Impacts of FDI on technology upgrade and employment of Singapore and Malaysia, lesson for Vietnam

This thesis evaluates Vietnam's experience with FDI to date and looks at what lessons can be drawn from the experiences of Malaysia and Singapore to help Vietnam deal with emerging problems. The thesis shows that Vietnam's experience with FDI has been successful in the following ways: a significant contribution to growth, constitute 63.1% of exports (2012), some advanced technology are transferred, creation a number of new jobs and improving the quality of domestic products, etc. The main issues for Vietnam, though are limited technological upgrading, disappointing employment performance, fierce competition, crowding out effects and domination of FDI firms in the domestic market, etc. The thesis argues that the Malaysian and Singaporean experiences suggest Vietnam should prioritize tax incentives for pioneer industries, particularly aspects of education; enhancing human capital and technology capacity; improvement of business environment and subsidiaries industry, etc.