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Brands such as Nike, Adidas and Reebok have outsourced their production to Asia
Vietnam is leaving a major footprint on Europe. It
exports approximately 300 million pairs of shoes to
EU-countries every year, making it the second-largest
producer of shoes for the European market, trailing
China. Europe's feet depend on Asian cobblers, but
runners and hikers are hardly aware of this fact. They
wear brands such as Nike, Adidas, Puma and Reebok.
All these top shoe manufacturers have outsourced
their production to Asia.
It is probably only a matter of time before Asia
introduces its own brands. Once this happens, it is not
unlikely that they will develop a strong position in the
international market. The shoe trade is a labour
intensive business that employs half a million
Vietnamese.
The Vietnames coast is home to a lot of fishermen
Over sixty thousand people are employed at the
gargantuan Ho Chi Minh shoe plant operated by the
Taiwan-based Yue Yuen company, worlds largest shoe
manufacturer, alone. A lot of the shoes produced here
enter Europe through the Port of Rotterdam.
The mention of Vietnam can evoke memories of a less commercial nature.
For decades this small county overcame powerful would-be menaces: France, the
United States and China. Back in the 60s, hundreds of thousands of people took to the
streets in Europe in protest of military operations in the country.
When the American
war machine finally
pulled out, it left an utterly annihilated country in its
wake, pock marked by millions of bomb craters.
At the time, Vietnam appeared to be a country without
a future, but history has proven otherwise. The
Vietnamese have taken to the reconstruction of their
land and its infrastructure with a passion, a task that
they are yet to complete nonetheless.
Economic growth has been impressive, averaging
7.5 percent since 2000, hitting a high of 8.4 percent in
2005. Total exports amounted to 69.1 billion US
dollars. Over the course of the last ten years poverty
has been halved, owing to the stable political climate,
an impressive achievement that drew rare praise from
the World Bank.
The recent increase of the minimum wage from
$40 to $55 a day is illustrative of the Vietnamese
attitude towards economic reform. Rampant inflation
meant the raise was called for, but it also demonstrates
the increasing societal self consciousness of
Vietnamese workers. Recent economic developments
are truly nothing short of a miracle.
Vietnam means 'Land of the South', referring to its
position relative to China. In the first millennium AD,
from 111 to 939, it was China's southernmost province.
The country's eighty million inhabitants speak
Vietnamese, a member of the Austro-Asiatic language
family. Vietnam's linguistic heritage offers little obstacle
to communication with the rest of the world, since every
young Vietnamese either already speaks English or is
willing to learn it. The Vietnamese are very eager to
learn in general. The country covers a surface area
about eight times that of Holland. It is divided into fifty
provinces and three urban areas: Hanoi, the capital, Ho
Chi Minh City (former Saigon) and Haiphong. With its
border running more or less parallel to the Indochina
Peninsula's coastline, two regions in the far north and
south excepted, Vietnam's shape is sometimes
compared to two bags of rice hanging on the sides of a
stick. An aptly chosen analogy, since the northern
Tonkin and southern Cochinchina regions produce
most the country's rice, the mountainous middle part of
the country being ill suited to its cultivation.
Aside from rice, fish is the main constituent of the
local diet. Alongside the seemingly endless coast,
stretching on for almost 3,300 kilometres, countless
fishermen reap the sea's bounty for local consumption.
This small scale industry direly requires further
regulation to combat the threat overfishing poses to
fishers' livelihoods. The large scale fishing industry is
mainly involved in the farming and processing of
whitefish and shrimp for export. Vietnam's position in
the global food industry is illustrated by the fact that it
is second only to Brazil in coffee production and the
world's biggest producer of pepper. The Dutch have
had a long standing interest in the pepper trade.
The chairman of the Rotterdam Chamber of Commerce
was quoted in an interview in MainPort's September
edition, mentioning warehouses constructed by the
Dutch East India Company he had been shown
fifteen years ago in the seaside town of Hoi-An by a
local guide. "It makes you realize that you're not the
first, since Dutch sailors have been trudging about
this area for hundreds of years. The only thing that
has really changed is that spices used to be
processed in the Netherlands, whereas now this is
done in Vietnam. This means that the country of
origin can enjoy a larger margin on its products."
Lavooij said.
The potential offered by the country's endless
coastline is essential to its future development. Most
harbours restrict access for shops weighing more than
25,000 Dwt, while a few can take in ships weighing
40,000 tons. Within ten years a number of seaports
are expected to be capable of handling 40,000 to
45,000 Dwt carriers. The Vietnamese ambassador to
the Netherlands, Ha Huy Thong, seeks to employ Dutch
expertise and know-how in support of this endeavour
and has made this a priority for cooperation between
the two countries. It its worth mentioning that
Vietnamese youths are taking classes at the
Rotterdam's Shipping and Transport College (STC),
while the STC-Group also conducts courses
in Vietnam.
'Doi Moi' is the buzz phrase commonly associated with
the enormous economic advancement made by this
Asian Tiger. 'Doi Moi' is the process of economic
reform set in motion by the Vietnamese communist
party (CPV) in 1986. At the time, a cautious course
was plotted towards more openness and economic
progress. The 'Doi Moi' signified a new dawn for the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam, which came to be on the
2nd of July in 1976, after North and the South Vietnam
were reunited. An era of repression slowly faded away
as a new one of more individual liberty was ushered in.
Simultaneously, change took place on the
administrative level as well. The new constitution of
1992, replacing the one ratified in 1980, shifted the
balance of political power, even though the communist
party retained its monopoly on government. The
nation's new charter was intended to lead to increased
social cohesion and prosperity, embracing the future,
not the past. It has offered impressive results in the
political and economic arena, but the most significant
advances have been of a humanitarian nature. Boat
refugees, who tried to escape communist repression
mere decades ago, have repatriated, and Vietnam's
former sworn enemies, the United States and China,
have become important trading partners. Facts that
bear further witness to the miracle of Vietnam.
PricewaterhouseCoopers has recently ranked Vietnam
one of the most desirable destinations for foreign
investment. The Netherlands are the seventh largest
foreign investor in the country.
Considering the Netherlands' financial interest it is
only fitting that the Dutch Ambassador Andre Haspels
opened the Holland Marine House in Hanoi in 2007, a
project initiated by the Holland Marine Equipment
association (HME) with governmental and industry
wide support. On the other side of the globe, in The
Hague, Ha Huy Thong, endeavours to promote
Vietnam as a 'Gateway to Asia' for Dutch enterprise. It
seems that the relationship between Rotterdam, the
Netherlands, the European Union and Vietnam can
only flourish further in the future.
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