Strange Bandits: This article comes from a good friend of mine, Oliver Win, who has been engaged in clothing foreign trade in the coastal areas of Zhejiang for many years and is a successful boss. This article is his experience after two visits to Vietnam.
Oliver Win has many years of business experience and profound historical and cultural knowledge, I believe you can see a thing or two from this article. The Syndicate will continue to reprint his excellent original articles.
On the evening of July 6, 2019, I flew from Shanghai Pudong to Ho Chi Minh, arriving for the first time in this city known as the "Paris of the East". On November 18 of the same year, I flew from Pudong to Ho Chi Minh for the second time.
The two peers are the heads of several foreign trade companies and factories in Zhejiang, the purpose is to investigate Vietnam's foreign trade garment factories and foreign trade environment, and to make decisions on whether the company needs to transfer the OEM production part to Vietnam in the future.
"Why not go to Vietnam?"
Whether you are doing manufacturing or foreign trade, circulation industry, in recent years, you can not bypass the above problem. Everyone is talking about cheap labor in Vietnam, land privatization reforms, and potential markets. Some even argue that Vietnam will be the biggest competitor to China's economy over the next two decades, especially in manufacturing. Is this really the case?
I have seen many related articles before, and I have heard many people talking about this familiar and unfamiliar country in their ears. Friends around to do foreign trade seem to be very anxious, peers in unison, "our orders are getting less and less", "the price is getting lower and lower", "the competition is becoming more and more fierce". In contrast, Vietnamese manufacturing is everywhere, and one of the Hugo Boss's Polo shirts that I bought this summer was printed on Made in Vietnam.
Calm is needed for any wind and rain sounds. The so-called hundred news is not as good as seeing, just a few friends in Zhejiang organized a Vietnamese economic and trade delegation and an exhibition group, so they all decided to go. But after I went there, I found that I was more interested in understanding the country than the purpose of the expedition.
A Ho Chi Minh, Saigon and 17° north latitude
Ho Chi Minh City is not the capital of Vietnam, but it is the largest city in Vietnam, similar to New York to the United States and Rio to Brazil. Ho Chi Minh City was renamed in honor of Comrade Ho Chi Minh, the forerunner of the great cause of socialism in Vietnam, and its previous name was Saigon.
If Ho Chi Minh City represents socialist Vietnam, then Saigon represents capitalist Paris. Before 1976, the name of the city in Vietnam was Saigon, which was the capital of "South Vietnam" before the reunification of the North and the South after World War II. My favorite Vietnamese beer brand for drinking is "SAIGON", and the alcohol content of about 5 degrees is not strong.
As the former capital of South Vietnam, Saigon has carried the status of South Vietnam's economic, cultural and political center of gravity, and the water conservancy of the Mekong Delta and the tropical monsoon blowing from the South China Sea have brought great vitality to the city. The excellent geographical location and abundant natural resources attracted the French colonists of the 19th century. France occupied Vietnam for more than 80 years after defeating the traditional suzerainty of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and was driven away by Japan in World War II.
At the end of World War II, France once again intervened in his traditional colony of Vietnam, fighting for 9 years (1945-1954), and returning to France after complete defeat. Combined with recent history, France has repeatedly proven:
French imperialism without Napoleon is a paper tiger!
After that, the United States entered South Vietnam. According to the spirit of the Geneva Conference in 1954, Vietnam is divided into North Vietnam and South Vietnam at 17° north latitude, and its military and political situation and the game of the two major imperialists behind it can be referred to today's North and South Korea.
The United States operated in South Vietnam for more than 20 years, and also fought with North Vietnam for 20 years (1955-1975), with three endings, one was completely returned to its hometown by the Vietnamese guerrilla war of "millet plus rifle"; Second, the United States has given birth to a large number of great anti-war films, such as the well-known "First Blood", "Field Platoon", "Modern Apocalypse", "Full Metal Shell", "Good Morning Vietnam" and so on; Third, Vietnam's population has declined sharply, especially adult men, the country is devastated, life is difficult, and everything is in ruins.
