Opportunities & Challenges for HUFLIT Students When Joining AEC

ABSTRACT
Many borderless economic communities have been established due to worlds integration
and cooperation tendency. ASEAN Economic Community is a good example for this
tendency in Asia, which brings a lot of benefits as well as difficulties to every nation in
the community. The authors purpose of writing this paper is to inform business owners,
laborers, and especially students about opportunities and challenges for Vietnamese
economy on labor forces. Through analyzing statistics of surveys conducted on HUFLIT
students, the author hopefully provides targeted readers useful information. Opportunities
and strong points stated in this paper should be effectively taken advantage. On the other
hand, judgement on laborers shortcoming by experts should be considered. Besides, this
paper also indicates worth - reading recommendations for challenges and weaknesses on
the aforementioned aspect.

Opportunities & Challenges for HUFLIT Students When Joining AEC

Table of Contents
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. 1
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 3
LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................ 5
I.

AEC Background. ............................................................................................... 5

II. Labor forces. ....................................................................................................... 6

1. Opportunities. .................................................................................................. 6
2. Challenges. ....................................................................................................... 7
RESEARCH METHODLOGY.................................................................................... 8
RESULTS ....................................................................................................................10
DISCUSSION ..............................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................16
REFERENCE ..............................................................................................................22

Opportunities & Challenges for HUFLIT Students When Joining AEC

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION
As the future trend in the economic development, countries tend to connect with
others to mutually help grow the economy nationwide and worldwide, which is called
globalization. Many cooperation organizations among nations which share similar
geographic, historic, and cultural features as well as economic targets have been
established, such as WTO, EU, and APEC, etc. Established in 1967, the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is one of these typical organizations which plans to set
up an ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015. It is a potential chance to promote
cooperation and friendship between nations in this community including Vietnam.
However, it turns out to be a concern that the information of AEC is not caught up by
Vietnam laborers, especially university students.
Joining AEC is a new opening for Vietnams workers to get benefits in the
environment of other member nations and the world. In her paper, Angsuthanasombat
(2007) judged that employers prefer Vietnamese workers as they are hard-working, active,
intelligent, open and skillful and are always ready to do extra work.. Nevertheless,
together with opportunities accompany substantial challenges for Vietnamese business especially workforce due to the competition of other member nations. On 9 May 2014, the
Organization International Labor (ILO) reported that Vietnamese labor capacity was
ranked as one of the poorest compared to other Asia Pacific countries. (Bui, 2014)

Opportunities & Challenges for HUFLIT Students When Joining AEC

The research process is carried out in the scenario that there is a considerable lack
of crucial information regards to the related fields from Vietnamese authors. In addition,
the findings of this study are carried out on students of the Department of Foreign
Languages of Ho Chi Minh City University of Foreign Languages and Information
Technology (HUFLIT) since the start of the school year. Thus, the results cannot
thoroughly indicate the future laborers knowledge of Vietnamese economic status quo.
This study aims to raise awareness and attention of the youth laborers, especially
educated class, of the basic knowledge about how AEC affects Vietnamese rapidly
changing economy. Opportunities and challenges of Vietnams labor forces are
particularly emphasized in order that university students can get an overview about what
is expected to happen in the upcoming year 2016.
This research paper opens with an introduction about the ASEAN Economic
Community (AEC). It then goes on to literature review which includes some outstanding
research on related field by some previous authors. The next chapter presents how this
research was conducted. After outlining the research results and discussion, the article
concludes with some main points and needs for further studies.

Opportunities & Challenges for HUFLIT Students When Joining AEC

CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW
I.

