The first pit: raw materials
Europe and America have pricing power and trade channels for basic raw materials. Crude oil, iron ore, coal mine, etc. It is necessary to avoid predation and raw material processing by international predators. This is a heavy chemical industry, which requires a country to continuously invest a large sum of money for at least 10 years without making a profit. Obviously a small country can't afford it. In order to enter this field, it can only choose one basic industry at most and maintain the research and development of sustained losses, just like iron ore smelting and crude oil processing. Vietnam can only choose to quit and enter light industry, but light industry is subject to raw materials and is not competitive. For example, in the mobile phone industry, China is limited by chips, screens and memory, and Vietnamese light industry will undoubtedly fall into it.
The second pit: funds
The start of industrialization needs a lot of money. The west relied on colonial economy, and China subsidized industry by agriculture in the early stage, and then borrowed money. Vietnam can only borrow money from European and American usurers, or pay off the loan quickly by high-speed growth, or fall into the trap of the middle class, or promise to be a strategic pawn in Europe and the United States, and make itself against China as an additional condition for lending, thus ruining the possibility of choosing its own destiny. Most countries eventually become slaves or bankrupt countries when they borrow money.
The third pit: technology and patents
At present, almost all kinds of industrial products have formed technical and patent barriers. Vietnam has no R&D capability, so it can only maintain its own industry by constantly purchasing patents, which in turn encourages patenting countries to continue to own patents, while producing countries can only maintain their patents by producing a large number of cheap labor because of their low profits, thus forming patent colonization.
There are other pits, each of which is enough to destroy a country, which is why there are so few industrial powers. In addition, I can become Li Ka-shing if I learn from Li Ka-shing, Ma Yun if I learn from Ma Yun, and Jobs if I learn from Jobs. Obviously, it is impossible. Everyone is a special opportunity and a special decision. It's not easy to get caught in the act, but it can be done.