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How Did Vietnam Transform from Conflict to Culture and Color?
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Jun 27, 2025
2025 marks 50 years since the fall of Saigon. What does Vietnam look like today, five decades after the war ended? On this episode of Dusty Roads, Anita reflects on the end of the Vietnam War on April 30, 1975, when helicopters lifted off rooftops and North Vietnamese tanks entered Saigon—an event that still resonates deeply for both Americans and Vietnamese. Click here (https://abusonadustyroad.com/how-vietnams-war-torn-past-shaped-its-vibrant-present/) to read more about how Vietnam’s war-torn past shaped its vibrant present—and be sure to listen in for insight, history, and human strength. 🎧 Tune in and be part of the conversation. #DustyRoadsPodcast #VietnamHistory #Saigon1975 #VietnamToday #VietnamWarLegacy #ResilientVietnam #VietnamCulture #SoutheastAsiaTravel #DustyRoadsPodcast Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/globaltradegal)
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hi this is Anita from the Global Trade
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Gal As there's been a lot of talk
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recently especially in the United States
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about tariffs a lot of people have asked
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well why can't you just produce
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something anywhere in the world And
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there's a lot of reasons why It's not as
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simple as everyone seems to or may think
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it is It really is actually quite
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complex And today I want to talk about
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one of the reasons why Vietnam has
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become one of the top destinations for
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home decor and furniture manufacturing
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over the years There is no doubt at all
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that Vietnam has become one of the top
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destinations because of the fact that
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China has had a lot of tariffs and
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anti-dumping and other things placed
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upon it So Vietnam has been one of the
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countries that has really benefited from
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all of that When we quote prices in
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China or quote in Vietnam a lot of times
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our China prices is cheaper And this
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might surprise a lot of people and
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there's many reasons for that One is
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just simply the supply that in China you
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can find everything you need to produce
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things right within China itself China
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has a huge amount of factories that can
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basically supply everything that you
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need For example if we're producing a
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piece of furniture we can find the wood
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suppliers in China We can find the
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hardware suppliers in China We can find
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all the parts all the pieces everything
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we need within China itself Vietnam you
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can usually find it but you might find
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yourself having to import a few things
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Like for example you know the wood they
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will usually import Some of the hardware
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they'll import hardware they will import
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some they will not It depends upon the
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product But because factories have been
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moving here and they've been producing
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things like the hardware wood suppliers
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have been coming in you can readily find
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these things in Vietnam than maybe you
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can in other parts of Asia So here are
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some of the reasons why Vietnam
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continues to be a a place to produce
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many different types of home decor
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products One of them is that there's a
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deep culture of craftsmanship The other
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advantage you find here in Vietnam is
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you find that there's a lot of these
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handiccraft villages I always say one of
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the big difference between China and
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Vietnam or Mao and Ho Chi Min if you
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want to look at the leaders during that
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time period was when Mao came into China
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he decided he was going to make China
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become this great powerhouse of
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manufacturing So he had all these
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policies put in place where he basically
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killed a lot of the smaller villages and
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you know people at the time there were
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you know all these different types of um
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things that he had going on One of them
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is like the great leap forward where he
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told everybody bring your metals We're
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going to you know melt down all your
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metals So people were melting down all
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these metals in these backyard places
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and it was really inferior metal that
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was going on So a lot of these
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industries that uh you had the cultural
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revolution too which you know didn't
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believe in anything old and and um you
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know for everything that was new So
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China had a lot of these policies that
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got put in place where a lot of these
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handiccraft villages that they once had
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maybe you know ended up being a bit more
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destroyed or the people left the areas
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and they went somewhere else to work
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normally in southern China Whereas Ho
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Chi Min from what what I see you know Ho
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Chi Min did not destroy the villages In
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fact he kept the villages intact So when
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you come to a place specifically like
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Hanoi you will find outside Hanoi
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there's a ceramic village that has 800
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years or you know whatever of or
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producing ceramics So this is you know
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passed down from father to son or from
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family to family and they've been
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producing the family has been
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continuously producing ceramics for 800
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years You go out to lacquer villages
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find something similar bamboo villages
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weaving villages brass villages So you
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have all these villages and these small
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little tiny what you call like workshops
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that have been producing the same thing
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for hundreds and hundreds of years So
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you know this is in Vietnam there's a
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lot of skill that has been passed down
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from generation to generation So there's
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some skilled labor here that may not be
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in other places You know you also have a
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very young skilled workforce Vietnam is
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a relatively a young country There's a
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lot of the over half the population is
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you know is young and so you have a very
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young population here but you have a
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population of about I think it's like 96
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97 million people now and you know half
