Week 9 - Viet Nam - Andrew Tom

Viet Nam is a nation under multiple transitions.  For those that can afford to, Vietnamese from Viet Nam are encouraged to pursue the best educational options available, which often take them abroad.  What results from this "brain drain" is a myriad of talent that never returns to contribute to Viet Nam's development.  To sustain this, actively attracting lost talent through appealing R&D options and communicating a happy, healthy, and fulfilling living and working environment are keys to progressing the development of a national aesthetic.  Attracting, cultivating, and retaining the highly skilled is self perpetuating, and often the result of a modernized workforce in Viet Nam will continue attracting talent well into the future (IAC 2004).  To a certain extent, there are calls on the government to promote transparency in their economic metrics, in addition to providing incentives for the talented to return.  Disorganized implementation, government corruption, and suboptimal living conditions all factor into whether or not the Viet Nam of the future can sustain a modern workforce.

Viet Nam isn't often portrayed as the most developed of places, but their cities resemble that of the developed world.  Misconceptions across the Vietnamese diaspora about living and working conditions in Viet Nam result in preferences to stay abroad as opposed to returning to the homeland.
References
Gribble, Cate. "National Policies on Skilled Labour and the Cross-Border Student Market, with a Focus on Vietnam." Higher Education in the Asia-Pacific: Strategic Responses to Globalization. Eds. Marginson, Simon, Sarjit Kaur and Erlenawati Sawir. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 2011. 291-307. Print.

IAC. (2004). Realizing the promise and potential of African agriculture. InterAcademy Council. http://www.interacademycouncil.net. Accessed 20 Aug 2008.