AEC Background.
Established in 1967 originally due to the political and regional security demands,

ASEAN has gradually centralized the economic target since the first ASEAN Summit in
1976. The immediate aim of member nations is to establish the ASEAN Community in
2020 so called ASEAN Vision 2020. To fulfil this goal, the three pillars ASEAN
Economic Community (AEC), ASEAN Political Security Community (APSC), and
ASEAN Socio Cultural Community (ASCC) were also decided to be set up and
accomplished by 2020. Particularly, AEC was directed to be launched in December 2015
as an initial step on the way to ASEAN Community.
The AEC Blueprint was drafted to assure that the plan could smoothly run within
time allotted. It aimed to draw up a future image of a potential community with basic
characteristics. They are a single market and production base, a highly competitive
economic region, a region of equitable economic development, and a region fully
integrated into the global economy. (ASEAN Secretariat, 2008:6)
The first characteristic, a single market and production base, would create an
equally extensive chance for every single country in AEC to promote mutual trade. This
section comprises 5 key factors: free flow of goods; free flow of services; free flow of
investment; freer flow of capital; and free flow of skilled labor. (ASEAN Secretariat,
2008:6)
Free flow of skilled labor is chosen to be analyzed in this paper to find out
opportunities and challenges toward Vietnams economy in the human resource aspect.
5

Opportunities & Challenges for HUFLIT Students When Joining AEC

II.

Labor forces.
Joining AEC causes many problems for labor forces of members and Vietnam is no

exception. Opportunities and challenges await Vietnams labor on the way to AEC
establishment at the end of 2015. With the key term free flow of skilled labor apparently
stated in AEC Blueprint, it means that labor from the 10 countries can independently and
freely move to other countries in the community to work. Vietnams labor forces should
be prepared to face the inevitably upcoming situation.

1. Opportunities.
a. Widen job opportunities.
Vietnam is a country with many advantages in the competition of work force. In
Buis article (2014), she said that compared to other ASEAN countries, Vietnam
possesses young and cheap labor forces. On the basis of MRAs (Mutual Recognition
Arrangements), Vietnamese employees can move and find a job more freely around other
ASEAN countries. These are Vietnams labor forces competitive edges when all AEC
members integrate into an independent single market.
b. Reducing gaps.
The disparity between the ASEAN 6 and CLMV countries is still a burning
question for many economic experts. The question is that how CLMV countries could
catch up with the development level of the ASEAN 6. AEC is one of the factors that
helps reduce the gaps among nations in the community. By exchanging laborers, every
nations economy would rise at the same pace. Free migration of labor forces also implies
the free migration of technology, knowledge, working methods, etc. In this current
context, Vietnam plays a role as a country which receives benefits from the ASEAN 6
to catch up with their development levels. (Nguyen, 2013:5)
6

Opportunities & Challenges for HUFLIT Students When Joining AEC

2. Challenges.
a. Skill deficiency.
Prof., Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huyen and Prof., Dr. Bui Anh Tuan (2004) in their
research paper discovered that:
Vietnam has abundant human resource (of close to 40 million people), but
proportion of skilled labors is still very low (21% of the total labor forces). In the
labor market, therefore, there exists a paradox: labor supply is high, meanwhile
enterprises are lacking skilled labors, especially technical workers, marketing,
designing and financial specialists, and business administrators.

As a result, many enterprises in AEC may hesitate when employing Vietnamese

workers because of their lack of skills and working experiences. When hiring those who
are unskilled, employers have to train their fresh employees to assure that those workers
would help companies earn profits. The process of training fresh personnel usually costs
as much as a full year salary of an employee in general.
b. Brain draining.
ASEAN members can be broadly divided into net sending and net receiving
countries for labor: Cambodia, Lao Democratic Peoples Republic, Myanmar, Indonesia,
Vietnam and the Philippines are net senders; Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Brunei
Darussalam are net receivers. (Huelser and Heal, 2014, p.2)
c. Impractical education.
Although many educational reforms have been applied, Vietnams education
quality is still a roadblock on the way to global and regional integration of Vietnam. Phu
and Jun (2013:171) considered that Vietnams education fall into a severe crisis, especially
in higher education and, moreover, unrealistic.

