越南的经济逐渐增长

Tanning Vietnam style. Leather destined for Timberland shoes or the interior of a luxury Mazda car produced at this new plant just outside Ho Chi Minh City. For German owner Tom Schneider, a 16-year veteran of building and operating factories across Asia, Vietnam is the future. He built this plant and trained the workforce from scratch in less than two years, and he is already planning to expand.

Tell me, what are the downsides of doing business in here for you?

I have not found it yet.

After three years...

After three years, I have not found it yet, the downsides.

More and more businesses are now looking at Vietnam as an alternative to or an extension of operating in China - the traditional workshop of the world. Salaries of the workers of this plant are 40% less than China, about 130 to 150 dollars a month. And the government has been slashing red tape.

We have the system of industrial parks. We have the industrial park take(s) care of most of the issues we have from under different licenses, from setting up, from customs, and everything. There are professionals. They speak English.

It seems to be paying off. Foreign direct investment or FDI has risen sharply in recent years. But like the rest of the world, it's been hit by the global economic crisis. Another driver is the so-called 'China plus one' strategy.

If you have, say, three or four factories in China, the next one you may want to have it in Vietnam. So just to sort of diversify your risk, instead of putting all your manufacturing in one basket.

But make no mistake. Vietnam is not about to challenge the production might of its giant neighbour just yet. For a start, it still needs to sort out a creaking infrastructure.

For example, this is the main road coming from the industrial estate where the tanning factory is. As you can see, it's not actually ideal for heavy traffic, moving goods. And this is just one scene which is repeated countless times right across this country.

And a little further down that same road, a stark reminder of a not so distant past. But even the Vietnam War gave way to a political stability that's been embraced by investors. With a population of almost 90 million, more than half of them born after the war, and seven percent economic growth over the past decade, Vietnam is preparing itself for a competitive future. And from the city centers to the factory floors, Vietnam's workers are lining up to be a part of it.