Showing papers in "Sojourn in 1996"

Urbanization, migration, and Vietnam's spatial structure.

Abstract: In North Vietnam during the war years from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s cities were evacuated to minimize damage from bombing. As such the urbanization process was checked. In the South however urban areas grew rapidly as people fled the fighting in the villages. Reunification of the country led to an outflow of residents from the largest southern cities back to the North or into new economic zones. From the mid-1970s to the early 1980s Vietnams total urban population remained static before beginning to increase slowly during the latter half of the 1980s. The rate of urbanization accelerated in the first half of the 1990s although that process is not reflected in the available statistics. During 1979-89 the smaller cities grew faster than the larger ones while most interprovincial migration occurred from North to South. Unemployment is a major problem in Vietnams growing cities. The countrys economic reforms require a more fluid labor market with fewer restrictions upon labor mobility. These needs are gradually undermining the strategy designed to contain urbanization forcing planners to rethink urban development. The author discusses developing Vietnams three main urban development corridors.

Trading Networks of Chinese Entrepreneurs in Singapore

Abstract: The entrenchment of entrepreneurs in local, regional, or global business networks based on kinship, clanship, territorial, or ethnic ties has often been cited as characteristic of Chinese business communities in Southeast Asia. Qualitative interviews with Singaporean Chinese merchant-exporters were conducted in order to examine this thesis. The findings reveal that there is a strong tendency among Chinese entrepreneurs in Singapore to rely on external commercial relationships with "outsiders" and "friends" rather with those related by blood or marriage. It is suggested that kinship reciprocity may under some circumstances curb the autonomy and freedom of the transacting actors, thus limiting their abilities to make decisions in the regional and international market-places.