao dai" was common.

As I returned over the years, those bicycles and cyclists got replaced by motorbikes, while the erstwhile motorbike riders upgraded to cars. The trend has continued relentlessly. It's impossible to imagine now that Hanoi was once considered among the region’s quietest capital cities. Crossing the road is perilous – the stream of vehicles unrelenting.

Over that period, Vietnam has sustained tigerish economic growth even as its former ASEAN tiger neighbors like Malaysia and Thailand slowed. Foreign investment keen to make use of a hard-working, low-cost workforce flooded into the country. In the first nine months of this year, foreign direct investment hit 25 billion US dollars – numbers its neighbors can only envy.

But Vietnam’s leadership knows that its old model of economic growth and the reliance on cheap costs and labor-intensive manufacturing can’t take it to the next level.

Da Nang has both beach and riverfront, and an excellent network of roads and bridges. /CGTN Photo

During the APEC Leaders' Week in Da Nang, I interviewed Vu Tien Loc, president of Vietnam's Chamber of Commerce and chairman of the APEC CEO summit.

He was clear that Vietnam's biggest challenge is to improve the training of its abundant, youthful workforce, to nurture new industries, and to prepare for the leap to Industry 4.0, where businesses will rely on network connectivity, automation, robotics and artificial intelligence.

"Vietnam has maintained a GDP growth rate of 6 percent to 7 percent in recent years. This rate may be high compared with other economies but is still lower than the real potentials and expectation. That's why we need to have better policies. In fact, the Vietnamese government wants to focus on improving the quality of growth,” he told me.

The host city Da Nang is also making a stab at this goal. It is building the country’s third official high tech park, offering long-term tax breaks and cheap land to those who locate there.

As the deputy director of Da Nang’s Investment Promotion Agency told me: “We have 25 universities and colleges, and about 60 vocational institutes, so we can supply a good labor source for companies here and most of them are highly trained and highly skilled, especially in the ICT sector.”

Da Nang has mountains, rivers and beaches, and an unhurried pace. /CGTN Photo

Da Nang is looking to attract electronics, mechanics, ICT, automation, new energy companies.

And it has much to attract them, aside from the incentives. Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City may have become choked with traffic, but it’s still possible to amble casually across the road in Da Nang without getting run over, repeatedly.

Kilometer after kilometer of white sandy beach stretches in both directions of the city center.

The 1.5 million people living in Da Nang enjoy clean air and a high quality of life, and an excellent road and bridge network.

They have a chance to make sure their city develops the right way: that infrastructure and especially public transport development keep pace with growth, that growth is green and sustainable and that Vietnam's third city attracts industries of the future, not just those bringing present rewards.