Vietnamese industry
experts feel government-run enterprises and local businesses should pay
necessary attention to training workers for the fourth industrial revolution
(Industry 4.0), which is likely to replace people on production lines with machines to improve
productivity and reduce labour and administrative costs, so that they are not
rendered redundant.
The textile and garment industry in Vietnam is using a lot of labour with basic
skills, and therefore, it would be immensely affected by Industry 4.0, Le Tien
Truong, general director of Vietnam Textile and Garment Group, said on the
sidelines of a recent conference on co-operation between Vietnam and Japan for
Asia-Pacific economic integration.
With Industry 4.0, workers in all countries face a
daunting challenge, economist Le Dang Doanh said. Many Vietnamese companies had
already started investing in automation, dismissing hundreds of workers and
about 86 per cent of the country’s
apparel and footwear workers are expected to lose their jobs in the next 15
years, an online newspaper in Vietnam quoted Doanh as saying.
Vietnam’s footwear industry also faces a similar
fate, according to Nguyen Duc Thuan, chairman of Vietnam Leather and Footwear
Association. Universities and institutions will also have to revise
their curricula to impart updated skills and knowledge, experts feel.