The department examined 429 out of a total 830 domestic and foreign enterprises in 12 industrial parks, says Phan Minh Tan, the department’s director, and only three of the enterprises that currently use advanced technologies belong to the state sector.

The survey discovered that most of the enterprises had bought second-hand equipment dirt-cheap and nearly 10 percent of them paid 50 percent less than they are worth in real value. In addition, only a quarter of all enterprises are completely automated with most of the technologies coming from China.

With regard to human resources, employees holding college degrees account for only six percent of the nearly 130,000 workers surveyed. About 23 percent of the workers were trained vocationally with the rest being unskilled labourers. Poor technological skills are common amongst the workers in industries such as textiles and garments, wood, paper, leather shoes, rubber and engineering.

Causes of the situation

Ho Chi Minh City showed the way ahead by establishing processing and industrial zones in the early 1990s, when there was an abundance of outdated technologies from industrialized countries being shipped to poor and developing countries.

During that period, Vietnam in general and HCM City in particular needed a huge amount of capital for development and to deal with unemployment. The city focused on attracting as much investment as possible without paying due attention to ensuring sustainability such as using modern technologies that employ fewer workers and cause less pollution.

Solutions to the problem

The local Industrial Zones Management Board and the department of science and technology are now determined to change the situation. Initially, they plan to install software in enterprises to assess their technological competence. This is expected to help businesses identify their own weaknesses, says Le Anh Tuan, vice head of the board.

Secondly, they will gradually build up a strong pool of experts in the fields of industry, finance, and technology to help enterprises access loans and select the appropriate technologies.

The management board has also called on the city’s Industrial Parks Enterprises Association to set up chapters for each particular industry to encourage businesses to assist each other. The board also intends to create a fund to help enterprises improve their technologies.