These colonists of the 20th century not only brought war scars, colonial relics and religious culture to Vietnam, but also left Ho Chi Minh with a distinctive legacy that would later be very influential - the descendants of Vietnamese-French and Vietnamese-Americans.
2. Miss Saigon
I have long heard of the imbalance between men and women in Vietnam, because of the war, there are many women, especially young and beautiful girls. The Classic Broadway musical "Miss Saigon" tells the story of a beautiful Vietnamese girl during the Vietnam War who is entangled in love and hate for her own happiness and American soldiers, and finally commits suicide for the future of her children.
This article does not talk about the opera of the same era as "Cats", but about Miss Saigon.
On a midsummer night, a Mr. Lin from Fujian province hosted us. He first came to Ho Chi Minh to run bags for several years, and the business is OK. Because friends introduced and peered, we quickly became good friends. When he took us on a stroll through the streets of Ho Chi Minh's busiest district, we got a taste of what it means to be one night in Saigon.
As soon as night falls, Fan Wu Lao Street has begun to hustle and bustle, with slightly humid air, rock music, free rhythm, warm Greetings in Chinese and English, and the misty night has long forgotten the exhibition work tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. We find a humble little shop to sit down in – this kind of street shop is much the same, simple shop, table and chair common in fast food restaurants, local snacks including pho and beer promoted by little sisters. In summer, what could be better than the taste of beer and hormones?
Because of its colonial history, Vietnam has a large number of mixed European and American descendants. In particular, women's appearance is completely European and American, and Southeast Asian women's unique white skin, exquisite features, plump figure, exotic culture and open mind have made Vietnamese the most beautiful women in Southeast Asia. For Europeans and Americans, Vietnamese girls have a natural affinity compared to Chinese.
The whole world is similar, where there is economic prosperity, there are beautiful women, and this statement seems to be appropriate in reverse.
In recent years, as China's labor costs have increased day by day, more and more European and American orders and factories have poured from China to Vietnam, and in the Ho Chi Minh region we visited, factories invested in South Korea, Taiwan and Japan are also very common.
Vietnam has a huge demographic dividend, with young people accounting for a large proportion of the population of nearly 100 million, which imports a steady stream of labor for the manufacturing industry. Vietnam wages are much cheaper than in China, taking the textile industry as an example, the average is 150-250 US knives, and this figure is about 600-800 US dollars in our Zhejiang factory, and the huge difference in labor costs is the main reason why international apparel giants choose To make in Vietnam. With the rise of Vietnamese manufacturing, Vietnam's export trade growth has been amazing. According to the latest statistics of the United Nations, in the third quarter after the epidemic, Vietnam's exports increased by 10.9% year-on-year, which is the highest growth rate in the world.
Mr. Lam also told us that because of the rapid economic growth, a large amount of money has poured into Vietnam. Vietnam's prices, housing prices, and stock prices have also risen in recent years, with residential and industrial land increasing by more than 10% in the past three years.
Vietnam's nightlife is also brought about by economic growth represented by trade and tourism, and the tipping culture is popular here, from taxis and porters to little sisters who accompany beer. Because of China's capital power (including state-sponsored investment in factories and private investment in buying houses and buying land), Chinese economic activities ranging from investment in factories, stocks and real estate to tourism are very active.
Chinese bring capital to Vietnam, but also to the open Ho Chi Minh. There are Chinese-style bars and KTV. Mr. Lin told us that Miss Ho Chi Minh sisters can basically accompany guests to drink, and the tip ranges from 500,000 dong to 2 million dong, and the US knife is also very popular. And if you talk well with your sister, it is common not to want money, according to Mr. Lin, there are many Chinese businessmen who have little wives in Vietnam.