Opportunities & Challenges for HUFLIT Students When Joining AEC

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODLOGY
The evaluating criterion is based on the comprehensive understanding of future
laborers about AEC. Due to the limit of time and support conditions, only surveys and
interviews (direct & indirect) are applied in this research.
100 students randomly selected from Department of Foreign Languages were
provided with sheets of questions. The content is about basic knowledge about AEC. The
questionnaire aims to measure HUFLIT students' interest level in the update news of the
upcoming AEC.
Direct interviews were conducted on the two selected professors from Department
of Foreign Languages and Department of International Business Administration in order
to get objective feedbacks about students and graduates from HUFLIT within 10 years till
now. The two selected professors are considered as great track keepers on HUFLITs
students two main criterions: specialism and professionalism. Indirect interviews are the
statements share mostly by economic experts on direct interviews on FBNC News and
Vietnams National News Program.
To measure knowledge about AEC as well as to make the data more reliable, a brief
questionnaire was administered in the period of 4 weeks. The 9 questions included in the
survey are objectively classified into 3 categories: Basic knowledge (4 multiple choice
questions), Personal views of Vietnamese labor forces (1 rating scale question), Self
8

Opportunities & Challenges for HUFLIT Students When Joining AEC

evaluated questions (3 open ended questions). The questionnaire was composed in

Vietnamese so as that the content is understandable to the participants surveyed.
The interviews consist of 2 open - ended questions to mainly evaluate HUFLIT
students' competitive strength and ask for advices.
Surveys and direct interviews were carried out in early November, when there were
only 2 months left before the establishment of AEC. The results were then recorded and
analyzed using Microsoft Excel.

Opportunities & Challenges for HUFLIT Students When Joining AEC

CHAPTER IV

RESULTS
Awareness of AEC Analysis
60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Completely
Unaware

Partly
Aware

Comprehensively
Aware

Figure 1: HUFLIT Students' Awareness of AEC

Graph 1 summarizes the results assessing HUFLIT students awareness of AEC.

Some findings drawn from the chart implied that the future labor forces must be alert to
the serious lack of preparation for AEC. Only 6% of the students surveyed can show their
knowledge about the upcoming integration while the completely unaware group made up
40%. This group should be paid attention due to its remarkable domination.

10

Opportunities & Challenges for HUFLIT Students When Joining AEC

Good
8%

Under Jobs
Requirements
24%

Equitable Jobs
Requirements
68%

Figure 2: Self - Evaluation

The pie chart reflects the self evaluation of the future work forces. They obviously
assumed that most workers could adapt to the current changing working environment.
Over a half number of students surveyed (68%) had a very positive point of view about
Vietnamese laborers whereas a quarter of the students (24%) were suspicious about their
competence. Laboring discipline and team working skills are the two worst criterions of
Vietnamese workers. All agreed that Vietnam is not a complete industrial country, so
laborers still follow the agricultural working manner, which is not professional and
effective.
11

Opportunities & Challenges for HUFLIT Students When Joining AEC

CHAPTER V

DISCUSSION
This research attempted to evaluate two main aspects opportunities and challenges
for HUFLIT students when Vietnam joins AEC in late 2015. Some solutions for the
weaknesses were also drawn from the findings.
It is obvious in the graph 1 that the number of students who do not care about the
future of integration of Vietnam is really considerable. The reasons for this critical
circumstance may be the ignorance of students as well as the impact of the old fashioned
education system. Little information of the community was comprised in lessons in order
to make students focus on preparation to confidently face the immediate challenges. It is
also a sign that AEC details should be included in the curriculum of schools and
universities.
As in the interview, Ms. Tran Lan Anh, HUFLITs Department of International
Business Administrations lecturer, shared one of the weaknesses of HUFLIT students is
that they were misled and did not orient a clear path for their future. It also means that the
students do not keep up with the world and regions rapid changes. In fact, the most
effective way to determine the future paths is to base on the trend of the region or the
prediction of some potential professions. In this circumstance, it is the future trend of
regional integration. Students can actively get themselves ready for the future
opportunities.

12

Opportunities & Challenges for HUFLIT Students When Joining AEC

To sum up this section, there are an opportunity and a challenge to be focused.

