Based on the current international environment and Vietnam’s actual situation, Vietnam’s domestic economic situation will improve to a certain extent after a series of reforms, and residents’ income will also increase, but it is still difficult for it to become a A world power as successful as Japan.
First of all, Vietnam's natural resources are poorer than those of Japan.
Although Japan and Vietnam are small countries with a land area of ??only more than 300,000 square kilometers, Japan has another advantage, that is, it is surrounded by sea. According to international agreements, Japan has a sea area of ??more than 4 million square kilometers.
But in contrast, although Vietnam also has a long and narrow coastline, to the east of Vietnam is the South China Sea that belongs to China. Whether it was the 14-dash line or the later 9-dash line, Vietnam has been The sea area is limited to the doorstep.
Although Vietnam has illegally occupied some of China’s islands and reefs, as long as my country does not recognize it, the exclusive economic zone around the islands and reefs does not exist. As my country’s control over the South China Sea increases, As the number continues to increase, the opportunities for theft in Vietnam are getting smaller and smaller.
In short, in the face of constraints, its development space has been reduced by more than half.
Let’s look at Japan. To the east is the vast Pacific Ocean. Naturally, there are no so-called exclusive economic zone disputes here. On the west side of Japan, there are some sea areas with China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia. There are disputes over the area, but the area that Japan can actually develop is still very large.
Compared with Japan, Vietnam’s developable sea area seems a bit pitiful.
Not to mention that Japan also has many natural harbors. Although Japan is a country prone to earthquakes, its unique geographical structure also creates many natural deep-water harbors around the Japanese island, almost every coastal area. Every city can be a port. There are not many natural deep-water ports in Vietnam. We are still in an era of great navigation. To a certain extent, the most cost-effective way to transport large-scale cargo across international borders is sea transportation. Therefore, maritime trade is an important driving force for the country’s economic development. However, Vietnam However, due to restrictions, the opportunities for overseas trade are much less than those of Japan.
Furthermore, Vietnam's capital and technological level are shallow. In layman's terms, its foundation is somewhat inferior to that of Japan.
In fact, Vietnam has never had help from major capitalist countries. The reason why Japan was able to take off rapidly after World War II came entirely from the help of the United States? For example, during the Korean War, the United States provided Japanese production has also placed a large number of weapons production orders, allowing Japan's economy to recover and develop.
After the rise of the high-tech revolution, under the leadership of the United States, Japan quickly moved to the forefront of the world's high-tech production technology, changing the economic structure of the Japanese country, thus making Japan the next country after the United States. The second largest economy.
In contrast, Vietnam does not have a big brother like the United States to lead it. After the Vietnam War, the relationship between Vietnam and the United States became particularly awkward. Not only will the United States not help Vietnam develop, it will even curb its development. With such a basic gap, it is basically impossible for Vietnam to become a world power like Japan.
Although Vietnam and Japan are typical countries with relatively poor materials and minerals, Japan has a good foundation and is relatively wealthy. It can meet domestic demand by purchasing raw materials from overseas and use what it already owns. High-tech means are used to process these raw materials and then export them in exchange for huge profits.
Vietnam's scientific and technological level has always been backward, and it only focuses on the semi-processing of raw materials for export.
Moreover, Vietnam currently lacks help from other countries, so it will be difficult to significantly improve its technological level in the future. Due to the lack of money, Vietnam will not be able to meet the country's needs through overseas purchases. , relying solely on traditional production and processing industries, it is difficult for Vietnam's economy to achieve a qualitative improvement.
Then, there are many hidden dangers behind Vietnam's rapidly developing economy.
Is Vietnam’s economic development really rapid today? According to statistics, Vietnam’s GDP reached US$238.2 billion last year, a year-on-year increase of seven percentage points, which can be said to be quite good.
But the reason why it has achieved such great development is mainly because it draws on China's development model. We all say that Vietnam is China decades ago. In fact, there is some truth to this statement. The model Vietnam has learned from in recent years is China’s reform and opening up. It took advantage of a large number of cheap labor forces to attract foreign-invested enterprises to Vietnam. country.
But unlike China and Japan, Vietnam is very satisfied with the current situation after seeing the economic development brought about by the entry of many foreign-funded enterprises, leading it to neglect the support and development of its own national enterprises. Almost all national enterprises in Vietnam have low levels of specialization and small company sizes. This makes national enterprises uncompetitive. Naturally, it is difficult to compete with foreign-funded enterprises in the market, let alone with Japanese companies. This level of comparison is comparable.
In addition, while the economy has improved, the quality of Vietnam’s population has not improved significantly. The education level of most Vietnamese people is very low. For example, only 10% of Vietnamese people have a university degree. to seven percent of the country's population.
The low quality of the population determines that their labor rate is low, even less than one-third that of Thailand. Most people can only rely on simple handicraft manufacturing to earn some income. In the long run, this will inevitably form a vicious cycle, making Vietnam's economic structural transformation very slow and hindering long-term economic development.
In fact, education has always been an important reason for the growth of a country. The reason why Japan can become one of the few developed countries in Asia is also inseparable from education. Japan attaches great importance to education, and its education quality is among the best in the world.
If Vietnam wants to become the next Japan, its education and economic development models need to be reformed. Otherwise, as we get further behind, Vietnam's stamina will become less and less, and it is not impossible that the economy will be weak or even in recession.
Finally, let’s summarize the whole article
Vietnam is indeed a country with great potential in Southeast Asia, and because it is good at learning, it has made proud achievements today. , but we still cannot compare it with Japan. The difference between the two is not just economic, but all-round. Perhaps only in terms of ambition, Vietnam may have a greater appetite than Japan.