In order to better experience life, we also went to a bar near the hotel, similar to the domestic routine. In the raucous rock music and the foggy lights, we ordered a bottle of Jonnie Walker, the little sister of the bar, although she could not Chinese but knew how to communicate internationally, she let me download Google translate on my mobile phone, typed it in Vietnamese and translated it into English for me to see. Vietnam has no firewall and the network is open to the whole world. We were drinking and looking at our phones and chatting, before leaving I took 100 US knives to tip her, and the little sister giggled and said that she still wanted to drink Jonnie Walker tomorrow.
Of course, the Vietnamese sisters are not only superficial people who are floating on ho Chi Minh's night, they also send a lot of labor to the textile and garment industry that we love and hate. In addition to singing and swinging and drinking, the little sisters will also listen to songs and step on the sewing machine.
But as Vietnam's labor costs rise, as China did 20 years ago, can Vietnam continue to have this cheap labor advantage as more and more young women begin to move from factories to a faster-earning tertiary industry? It should be known that the hard-working and hard-working of Chinese workers is unparalleled in the world, and the production efficiency is far greater than that of workers in other countries.
Three Vietnamese dong and butterfly of Crimea
Vietnamese dong is basically a large denomination, ranging from 1,000 to 500,000. Since coming to Ho Chi Minh for the first time, we are not familiar with so many large banknotes with zeros, and we often miscalculate the lack of concept of conversion that is more than 3,000 times different.
Once we took a taxi to the clothing exhibition hall, which cost about 50,000 guilders, we took a 500,000 piece and handed it to the driver. Taking a taxi abroad, spending more than 10 yuan or more than 100 yuan seems to be acceptable, so it was not immediately discovered. We were using Grab for a taxi, and it was strange at the time that Vietnamese drivers did not accept credit cards to charge the APP and asked for cash payment. Later I thought about the driver's big brother looking at the banknotes with uncertain eyes, there is indeed a reason not to accept credit cards, for Chinese who do not have a tip culture and often come and go to Ho Chi Minh, cash transactions do not find change is a euphemistic and decent way to collect tips.
Anyway, later I complained about this driver on Grab, and then it doesn't matter, the key is to complain, I hope that everyone can make honest money later.
So the question is, why is the denomination of Vietnamese banknotes so large? The reasons for answering this question are very complex, there may be historical, cultural and economic reasons, but the most important thing for those who do business with us is inflation.
Vietnam has long suffered from high inflation rates, the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the US financial crisis in 2008, Vietnam has experienced inflation rates of more than 25%, and even more than 80% in the middle of the last century. It is precisely because of this long period of high inflation that the currency depreciation prevents the Vietnamese dong from becoming a stable and firm currency. The depreciation of the currency is conducive to exports, but the rise in prices has led to a serious decline in the living standards of the people, resulting in an increase in the social instability of the country. Coupled with the large export deficit of Vietnamese countries, the financial risk factor is greater. As far as international capital giants are concerned, Vietnam is not safe.
Unlike the development of Vietnam in recent years, there is a country butterfly that flaps its wings in Crimea. We speak of this country because he is a big buyer of Textiles in Vietnam and China.
At the end of 2013, a color revolution broke out in Ukraine, and the pro-EU side was triggered by President Yanukovych's refusal to sign a new agreement with the EU, expelling the pro-Russian side, including Yalukovych, from Ukraine, and Yass went into exile in Moscow. Friendly relations between Ukraine and Russia have broken down. Crimea still belongs to Ukraine for historical reasons, but Crimea is still dominated by Russia and pro-Russians, and Putin decided to annex Crimea militarily, and then legally return Crimea to Russia through a referendum in Crimea. This incident infuriated the entire West, the United States and the European Union believe that Crimea is still legally owned by Ukraine, which is an invasion of sovereign countries, so they have sanctioned Russia, the ruble fell in response, falling by more than 50% in less than a year, and the price of oil on which Russia depends for survival has fallen to the bottom.
The seven or eight years before 2014 were the best times for me to make orders for Russian clothing. At that time, the Russian economy was booming, the people's living standards were improving, the demand for clothing also increased significantly, coupled with the stable value of the ruble and the high price of oil and gas, which was a good and memorable year for Russia, a large resource exporter. We, as suppliers, are also on the express train.
