Economic and Politic Reality in Vietnam
Saturday, 1. March 2008, 09:53:21
Economic and Politic Reality
We speak of economy and policy together because, “for communists, economy and politics are connected closely like a body and its shadow and every economic decision depends on political viewpoint in its every period” . After “opening the door” (thời mở cửa, from 1986) and the collapse of the Wall of Berlin (1989), the dream of communist and socialist “paradise” went up in a puff of smoke. Beforehand, a mass of wrong economic policies made the Vietnamese economy very dangerous, critical and miserable. On September 1979, at the 4th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam, secretary-general Truong Chinh had to acknowledge that: “the lack of consumer products is so serious (…) the quality of goods doesn’t come up to standard. A means of production is also scarce” . For all that, mechanisms of subsidized and co-operative structure have not been abrogated until 1986. They could not, finally, but accept the process of renovation, though slowly . Nevertheless, for not mislaying the total political power of leadership of the party, the government held strictly to the end of “socialism” with the policy “kinh tế thị trường theo định hướng xã hội chủ nghĩa” (market economy with socialist orientation, socialist-oriented market economy). With reguard to this question, in 1997, communist retired general Trần Độ spoke in the article titled “Tình hình đất nước và vai trò của đảng Cộng sản” [The National situation and the role of Communist Party] referred to it as an unresolved contradiction, since in both theory and practice - he emphasized - “market economy” can not go hand in hand with the “socialist orientation”.
Lawyer Nguyen Ngoc Bich compared this economic policy with a sculptor, who, when forming a pyramid product, changed his mind halfway through and decided to create a round form. For him, theoretically, it is difficult, because he does not know how to cut nor how much to cut to reach the desired economic development while not “sacrificing” the socialist ideal. Further, he must combat the out of date mentality of the old economy . In reality, the State has exclusive rights and subsidizes in some spheres (postal service, press, television, education…), and there is an overlap between the executives and the civil authorities giving rise to the maxim “đảng lãnh đạo, nhà nước quản lý, nhân dân làm chủ” (the party leads, the government manages, the people owns!). Market economy was “directed or led” by the party so it could not reach the “free economy” . Moreover, verbose administrative formalities, tremulous investment law and unsteady economy law made the national economy develop at a snail's pace. Even though Vietnam has become a member of WTO, and has begun to be more open and has achieved its target of high gross domestic product growth for 2005 and 2006 as the economy grew 8.4 and 8.17 percent, it will take decades and more for Vietnam to catch up with the ASEAN developed countries.
Ex-general Nguyen Thanh Giang said that Vietnam was a country rich in resources, with smart and hardworking people, “but Vietnam is behind [other countries] because the government's economic and political policies and positions are all wrong - Vietnam lacks freedom and democracy”. According to him “political reform is the key for development and stability in Vietnam.” For Ex-prime Minister Vo Van Kiet the main cause of low level economy is the lack of unity among the people, rather than wrong economic policies. For him, therefore, the Vietnamese (government) urgently needs to enforce reconciliation and unity of the whole people .
Vietnam's main exports are crude oil, textiles, garments, footwear and aquatic products. The main imports are machinery, equipment, parts and petroleum products. Since 2004 Vietnam has also found new markets for its products in Africa, in addition to continuing to supply its traditional markets in the United States, Japan, Australia, China, Singapore and the European Union. In 2006 Vietnam started its 2006-2010 socioeconomic development plan and the country has set a GDP growth target at 8 percent for the year. For some achievements, the World Bank said positively that Vietnam “is one of the best-performing developing economies in the world. It is going through a far-reaching transformation from an inward-looking planned economy to one that is globalized and market-based. It has the potential to be one of the great success stories in development”
Dr. M.A. Ashwill turned to another of the country's most pressing problems - corruption and bureaucracy: “Transparency International's (www.transparency.org) 2001 Perceptions Index reflects the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians and ranks ninety-one countries using scores from 1 to 10 (…) Fifty-five countries, many of the world's poorest, scored less than 5. In many cases, the corruption is linked to poverty and power relationships in that society. Vietnam ranks seventy-fifth, with Zambia, and just below Honduras, India, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan” .
Also for Dr Ashwell, chronic complaining by foreigners that speak of Vietnam's "bureaucracy" is often code for "Things don't work as efficiently or as quickly as they do at home" or "Why is it taking so long for the Vietnamese to make a decision?" But although bureaucracy and red tape do exist in Vietnam, this is not a uniquely Vietnamese phenomenon.
