Publications

Platform workers are those who are self-employed and responsible for their own social protection and fulfilling their own tax obligations. Their employment relationship with the platform companies, in many countries including Vietnam, remains largely ambiguous. This research, primarily based on a survey of platform car-drivers and bike-riders in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, examines the needs, prospects and strategies employed by platform drivers in voicing their opinions, organising and bargaining collectively with platform companies.

Mobility is not gender neutral, despite women making up almost half of the global population. This study focuses on identifying data gaps in mobility and gender in Hanoi and reviews policies on mainstreaming gender into transport and mobility planning. It also assesses best practices from around the world to provide recommended solutions and actions to support Hanoi authorities, decision-makers and stakeholders in ensuring gender equality underpins current and future transport services and infrastructure for an inclusive society.

In the recent two decades, Vietnam has been experiencing significant economic growth, characterized by rapid industrialization & corresponding urbanization, which has been exerting tremendous ecological & social impacts. This paper presents findings of a study on Criteria for Sustainable Urban Communities and Cities in Vietnam conducted in three selected cities of Hanoi, Da Nang and Can Tho. The report was informed by quantitative surveys and in-depth interviews, with written suggestions from officials, experts, and non-profit workers in the fields of Planning and Investment, Transportation, Urban Planning and Construction, Science and Technology, Industry and Trade. The study was carried out by the Center for Development of Community Initiative and Environment (C&E) with the support from Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Vietnam.

The global Covid-19 pandemic has had devastating impacts on societies and economies across the world. In Vietnam, although a health crisis was effectively prevented, the economic damage is enormous with key exporting industries – including footwear, garments, and electronics – among the hardest hit. One of the key reasons for the damage to these industries was the practices of several international brands and retailers that quickly cancelled or postponed orders upon the onset of the crisis – refusing, in many cases, to pay for products already finished. Taking advantage of their dominant power over local suppliers, these international brands shifted losses created by the pandemic to the most vulnerable sections of global supply chains: the assembly suppliers that operate on thin profit margins and their poorly paid workers. This study provides evidence of this trend by drawing from…

This country study explores how Vietnam can improve economic policies to achieve social upgrading linked to economic upgrading. It investigates the history and present approaches to industrial policy in Vietnam and identifies examples on the national, regional and sector levels. Drawing from examples, the study provides tangible policy recommendations for decision-makers on how to best improve social and economic conditions through industrial policies in a middle income county with significant potential.

The labor-cost advantage of developing countries in Asia is challenged by increased use of digital automation and robots known also as Industry 4.0. Particularly those countries whose development model depends on export-led, low technology, low wage manufacturing industries may thus face the phenomena of jobless growth or even de-employment in the form of automation or even reshoring of employment to the previous importing countries thus reversing the direction of the current global value chains. In Vietnam, this development is particularly relevant to the garment, footwear and electronics sectors which provide employment to about 3.5 Mio. people and have a considerable growth potential. There is a common understanding that Vietnam has to upscale technology levels in these industries to increase productivity in order to remain competitive with its neighbors and explore the benefits and…