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Using two waves (2013, 2015) of the Micro, Small, and Medium sized Enterprises (MSMEs) survey of Vietnamese manufacturing firms, this paper first explores what drives firms' decision to have a domestic standards certificate, taking into account a rich number of factors related to the cost and expected benefits of certification as well as institutional factors. It further explores the presence of a positive and significant effect of domestic certificates on firm growth, testing whether these serve as signalling devices for desirable attributes under information asymmetry. Evidence is indeed found for a signalling effect of domestic standards certification, being stronger for female-run businesses. Results hold even when controlling for international certifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines factors influencing agricultural land-use efficiency among 35 ethnic minority groups in Vietnam during the 2010–2018 period. A hybrid approach comprising the Difference-in-Difference model with Propensity Score Matching (DID_PSM) is adopted to examine the effect of different land sizes, land elevations, and land tenure on land-use efficiency. The results show that: (1) land size and agricultural production form an 'U-shaped' relationship; (2) farming on high land decreases efficiency by around 7.7%–8.0%; (3) farmers purchasing or hiring land in long-term are 7.3%–8.2% more efficient. The paper also discusses typical land characteristics of mountainous areas including steep and fragmentation related to the three comparing factors. From these results, implications are made for Vietnamese authorities about 'land accumulation' policies and other 'farming on elevation' techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Lai Xá Village, Vietnam, studio photography is the village handicraft. Counter to Walter Benjamin's characterization of the click of a button, privileging eye over hand, but typical of many craft traditions, photographers there describe painstaking apprenticeships through which they learned to master the tools and materials of their craft. They learned to compensate for the shifting properties of light, climate, humidity, and irregular supplies of electricity, chemicals and printing paper, and adapted to changing regimes of technique and labor organization. As in many other craft traditions, apprentices often acquired their most valuable knowledge by stealth. We argue that studio photography belongs within contemporary discussions of craft as a handed, adaptive, engaged, small-scale social practice, and that craft awareness enables a richer ethnographic understanding of the work of studio photographers, both material and social. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on Vietnamese PhD students' imaginative geographies of their destination countries. Using the data collected from in-depth semi-structured interviews with 18 Vietnamese PhD students, the study examines the participants' preparation for their sojourn before their departure, as well as their first multi-sensory experiences of the study countries on the first days of arrival, which then revealed how their imaginative geographies had been constructed and how they perceived the contrast between their imaginative geographies and reality. The findings of the study suggest that when the students chose to study overseas, they had diverse imaginations of the destinations that had been constructed over long periods of time thanks to the influences of movies, newspapers, media, and experiences of those in their social networks. Furthermore, the paper also highlights the collective imagination about countries in the West and the imagination of the collective West among Vietnamese students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the ongoing debate on the interaction between the informal sector and agglomeration economies in cities, little is known about whether informal agglomeration generates the wage premium in cities in developing countries. This paper provides empirical evidence on the impacts of urbanization and localization, separated from formal and informal sources, on the earnings of informal workers and how the concentration of informal workers affects the wages of formal employees in cities in Vietnam. Using data from the 2013-2020 Vietnam Labor Force Surveys, this paper shows higher wages in bigger cities. In addition to workers' skills and local non-human endowment, agglomeration generates the wage premium in cities. Nevertheless, the impacts are different between small and large cities. Our results show that while informal workers benefit from urbanization and localization in large cities, their existence is over-concentrated in small cities and crowds out the formal sector in large cities of Vietnam. Thus, urban development policies should focus on the over-concentration of informal sector workers in cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the evidence of productivity spillover from foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) to local firms through horizontal, backward, and forward spillover channels, using establishment-level data from Vietnam in 2006–2017. The paper also considers the effects of foreign ownership types on the existence and magnitude of the productivity spillover. In addition, the paper examines whether the involvement of domestic firms in global production networks (GPNs) impacts on the nature of the spillover. The findings indicate that productivity from FIEs spills over to local firms through backward and forward channels, but not horizontal channels. Ownership structures of FIEs serve as an important determinant of productivity spillover: joint ventures tend to generate more significant positive productivity spillover to domestic firms than fully owned foreign firms. Lastly, local firms operating within GPNs benefit more from the presence of FIEs compared to those involved in horizontal specialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on learning that takes place outside formal classrooms within groups or teams. Based on the conceptual framework of informal learning, adult learning and lifelong learning, it investigates how two contrasting groups of adult learners in Vietnam, Mekong doctors and Hanoi hairdressers, learn, interact, and collaborate through their informal learning experiences in the workplace. These are two 'co-present groups' or two 'complex systems'. For Vietnamese learners, the challenges of Confucian heritage culture, or the lack of awareness of cultural differences, created obstacles to collaboration and participation. The contribution to this Special Issue argues that co-present group learning applies well to non-Western Confucius-based cultures and other countries with similar values, despite this lack of awareness of cultural differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the exchange rate pass-through effects (ERPT) into consumer prices in Vietnam with a pegged regime