14 October 2025
Vietnam at the Crossroad of the 21st Century
Culturally, Vietnam belongs to the East Asian tradition, which also encompasses mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. For over 6,000 years, the countries in this society have evolved from the Han civilisation, with Han scripts as the foundation and means for development in various fields. In addition, China and the countries of East Asian society share religious, cultural and social ties deeply ingrained in the subconscious of people of the same community.
Given this long tradition, the ambition of changing a nation’s whole belief system in a few generations is unthinkable. However, we can modernise our society without losing our roots and traditions. The integration of Western scientific reasoning, standards, and disciplines can help form an orderly community while preserving our cultural heritage. Combining Eastern wisdom with Western logical thinking is a lesson we should learn to succeed in our modernisation efforts. Standardising the Vietnamese language among different Vietnamese-speaking communities within the country and worldwide, and integrating the diaspora's literary contributions into mainstream literature, will add value to the cultural integration process, placing Vietnam on par with other rising stars in the global South.
Indeed, due to the post-war discrimination policy that hindered the active participation of former southern government officers and their children to the mainstream economy, the human development in Vietnam had suffered a significant loss in their valuable contribution to the economic boom due to the lack of vision and poor educational policy that produced less trained workers adapted to the job, but also the inadequate distribution of workers between cities and rural regions. This situation underscores the urgent need for educational reform and human development strategies that other Southeast Asian economies have adopted since the 1960s.
According to a survey by the World Bank, Vietnam scored only 3.39 points out of 10, lagging behind South Korea (6.91), India (5.76), and Malaysia and Thailand (4.94). In Vietnam, although many graduates are highly trained in politics and socio-economic theories, they often struggle to find jobs with FDI companies due to poor foreign language proficiency, a lack of industry knowledge, and difficulty adapting to change, which is frequently attributed to the political indoctrination typical of socialist countries. Despite its rankings of 90/100 in technology and innovation and 92/100 in background technology, Vietnam scored only 4.9/10 in readiness for IR 4.0, lagging behind countries such as Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia. Indeed, the 2018 WEF report classified Vietnam among countries that are not ready for the IR 4.0, with scores of 75/100 in university training quality, 68/100 in STEM education, and 63/100 in critical thinking and teaching.
Across the globe, international employers highly appreciate the Vietnamese diaspora workforce for their resilience and work ethic. Fifty years after the end of the war, the diaspora community has grown to over 5 million overseas Vietnamese, scattered across at least 180 countries. However, the highest concentrations remain in the US (over 3 million), Western Europe (over 1.8 million), and the rest of Asia. Official statistics for the period 2006-2016, provided by the Vietnam National Bank, revealed that inflows from this community accounted for around 10% of the GDP. Sadly, the Viet-Kieu - including academics and former government officials of the southern government - do not receive special treatment from the current government, in contrast to the treatment received by the Filipino authorities. On the contrary, some litigation cases that have arisen over the years have shown that many overseas Vietnamese who had shown sympathy to their motherland by investing or contributing to the economic development for the past five decades still face unfair treatment despite their significant contribution to the country’s economic revival for reasons linked to divergence of opinions.
The contributions of overseas Vietnamese - the Viet Kieu - are significant and should be recognised as their ties to the Vietnamese economy are fundamental. Recognising the contribution of overseas scholarly works as part of Vietnam's shared cultural legacy is the start of the reconciliation process for peace and integration. Furthermore, connecting the Vietnamese people from all walks of life, both internally and externally, regardless of their religious or political beliefs, to move past conflicts through the post-Cold War reconciliation process will be the ultimate act of peace that Vietnam has offered to the global peace movement.
A unified Vietnam in spirit, rethinking Vietnamese new values in a globalised world, will give the Vietnamese the peace they deserve after centuries of defending their values and traditions.
The Vietnam Ethics Series collection, initiated by the Vietnam Hoc Institute and published in collaboration with Globethics, attempts to build an anthropology of Vietnamese spiritual development through modern history, viewed through the lens of education, culture, and ethics.
The series is available for free download as a PDF at https://globethics.net/vietnam-ethics-series.
See you in the next post,
Stay Safe,
Anita H.
YourVietBooks is a selection of books and articles on and about Vietnam. Categories include: Culture, History, Vietnam War, Politics, Biographies, Contemporary Vietnam, International Relations, Doing Business in Vietnam, Reference and Languages, Zen Buddhism, Philosophy, Art and Literature.
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