• Korea Trade Review
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.207-220
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• 2019

In the context of export-oriented growth strategy, Korea has promoted the conclusion of FTAs and 16 FTAs have entered into force or concluded so far. Despite of these efforts, the expansion of the global value chain (GVC) has resulted in fragmentation of production processes and international companies have been struggling to meet the criteria for determining the rule of origin. In order to overcome these difficulties, some foreign FTAs have been introducing cross-cumulation of origin. In this paper, we try to examine empirically whether the easing of the rules of origin using cross-cumulation contributes to the increase in actual value-added exports. we quantify the effects of cross-cumulation included in the EU-Vietnam FTA on Korean exports of the textile through a gravity model using the concept of value-added export. Based on the analysis results, the proportion of value-added exports in Vietnam increased by adoption of cross-cumulation of origin, which consequently resulted into an increase in total exports. This paper tries to draw several implications for the rules of origin in Korea's FTAs including cross-cumulation considering the export value chain of Korea.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.177-187
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• 2018

In this study, we examined Korea's exports and imports trends to the world and Korea's exports and imports trends to Vietnam. We also examined exports and imports trends about China, USA, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan in Korea's major trading nation. The purpose of this study is to examine how much Korea's exports and imports of Vietnam have increased and to compare how much it has risen compared to other major countries. To this end, we used imports and exports data for Korea, China, USA, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan using data from January 2000 to February 2018 for 218 months. During the past 218 months, Korea's exports to Vietnam have increased rapidly, leading to Korea's exports to the world. Korea's exports to Vietnam showed a 10 times increase rate compared to Korea's exports to the world. Vietnam has grown to be an important export country in Korea.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.11
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• pp.1033-1039
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• 2020

Vietnam is conducting an export-led growth model and labour-intensive industries contributing majorly to the total export value. In the context of Industry 4.0, the labour-based industries are significantly affected; hence, enhancing productivity is the key measure to maintain these industries. The garment industry contributes significantly to the total export value of Vietnam. Based on meta-frontier framework, the approach of data envelopment analysis is used to measure technical efficiency of Vietnamese garment firms and the global Malmquist TFP index is utilised to identify productivity change and its components including efficiency, technology and technical gaps between different groups of firms. The data of Vietnamese garment firms from 2013 to 2018 collected from the Vietnam General Statistic Office is used in this study. The results show that: (i) The total factor productivity of Vietnamese garment firms growth, technical progress is the main contributor; (ii) The private garment sector is the leading group; (iii) There is a large technological gap among Vietnamese garment sectors. The private and FDI garment firms have experienced a growth in all components of total factor productivity change. Meanwhile, technological progress change is the main reason to constrain the productivity growth of state-owned garment firms.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.35-42
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• 2022

The paper aims to examine the impact of exports on the growth of Vietnamese manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by exploring the information of 36,053 enterprises across 24 manufacturing sectors from the Vietnam Annual Enterprise Survey (VAES) in the period 2014-2019. To deal with the problem of variable variance, autocorrelation, and endogeneity of the model, the paper uses the OLS regression method with a strong standard error method and system GMM. Export participation by SMEs is positively associated with business growth in terms of sales and total assets, according to the findings. The GMM estimate shows that the rate of sales growth among exporters is 36.5 percent greater than that of non-exporting enterprises in the case of the sales growth measure. Exporters' average total asset growth rate is 19% greater than the rate estimated for non-exporting businesses. The study's findings indicate the need of adopting policies that promote SMEs in transition economies like Vietnam to engage in exporting activities. Furthermore, the findings show that financial assistance and suitable ownership would enable SMEs to take advantage of export opportunities to increase sales and total assets.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.11
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• pp.145-155
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• 2021

This study examines the export competitiveness of four major natural rubber exporters in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) region and investigates the factors affecting bilateral natural rubber export. This study utilized the revealed symmetric comparative advantage (RSCA) to measure export competitiveness. Next, this study employed the gravity model using the Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood (PPML) estimation to analyze the factors affecting bilateral export from the four major natural rubber exporters to 46 countries in the region. The analysis is conducted by using annual data from 2001 till 2018. The findings showed that all four major exporters maintained their export competitiveness. Indonesia and Vietnam notably exhibited increasing trends in the early 2000s. Besides, the market share for Malaysia and Vietnam have increased from 2013 to 2015 with the BRI implementation in 2013. In addition, this study discovered that non-tariff measures (NTM) have a positive and significant impact on the bilateral export of natural rubber. The overall findings strongly indicate that the natural rubber export has increased post BRI announcement. The outcome highlighted the benefits of BRI implementation on the natural rubber export. This study is the first attempt to apply the gravity model on the natural rubber exports within the BRI region.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.131-152
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• 2021