I remember that in the years before 2014, some friends who often went to Russia to do business at customs office were often stuffed with dollars in their passports and handed over to customs officials. I found a foreign exchange shop on the streets of Moscow, and I could exchange a dollar for about 33 rubles, and with the rubles I could exchange for rubles in Moscow, shaking cocktails, cutting steaks, following the dynamic music of the restaurant and the Russian beauties on the other side gently shaking their limbs until late at night.
But as the dust settled on the Crimean incident in March 2014, our good days came to an end. With the intensification of sanctions in Europe and the United States, the depreciation of the Russian currency, the sharp fall in the stock market and the collapse of oil prices, Russia's foreign exchange has dried up and a huge financial crisis has emerged. In the past, for goods priced in the same rubles, Russian buyers needed to pay nearly double the rubles from banks to US dollars to pay Chinese suppliers, resulting in a large number of Russian customers going out of business, delaying payment, discounting, rejecting goods, and canceling orders. In this wave of turmoil, SELA, INCITY, MODIS and other brands have collapsed, including our brand owners have also been greatly hurt. The only thing we've been doing with our Russian customers for the last six years has been to cut prices and cut prices, and in many cases have had to sacrifice the quality of clothing.
When I was in Moscow in 2019, i could exchange a dollar for 65 rubles in a small shop, and I could buy more Russian goods, but I was not happy at all, and we missed the era when rubles were more valuable. When the Russians decided to send troops to Crimea, they must have thought about the possible outcome. The rise of Russian nationalism and the innate fanaticism for the land are not modern things, and in their own words, they would rather not buy high-end red wines from Europe and the United States and eat less bread, and take Crimea without using an Apple phone. What kind of seeds to plant, naturally also have to pay for the fruits obtained, the Russians so far seem to have no better choice, can only swallow today's price increases, wage reductions, and even the company layoffs.
Back to our foreign trade enterprises, when "living" in China has become the only purpose, the tradition of Zhejiang businessmen thinking of change tells us that we can set our sights on Southeast Asia.
IV Motorcycle Kingdom, Vietnam Chinese VS Chinese Expedition
The work efficiency of Zhejiang people is very high, and the delegation organized by General Manager Zhang has a total of four factories, two factories that do knitting, and two factories that make coats and jackets. Since each factory was in a different direction in Ho Chi Minh, we arranged a two-day trip.
In the morning, our group set off, and the translator who led us was a beautiful Andy Vietnamese sister, her husband was from Zhejiang, and the couple often ran between China and Vietnam. Speaking of which, we haven't been in touch for a long time, and we don't know where to stay now after the epidemic? Care.
It is more convenient to find a local person who will Chinese as a translator and a free tour guide, through her we learned a lot about the customs and customs of Vietnam, and we can also taste the local food and understand the local customs.
(Vietnamese translation of the abnormal shooting of the a la carte picture)
Along the way, we first experienced the charm of the "Motorcycle Kingdom". It is said that there are 45 million motorcycles in Vietnam, half of the total population of Vietnam, and the number of motorcycles per capita is the highest in the world. Motorcycles bring transportation and youthful vitality to the country, and also transport a steady stream of cheap labor. Is this a lot like the bicycle kingdom of the past?
As the collective memory of the Chinese in the 50s and 80s, most Chinese should have an impression, that is, China at the beginning of reform and opening up, and the bicycle army also sent endless young and strong labor to China's factories.
I'm ashamed to say, a little sorry for the translation, went to Vietnam twice, and didn't learn a word of Vietnamese. Talking about the history of Vietnam, it has been inextricably linked to Chinese culture since ancient times, from Xiang County, which belonged to the Qin Dynasty, to Jiaotong Annam, Vietnam (mainly the north) was once part of China, and now more than 60% of the vocabulary in Vietnamese characters comes from Chinese characters, and Vietnam also wrote Chinese characters before the 20th century. In the 17th century, the French missionary Alexander. Rhodes transformed the Vietnamese script with Latin script, laying the foundation for the pinyinization of today's Vietnamese script. Later, Vietnam also tried to nativeize Chinese characters in Vietnam and invented the Han Nan script, just like Japan and Korea borrowed Chinese characters, but with the arrival of French colonists, the Han Nan script disappeared. Thinking about it now, the Vietnamese missionaries inadvertently opened the door to France's future colonization of Vietnam with words. After all, the best way to assimilate a people is to start with language and writing.