during 2001–2019 using a structural vector autoregressive approach. The model is identified based on the fit of data rather than a priori theorizing. Firstly, we find that the degree of ERPT in the country is higher than that in other emerging and developed economies. High and volatile inflation, a high degree of openness, and exchange rate regime are essential factors that explain the difference. Besides, we show that ERPT is positively correlated with the level and the volatility of inflation across sectors. Since the results are derived from a single country, the heterogeneity is more likely to be attributable to industry-specific rather than macro factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we report on an international collaborative project designed to address the professional development needs of Vietnamese teachers for the implementation of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). We collected data on a group of CLIL Vietnamese teachers and leaders through online interviews. Drawing on Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), the paper illuminates how CLIL teachers, as the subject of the professional learning (PL) system, utilized tools to develop their capacity for CLIL teaching against the backdrop of various sociocultural factors that regulate this learning process. The analysis helped us to identify various challenges facing CLIL teachers' PL. These challenges arose from an absence of an effective learning system mostly related to contextual obstacles and widespread misconceptions, even among the leaders and CLIL trainers, about the nature of CLIL. This study contributes suggestions to enhance the quality of PL for CLIL teachers, which is a pressing issue for the successful implementation of CLIL in the context of Vietnam and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Almost simultaneously, two developing countries – Kenya and Vietnam – set out to promote industrial development through FDI. Vietnam embarked on a targeted strategy aimed at selecting FDI that could specifically aid the country's strategic export sectors through linkages to local industry. In contrast, Kenya embarked on a cross-the-board FDI attraction policy with no specific sector orientation and with few specific linkage policies. This paper asks how FDI has contributed to local industry development in the two countries. Based on an analysis of firm level data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey, the paper compares the two countries' ability to generate spillovers from FDI spillovers and discusses what explains differences and similarities. The paper finds that in spite of the obvious differences between the two countries in terms of local industrial development and policy, firm and industry factors appeared to be better predictors of variations in spillovers than country level factors. Among the policy implications drawn are that developing countries should focus their FDI policies on firms and industries that have high linkage and hence spillover potential rather than adopting cross-the-board policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Vietnamese government has always considered family development as one of the decisive factors for the success of the country. Over the past few decades, socio-economic changes stemming from international integration have significantly impacted Vietnamese families in different ways. Favourable conditions and opportunities for families to access knowledge and positive cultural values have been created. On the other hand, socio-economic changes have also produced or deepened challenges for Vietnamese families. Based on new survey data, this paper outlines some of the main challenges facing Vietnamese families in the current and coming years. These challenges can be listed as the status of women in the family, which has not significantly improved; childcare and education, with many difficulties in terms of time and methods; and elderly care in the family, including new challenges in the context of an ageing society. This article offers an analysis to address the need to overcome these challenges in the coming years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a fixed effects model and a fixed effects quantile regression to explore the relationship between government spending and poverty reduction in the 63 provinces of Vietnam from 2010 to 2020. Our study argues and finds that government spending plays a significant role in reducing the poverty rate in Vietnam. Furthermore, the paper shows that income per capita is a good proxy for the poverty rate. Given the influential role of government spending in reducing impoverishment, the study also finds that income inequality is a challenge to the Vietnamese government. It contributes to the literature on public finance in Vietnam and emerging markets. Additionally, it has policy implications for policymakers in these economies regarding addressing poverty alleviation and income inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the role of classroom observation in the development and assessment of schoolteachers in Vietnam through a narrative review of current policy and cognate research literature. The overall aim of this review was twofold. Firstly, to contribute to a growing bank of Vietnam-based studies to maximise the value of the insights from this scholarly work into recent policy reforms on teachers' professional development in Vietnam. Secondly, to widen access and exposure to published work on the topic in Vietnamese that is not readily accessible to English-speaking scholars. This review revealed a long history and engrained culture of using observation as a teacher performance evaluation tool. In recent years, there have been policy reforms and research studies that have repositioned observation as a tool for teacher learning and development. However, the implementation of these reforms has been inconsistent across Vietnam, along with recent reform having encountered resistance from a culture of compliance in schools. This paper identifies some of the key issues that policy makers and educational leaders need to address in practice in order to ensure the effective and meaningful implementation of the reforms relating to the use of observation for learning and developmental purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant essential oils have been used for hundreds of years as natural medicines to combat a multitude of pathogens, including bacteria, fungi, and viruses. The paper reports the chemical compositions of essential oil hydrodistilled from the leaves and rhizomes of Amomum unifolium Gagnep. from Vietnam. The main classes of compounds present in the essential oils were monoterpene hydrocarbons (10.1% and 23.9%, respectively), oxygenated monoterpenes (14.5% and 4.9%, respectively), sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (40.9% and 21.9%, respectively), and oxygenated sesquiterpenes (20.1% and 26.8%, respectively). Diterpenes (16.1%) were