Workers at a garment factory on the outskirts of Hanoi (Photo: asiaweekly.com)

Vietnam’s labor productivity has grown an average of 3.8% per year over the past decade, growing 6.5% in 2015. Investment in technology and skills training in key industries like garments and textiles, footwear, energy, and IT have helped Vietnam narrow the labor productivity gap with other regional countries. Secretary General of the Vietnam Leather Footwear and Bag Association Phan Thi Thanh Xuan said: “Two of the most important solutions are to improve the quality of human resources and to apply advanced technologies and management models. This will double our sector’s growth”.

Over the past 5 years, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has been carrying out  a project to help businesses boost industrial productivity and product quality. Director of the Vietnam Productivity Institute, Nguyen Anh Tuan said: “Labor productivity is a matter of selecting an appropriate economic structure, improving the business climate, updating technology and management and improve labor quality. We have to gear up to catch up with the productivity growth of other regional countries, which is 9% in China and 7.8% in Myanmar, for instance.”