By contrast, regardless of the above shortcomings and problems, some gave an optimist view when highlighting the recent economic achievement of Vietnam. Here is some information related to Vietnamese economic development:
Anyway, clearly, after twenty years of economic “reformation” Vietnam ended decades of isolation, jump-started an array of economic and social reforms and opened itself to the outside world and spurred high economic growth. Vietnam is now committed to global economic integration through its participation in global and regional trade organizations such as Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Free Trade Area, and World Trade Organization (WTO).
The political standpoint has been in crisis and less rigidly strict. Everyone seems conscious of the outdatedness of utopian communism and outmoded socialism , but the authorities wanted to maintain it as their safe shell while others appear preoccupied with earning money to "get rich quick" after many years of dedication to the revolution or doing service during the war. Besides, the people are psychologically tired of struggle following a prolonged period of war which resulted in countless numbers of wounded and dead. They now want stability and tranquility. The difference between the rich and the poor becomes greater and greater. It compels the people to flock into earning money to try to be on an equal footing with their friends and neighbours. Furthermore, “foreign goods” are in abundant supply, promoting shopping and spending. This, in turn, has recently given rise to some movements of democratized, pluralist and multiparty struggle, especially at election time and when people go to register their vote. We can describe briefly the Vietnamese political and economical reality as follows:
-Mono-party communist regime: all political and economic operations are under the control of the communist party.
-Political line undergoes a crisis and a fluctuation because of the fall of the Soviet Union and East-European communist countries. This gave rise to the view that it was necessary for one radical and integral renovation. Some efforts were realized towards to the democracy.
-The economy develops with the GDP growth rate at 7-8%, but it is still poor in comparison with other developed countries in the same region, because of illogical and rigid economic orientation and corruption. It is bound to take a long time to catch up other developed countries in the same region and in the world.
-The gap between the rich and the poor is more and more defined: “Although the market reforms of the late 1980s have contributed to Vietnam's recovery and to a stratospheric economic growth rate, they have also led to a widening gap between rich and poor and to a rural–urban migration, as in China, that the nation's cities simply cannot absorb.” Many people are running a race to become rich quickly and as a consequence, consumerism has risen in a widespread way. The young flock into cities for work and to make a living, making for problems with migrants and displacement of population .
In this year, the economic growth rate is also 8-9% but the inflation is getting in more 10% and one is afraid of the new storm of prices...
DT.
We speak of economy and policy together because, “for communists, economy and politics are connected closely like a body and its shadow and every economic decision depends on political viewpoint in its every period” . After “opening the door” (thời mở cửa, from 1986) and the collapse of the Wall of Berlin (1989), the dream of communist and socialist “paradise” went up in a puff of smoke. Beforehand, a mass of wrong economic policies made the Vietnamese economy very dangerous, critical and miserable. On September 1979, at the 4th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam, secretary-general Truong Chinh had to acknowledge that: “the lack of consumer products is so serious (…) the quality of goods doesn’t come up to standard. A means of production is also scarce” . For all that, mechanisms of subsidized and co-operative structure have not been abrogated until 1986. They could not, finally, but accept the process of renovation, though slowly . Nevertheless, for not mislaying the total political power of leadership of the party, the government held strictly to the end of “socialism” with the policy “kinh tế thị trường theo định hướng xã hội chủ nghĩa” (market economy with socialist orientation, socialist-oriented market economy). With reguard to this question, in 1997, communist retired general Trần Độ spoke in the article titled “Tình hình đất nước và vai trò của đảng Cộng sản” [The National situation and the role of Communist Party] referred to it as an unresolved contradiction, since in both theory and practice - he emphasized - “market economy” can not go hand in hand with the “socialist orientation”.
Lawyer Nguyen Ngoc Bich compared this economic policy with a sculptor, who, when forming a pyramid product, changed his mind halfway through and decided to create a round form. For him, theoretically, it is difficult, because he does not know how to cut nor how much to cut to reach the desired economic development while not “sacrificing” the socialist ideal. Further, he must combat the out of date mentality of the old economy . In reality, the State has exclusive rights and subsidizes in some spheres (postal service, press, television, education…), and there is an overlap between the executives and the civil authorities giving rise to the maxim “đảng lãnh đạo, nhà nước quản lý, nhân dân làm chủ” (the party leads, the government manages, the people owns!). Market economy was “directed or led” by the party so it could not reach the “free economy” . Moreover, verbose administrative formalities, tremulous investment law and unsteady economy law made the national economy develop at a snail's pace. Even though Vietnam has become a member of WTO, and has begun to be more open and has achieved its target of high gross domestic product growth for 2005 and 2006 as the economy grew 8.4 and 8.17 percent, it will take decades and more for Vietnam to catch up with the ASEAN developed countries.