Because of the advantage in foreign languages, HUFLIT students can easily approach the
update information about new changes in region as well as in the world. However, it turns
out to be a challenge accompanying the previous good point. Students, in general, are not
proactive in updating knowledge and preparing skills in advance in order to grasp chances.
One possible explanation may be students ignorance of social activities. The more they
dedicate themselves to social activities, the more updated information they get.
As regards to the quality of Vietnamese labor forces, many evaluation opinions
were given, which were especially controversial. Students considered themselves and
labor forces as almost above average of jobs requirements as which can clearly be seen in
graph 2. Over three quarters of students surveyed claimed that Vietnam laborers can meet
the jobs requirements and can perform well in highly skilled work.
One positive comment by Ms. Tran was that HUFLIT students, the future labor
forces, are knowledgeable, sharp witted, innovative, good at English communication,
familiar with high technology. These are strength that HUFLIT students should prove.
Nevertheless, absolutely opposite opinions were brought out by economic experts.
Ms. Pham Chi Lan, an economic expert, in an interview with FBNC News said that
there is a paradox in the correlation of the productivity of Vietnamese laborers and the
continuous increase in salary. Workers claim that they do not get the motivation to work
with the currently low salaries. The uncontrollable increase of salary makes the cheap
laborer resource not cheap anymore. These form an unsolvable circle for the government.
She added that there is unreasonable to raise salary without consideration because the low
salary is based on the low productivity. It implied that Vietnamese laborers have not been
13

Opportunities & Challenges for HUFLIT Students When Joining AEC

professional. They do not focus on developing themselves and gaining companies profits.
On contrary, they frequently ask for salary raise which they do not deserve to receive. It
also reflects the individualism over teamwork spirit of Vietnamese workers.
In particular, Ms. Tran added that HUFLIT students skills in presentation,
teamwork and flexibility have met the general requirements of the international working
environment. This judgement was agreed by Ms. Tran My Uyen, a senior lecturer of
HUFLITs Department of Foreign Languages. She said that HUFLIT students
development was not high enough to catch up with the global change pace and meet the
demands of the society.
Mr. Vu Quang Tho, Director of Labor & Trade Union of Vietnams General
Confederation of Labor, said that there are two main factors directly contributing to
Vietnamese laborers low productivity. One reason is that workers lose their enthusiasm
and eagerness due to the low salaries. There is no motivation for the workers if they do not
get paid as well as they expected. Another cause is the unsuitability of the new working
pace to the Vietnamese physical constitution. The new technology requires the high
working pace that cannot be met by the Vietnamese laborers.
There are many problems needed to be solved with regard to the lack of skilled
labors of Vietnamese labor forces reality. High schools and higher education need
innovative changes in order that more students are trained to meet the requirements of
AEC. The curriculum should focus on applied knowledge as well as essential skills at work
pursuantly to the current situation. Business owners also ought to facilitate more
scholarships for students to study abroad in order that they can be trained more

14

Opportunities & Challenges for HUFLIT Students When Joining AEC

professionally and earn profits for employers in return. Capannelli (2014:23)

recommended that:
In general, ASEAN economies need to strengthen their education and training
systems to improve matching between labor supply and demand, especially
of skilled labor, at national and regional level. Reforms are needed to improve
the overall quality of education and to increase the number and quality of
technical and vocational schools.
The teachers interviewed shared that the correlation between the syllabus in
universities and the demands of the socio economy should be formed. Soft skills were
mentioned as the top priorities that students should pay attention to. Besides, it is crucial
to train them with business morale, ethics and professionalism in order that they can easily
get accustomed to the new working environment.