Political connections may facilitate firms' exporting activities, particularly in developing countries, because politically connected firms may be more likely to receive informational and financial support, allowing them to overcome barriers to export. We test this hypothesis using a unique, firm-level dataset from traditional apparel and textile clusters in the Red River Delta Region in Northern Vietnam. We find that political connection of certain types increases the chance of receiving valuable information or financial support from the government. Moreover, those firms that have access to government information have higher chances of being direct exporters. However, firms that receive financial support from the government are not necessarily engaged in exporting activities. Although politically connected firms are more willing to export, they do not necessarily engage in more exporting activities than firms without such connections. These results suggest that the misallocation of information and financial resources to politically connected but insufficiently productive firms leads to a failure to promote exporting activities. In contrast, political connection increases the chance of importing materials and parts, possibly because high productivity is necessary for exporting, but not for importing.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.99-121
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• 2021

This paper investigates the relationship between the minimum wage and firm's export behavior by using firm-level data of Vietnamese manufacturing enterprises over the period 2010 through 2015. In this regard, I apply the logistic regression model for the probability of exporting and the differences-in-differences analysis to the data, and find that raising minimum wage standards drive no new exporters but a rise in a firm's export sales. Less productive and more labor-intensive firms raise their amount of exports in response to increasing minimum wage levels. Being exposed to increasing minimum wage levels makes a firm under-perform in terms of export sales compared to non-exposed firms.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.15-24
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• 2019

The study conducted an empirical analysis of the impact of FDI on economic growth in four Asian countries: China, India, Vietnam and Korea. With panel data for the 1990-2017 period, the research model was developed for foreign direct investment (FDI), export amount (EX), government expenditure (G), exchange rate (EXR), and labourable population (L). The panel analysis results show that the increase in FDI, exports, government expenditure, labourable population significantly increased economic growth. The comparison analysis for each country revealed that FDI, exports and government expenditure significantly affect economic growth in China, that exports and government expenditure significantly affect economic growth in Korea, that FDI significantly affected economic growth in Vietnam, and that the increase in the workforce contributed to economic development in India. This paper characterized the different factors of economic growth in the four Asian countries. These results suggest that setting economic priorities to suit the specific economic conditions of each country is a shortcut to more efficient economic growth.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.1217-1230
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• 2021

Using a multinomial logit model with the panel-data set of Vietnam manufacturing firms, this paper investigates the impacts of foreign direct investment (FDI) - small and medium enterprises (SMEs) linkages and other factors on SMEs' participation in the global value chain (GVC). We consider GVC firms are those engaging in any of the three modes including (i) using domestic inputs to export (D2E), (ii) using imported inputs to produce for the domestic market (I2P), (iii) using imported inputs to export (I2E). We discover that FDI-SME linkages statistically encourage Vietnamese SMEs to integrate into the GVC via I2P and I2E, while no statistical association between FDI-SME linkage and D2E participation is found. GVCs participation likelihood is also positively correlated with the introduction of new product introduction. The establishment of firms' production facilities in industrial zones and foreign ownership are both reported to be significantly decisive factors to SMEs' decisions on GVC participation. Besides, there is a strong association between firms' attributes, i.e. employment, capital intensity as well as financial access, and their participation in the GVC. Local governance quality (proxied by the Provincial Competitiveness Index) and the share of skilled labor at the province-level can facilitate firms' integration into GVCs, while greater market concentration may be a hurdle to such potential.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.12
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• pp.345-352
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• 2021

Guided by a resource-based theory, this study is the first one that takes a quantitative approach to identify determinants of competitiveness of women-owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam. The study employs time series data of Vietnamese SMEs extracted from the Vietnam Small and Medium Enterprises Survey conducted biennially from 2005 to 2015 in ten Vietnamese provinces. Firm competitiveness hereby is indicated by revenue, market share, profitability, and export volume. The research reveals a number of determining factors, of all, research and development, labor skills, business environment, technology investment are the most important factors, followed by capital and headcount. It is indicated that the determining factors have different influences on competitiveness obtained by different measurements. Therefore, it is based on specific targets and situations to make wise business decisions. The authors also make comparisons among groups of women-owned enterprises divided by their firm age, location, ownership, export, age, and educational background of business owners. The findings serve as critical empirical evidence and provide policy recommendations for improving the competitiveness of women-owned SMEs in Vietnam. The recommendations range from technology support, education and professional support for female entrepreneurs, access to capital and human resources to business environment improvement.