Ex-general Nguyen Thanh Giang said that Vietnam was a country rich in resources, with smart and hardworking people, “but Vietnam is behind [other countries] because the government's economic and political policies and positions are all wrong - Vietnam lacks freedom and democracy”. According to him “political reform is the key for development and stability in Vietnam.” For Ex-prime Minister Vo Van Kiet the main cause of low level economy is the lack of unity among the people, rather than wrong economic policies. For him, therefore, the Vietnamese (government) urgently needs to enforce reconciliation and unity of the whole people .
Vietnam's main exports are crude oil, textiles, garments, footwear and aquatic products. The main imports are machinery, equipment, parts and petroleum products. Since 2004 Vietnam has also found new markets for its products in Africa, in addition to continuing to supply its traditional markets in the United States, Japan, Australia, China, Singapore and the European Union. In 2006 Vietnam started its 2006-2010 socioeconomic development plan and the country has set a GDP growth target at 8 percent for the year. For some achievements, the World Bank said positively that Vietnam “is one of the best-performing developing economies in the world. It is going through a far-reaching transformation from an inward-looking planned economy to one that is globalized and market-based. It has the potential to be one of the great success stories in development”
Dr. M.A. Ashwill turned to another of the country's most pressing problems - corruption and bureaucracy: “Transparency International's (www.transparency.org) 2001 Perceptions Index reflects the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians and ranks ninety-one countries using scores from 1 to 10 (…) Fifty-five countries, many of the world's poorest, scored less than 5. In many cases, the corruption is linked to poverty and power relationships in that society. Vietnam ranks seventy-fifth, with Zambia, and just below Honduras, India, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan” .
Also for Dr Ashwell, chronic complaining by foreigners that speak of Vietnam's "bureaucracy" is often code for "Things don't work as efficiently or as quickly as they do at home" or "Why is it taking so long for the Vietnamese to make a decision?" But although bureaucracy and red tape do exist in Vietnam, this is not a uniquely Vietnamese phenomenon.
By contrast, regardless of the above shortcomings and problems, some gave an optimist view when highlighting the recent economic achievement of Vietnam. Here is some information related to Vietnamese economic development:
Anyway, clearly, after twenty years of economic “reformation” Vietnam ended decades of isolation, jump-started an array of economic and social reforms and opened itself to the outside world and spurred high economic growth. Vietnam is now committed to global economic integration through its participation in global and regional trade organizations such as Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Free Trade Area, and World Trade Organization (WTO).
The political standpoint has been in crisis and less rigidly strict. Everyone seems conscious of the outdatedness of utopian communism and outmoded socialism , but the authorities wanted to maintain it as their safe shell while others appear preoccupied with earning money to "get rich quick" after many years of dedication to the revolution or doing service during the war. Besides, the people are psychologically tired of struggle following a prolonged period of war which resulted in countless numbers of wounded and dead. They now want stability and tranquility. The difference between the rich and the poor becomes greater and greater. It compels the people to flock into earning money to try to be on an equal footing with their friends and neighbours. Furthermore, “foreign goods” are in abundant supply, promoting shopping and spending. This, in turn, has recently given rise to some movements of democratized, pluralist and multiparty struggle, especially at election time and when people go to register their vote. We can describe briefly the Vietnamese political and economical reality as follows:
-Mono-party communist regime: all political and economic operations are under the control of the communist party.
-Political line undergoes a crisis and a fluctuation because of the fall of the Soviet Union and East-European communist countries. This gave rise to the view that it was necessary for one radical and integral renovation. Some efforts were realized towards to the democracy.
-The economy develops with the GDP growth rate at 7-8%, but it is still poor in comparison with other developed countries in the same region, because of illogical and rigid economic orientation and corruption. It is bound to take a long time to catch up other developed countries in the same region and in the world.
-The gap between the rich and the poor is more and more defined: “Although the market reforms of the late 1980s have contributed to Vietnam's recovery and to a stratospheric economic growth rate, they have also led to a widening gap between rich and poor and to a rural–urban migration, as in China, that the nation's cities simply cannot absorb.” Many people are running a race to become rich quickly and as a consequence, consumerism has risen in a widespread way. The young flock into cities for work and to make a living, making for problems with migrants and displacement of population .
In this year, the economic growth rate is also 8-9% but the inflation is getting in more 10% and one is afraid of the new storm of prices...
DT.
