REGISTRATION OPEN FOR NORDIC DAY! - Topic

• Time: 14:00-17:30, 20 March 2024 
• Location: G Floor, Fulbright University Vietnam 
• Format: Offline and online via Zoom 
• Registration link: HERE

This seminar is to share Nordic expertise and experience on how to respond and adapt to the growing global demands on a country's labour workforce, showcasing how education and skill development, digitisation, decent work and social security is bringing about innovation, productivity and competitiveness for the Nordic region and how these experiences could be applied to Vietnam.

Background

Vietnam's economy and, subsequently, its labour market have transitioned during recent decades from an agrarian lower income country to a modernised lower medium income country bolstered by substantial economic reforms, free trade, and foreign direct investments. Today, the country is a manufacturing hub for a variety of products attracting investments from all over the world – notably in lower-skill and lower-wages industries.

Increasingly, Vietnam is striving to be a higher income country with net-zero emissions by 2050 and evolving its labour market into more high-skill, high-tech industries and technology. Moreover, taking into account Vietnam's commitment to ratify all of ILO's core convention on labour standards – including convention 87 on Freedom of Association – more emphasis will need to be put on further strengthening workplace dialogue and decent working conditions.

The core aspects of the so called "Nordic model" include the public provision of social services funded by taxes; investment in education, childcare, elderly health care, and other services associated with human capital; and strong labour-force protections through independent unions and the social safety net. The Nordic countries are among the richest in the world measured in per capita GDP – significantly above the EU average. Just like Vietnam, the Nordic economies are largely driven by export as well as strong proponents of free trade.

"The Nordic Model" thus offers lessons learned on how to improve and adapt the labour market to increasingly demanding global markets. This event therefore aims at gathering speakers from the Nordic countries sharing experiences on areas such as (tentatively) Vocational training/skill development; Workplace dialogue and decent work; Innovation and increased productivity; and Social welfare systems.

Nordic Day is an annual event, starting in 2018, organized by the Embassies of Nordic countries in Vietnam (including Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden), in cooperation with Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management, to share experiences from Nordic countries on various issues with Vietnam. This is the sixth time the event will be held.