identified in sizeable proportion in the rhizome essential oil. The constituents occurring in higher amounts in the leaf essential oil were aromadendrene (6.9%), occidenol (6.8%), β-phellandrene (6.2%), β-elemene (5.7%), and δ-elemene (5.0%). However, the main compounds of the rhizome essential oil were β-phellandrene (18.5%), torulosol (16.1%), germacrene D (5.7%), α-cadinol (5.5%) and (6S, 7R)-bisabolene (5.1%). The leaf essential oil of A. unifolium displayed higher antibacterial activity than the rhizome oil. The leaf oil showed activity towards S. aureus ATCC 6538, and B. pumilus ATCC 14884, with MIC values of 75.0 μg/mL and 37.5 μg/mL, respectively. On the other hand, the rhizome essential oil displayed activity against the organisms at MIC value of 150.0 μg/mL. Both essential oils exhibited antibacterial activity to E. coli ATCC 8739, with MIC value of 150.0 μg/mL. The antimicrobial activity of A. unifolium essential oils are being reported for the first time as a confirmation of the ethnomedical uses of A. unifolium in the treatment of diseases especially antimicrobial infections. Furthermore, the paper discusses the chemotaxonomy of Amomum oil samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper overviews Vietnam's outcomes in implementing policies in the rural water supply and then applies a Delphi technique to determine the key factors in attracting the private sector in the context. Five factors were identified, including: government commitments; a unit at the central level to support projects; an authority at the local level to promote the activities of projects; guaranteed financial capacity to support projects; and a legal framework for the realization of projects. The findings from this study provide insights that may promote the participation of the private sector in Vietnam. The paper offers some lessons for other developing countries to pursue similar approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses various possibilities and perspectives for the future of Vietnamese CLE. Informed by the Vietnam Empirical Research and based on the current status of CLE in Vietnam, the paper has made suggestions for various directions for Vietnamese law schools to follow in addressing the challenges that face the adoption and incorporation of CLE in law curricula. These include choosing appropriate CLE models; designing CLE programs as accredited subjects in law curricula; and improving clinical supervision. In the current Vietnamese legal education system with various challenges, the Vietnam Empirical Research generally affirmed CLE as an appropriate educational strategy for the future. As the global advancement of CLE progresses, this opinion is widely and increasingly held among different legal education stakeholders in Vietnam. However, the success and long history of CLE elsewhere will not necessarily guarantee a similar result in Vietnam, given the differences in social, political, and legal systems. The future of Vietnamese CLE therefore will depend on how law schools, central government, relevant national agencies, and other legal education stakeholders in Vietnam regard and adopt clinical approaches in teaching law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration and mobility tend to be used interchangeably in migration studies. This runs the risk of oversimplifying migrants' (im)mobility aspirations and capability, taking for granted their agency and control of their own migration trajectory. Drawing on ethnographic research on Vietnamese migrants trading at Moscow markets, this paper offers original insights into migrant immobilities, highlighting the social technologies and social imaginaries that arise from their gendered, raced, and classed experiences of immobilisation. Migrants' immobilities, whether voluntary or involuntary, have a profound impact on their sense making of self and aspirations for the future. The study enriches our understanding of the complex relationship between migration and mobility and the various ways in which it shapes social practice, identity and belonging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the paper is to apply the Slutsky equation to the Bass diffusion model to examine the price and income elasticities of hotel demand in different tourist destinations including cultural, commercial, and coastal cities. The sample was a set of 120 points by ex-post data from the Smith Travel Research in Vietnam. Findings indicate the price in a leisure destination in the beginning of the tourist area life cycle is inelastic, whereas the prices in the business and culture destinations at the end of the cycle are elastic. This study identifies the hidden cost when demand increases in the three destinations, ultimately allowing hoteliers to effectively strategize when making price changes within their industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fast-food industry has grown in popularity in the last few decades around the world. In Vietnam, the demand for fast food is increasing. Moreover, fast-food restaurants are popular in Vietnam, especially in Da Nang. The purpose of this research is to use the DINESERV scale to evaluate the factors that impact customer satisfaction in fast-food restaurants in Da Nang. A total of 184 respondents of a university in Da Nang, Vietnam from an online survey were used to assess customer satisfaction in fast-food restaurants. The findings revealed that food quality is not a significant influence on customer satisfaction but service quality, price and physical environment have positive impacts. This paper provides potential ways for restaurateurs to improve customer satisfaction by improving their understanding of the roles of the price, service quality, and physical environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of community participation in malaria elimination efforts has been trumpeted in various studies; however, the reasons why communities participate are often under examined. We explored the underlying socio-cultural environment of marginalized communities in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia to ascertain why these groups participate in a malaria elimination project, through 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork, including in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, informal conversations, and observation. Findings show various reasonings and motivations of these communities to use participation. In Vietnam, the Stieng and M'nong ethnic minority groups used participation to protest ethnic inequalities and abuses. In Laos, the Brao ethnic minority group feigned participation to deter outside interference in their traditional spaces and identity. In Cambodia, marginalized Khmer and Cham communities actively participated in the project to tailor community development. The paper concludes that participation in health interventions was consistently manipulated as a strategy to protect or nurture community identity and further socio-cultural