15

Opportunities & Challenges for HUFLIT Students When Joining AEC

CHAPTER VI

CONCLUSION
As stated in the beginning of this paper, universities students are not aware of what
is coming in the late of 2015. They also cannot objectively evaluate themselves as well as
Vietnamese labor forces, either. The findings have proved that the hypothesis is true. The
students after the survey showed that they do not know much about AEC. Moreover, the
results of self-evaluation by them appears to be contradictory to some of Vietnamese
economic experts. One possible conclusion is that the students have few chance to expose
to the real working environment and the modern education environment which focuses on
international mindset. Many possible solutions were pointed out in the previous chapter.
This research has taken a deep step in analyzing how much AEC affects labor
forces. It also reveals the weaknesses to be paid attention. Nevertheless, the research was
conducted in the shortage of time and subjects. This leads to the situation that the results
did not comprehensively demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of workers.
More studies should be done on a wide range of subjects in order that the results
could be more reliable and effectively interpreted. In addition, more precise and helpful
recommendations could also be draw out based on the further information. Longitudinal
research is suggested to be conducted so as to produce some annual reports for Vietnam
laborers to learn from these precious experience.

16

Opportunities & Challenges for HUFLIT Students When Joining AEC

APPENDIX
Appendix 1: Table of questions

BNG CU HI KHO SAT

KIN SINH VIN HUFLIT V AEC.

1. Anh (ch) tng nghe v AEC?

A. nghe qua v hiu rt r v t chc ny.
B. tng nghe qua nhng cha tm hiu.
C. Cha bao gi nghe n t chc ny.

2. Thi gian thnh lp?

A. 01/12/2014

B. 31/12/2014

C. 01/12/2015

D. 31/12/2015

3. C bao nhiu nc tham gia t chc ny?

A. 5 nc sng lp ASEAN

B. 11 nc nc ngNam

C. 10 nc thuc khi ASEAN

D. 10 nc ASEAN v Nht Bn, Hn Quc

4. im mi trong t chc ny?

(Chn nhiu p n)
A. T do lu thng tin t.

B. T do lu thng ngun lao ng.

C. T do lu thng hng ha.

D. T do lu thng dch v.

E. T do lu thng vn u t.

F. T do chuyn quc tch.

5. C bao nhiu lnh vc/ngnh ngh s c t do lu thng lm vic trong AEC?

A. 4

B. 5

C. 6

D. 7

17

E. 8

Opportunities & Challenges for HUFLIT Students When Joining AEC

6. Anh (ch) nhn xt g v ngun lao ng Vit Nam hin nay?

Cc tiu ch v lao ng tr thc Vit Nam
1

Trnh chuyn mn, k thut

K lut lao ng

K nng giao tip

K nng lm vic cng s

Kh nng lm vic c lp

Kh nng lm vic theo i, nhm

Ngoi ng

Tin hc vn phng

Tt

Cha
t

Km

7. Anh (ch) xem AEC l c hi hay thch thc cho ring anh (ch)?
A. C hi

B. Thch thc

C. C A v B

8. Theo anh (ch), iu g cn thit nht cho sinh vin HUFLIT khi hi nhp AEC?

9. Li th v hn ch ca sinh vin HUFLIT khi gia nhp AEC?

Li th: ............................................................................................................................
Hn ch: ..........................................................................................................................

18

Opportunities & Challenges for HUFLIT Students When Joining AEC

English version
Questionnaire to Measure HUFLIT Students
Awareness of AEC.
1. Have you ever heard about AEC?
A. I have already heard and absolutely understood about AEC.
B. I have just only heard but not understood about this organization.
C. I have never heard about this.

