Kai Ryssdal
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
This is Marketplace.
We're going to pick back up at Henry Pham's Garment Factory in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
You know, it's covered, but it's open air.
It's a couple of thousand square feet.
Look at all these sewing machines.
Remember how I said it was really, really hot?
This sewing room has no air conditioning, just fans, big and small, moving that 95-degree air around.
There are 50 or so workers, each sitting at their own sewing machines.
There were piles of tank tops and blouses and other partially finished pieces.
He went from $400 U.S.
to having more than 300 people working for him.
Average age of that workforce, by the way, 35 to 40, he said.
Training his workers, installing AC, that's Henry Pham investing in his people.
Vietnam's prime age workforce is a competitive advantage for companies here.
And because of that, Henry has been able to expand globally with clients in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and North America.
Do you ever think about how you're, I mean, here you are in the suburbs of Saigon, of Ho Chi Minh City, but you're part of the global economy.
Do you think about that, that these clothes wind up in the United States and in Africa?