and political interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This paper aimed to review and synthesise the qualitative research evidence on the experiences and perceptions of dementia in Vietnam and among the Vietnamese diaspora. Methods: Systematic searches were conducted in June 2019 using Medline, Embase, Emcare, PsycINFO and Cochrane electronic databases, as well as grey literature. Keywords and Medical Subject Headings [MeSH terms] for dementia and associated terms were combined with keywords for Vietnam and its provinces. Qualitative research articles published in English or Vietnamese were included to examine evidence on the life experiences of Vietnamese people with dementia using thematic analysis. Results: Our searches resulted in 3,940 papers, from which 21 qualitative research studies were included for final analysis. The majority of research has not been undertaken in Vietnam but with the Vietnamese diaspora in Western countries and has taken a cultural perspective to analyses. Research in Western countries has focused on the need for culturally adapted and culturally sensitive models of care. Emerging themes about the life experiences of Vietnamese people with dementia identified from the studies included: many people do not have diagnostic terms for dementia but use the descriptive language of symptoms; stigma was a reported problem and on occasions can be observed in the descriptive language used for people with dementia; cultural and traditional values create both an opportunity and a barrier, supporting compassion, family care and relaxation, but creating barriers to accessing health services or long-term residential care. Conclusions: This is the first systematic review reporting qualitative evidence on the life experiences of people with dementia in Vietnam and among the Vietnamese diaspora. Future research is needed on the voice of people with dementia themselves and their caregivers particularly in Vietnam, and low and middle-income countries with regards to living with dementia, pathways to care from diagnosis, treatment, care and support, additional social care and preparedness for end of life care for people with dementia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Floods, as a natural disaster, have severe consequences for all aspects of life and society, including but not limited to damaging harvests and transportation systems, and causing epidemic diseases. Estimating flood water depths has been a topic of great interest for several decades. Finding an effective solution to this problem is crucial for accurately estimating the impact of floods and making informed decisions to mitigate their consequences. The paper presents a novel approach to estimate flood water depths in Quang Binh province, Vietnam, by utilizing an improved Otsu algorithm to classify each image pixel as either water or non-water, and then applying the FwDET interpolation algorithm to compute the flood depth of each classified water pixel. The improved algorithm can improve the accuracy of water classification when compared to the traditional Otsu method by automatically dividing images into subregions of varying sizes, which are suitable for optimal Otsu computation.The estimated results for the study area in Quang Binh province were validated using ground measurement station data and demonstrated the relatively high accuracy of water classi- fication (ranging from 91.4% to 92%) and estimated flood water depth (85.26%). Based on the positive results obtained from the investigation of the complex mountainous area mentioned above, it can be inferred that the proposed method has the potential to be applied to estimate flood depths in various types of terrains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Vietnam, under a population aging background, "elderly caregiver" is the prominent topic. Concerned with this, the traditional filial value has emerged. Traditionally, the filial piety profoundly influenced by agricultural tradition, Confucianism, Buddhism, has been the foundation of intergenerational bond and family-based eldercare. This paper's goal is to explore how filial value has shaped eldercare culture, how its expressions have been expressed and how it has impacted the new type of elderly care institutions in Vietnam today. My findings revealed that filial piety has been persistently and profoundly remained. Based on this, although the care institutions began to be introduced and evaluated as necessary, their role is limited and subordinate. Accordingly, to consider the long-term elderly care system today in Vietnam, it is necessary to comprehensively explore the filial piety tradition. Through it, the family concept, the religious concept, the gender norm of Vietnamese people could be also observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current paper examined the impact of perceived service quality (PSQ) and patient complaint (PC) on patient satisfaction (PS). The study was carried out at the highest-level hospital, Vietnam. The self-administered questionnaire was distributed to inpatients who were used in health service in April 2018. The SPSS (version 25.0) statistical software was used for the data analysis. The confirmatory factor analysis was performed for the structural equation modeling, using the Amos 25.0 program. Findings suggest PSQ direct influence on PC and PS; PC influences PS. Complaints handling should consider when improving service quality to increase satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Picture books are reported as beneficial for children to develop cultural and intercultural awareness. However, little research has examined the ways in which Asian picture books can be interpreted with Asian philosophies. This paper aims to examine perceptions of contemporary Vietnamese artists towards the application of the Taoism Yin–Yang balancing principle, particularly the concepts of Yin, Yang, and Qi in their artworks. Findings from interviews with artists reveal that the Taoism Yin–Yang balancing principle is essential for Vietnamese artists to create visual meanings in their artworks. Our analysis also indicates that Taoism concepts of Yin, Yang, and Qi are applicable to interpret visual meanings of picture books about Vietnam. These findings are significant for teachers to explore visual meanings in Vietnamese picture books specifically and provide researchers with ideas to develop a framework that can account for non-Western meaning-making in images of picture books. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the decision of an authoritarian regime to use repression depends both on the repressing agent and the costs as well as the threat perception. This is illustrated in the comparison between two environmental protests in Viet Nam. In 2015, the Vietnamese press reported that police had used tear gas against protesters opposing massive pollution by the Vinh Tan 2 thermal power plant but later treated the violent protesters with leniency. In contrast, the 2016 protest against the Formosa Ha-Tinh Steel Corporation was widely censored in the press and numerous peaceful protesters were arrested and harshly punished. The Vinh Tan case was not perceived as a threat and the costs of repression were judged to be high, while in the case of Formosa, the initial denials of responsibility raised the costs for the regime and the movement that emerged eventually was perceived to be a threat to the regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of innovation performance and government support schemes on cost efficiency of Vietnamese small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Financial and technical assistances are two different public instruments used to correct market failure and facilitate efficient innovation through lowering the research and development (R&D) expenditures. Although large and small firms innovate in different ways, so far limited empirical evidence has been reported with respect to the effectiveness of innovation activities and public instruments for SMEs. Using stochastic frontier approach to estimate firm efficiency scores, we find that firms with new product innovation are associated with higher efficiency, but firms with introduced actions of existing product improvement, technology innovation, and new product lines are unable to achieve a higher efficiency level compared to their counterparts. Furthermore, the results suggest that government financial assistances used alone or with technical assistances are neither able to help firms to improve efficiency, nor to reduce the cost of SMEs' innovation activities. This suggests that public instruments may have limited usefulness for SMEs in Vietnam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examined the asymmetric and symmetric effects of real exchange rate on bilateral trade balance between the United States and Vietnam at the industry level by employing both ARDL and NARDL models. We found that (i) only symmetric real exchange rate is statistically significant in explaining the total trade balance between the US and Vietnam in the long-run at the 10% statistical significant level; (ii) the effect at the industry level is mixed and dependent on product category; and (iii) the asymmetric effects are found in both short-run and long-run in 29 industries which account for 69% of the total industry. These findings suggest that Vietnam could import more commodities with a high import weight such as agricultural products, cork and wood, textile fiber, chemicals, and machinery products to reduce the US's trade deficit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the extent to which collaborative peer observation of teaching (POT) as a process for teacher professional development could enhance collegiality and collaboration among academics. A single case study was conducted to investigate academics' perceptions of their POT experience in the Vietnamese context. Purposive sampling was applied to select eleven academics at a university. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with individual participants and inductively thematically analysed. The findings show that reciprocal POT and collaborative discourse were perceived to nurture collegiality and collaboration between peers and facilitate their reflection and learning about teaching. Eight participants reported that POT made their peer relationships develop to a collegial relationship due to mutual trust and respect. However, there existed concerns in the peer relationship perceived by three other academics who did not develop collegiality. These findings suggest that to promote academics' willingness and quality engagement in POT, it is necessary to allow academics to decide on the peer dynamics that work for them. It is also crucial to develop a supportive, constructive, and collegial culture whereby academics value POT as a scholarship of teaching. Further research may need to examine the impacts of potential contextual factors in the implementation of POT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arthur C. Danto's distinction between monuments and memorials proposes a differentiation between two ideologically-determined modes of commemoration, encompassing not just architectural symbols of the past but also all other forms of cultural 'remembering', including documentary, literary, and cinematic forms of representation. My discussion will focus on a photographic album significantly entitled The Last Good War and the transhistorical depictions of the war veteran in the film Memorial Day. The purpose of this paper is to underscore the ideological ambivalences at the heart of the American Second World War veteran 'craze', which not only paved the way for overriding the post-Vietnam War cultural legacy, but also served to ethically and ideologically legitimize contemporary US military interventions in national (collective) memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The chemical constituents of essential oils from Zingiber plants are known to exhibit chemical variability. The objective of this work was to analyze for the first time the contents and the chemical diversity of the essential oils from the leaves, stems and roots of Zingiber pellitum Gagnep, belonging to Zingiberaceae family collected in Binh Chau-Phuoc Buu Nature Reserve, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Vietnam. The essential oils were isolated by hydrodistillation and their constituents were investigated by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS-FID). The essential oils from Z. pellitum were obtained in yield of 0.20% (leaves), 0.12% (stems) and 0.27% (roots). The essential oils from the leaves of Z. pellitum consist mainly of β-caryophyllene (51.7%), β-pinene (12.0%), α-pinene (10.0%), while β-caryophyllene (24.9%), β-pinene (19.8%) and α-humulene (18.8%) were the main constituents of the stems essential oil. On the other hand, 9-epi-(E)-caryophyllene (7.5%), humulene epoxide II (7.4%), α-humulene (6.4%), caryophyllene oxide (5.9%), β-caryophyllene (4.9%), camphene (4.3%), epi-α-cadinol (4.0%) and cyperotundone (4.0%) were the significant compounds of essential oil from the roots of Z. pellitum. Since the composition of the studied leaves, stems and roots of Z. pellitum essential oils differed considerably from each other and previous reports on the other parts of the plant, the paper discusses further the chemotaxonomic implications of the obtained data with respect to Zingiber pellitum and other Zingiber essential oils from Vietnam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports that the main constituent of essential oil from the leaves of Macclurodendron oligophlebia (Merr.) Hartl. growing in Vietnam was α-pinene (81.7%), while α-pinene (67.4%) and limonene (11.2%) were the major compounds in fruit essential oil. The composition of essential oils from the leaves and fruits of Melicope ptelefolia (Champ. ex Benth.) T.G. Hartley was characterized as germacrene D (34.0% and 31.1%, respectively), bicyclogermacrene (5.5% and 7.6%, respectively), d-elemene (9.9% and 9.0%, respectively) and α-pinene (6.5% and 9.8%, respectively). The fruit essential oil contains limonene (4.9%) and (E)-β-ocimene (8.1%). The fruit essential oils of M. oligophlebia and M. ptelefolia exhibited anti-candial activity towards Candida albicans ATCC 10231, with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value of 8.0 μg/mL and 32.0 μg/mL, respectively. M. oligophlebia fruit oil also showed action against Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 29212, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, and Bacillus cereus ATCC 14579, each with MIC value of 32.0 μg/mL. Also, M. oligophlebia leaf showed higher activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853 (MIC, 32.0 μg/mL). The other oil samples exhibited varying degrees of antimicrobial activity with MIC values of either 64.0 μg/mL or 128. 0 μg/mL. The leaf essential oil of M. oligophlebia displayed larvicidal activity against Aedes aegypti larvae with minimum lethal concentration (LC50) values of 16.71 μg/mL and 11.40 μg/mL, respectively at 24 h and 48 h. The fruit oil did not exhibit any larvicidal action. However, M. ptelefolia leaf and fruit showed activity at 24 h with LC50 values of 33.18 μg/mL and 35.06 μg/mL, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the challenges to Vietnamese education has been the schooling inequality between students of the ethnic majority and those of ethnic minorities. This paper, therefore, reports on research that explored the challenges to educational equity for ethnic minority students in Vietnam from stakeholders at the lowest levels. Data were collected from interviews with teachers, school principals, an educational leader and the researchers' notes of field trips to ethnic minority villages. The findings indicate the challenges lie in the inadequate preparation of teachers for teaching ethnic minority students and the students' language barriers. Beyond the school setting, ethnic minority students' schooling opportunities were hindered by the ethnocentric attitude of the ethnic majority towards their learning capacity. Political and economic constraints in local communities also prevented ethnic minority students from accessing high-level education. Recommendations for promoting educational equity for ethnic minority students in Vietnam and other similar contexts were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the COVID-19 vaccine diplomacy of the United States and China in Vietnam and conceptualises Hanoi's practical responses. The deployment of vaccine diplomacy is closely associated with US-China strategic rivalry and is thus labelled as proxy competition in this paper. This paper found that both Washington and Beijing leveraged vaccine diplomacy to achieve general strategic objectives and specific foreign policy objectives in relations with Vietnam. For the USA, vaccine donation consolidated Hanoi's strategic trust in Washington during tough times. Meanwhile, despite widespread mistrust and suspicion regarding the quality and efficacy of Chinese-made vaccines amongst Vietnamese people, China's vaccine donation to Vietnam could still prevent Hanoi from further spiraling into the US-led anti-China coalition. Nevertheless, Vietnam has constantly been at a crossroads, for it not only strives to respond reasonably to the USA and China at the international level but also has to accommodate the Vietnamese public's policy preferences at the domestic level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses how outward-oriented industry policies are made or changed in Vietnam, an illiberal state facing a rapidly liberalizing global economy, using the case of Vietnam's automotive sector as a spearhead sector for industrialization. It provides a new perspective by highlighting collective concerns among state elites in Vietnam, a relevant but relatively overlooked factor in understanding key industrial policy reforms in Vietnam. Specifically, this study argues that the positional characters of Vietnam as an illiberal non-major state in the international asymmetrical liberal order help us see when policy reforms, particularly in outward-oriented industries, are likely to be initiated and in what forms or in what directions changes can be made. Drawing on conceptual discussions of conflicting concerns among the illiberal state elites governing developing countries in a liberalizing global economy, this paper discusses how closely major policy reforms in automotive sector are aligned with elites' interests in reducing these dual concerns in a balanced way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Secondary cities are home to most of the world's urban populations vulnerable to climate change, yet researchers and policymakers have devoted less attention to them than large and megacities. To help address this gap, this paper explores the relationship between incomplete decentralized governance, climate change, and urban resilience. It does through the case studies of secondary cities of Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Secondary cities are of importance because they are the fastest growing cities in the Global South but also because they have weaker capacity to address climate risks. Through these case studies, the paper draws comparisons between the different cases to look at the linkages between decentralization and urban resilience in secondary cities. Overall, it argues that climate governance, due to the retention of power and resources by central bureaucrats along with fragmented governance structures, and misaligned incentive structures which prioritize economic growth over climate protection have undermined resilience building and contributed to the uneven distribution of climate risks in these cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I explored how two media aid projects from Sweden were used to intervene in the development of Vietnamese journalism between 1993 and 2007. Vietnamese journalism and media aid are contextualized in this paper by unfolding pedagogical ideology, journalistic culture, and the negotiation of professional ideals. Based on an interview study with Swedish trainers from the media aid projects and informed by document analysis, the main research question concerned the role of the trainers in negotiating journalistic practices during the aid projects and the implications of these. Furthermore, I explored the ways in which the aid influenced journalistic ideology in Vietnam, and how the projects fulfilled their political aim to contribute to the democratic development of media in Vietnam. The paper adds to the growing body of literature seeking to de-colonialize media theory to rethink the development of journalism in the Global South. The key findings demonstrate how social norms disrupted the implementation of the ideology of journalism being conveyed from Sweden, while the transfer of technological equipment and knowledge impacted journalism production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can EU comprehensive trade agreements effectively promote international labour standards, despite their soft enforcement rules? And if so, under what conditions? This paper addresses these questions by focusing on a hard case study, namely Vietnam's ratification in 2019 of the ILO Convention 98 on the right to organize and collective bargaining. Such a ratification is an epochal change for a mono-party regime lacking recognition of independent trade unions. This paper shows that the EU has emerged as a key partner of ILO in promoting international law in Vietnam and explains such a result from a political economy perspective. This case study provides insights into the extent to which a trade partner is dependent upon international trade increases the leverage of the EU, and especially the European Parliament, and ultimately affects the ability of the EU to emerge as a normative power through trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many transnational corporations have been operating in Vietnam, contributing to economic and social development in this country. However, these actors have caused a number of high-profile environmental incidents in Vietnam through the activities of their local subsidiaries, injuring the local community and destroying the natural ecosystem. This paper discloses the causes of corporate environmental irresponsibility in Vietnam. Additionally, this paper argues that Vietnam's private international law fails to combat pollution in this country. To promote environmental sustainability, Vietnam should improve ex-ante regulations to prevent and tackle ecological degradation effectively. Additionally, this paper suggests that Vietnam should remedy its national private international law rules to facilitate transnational liability litigation as an ex-post measure to address the harmful conducts against the natural ecosystem of international business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community health workers (CHW) can play an active role in providing integrated HIV and harm reduction services. We used social media to create a virtual network among Vietnamese CHW. This paper reports CHW's social media engagement and the relationships with other work-related indicators. Sixty CHW participated in an intervention for integrated HIV/drug use service delivery. Following two in-person sessions, Facebook groups were established for CHW to share information, seek consultation, and refer patients. CHW's levels of online engagements were tracked for six months and linked to their service provision confidence, interaction with patients and other providers, and job satisfaction. The CHW made 181 posts, which received 557 comments and 1,607 reactions during the six months. Among the 60 CHW, 22 (36.6%) had three or more posts, 19 (31.7%) had one or two posts, and 19 (31.7%) had no post. Comparing the baseline and 6-month follow-up data, we observed that those who posted three or more times showed better service provision confidence (p = 0.0081), more interaction with providers in other settings (p = 0.0071), and higher job satisfaction (p = 0.0268). Our study suggests using social media to engage CHW in virtual communications to improve service provision in communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intermediaries are indispensable for processing the mobility of international migrants. In the absence of an official migration policy in Japan, this requirement of intermediaries is not an exception. This paper examines the different approaches of Japanese intermediaries towards Japanese client firms and Vietnamese early-career professionals employed in the information technology sector in the cross-border labour market between Japan and Vietnam. Two major results are derived based on data from semi-structured interviews. First, recruitment companies instruct labour users, and recruitment organizations seek to 'frame' a job post for migrant workers for a successful visa application. Second, temporary staffing firms 'package' multiple Vietnamese workers to provide the necessary labour to clients. This study argues that different types of intermediaries are present in the employment process of early-career foreign skilled labourers and that a temporary staffing firm intervenes the most actively in the employment process of skilled migrants among other intermediaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people2 are more likely to migrate than older people. During the transition to adulthood, they make important choices regarding education, labour force participation, and family formation. Using a unique panel dataset on youth born in 1994–95 in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam, this paper investigates whether young migrants are 'positively' self-selected in observable characteristics, specifically on educational attainment. First, I document patterns on prevalence, frequency, timing, reasons and streams of migration. Second, I describe the factors associated with young people's reasons for migrating. Results suggest that 'favourable' self-selection only holds for those moving for education: a year of schooling is associated with a higher probability of moving for studies, while an extra year of education is correlated with a lower probability of moving for family formation. In sum, migrants are a heterogeneous group: there are systematic differences in the characteristics across them depending on their reasons for moving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the results of a qualitative study that explores the perspectives of one group of parents on English language teachers' identity and practice in primary schools in Vietnam. Grounded in mixed identity theories (self and others), this study uses in-depth interviews to reveal how these parents position English language teachers and teaching in these schools. The results suggest that two discourses underpin a hierarchical relationship between different primary school English language teachers, which, in turn, establishes and perpetuates a deficit view of those identified as 'Vietnamese teachers' of English. It is argued that calls for greater community involvement in language education policy must be accompanied by opportunities for all stakeholders to discover and critically examine the discourses that underpin their positioning of language teaching and teachers. Implications for designing and implementing language education policy to achieve such problematisation in practice are discussed and suggestions for future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of firm size on firms' ICT adoption and productivity impact by running models for four size groups of 11,709 Vietnamese firms. The results reveal two main points. Firstly, the application of basic ICT is relatively comparable among firms of different sizes; however, there exists a considerable adoption gap in more advanced ICT solutions and employees' ICT skills between medium-large firms and micro-small firms. Secondly, although ICT applications positively impact the productivity of Vietnamese firms in the whole sample, the impact of each group of ICT applications varies among firms of different sizes. Basic ICT applications can increase the productivity of micro firms while they cannot do the same for larger firms. In contrast, the application of sophisticated software solutions and employees' ICT skills can push productivity for medium and large firms while having an insignificant impact on micro and small ones. Models running for a sub-sample of manufacturing firms confirm the results. These results provide implications for business executives and policymakers who regard the digital economy as a strategy for economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the demographic, economic, and social antecedents of international migrations of skilled laborers to Vietnam. We defined skilled immigrants as individuals who are working in professional positions, such as managers, CEO, specialist, and technical laborers. Using various econometric techniques for the sample of 63 provinces in Vietnam during the 2019–2020 period, our study highlights the importance of global network and institutional quality in promoting the international inflows of skilled workers to each province in Vietnam. The income of the host city and the lack of skilled labors in these cities captured by the level of young employment and skilled worker also play a critical role in skilled immigrants' decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization and transnationalism have expanded the physical territory of television and are responsible for global reshaping of media industries and cultures. In the contemporary mediascape, Indian television industry is an interesting site for excavating new transnational patterns wherein the circulation of Indian TV content extends beyond the diaspora and caters to non-diasporic audiences, especially, in South Asia and South-east Asia. The popularity of Hindi language TV soaps in Indonesia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, etc., have aided in mapping a new 'tele'-visual geography of popular culture that deems Western media influence as almost insignificant, if not absent. Chronicling the success of two Indian TV programmes – the story of a 'child-bride' Balika Vadhu (2008–16) in Vietnam and a Hindu mythological Mahabharat (2013–14) in a Muslim-populated Indonesia; this paper traces the transnational circulation of Indian TV content amongst non-diasporic markets in South-east Asia. Drawing from Daya Kishan Thussu's notion of 'contra-flows' and Brian Larkin's conception of 'parallel modernities', the paper argues that the success of Indian television programmes in non-West media markets diverts our attention towards new kinds of transnational media flows which I have termed 'neo-global' flows that operate amongst emerging centres of media production and need not be mapped against dominant Western flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of economic policies on the development of Vietnam's electronics industry. We identified, reviewed, evaluated and interviewed various stakeholders in the industry about the policies implemented by the Vietnamese government during the period 1986–2017. We argue that while the policy aiming at learning through technological spillover from foreign direct investment led to the specific level of the technological development, problems during its implementation, coupled with institutional failures brought about unintended consequences. We conclude that trade liberalisation alone did not deliver the desired technological upgrading for domestic firms in Vietnam. Our paper provides policy implications for technological development in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper unveils the accumulated tensions and conflicts in North Korean-Vietnamese relations in the late 1970s. From diplomatic competition to ideological gap, the once comrades-in-arms found themselves gradually drifting apart. But it was not until Vietnamese troops entered Cambodia that the traditional friendship was severely damaged. Economic cooperation deteriorated due to the North's criticism of Vietnam and Kim Il Sung's support for Democratic Kampuchea. Still, this paper emphasizes that a key source of the Pyongyang-Hanoi discord lay in their mutual perceptions and evaluations of each other's accomplishments in nation-building and achieving reunification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a bottom-up analysis of law in daily life in Vietnam through an empirical study of low-income residents' engagement in illegal housing activities in a peri-urban area of Ho Chi Minh City. Different from most existing studies of law and social change which take the formal institutional framework of law as their starting point, this paper examines the uses and meanings of law as products of interactions between citizens, local authorities, and intermediary actors. From an in-depth analysis of the residents' stories, it argues that the role of law within daily life in Vietnam must be understood through the enactment of two opposing, but mutually connected, forms of legality. One form emphasizes informality and sentiment, while the other emphasizes violence and intimidation. The former accommodates and answers to people's survival needs, while the latter constrains if not suppresses those needs. These forms of legality are mutually connected because they unfold in an ambiguous area of law enforcement that is largely subject to local authorities' arbitrary discretion. These findings allow for a conceptualization of everyday legality in which law is both manipulable and emancipatory, but also disadvantageous and sanctioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The liberal-dominated civil society theory tends to obscure the dynamics and intricacy of state-society relations in authoritarian contexts. Existing accounts on Vietnam have not cast adequate light onto the struggles of ideology and positions between the state and civil society. Drawing on the most recent data from social media in Vietnam, the article contributes a new analytical approach to understanding state-society relations by offering granular insights into the contrasting but mutually reinforcing narratives adopted by the state and civil society actors. In particular, the article steers attention towards the opportunities that crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic have provided for ideological struggles and legitimacy building between these actors. The paper argues that rather than continuously pushing forward the rhetoric 'civic space is shrinking', these alternatives must be steeped within wider historical understanding, attuned to particularities of the social-political context, and ultimately reflective of the evolving intricate state-society relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]