越南人这么勤劳，为什么越南还这么穷？（上） [美国媒体]

Why is Vietnam still so poor while Vietnamese work so hard?

越南人这么勤劳，为什么越南还这么穷？（上）



Michael Modler, lives in Ho Chi Minh City
Answered Jan 17
This question may be a little bit naive.
First, having lived in Vietnam for several years, I would not describe the people here as “hard working.” Vietnam is indeed part of the Sinosphere, like South Korea and Japan, which are famous (or infamous?) for their fanatical work ethic. But the similarities with these societies are mainly in the realm of “high culture” (i.e. Confucian philosophy and values, artistic influence from China, etc). Otherwise, they are quite different. In terms of lifestyle, I would say Vietnam is actually closer to Southeast Asian countries like Thailand. People prefer a slow pace of life and want to spend a lot of time with family. I wouldn’t describe the Vietnamese as lazy, but most people are “working to live.” They don’t usually “live for work.”

这个问题或许有点幼稚。
首先，我在越南居住了几年时间了，我不认为这里的人们很勤劳。越南确实是汉字文化圈的一部分，就像韩国和日本，都以狂热的职业道德而闻名。但是这些国家的相似之处只在于“高级文化”领域，即来自中国的儒家哲学和价值观以及艺术影响。除此之外，这些国家是存在相当大差异的。就生活方式而言，我认为越南更接近东南亚国家如泰国。人们更喜欢慢的生活节奏，想花更多时间和家人在一起。我不会说越南人是懒惰的，但是大部分人都是为了生活而工作。他们一般不是为了工作而生活。



Three decades of war (1945–75) resulted massive lost opportunity to resume economic development in early post colonial era (to say nothing of the terrible physical destruction of the country and loss of life).

三十年的战争（1945-75）导致失去了在后殖民时代初期发展经济的机遇，更别提战争带来的巨大损失了

The victorious communist regime followed a Soviet style economic model based on central planning after the war, which resulted in famine, human exodus (“boat people”) and overall economic calamity from 1975–1986.

胜利的越共政权效仿苏联那样的经济模式（中央计划），导致大饥荒，人口外流和总体的经济灾难（1975-1986）。

Until 1989, much of the government’s resources and attention were diverted to the occupation of Cambodia and a brief and destructive border war with China. Due to these conflicts, Vietnam was politically and economically isoated from ASEAN countries and China, as well as the US, which kept a trade embargo in place. A process of reform began in 1986, but real openness to trade and investment with neighboring countries and America did not begin until around 1994. By then, Vietnam’s economy was an impoverished shambles. Meanwhile many of her neighbors already had some solid industrial infrastructure in place and had joined global manufacturing supply chains.

直到1989年，很大一部分的政府资源和注意力都在占领柬埔寨以及和中国发生的短暂而摧毁性的边境战争上。由于这些冲突，越南在政治和经济上受到东盟国家和中国的孤立，还有美国对越南实施贸易禁运。1986年越南开始改革，但是直到1994年才真正开始对邻国和美国开放贸易和投资。当时，越南经济一穷二白。同时很多邻国已经建立了稳固的工业基建，加入了全球制造供应链。



Vietnam’s financial markets remain very small and primitive. With the stock market still in the “frontier” category (along with countries like Bulgaria, Bangladesh and Nigeria). A secondary market for bonds does not really even exist. As a result, much of the countries potential investment flows into low yearning, non-productive and speculative assets (bank deposits, foreign currency, gold and real estate).

越南的金融市场还是很小很原始。二级债券市场甚至不存在。结果，国家的很大一部分潜在投资进入了低收益，非生产性和投机资产里去（银行存款，外汇储备，黄金和房地产）

Miscellaneous and related problems such as widespread nepotism and corruption, bad system of higher education, “brain drain”, etc.

各种各样相关的问题，比如普遍的裙带主义和腐败，糟糕的高等教育系统，人才外流等等。