Abstrakt: |
Vietnam offers a particularly intriguing case to study shifting patterns of industrial governance and labor/class dynamics. A Communist Party is spearheading (and trying to control) ?reforms? that will relink it exports to global trade, open the country up to foreign investors, and move its economy toward increasing reliance on markets. The contradictory image of ?market reform? by a communist led state, raises key issues about recent global economic restructuring, including debates about moves toward ?flexible production,? the structure of new types of ?buyer-driven commodity chains,? and arguments about positive and negative roles for states in the process of economic transformation. This paper focuses on the recent emergence and growth of a western-oriented export apparel industry in Vietnam. It is based on co-author fieldwork between 1994 and this past fall (2003). After providing an overview of the garment production in the Asian Pacific Rim, we sketch out the recent history of the Vietnamese textile and garment industries. The focus is on the last decade when this manufacturing sector?s output and export volumes increased dramatically, foreign investment surged, various US trade agreements were enacted, and an industrial structure that was once monopolized by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) gave way a more differentiated one including foreign and domestic private companies, various types of joint ventures, and some privatization of SOEs. We attempt to offer some sense of how key actors from various social classes (local businesspeople, state bureaucrats and SOE managers, foreign investors and managers, and local workers) are agents in dynamics of change. Vietnam [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |