Metropolisation and challenges of rural industrialisation in the Red River Delta - Fanchette, Sylvie
Since the middle of the 1980s, Vietnam has initiated a process of liberalisation with application of free-market principles to its economy and has entered into a phase of rapid urban development. The policy of Renewal seeks to make industrialisation the principal vector of Vietnam’s development and wealth creation. The industrial sector employs more and more workforce in the Red River Delta. The industrial craft sector plays an increasing role in the rural economy and loses its importance in cities, where services and trade sectors are increasing. The top-down industrialisation initiated by the state within the context of trade globalisation, and its spatial expression, metropolisation, are taking place simultaneously with a bottom-up industrialisation process in the craft village clusters. Two types of businesses occupy the industrial workforce in rural areas: the craft villages of clusters (17% of rural jobs) and that of the relocated factories in industrial zones. This paper studies the socio-economic and demographic challenges that Vietnam faces to integrate into the international capitalist market, develop its production and provide sustainable employment for a very mobile workforce too numerous to be occupied with agriculture, however intensive. It aims to study the dynamics of the new inequalities that increase since the opening-up of its economy, looking closely at problems concerning access to land, housing and health between local villagers and young migrant workers.
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