(The picture above is the instruction text of men and women in Vietnamese toilets, using Vietnamese Chinese characters, which vividly tells us the inseparable relationship between Vietnamese culture and Chinese culture and Latin culture)
With the excellent performance of the Vietnamese translator, we had a very constructive first interview with the four factories that had an appointment. The two sides held a pleasant and friendly dialogue on the issue of product price, workers' wages, delivery date and MOQ that everyone was concerned about, and the two sides unanimously decided that we would maintain contact after returning to China and strive to cooperate at an early date... I also very seriously brought some previously made jacket shirt knitwear samples to let the factory on-site quotation, basically understand the situation of each factory, harvest a lot, now specially for foreign trade people to summarize and compare as follows:
The size of the Vietnamese factory is relatively large. The smallest factory we visited, mainly for a Russian brand, with more than three hundred people, was told that it was a very small factory. Other factories are often thousands of people, there are other branches, adding up to tens of thousands of factories in Vietnam there are many. At present, the factory of more than 300 people in China is undoubtedly a large-scale garment factory.
Each factory is very clean and tidy, the on-site management is standardized and orderly, compared with similar domestic counterparts, it is regrettable that many of our peers are ashamed of themselves.
It's true that labor is not worth anything. There is a scene that is particularly impressive, a factory's fabric warehouse is equipped with at least seven or eight administrators at a glance, and such a warehouse is usually only 1-2 people in our country. Imagine if there were so many people in our warehouse, would the boss want to lose money?
Factory automation rates are high. This subverted my cognition, I used to think that they were so backward in hardware is definitely not as good as us, in fact, their assembly line, electronic progress board, warehouse system automation rate is very high, is Taiwanese investment management. Many of our domestic factories do not have this level of automation.
In general, it is mainly low-end manufacturing, and high-end clothing is still in the needle and thread of Chinese workers.
The industrial chain is not perfect, many factories are mainly processing, fabrics and accessories need to be imported from China.
After the factory inspection, we saw the gap, and there was indeed a hint of shock in our hearts. These hardware things can be done seriously, but there are some things that we can't do or are difficult to change.
Five Mr. M's house and Mr. Qian's slobber song
Mr. M is another friend we know in Vietnam, has been in Vietnam for several years, and bought a few houses in Vietnam last year as an investment, a self-occupied apartment. Mr. M is very optimistic about the next development of Vietnam, because people are also here in the business part, watching Vietnam's economic performance in recent years has attracted the attention of the world, especially Chinese investors, in his own words, "Immediately raised a sack of Vietnamese dong to buy a house, that is tens of billions of cash." ”
Foreigners want to invest in Vietnamese real estate has several problems to solve. What is Vietnam's property and land policy? How does the money come in? Can I buy and sell freely in the future?
Mr. M smiled mysteriously, had dinner together in the evening, and introduced you to a friend.
"Because I just met you, leaving a ten-year expectation, if we meet again, I think I will remember you." 」
At dinner, Mr. Qian and we met for the first time and mr. M played this song, dancing with the rhythm of the song, watching this big man sing Li Yugang's gentle female falsetone song with a rough and heroic voice and then laugh, we all couldn't help but laugh. Because this scene was staged again by Mr. Qian when we left, it was so impressive that everyone remembered Mr. Qian.
Mr. Qian is from a certain place in Guangdong, and he heard that he had committed crimes before and then came to Vietnam. His main job was to exchange money. In layman's terms, it is the free conversion of rmb, Vietnamese dong, us dollar, WeChat and cash, and then earn a little difference through the exchange rate. This is a good business due to the large number of business people coming to and from Ho Chi Minh.
