Over the past 30 years, Vietnam has become one of the main success stories of economic development. Thanks to market-oriented economic reforms and inflows of FDI, Vietnam reached middle-income status in 2009 and medium-term growth projections remain optimistic. However, to sustain its rapid development, the country will need to upgrade its position in global value chains, from just being a source of cheap labor to higher value-added activities.

Vietnam’s success in attracting FDI provides a remarkable opportunity for leveraging public investment in education and training.  Thousands of multinational enterprises are already present in Vietnam, focusing on low value added activities. If Vietnamese labor costs increase without corresponding increases in labor productivity, many of them may consider moving to other host countries with more favourable cost structures. However, many of them are likely to stay and upgrade their operations if the skill level of Vietnam’s workforce improves at the same rate or faster than labor costs.

The electronics sector began to expand rapidly after Vietnam’s accession to the WTO in 2007, and Vietnam is now one of the world’s top ten exporters of electronics. In 2021, the export of electronic products exceeded $110 billion, corresponding to nearly 40% of the economy’s total exports.  However, nearly 95% of the electronics exports are accounted for by foreign MNEs, while most of the sector’s domestic enterprises operate in the low-end segments of the electronics value chain, producing components, with a localisation rate of only 20–30%.

Copenhagen Business School of Denmark, Nha Trang University, and Nguyen Tat Thanh University of Vietnam will organize a seminar on “Future Labor Skill for Vietnamese Electronic Sector” on 19^th July 2022 to discuss the opportunities and challenges for Vietnam’s electronic industry in upgrading its position in the global value chain. The focus will be on the skill requirements for upgrading, including potential collaborations between education institutes and electronics enterprises for vocational training and skill development. The participants are experts from colleges, universities, and electronic companies in Vietnam. Scientists from the three universities will briefly present research results on upgrading paths for Vietnam’s electronic industry, based on a joint two- year research project with funding from the Danish government (DANIDA-Vietskill project). The participants will discuss the development policy for the electronics sector and evaluate collaboration models between schools and enterprises for training and skill development.