Standardization as a development strategy: Case of national standards-setting committees in Vietnam

In order to establish an Asian research network, expand future research cooperation, and stimulate communication among center colleagues, Seoul National University Asia Center holds brown bag seminars at Asia Center 3F concourse every Thursday at 12pm. 

Dr. Hanah Zoo from the Center for International Studies, Yonsei University will be presenting the fifth brown bag seminar on May 3rd. She will be presenting <Standardization as a development strategy: Case of national standards-setting committees in Vietnam>. 

With the fast pace of globalization, a growing importance is given to the role of standardization as a mechanism of transnational governance. As developing countries are increasingly intergrated into the WTO regime and global value chains (GVCs), standardization in the perspective of developing countries also calls for increasing academic attention. However, previous literature largely addresses developing countries as passive adopters of international standards, rather than exploring the dynamic process of standards development in the context of developing countries and its implication to socioeconomic development. From the empirical investigation of Vietnamese national standard-setting committees, I illustrate how the government of a developing country utilizes national standardization as an industrial development strategy, and identify key factors affecting the dynamic. Then, I discuss how developed countries and latecomers compete for technological dominance in the arena of national standardization in developing countries as a new battlefield and its implication to Korea as a donor of international development cooperation and a latecomer in global technological competition. Especially in ASEAN region, the competition structure among China, Japan and Korea is visible, as the three countries try to increase their own technological influence driven by techno-nationalism. In addition, ASEAN countries, including Vietnam, exert efforts to harmonize different national standards within the region as their own strategy of techno-regionalism. As the importance of ASEAN region as a economic and diplomatic partner increases, further research on this front may have far-reaching implications to Korean regional strategy.