After dinner, Mr. Qian also arranged KTV's post-work entertainment, which is said to be the favorite reserved program for all male compatriots who come to Ho Chi Minh. Let me briefly introduce it.
Ho Chi Minh's KTV basically copied the Chinese operating model, box K song beauty and wine. The songs are the same, you can find Brother Qian's "Because I just met you", you can also find "Two Butterflies" and "Mice Love Rice", the difference is more international (China, Vietnam, England and France are OK, there is Google), more exotic, and lower prices. For example, the tip starts from 500,000 shields, and the private room fee is only more than 900 yuan for so many of us. In addition, KTV is legally operated, and Tong Sou is not deceived. Well, after the introduction, the simple introduction must be said and believed.
As an investor, how money flows is the most important. In fact, Ho Chi Minh has a chain of interests that specializes in capital transactions, starting companies, and setting up accounts, and we have encountered several people who come to the booth to send out such advertisements and business cards in the past few days at the clothing exhibition, as well as sales advertisements from real estate sales consulting companies. In fact, in a sense, what Mr. Qian did was Money Laundering's work, and people sent nicknames, "Society I have money brother, money is more beautiful and more beautiful."
If the domestic factory wants to go to Vietnam to run a factory or a company, naturally there are people to help operate these financial and tax things, but note that China is a country with foreign exchange control, and if you want the money earned from Vietnam to return to China and China's money to invest in Vietnam, it is difficult. State-owned enterprises naturally have their own set of methods, the government can come forward to solve, but for private enterprises, there is a certain economic risk, this risk can not be overcome under the current policy. The same is the state-owned enterprises and private enterprises, the same scale of competition, private enterprises, especially Zhejiang private enterprises to the disadvantages of state-owned enterprises at a glance. This is why Vietnam has a lot of money brothers, they are doing a lot of things that private enterprises can't do through normal channels.
If you only look at recent domestic reports about Vietnam and don't look at foreign news, you will feel very magical, is Vietnam going left or right? I sometimes wonder how true are so many of Vietnam's recent radically disruptive moves. The diversification of information channels is very important, and I ask Mr. Lin again for verification.
Land in Vietnam is nominally stated, but in fact privatized and free to buy and sell for lease and mortgage. But for a house sold to a foreign investor, the property right is 50 years. And Mr. MU said that in 50 years, it is completely possible to get rid of these houses, not to mention that now there is 5-10% of the rental income every year, and if it is fast, it will return to the cost in ten years and get a house, plus the appreciation of the house, the income is considerable. Not to mention buying a Vietnamese house, instantly becoming a billionaire, full of a sense of accomplishment.
Due to the substantive (non-nominal) privatization of land, Vietnam has introduced many atypical socialist state policies, such as household registration reform, privatization of state-owned enterprises, independent trade unions, abolition of the tenure system for civil servants, and disclosure of officials' assets. Since these policies are so close to the demands of the Western countries, they are deeply praised by them – we have to exclaim, Saigon is on the way back!
For example, our translator told me that their children born out of wedlock are free to settle down, by holding an ID card and passport. Obviously, this benefits from the reform of the household registration system, and the state's recognition of newborns in society does not require marriage, and they will still enjoy state welfare in the future. This is a common practice in many developed countries, and it is also one of the reasons why China's "scumbags" go to Ho Chi Minh to enjoy it. For example, if you want to do business in Vietnam and want to find a local partner in Vietnam, who is the most suitable person than your own little wife?
Vietnam's economic reforms and reforms are largely learning from traditional Chinese teachers, but economic and political reforms are not the same thing. Vietnam's political reforms were generally pro-European and American. I heard that recently they are also reforming democratic elections and fighting corruption. I'll see.
