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As a Chinese person, what do you think of the future of Vietnam's economy compared to those of other Southeast Asian countries?
There is one “legendary treasure” in Vietnam that many people might not be aware of. Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Laos, Myanmar, and the Philippines don’t have this treasure. China has it. The USA has it. Western and Northern Europe has it. What characteristics do the above three have in common? They are all economically powerful. This “treasure” is one of the reasons that could help them quickly developing manufacturing industries and reducing operating costs. Therefore, this “legendary treasure” is a secret weapon for “modern” economic prosperity. Unfortunately, India, the Middle East, and Australia don’t have this treasure. Now I am telling you that Vietnam has this treasure. If Vietnam uses it well, they could achieve double-digit economic growth. Can you guess what is this “treasure”? Ple
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Thành Phố Châu Đốc 朱笃市 10°42'20.9"N 105°08'03.0"E
But wait, this is not the “treasure” I am talking about. There are a lot of other great river deltas around the world. What’s special about Vietnam?
To understand what’s special about Vietnam, let’s look at the Ganges-Brahmaputra River Delta in Bangladesh and India for comparison. They obviously have a much bigger and wider river originating from the Himalayas.
Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta in India and Bangladesh
However, if we zoom in and have a closer look at the Brahmaputra river, we can see that the Brahmaputra is actually not “one” river but many small rivers intertwined together.
The Brahmaputra river streams intertwine like “roots”, 25°50'01.2"N 89°50'34.4"E
During the monsoon season, it becomes “one” river. The heavy rainfall during monsoon pours a huge amount of water into this river. These streams would form into one river and flood all the fields along the bank. In the dry season, there is not enough water to fill the whole width of the river, leaving a few streams intertwined on the river bed.
Since the river flow volume fluctuates so much, it is impossible for big ships to travel along the river. That’s why India and Bangladesh can’t develop large inland river commodity shipment.
So how do we address this river problem? Now it is time to reveal the treasure: “balloon lakes” (吞吐型湖泊).
A balloon lake is a kind of fresh-water lake that is connected to a river. In a rainy season or monsoon season, balloon lakes take in an extra amount of water from the river to avoid excessive floods. In the dry season, balloon lakes spit out water into the river to keep the river flowing smoothly.
China‘s Yangtze River is connected with five balloon lakes: Changhu Lake, Dongting Lake, Poyang Lake, Chaohu Lake, and Hong Tse Lake. In the monsoon season, these lakes are like a sponge, absorbing a huge amounts of water and expanding several times its original size. In the dry season, these lakes supply a huge amount of water back to Yangtze River.
From the following satellite image, we can see that the Poyang Lake is spitting water to the Yangtze River. (Satellite image usually shows a dry season image in China. They can not be taken during the monsoon season due to the heavy clouds.)
Poyang Lake, a balloon lake in China 29°43'36.0"N 116°11'02.2"E
Similarly, the USA has its Great Lakes serving as balloon lakes. Some questioned it is not. But we can’t deny the fact that the Mississippi River is steady and calm so that cargo ships can sail from the ocean and reach deeply inland.
So enough about China and the USA, what about Vietnam?
Of course, the Mekong River in South East Asia is also blessed with a huge balloon lake. And only Vietnam and Cambodia can enjoy the benefits.
This is the Tonlé Sap Lake
Tonlé Sap - Wikipedia in Cambodia, the largest lake of South East Asia. This lake is also a typical balloon lake.
The Mekong River is connected to the lake at Phnom Penh in Cambodia. During the monsoon season, Mekong river can pump extra water into the lake. During the dry season, water from Tonlé Sap flows into the Mekong river, boosting the flow volume downstream.
Balloon lakes do have their side effects. Because they expand several times over during the monsoon season, people living around these regions suffer a lot from flooding. However, only Cambodia carries the burden of expanding balloon lakes. It is so lucky for Vietnam to just enjoy its benefits. Vietnam, you should be really grateful for Cambodians taking the side effects.
Now we understand what are the balloon lakes. Next, let me explain why the balloon lake is the secret legendary weapon for Vietnam to boost its economy (and same for China, USA, and Europe).
A legendary weapon has its “special effects”
Weapon effect 1: -80% flooding damage
Rivers with large or many balloon lakes would get more flooding-tolerant. During the monsoon season, extra water would be buffered in the balloon lake and flooding in the downstream would become less severe. This significantly benefits the massive amount of Vietnamese people living in the delta.
Without balloon lakes, for example, India has suffered from the monsoon floods for thousands of years. People are reluctant to put efforts into building their villages and improvement.
“If my farmland and home get destroyed every year by flooding, why do I need to keep working on it?”
And therefore during monsoon season, those Indian farmers who live by the river would normally do less farm-work and this seems to have influenced their culture over the thousands of years.
Flooding in India during the monsoon season.
In contrast, let’s look at Vietnam in the Mekong river delta region. The Vietnamese named this delta the “Nine Dragon Rivers Delta”. This delta region is the most productive region in Vietnam. Its rice production accounts for almost half of the total Vietnam rice production.