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of those are young so you've got this
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workforce that's coming in whereas in
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other parts of Asia you have you know an
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older workforce where in Vietnam you
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have a younger one so you have a young
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energetic and highly capable workforce
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where a lot of them are actually
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educated The literacy rate in Vietnam is
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actually quite high It is in fact you
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know higher than many western countries
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here where it's over 95% of the people
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you know can read and write You have
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competitive reduction costs which of
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course helps to make drive the price
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down When the terrorists came in I
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recently quoted some furniture in
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Malaysia and quoted some furniture in
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the Philippines Both of them were higher
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than Vietnam And you know there again it
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it could be lots of different factors
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but but I found that the prices were um
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some of them were significantly higher
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So you have competitive production costs
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here Vietnam has had usually had some
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strong trade agreements The uh we're
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going to see what's going to happen now
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with the tariffs coming up but of course
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you know that's an unknown for everybody
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But Vietnam has has had very good strong
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trade agreements The Vietnamese had to
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be very pract surprisingly the
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infrastructure here is relatively good
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Yes You go down to places like Ho Chi
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Min and I have to tell you the roads are
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terrible down there but you don't have
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to travel very far to get to the port
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but you know Vietnam is building new
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highways new port systems Electricity is
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relatively stable there have industrial
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parks they have you know logistics hubs
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So you know Vietnam has really been
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investing in the infrastructure There's
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a lot of ethical manufacturing and
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social responsibility here where they
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are you know committed to a lot of the
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ethical practices and social
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responsibility practices which makes it
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an ideal place for many people to look
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to manufacture here People have often
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asked me do you see children in the
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factories and you know in Vietnam here I
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don't see children in the factories and
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I don't tend to worry you know about
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slave labor and those type of things
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Most of the children are are in school
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because education here is very important
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especially in the major cities as Hanoi
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and Ho Chi Min They have a lot of
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different types of products and product
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ranges You know everything from metal to
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natural materials to wood uh ceramics
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There's lots of different types of
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finishes here which also makes an ideal
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location A lot of the Vietnamese
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factories because they're not as big as
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the Chinese factories they are very
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flexible minimum order quantities which
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for my industry can be great because
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we're in the medium to higher end And so
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you know because of that they can be
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pretty flexible on a lot of their they
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have lower minimum order quantities They
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are able to make a lot of custom items
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and they can work in smaller production
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runs So it could be more niche which can
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be great for you know places like Europe
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who's looking to produce or like I said
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for my industry which is medium to
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higher end where you know we are not
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buying like you know 10 containers of
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one item So you know at Muro we really
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try to work to take advantage of uh
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Vietnam and the Vietnam's ability here
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and we have worked here for many many
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years In fact we've been here we were
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here early since the 2000s So we
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understand have seen this development
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and this change going on within Vietnam
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itself So we really feel like Vietnam is
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a place that's going to continue to grow
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like all countries in the world It will
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change you know there will be changes
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that certainly will take place but it is
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a manufacturing sector and it does have
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a lot of things that you know other like
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I mentioned other countries didn't have
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where they have a young workforce that's
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willing to work and wants to work and
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you know because of that I believe that
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Vietnam will be able to manufacture for
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many years to come of course the
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government would like to see you know
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manufacturing of high-tech automobiles
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other things like that is still going on
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here too but they still do have a really
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large handicraft type of industry and
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furniture industry that I believe will
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continue to grow for some time
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especially if the tariffs which have
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been put on the United States will
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become to a more reasonable rate This is
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Anita from the Global Trade Gal Thank
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you so much for listening If you'd like
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to be able to read my blog on this you
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can read my blog post on why Vietnam is
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a top destination for home decor and
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furniture manufacturing We'll put a
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description the link below that you will
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be able to understand a little bit more
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about this and why we we feel the way we
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do about why Vietnam is a top
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destination for home decor and furniture
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manufacturing
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Thank you so much for listening We do
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appreciate you our listeners And press
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that subscribe button Join with us and
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subscribe We'd love to have you be part
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of our community Thank you
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