Six Brewing coffee on heroes
Vietnamese coffee is a major local specialty, and the number of cafes in Saigon is far greater than that of any city, with a wide range of high- and low-end restaurants. Vietnam has been influenced by Western culture for more than a hundred years, coffee culture has blossomed, and coffee shops are all over the streets. If the coffee shop chain known as Vietnam's "Starbucks" is Highland Coffee (Highland Coffee, pictured below) -
Then the so-called "Shaxian snack" in Vietnam is the local specialty coffee shops scattered throughout the streets and alleys (pictured below).
Ho Chi Minh's little café feels like a breakfast shop in an alley alley on the edge of a high-rise building in a big city in The country is neon-lit, the difference is that the main thing we sell is soybean milk flatbread fritters, and they sell Vietnamese coffee. The characteristics of this coffee are this kind of drip, paying attention to coffee penetration, dripping time and water temperature, etc., I have also drunk it in Vietnamese restaurants in Shanghai.
As mentioned above, Vietnam is a country deeply influenced by Chinese culture, and it has been more than 2,000 years since the Qin Dynasty Xiang County began, and coffee is not Chinese culture. Less than two hundred years since French missionaries brought coffee to Vietnam in 1860, Vietnam now ranks second in the world in coffee production and exports, after Brazil. The development of Vietnamese coffee is a microcosm of Vietnamese society from kingdom to colony to modern society – there is a greater integration of its own, and this fusion mixes all aspects of Vietnam to shape the new Vietnam, just as Confucianism and socialism shaped the new China.
Today we came to investigate Vietnam's manufacturing industry and saw Vietnam's advantages over China, such as low labor costs, better business environment, demographic dividend, institutional dividend and latecomer advantage. But we also see the shortcomings of Vietnam, compared with the manufacturing giant China, Vietnam is not an order of magnitude compared with China, regardless of the size of the population or the land area and market size that is only close to Yunnan. Taking clothing as an example, Vietnam does not have a perfect industrial chain from dyeing and spinning fabric to zipper button lace to hand embroidery, stone grinding and washing after treatment, and Vietnam's research and development capabilities for new products are weaker than China's. Belonging to the chinese circle and Chinese descendants, although Vietnam has inherited the hard-working and hard-working character of Chinese, there are also Southeast Asians who are lazy in the sun, playing on the beach and the "slow pace of coffee" under the high temperature fumigation. The independence of the Vietnamese trade union organization will be full of variables in the future for the economic construction of the country - once more freedom is gained, there will be higher labor costs.
The Vietnamese have grown strongly, emerging in Southeast Asian countries and in recent years have been in frequent frictions with China in the South China Sea. Sooner or later, we will have to understand that Vietnam is no longer the country that received aid and instructions from Big Brother China in the 1950s and 1970s, but has opened the fast lane to the right to embrace the West. China's manufacturing industry has its own problems, but our biggest problems in thousands of years have never been foreign, from the Five Hu Chaohua, the Yuan Qing Dynasty into the Central Plains, the Opium War, the Eight-Power Alliance to the War of Resistance Against Japan. Chinese biggest problem is our own problem, and my attitude toward China's history has always been "to mourn its misfortunes and to be angry."
We have a population of about 600 million people with a monthly salary of about 1,000 (the prime minister's words), and we have a large area of land in the midwest and northeast that needs to continue to deepen reforms. The "investment in the northeast is not enough to shanhaiguan" is a deep pain for the Chinese people, and it should be known that the northeast was the manufacturing center of Asia's leading world in the early part of the last century. In fact, our resources and land can easily replace Vietnam, and Vietnam's temporary advantage is only because they bravely took that step, which requires wisdom and courage.
I am very sure and confident that as long as the country gives Chinese, including Zhejiang businessmen, more economic freedom, more space for development, and gives the Chinese people the opportunity to constantly communicate and compete with the world's strongest countries, learn with an open mind, and make continuous progress, I believe that we do not have to worry about Vietnam's threat to China at all, just like in the past two thousand years - Vietnam has never been our opponent, but one of our small partners.
The premise, of course, is that we have to make the right choice. Only if we ourselves get the road right will Vietnam not be a rival to China's economy.
Although Ho Chi Minh is on the left, Saigon is already on the right. What about us?