Electronics sector looks for brighter future

Promoting social dialogue and workplace compliance is key to sustaining the growth of electronics in Vietnam

To seek suitable solutions for the sustainable development of this key industry, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) organised the forum Decent Work and the Future of Vietnam’s Electronics Supply Chains in Hanoi on July 15.

The event brought together government agencies and partners of the industry.

Vietnam has recorded a continuous on-year increase in electronics export values, which now account for one-third of the total national export values. As one of the biggest electronics exporters in the world, Vietnam’s export values in 2021 climbed up to more than $108 billion. The electronics sector employs more than one million workers.

However, the industry mainly focuses on low-value-added and labour-intensive outsourcing and assembly activities.

“Among the biggest challenges faced by enterprises are major upheavals in human resources, including labour shortage. How to attract workers to return to work, how to create decent work for them is now a difficult question,” said VCCI vice chairman Hoang Quang Phong.

Preliminary results of the latest enterprise survey conducted by VCCI with ILO support show that around 60 per cent of respondents found a shortage of skilled workers as a moderate to severe challenge in the electronics sector. Half of the enterprises also named the technical skills of supervisors and managers as another major issue.

In that context, ensuring resilient, inclusive, and sustainable enterprises in the manufacturing sectors, including the electronics industry, is a top priority to maintain growth and remain competitive in the global market.

Ingrid Christensen, ILO Vietnam director said, “This includes attention to decent work to be able to sustain the industry’s competitiveness in the global market and contribute to the country’s socio-economic development.”

This would be in line with the ILO Global Call to Action for a Human-centred Recovery, which focuses on four interrelated pillars – inclusive growth and employment, protection of workers, universal social protection, and social dialogue.

“The country may sustain the growth of the industry with proper investment in decent work conditions including the facilitation of social dialogue and participation in programmes promoting workplace compliance,” the head of ILO Vietnam added.

Electronics businesses have developed a channel of mutual support to effectively practise social dialogue at all levels to increase productivity and create better working conditions. This good practice is expected to spread to other key export sectors of the country.

Giorgio Alibert, Ambassador of the European Union to Vietnam said, “Social dialogue will play a key role to ensuring sustainable supply chains,” adding that, “Promoting decent work is key to reach an inclusive, sustainable and resilient electronics industry in Vietnam,” he noted while emphasising that requirements of investors, consumers, and legislators around the world to promote decent work in global supply chains would be on the rise.

Through several projects funded by the European Union and other donors, the ILO, in close collaboration with the VCCI, currently supports partners to address decent work deficits and build better global supply chains in the industry.