Thought for a while to be largely immune from the escalating economic problems elsewhere, Vietnam is now starting to feel the pinch, with growth slowing to 6.2 percent in 2008, the lowest level in almost a decade.

Although still enviable by Western standards, it is a concern for Vietnam's communist government and its 86 million people after years of spectacular growth that saw the Southeast Asian country quickly develop.

But with two-thirds of the population aged under 35 and boasting nationwide literacy of 90-95 percent, Vietnam has an overwhelmingly young and educated workforce that countries such as rapidly-ageing Japan can only dream of.

"With this demographic, we are going to see strong productivity from Vietnam for the next ten years no matter what the global backdrop," said Tom Tobin, president and chief executive of HSBC, Vietnam.

"When you go around (Vietnam) you feel it is a very young place and basic education is very good," he said, adding English is taught to children as young as five with other languages including Chinese are increasingly being studied.

Tsutomu Yokoyama, general director of Nikkiso Vietnam MFG, which makes medical equipment at a factory in Ho Chi Minh City for Tokyo-based Nikkiso, said the Vietnamese were like the Japanese in some ways.

"They are well educated and want to improve themselves, and their working mentality is similar to the Japanese," he said, adding from his experience "labour quality is four times higher" than in nearby Thailand.

Several foreign managers in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon and the economic heart of Vietnam, said they found young Vietnamese to be hard working.

But they also said they had encountered several common problems.

Vietnam has been flooded with new universities that expatriate executives and Vietnamese agree are low on teaching quality and churn out graduates who need significant extra in-house training.

Added to that is a habit of moving jobs frequently, a lack of appreciation of workplace etiquette and behaviour, and what one foreign manager identified as "no safety culture" in factories or heavy industry.

"They are not used to the quality and safety levels required in the gas industry," said Bruno Le Roy, of French oil services company Technip, which heads an international consortium building Vietnam's first oil refinery.

With the refinery now officially open, Le Roy recalled how in the early days workers would sneak cigarette breaks in areas where smoking would have caused a major accident had the facility been fully operational.

He said theft was also a major problem, with even the smallest nuts or bolts disappearing -- another potential hazard.

Kim Jae-Young, deputy general director of Doosan Heavy Industries Vietnam, near the refinery in central Quang Ngai province, said one reason the South Korean company chose Vietnam was its people's excellent "handskills".

But he remembered supplying staff with steel boots to work in for their own safety, only for them to discard them outside the manufacturing floor door to slip on flip-flops instead.

He added that there was no "performance-based mentality" and noted the frequent changing of jobs was also a problem in South Korea 20 years ago, although that has now changed there.

"We have to train them in their work ethic and habits," Kim said.

"But maybe at the same time we have to break out of our South Korean notions a little bit as well."

Agence France Presse - 27 février 2009