Challenges for Vietnam’s participation in AEC: Free flow of skilled labor and lessons learned from European Union

The formal establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) at the end of 2015 will ceremonially mark a milestone in the process of economic integration in Southeast Asia. AEC will open new chapter in ASEAN countries when it promotes four main free flows: capital, goods, skilled labor and services. Apparently, skilled labor mainly contributes to the economic growth nationally and regionally. Vietnam has a segment of the work force with low or medium skill level which has restricted economic value through the work performed. This is considered as Vietnam’s challenging matter in context of integration. This paper is dedicated to analyze the theoretical basis of free flow of skilled labor in AEC, Vietnamese current situation and some lessons from European Union to suggest in the further application. The scientific methodologies used by group author are descriptive, explanatory, comparative, observable researches to complete this paper.