By offering lower prices and pleasing all the customers’
demands, Chinese people have been successfully selling many technologies to
Vietnam. However, Vietnamese enterprises have been warned that they will not
succeed if they continue relying on cheap technologies.

An official from the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) related
that he once led a group of businesses to China to seek business opportunities.
After the working visit, many of the businesses happily told him that they had
found what they wanted: production technologies at reasonable prices and
material supply sources. The enterprises all affirmed that Chinese technologies
are most appropriate for their production scale and at the same time they will
not have to make a heavy initial investment.

The official said that he did not know if he should feel sad or glad about the
information.

Chinese sell anything you want and satisfy any your requirements

Five years ago, when Bac Ninh province decided to set up an industrial zone in
Yen Phong paper craft village, a lot of household run workshops had to give up
their small-scale production to start industrial production. In order to do
that, they had to find suitable technologies for their new factories.

Finally, they found what they thought they needed – Chinese technologies. The
Vietnamese paper producers were not only persuaded by the low prices of the
technologies, but also by the “goodwill” of the suppliers. All the requirements
set by Vietnamese producers can be satisfied: the producers can either to buy
parts of technologies or the whole production lines. Moreover, there was a wide
range of technologies at different price levels for the producers to choose.

The enterprises in the industrial zone in Bac Ninh now believe that they made
the right decision to use Chinese technologies. Thanks to the reasonably priced
technologies, they can begin industrial production and make profit. And they
affirm that they will continue using Chinese technologies because the
technologies are cheap, easily repaired and upgraded. Especially, with the low
required initial investment, enterprises can make profit quickly.

A representative of a business in Nam Dinh City also said that his company is
using Chinese technology to make barbed wire. He believes that Chinese
technology is the best choice, because European technologies are too expensive,
and he would have to wait for a long time to get Vietnamese technologies.

“Chinese suppliers were ready to provide anything you want and satisfy any of
your requirements. Especially, the prices are very flexible. Therefore, Chinese
technologies prove to be the best choice for small businesses with low capital
which have to compete with rivals by offering low prices.

Not only small enterprises but many bigger-scale enterprises are also using
Chinese technologies. Chinese technologies, including the most expensive, only
have prices equal to 50-70 percent of the prices of European or US technologies.

Everything has a timing that suits them

Admitting the big advantages brought by the Chinese production line, the
director of a sweets company said that he is considering gradually upgrading
technologies and he may import more advanced technologies from European
countries.

He said that in the immediate time, some phases of the production process which
decide the quality and safety of the cooking products will be replaced with
European technologies.

“Now we are powerful enough to choose good technologies, which, though being
expensive, allows us to reduce the number of workers and heighten the prestige
of our enterprise,” he said. “Previously, we never talked about the technology
we were applying, but now we can proudly say that advanced technologies from
Europe and the US are being used in our factory”.

Experts say that everything has its timing. Though admitting that cheap Chinese
technologies once were very useful, experts have advised enterprises to think of
gradually upgrading technologies in order to make better products.

“The art is to choose the things most suitable to different periods ,” said an
official from the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Le Khac