Why has Huawei's HarmonyOS struggled to adopt smaller apps?
Vivian Toh is chief editor of London-based TechTechChina, a Chinese tech news startup.
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Yomiuri Shimbun
4 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Japanese Firms Set up Vocational Schools in Asia, as Competition Grows with China and South Korea over Workers
BANGKOK — Japanese businesses are increasingly moving to set up Japanese-style vocational schools in Asia in an effort to secure ready workers for their local factories. In recent years, Chinese and South Korean companies have pushed more quickly into Southeast Asia. Amid growing competition with these firms for staff, Japanese companies are rushing to try to retain workers. 'I love the sounds of Japanese car engines. I'd like to work for a Japanese automaker and help out on development,' said a 16-year-old student learning car maintenance at Politeknik Mitra Industri, a vocational school in an industrial park in the suburbs of Jakarta. The industrial park, which is run by Marubeni Corp. and other businesses, houses a total of 385 firms, including many Japanese companies, such as Honda Motor Co. and Denso Corp. About 3,400 students attend the school, which was founded in 2012. The school offers eight courses, including on machinery, the electronics industry and accounting. Of those who graduated between 2015 and 2024, more than 70% got jobs at Japanese companies. 'We want to make a place where students can acquire advanced knowledge and technical skills, so that local youth can become the management for manufacturers,' said Yoshihiro Kobi, an executive at the foundation that manages the school and a former Marubeni employee. The foundation plans to open a technical university in September and offer enrollment to working emerging countries, companies often need to teach new employees basic rules, such as that they must come to work by the start of working hours. Those who have received instruction are valuable resources for businesses, reducing the burdens of employee training. In 2018, Toyota Tsusho Corp. opened an educational institution at an industrial park in India's western state of Gujarat. Students learn manufacturing skills and business etiquette, among other subject matter, over three years. Of 61 graduates, 45 have taken jobs at the companies where they had hands-on training, some of which were Japanese firms. In Thailand, a technical college, which was established in 2019 with the help of a yen-based loan from the Japanese government, has provided staff to Japanese companies doing business there. In recent years, Chinese and South Korean businesses have increasingly moved to open plants in Southeast Asia. Some of these rival firms have poached staff from Japanese firms by offering attractive wages. In a job preference survey by Persol Research and Consulting Co. in 2022, the share of those saying they wanted to work for a Japanese company fell in many Southeast Asian countries compared to a 2019 survey. The trend could be even more pronounced now. 'Japanese firms are slow to raise wages and give promotions, which raises the odds that highly motivated workers will leave,' said Ryotaro Inoue, a senior researcher at Persol. 'To keep staff at Japanese firms, they will need to engage in education locally over the long term to help people feel attached to Japan. They should also make it clear that Japanese companies offer stable work style.'
Nikkei Asia
7 hours ago
- Nikkei Asia
Temu seals delivery deal with Austrian Post in strategy to 'go local'
Retail Chinese e-tailers find ways to meet standards and blend in after EU regulatory scrutiny Temu is streamlining its delivery services in Europe where it is facing increased scrutiny. © Reuters JENS KASTNER August 17, 2025 17:16 JST HAMBURG, Germany -- Temu has signed a deal with Austrian Post for seamless delivery of its products and to offer what it calls a "local-to-local" customer experience, a move experts say is partly aimed at improving its image as the Chinese retail platform faces EU sanctions for selling illegal goods.
Japan Today
19 hours ago
- Japan Today
Vietnam wants to be next Asian tiger and it's overhauling its economy to make it happen.
By ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL Beneath red banners and a gold bust of revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi's central party school, Communist Party chief To Lam declared the arrival of 'a new era of development' late last year. The speech was more than symbolic— it signaled the launch of what could be Vietnam's most ambitious economic overhaul in decades. Vietnam aims to get rich by 2045 and become Asia's next 'tiger economy' — a term used to describe the earlier ascent of countries like South Korea and Taiwan. The challenge ahead is steep: Reconciling growth with overdue reforms, an aging population, climate risks and creaking institutions. There's added pressure from President Donald Trump over Vietnam's trade surplus with the U.S., a reflection of its astounding economic trajectory. In 1990, the average Vietnamese could afford about $1,200 worth of goods and services a year, adjusted for local prices. Today, that figure has risen by more than 13 times to $16,385. Vietnam's transformation into a global manufacturing hub with shiny new highways, high-rise skylines and a booming middle class has lifted millions of its people from poverty, similar to China. But its low-cost, export-led boom is slowing, while the proposed reforms — expanding private industries, strengthening social protections, and investing in tech, green energy. It faces a growing obstacle in climate change. 'It's all hands on can't waste time anymore," said Mimi Vu of the consultancy Raise Partners. Investment has soared, driven partly by U.S.-China trade tensions, and the U.S. is now Vietnam's biggest export market. Once-quiet suburbs have been replaced with industrial parks where trucks rumble through sprawling logistics hubs that serve global brands. Vietnam ran a $123.5 billion trade surplus with the U.S. trade in 2024, angering Trump, who threatened a 46% U.S. import tax on Vietnamese goods. The two sides appear to have settled on a 20% levy, and twice that for goods suspected of being transshipped, or routed through Vietnam to avoid U.S. trade restrictions. During negotiations with the Trump administration, Vietnam's focus was on its tariffs compared to those of its neighbors and competitors, said Daniel Kritenbrink, a former U.S. ambassador to Vietnam. 'As long as they're in the same zone, in the same ballpark, I think Vietnam can live with that outcome," he said. But he added questions remain over how much Chinese content in those exports might be too much and how such goods will be taxed. Vietnam was preparing to shift its economic policies even before Trump's tariffs threatened its model of churning out low-cost exports for the world, aware of what economists call the 'middle-income trap,' when economies tend to plateau without major reforms. To move beyond that, South Korea bet on electronics, Taiwan on semiconductors, and Singapore on finance, said Richard McClellan, founder of the consultancy RMAC Advisory. But Vietnam's economy today is more diverse and complex than those countries were at the time and it can't rely on just one winning sector to drive long-term growth and stay competitive as wages rise and cheap labor is no longer its main advantage. It needs to make 'multiple big bets,' McClellan said. Following China's lead, Vietnam is counting on high-tech sectors like computer chips, artificial intelligence and renewable energy, providing strategic tax breaks and research support in cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Danang. It's also investing heavily in infrastructure, including civilian nuclear plants and a $67 billion North–South high-speed railway, that will cut travel time from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City to eight hours. Vietnam also aspires to become a global financial center. The government plans two special financial centers, in bustling Ho Chi Minh City and in the seaside resort city of Danang, with simplified rules to attract foreign investors, tax breaks, support for financial tech startups, and easier ways to settle business disputes. Underpinning all of this is institutional reform. Ministries are being merged, low-level bureaucracies have been eliminated and Vietnam's 63 provinces will be consolidated into 34 to build regional centers with deeper talent pools. Vietnam is counting on private businesses to lead its new economic push — a seismic shift from the past. In May, the Communist Party passed Resolution 68. It calls private businesses the 'most important force' in the economy, pledging to break away from domination by state-owned and foreign companies. So far, large multinationals have powered Vietnam's exports, using imported materials and parts and low cost local labor. Local companies are stuck at the low-end of supply chains, struggling to access loans and markets that favored the 700-odd state-owned giants, from colonial-era beer factories with arched windows to unfashionable state-run shops that few customers bother to enter. 'The private sector remains heavily constrained," said Nguyen Khac Giang of Singapore's ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute. Again emulating China, Vietnam wants 'national champions' to drive innovation and compete globally, not by picking winners, but by letting markets decide. The policy includes easier loans for companies investing in new technology, priority in government contracts for those meeting innovation goals, and help for firms looking to expand overseas. Even mega-projects like the North-South High-Speed Rail, once reserved for state-run giants, are now open to private bidding. By 2030, Vietnam hopes to elevate at least 20 private firms to a global scale. But Giang warned that there will be pushback from conservatives in the Communist Party and from those who benefit from state-owned firms. Even as political resistance threatens to stall reforms, climate threats require urgent action. After losing a major investor over flood risks, Bruno Jaspaert knew something had to change. His firm, DEEP C Industrial Zones, houses more than 150 factories across northern Vietnam. So it hired a consultancy to redesign flood resilience plans. Climate risk is becoming its own kind of market regulation, forcing businesses to plan better, build smarter, and adapt faster. 'If the whole world will decide it's a can go very fast,' said Jaspaert. When Typhoon Yagi hit last year, causing $1.6 billion in damage, knocking 0.15% off Vietnam's GDP and battering factories that produce nearly half the country's economic output, roads in DEEP C industrial parks stayed dry. Climate risks are no longer theoretical: If Vietnam doesn't take strong action to adapt to and reduce climate change, the country could lose 12–14.5% of its GDP each year by 2050, and up to one million people could fall into extreme poverty by 2030, according to the World Bank. Meanwhile, Vietnam is growing old before it gets rich. The country's 'golden population' window — when working-age people outnumber dependents — will close by 2039 and the labor force is projected to peak just three years later. That could shrink productivity and strain social services, especially since families — and women in particular — are the default caregivers, said Teerawichitchainan Bussarawan of the Centre for Family and Population Research at the National University of Singapore. Vietnam is racing to pre-empt the fallout by expanding access to preventive healthcare so older adults remain healthier and more independent. Gradually raising the retirement age and drawing more women into the formal workforce would help offset labor gaps and promote "healthy aging,' Bussarawan said. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