2. Can you point out the establishment time of AEC?

A. 01/12/2014

B. 31/12/2014

C. 01/12/2015

D. 31/12/2015

3. How many countries join this organization?

A. The five formers of ASEAN

B. The Southeast Asian Nations

C. ASEAN Nations

D. ASEAN Nations & Japan & Korea

4. What are new in this organization?

(You can choose more than one choice)
A. Freer flow of capital

B. Free flow of skilled labor

C. Free flow of goods.

D. Free flow of services.

E. Free flow of investment.

F. Free in nationality change.

5. How many professionals will be allowed to freely flow in the community?

A. 4

B. 5

C. 6

D. 7

E. 8

6. Some judgements on Vietnamese labor forces.

Criterions
1

Specialism level

Labor discipline

Communication skills

Good Average

19

Under
Poor
Average

Opportunities & Challenges for HUFLIT Students When Joining AEC

Office skills

Independent working skills

Teamwork skills

Language competency

Information technology for office

7. Is AEC an opportunity or a challenge for you?

A. Opportunity

B. Challenge

C. Both A & B

8. What are needed for HUFLIT students when Vietnam joins AEC?

9. What are advantages and disadvantages of HUFLIT students?

Advantages: .....................................................................................................................
Disadvantages: ................................................................................................................

20

Opportunities & Challenges for HUFLIT Students When Joining AEC

Appendix 2: List of abbreviations.

ACIF SE 2014

ASEAN Community in Figure Special Edition 2014

AEC

ASEAN Economic Community

APSC

ASEAN Political Security Community

ASCC

ASEAN Socio Cultural Community

ASEAN

Association of South East Asian Nations

ASEAN 6

Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,

Singapore, and Thailand.

CLMV

Cambodia, Lao Peoples Democratic Republic, Myanmar, and

Vietnam

EU

European Union

ILO

International Labor Organization

MRAs

Mutual Recognition Arrangements

TAC

Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia

USA

The United States of America

WTO

World Trade Organization

21

Opportunities & Challenges for HUFLIT Students When Joining AEC

REFERENCE
Book
Angsuthanasombat, K. (2007). Situation and Trends of Vietnamese Labor Export.
Retrieved from http://www.asianscholarship.org/asf/ejourn/articles/kannika_a.pdf
ASEAN Secretariat (2008), ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint, Indonesia. Retrieved
from http://www.asean.org/archive/5187-10.pdf
Capannelli, G. (2014). The ASEAN Economy in the Regional Context: Opportunities,
Challenges, and Policy Options. Retrieved from
http://www.adb.org/publications/asean-economy-regional-context-opportunitieschallenges-and-policy-options
Huelser, S. & Heal, A. (2014). Moving freely? Labour mobility in ASEAN. Retrieved from
http://artnet.unescap.org/pub/polbrief40.pdf
Nguyen T. T. & Bui, T. V. (2013). Exports - Highlight of Vietnams Economy in 2013
General Statistics Office of Vietnam. Retrieved from
http://www.gso.gov.vn/default_en.aspx?tabid=462&ItemID=16083
Nguyen, H. H. (2013). Toward an Integrated ASEAN Labor Market Prospects and
Challenges for CLMV Countries. Retrieved from
http://tapchi.vnu.edu.vn/upload/2014/02/1123/3.pdf
Nguyen, T. N. H. & Bui, A. T. (2004). Vietnam's economic development: Opportunities
and challenges towards the integration tendency. Retrieved from

22

Opportunities & Challenges for HUFLIT Students When Joining AEC

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/econ/faculty/Wooders/APET/Pet2004/Papers/Vietnams
%20economic%20development.pdf
Phu, H. M. & Jun, W. Y. (2013). The Current Situation of Vietnam Education. Social
Sciences. Vol. 2, No. 6, pp. 168-178. Retrieved from
http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/journal/archive.aspx?journalid=202&iss
ueid=2020206
Internet Resource
Bui, R. (2014). One year ahead of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC): free movement
of goods and labour in Vietnam. Retrieved from
https://vietnamlawbusiness.wordpress.com/ 2014/12/12/one-year-ahead-of-aseaneconomic-community-aec-free-movement-of-goods-and-labour-in-vietnam/
FBNC Vietnam. (October 29, 2013). Nng sut lao ng thp, nn g ra sao? [Video file]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLIH2ajMtes
Pham, T. D. (September 21, 2014). Nng su t lao ng ngi Vi t Nam - Thi s VTV
12h ngay 14-9-2014 [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv244FV8h6w

Statistics
Figure 1: HUFLIT Students' Awareness of AEC
Figure 2: Self - Evaluation

23