Nine Dragon Rivers are filled with a dense mesh of canals 10°05'31.4"N 105°25'29.7"E
The Vietnamese people spent hundreds of years digging canals for irrigation, growing rice and cultivating their fish ponds. Thanks to the balloon lakes upstream, those canals and rice fields don’t get destroyed by flooding. They might still get light flooding occasionally but not to the devastating extent of their farms and homes, which get destroyed every year.
For the past hundreds of years, Emperor Gia Long of the Nguyen Dynasty (嘉隆帝) has led his people to construct massive canal networks over the delta. With this dense canal network, the Mekong Delta is less prone to flooding.
These cultivation and hard working styles have also been embedded in Vietnamese cultures too.
Weapon effect 2: +Constant River Flow Effect
On the other hand, balloon lakes provide a constant flow of water all over the years. The constant flow could drive rivers to deepen their river bed. The river surface becomes calm too. So the river would never become fragmented and intertwined like the Brahmaputra river in India.
Now you might understand why the Vietnamese love to travel by boats and why their rivers are so calm and steady. Normal families can carry their produce using their own boats and sell products on the market set on the flat river. This becomes a part of their unique culture too. This kind of transportation is extremely cost-effective and convenient.
River market around Can Tho, fourth largest city in Vietnam
Cai Rang Floating Market around Can Tho
What is the proof claiming that balloon lakes have such effects?
Based on the description of the Mekong River from
The Use of Rivers for Transportation in Vietnam:
Upstream from Phnom Penh, navigation along the Mekong River is impaired by natural obstructions so that vessel transport is confined to relatively short river segments
Phnom Penh is exactly where the balloon lake Tonlé Sap is connected to the Mekong River. Without the supplements from Tonlé Sap, upstream Mekong River gets less water during the dry season and therefore it is unnavigable. It is not due to the Chinese dams built along the upstream Mekong river as some people claim.
Weapon unique effect I: -400% inland logistics costs
A steady river surface and deep river bed provide an ideal environment for inland cargo shipping. This kind of transportation is very cost-effective and efficient. People in Vietnam use it for carrying sand, stones, coal, and other construction materials to build their homes and factories. It might look rustic to you, but it is actually much cheaper to carry it by boat compared to a truck. This happens in China, USA, and Europe as well.
Now the Vietnamese have also realized their huge potential in large scale commodity shipping in the Nine Dragon River. A 7000 tonnage commodity ship can now sail deep into Mekong river and reach the Vietnam and Cambodia border. And, in theory, the ship can reach all the way to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.
Why is large tonnage shipping so essential on the manufacturing industry? Let me use a very simple example:
Suppose the city of Can Tho (芹苴市), the fourth largest city of Vietnam, wants to manufacture car components for Hyundai. The city needs to import 5000 tons of oil and coal to generate power. It also needs to import 5000 tons of raw materials including steel and other smaller components from other parts of Vietnam or the rest of the world. After manufacturing, it needs to export the 5000 tons of car components to the rest of the world.
Imagine what would be the cost if you transport them using trucks? using trains? or using ships? Of course, we know that ships are the cheapest. But even for shipping, it is much cheaper to use one 5000 tonnage ship instead of 50 100-tonnage small ships. These costs would be reflected in the final price of “Made-in-Vietnam” and their competitiveness in attracting foreign investments.
A 5000-ton container ship sails along with the Mekong river
Weapon unique effect II: Riverbank has the same effect as Coastlines
Inland rivers with balloon lakes naturally have deeper river bed, which can support large-tonnage commodity shipping. Therefore, it actually has the same effects as the coastlines. Moreover, it is much better than coastlines because you have double land exposure on both sides of the river bank; the land price by the river is much cheaper than the land price by the coast.
Look at the rest of South East Asia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, they all have great ports along their coast. Why do I believe Vietnam has better potential than them? They have fewer flatlands along the coast. Those lands are typically very expensive.
Now let’s go back to China and see how China efficiently uses this “legendary weapon” to make its Made-in-China products “cheap” despite the higher labour costs. The following satellite image shows a section of Yangtze River in Jiangsu, which is around 300km upstream from the coast.
Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, China 32°12'39.1"N 119°40'27.4"E
If we zoom in, we can find a typical Chinese factory that manufactures cheap electronics. What’s interesting about this factory is that they have their own ports by the river.
An example of a standalone Chinese manufacturing factory by the Yangtze river. 32°12'39.1"N 119°40'27.4"E
Container ships can offload the factory import containers and take aboard the export containers. Moreover, the container ships can serve all the other factories along the river in one go. Now do you realise the amazing efficiency in both logistics and factories revealed here?
It is much cheaper to set up factories deeply inland than the coastal area by seaports. If you are an investor, would you place your factory here? Of course, you will consider if the logistic cost reduction overweights the labour cost increase.
Answer to As a Chinese person, what do you think of the future of Vietnam's economy compared to those of other Southeast Asian countries? by Janus Dongye Qimeng
https://www.quora.com/As-a-Chinese-...share=963c6c4b&srid=ul2ehS&target_type=answer
The river is navigable all year round, which can reduce transportation costs. Gain an edge in international business competitions.
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