Besides limited technological capability, Vietnamese mechanical engineering enterprises are upset about their trained workers leaving for foreign-invested companies or searching for opportunities to work abroad in labor cooperation programs.

Some 68.7% of 51.9 million people of working age are employed, not counting those in the informal sector, while the unemployment rate stays low at 2.3%, according to the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.

The shortage of high-quality workforce is a “bottleneck” faced by domestic support industry enterprises, said economists.