Vietnamnet.vn
Podcast
In terms of the relationship with the U.S. military, certainly in some ways our naval power has now peaked. I think the budget restrictions in our country are to some degree weakening our potential military, you know, work and operations in the part near Vietnam, and certainly the Middle East, where we're diverting a lot of that now to that part of the world. If the United States, in terms of the military power and assistance to you in that world - how do you think that will affect you and how much badly and deeply do you now need the United States to set up our power, in Southeast Asia especially?
Minister Pham Binh Minh: You know that in South China Sea, what we call Eastern Sea, there are three dimensions of the issue. The territorial dispute must be solved through peaceful solution by the country concerned. The second dimension of the South China Sea is the stability, security, stability in the region. Anything happens in South China Sea will affect peace and stability of the countries in the region -- of the region, of course indirectly but to other countries.
And the first dimension is the navigation, freedom of navigation. So, anything happens in South China Sea will affect the freedom of navigation, so, of course, affect other countries, not only United States, Japan or India, as well. So we see that the efforts by countries inside and outside to make that stable. We appreciate that effort.
Woodruff: I know you've relied on it for a long time. Now there's been, well, our budget certainly is, you know, difficult for us right now, but your budget is as much of Southeast Asia, the budget for military defense is now on the rise, and huge percentage of importing weapons is on the rise. Where do you see Vietnam going in terms of what kinds of weapons you're going to be buying different than before, what countries you would be importing it from, other than Russia, and how that's going to change over time?
Minh: No, in comparisons with the budgets for military expenditure, the budget of Vietnam is very small.
Woodruff: Small but growing?
Minh: Very small. You compare with, you know, percentage of GDP, that we have enough weapons to defend our country. That is the sole target. And surely now at the present time we buy weapons from Russia. This is true. And still we need only enough weapons to defend our country. This is our target.
Woodruff: You know, once I did an hour on China's expansion, and we looked everywhere from Brazil to Angola - Angola, where they're, you know, getting oil, and Brazil, they need more, you know, food and soybeans, which numbers have gone up gigantically for them. And in terms of countries around, you know, in the southeastern in Asia, it's largely influence that they're trying to increase, and largely because of that, of course, is, like you said, navigation - it's largely to get oil and gas and things, you know, through those areas back into their country.
Do you think if you were to pick a reason why there'll be a huge - a large conflict, would it be because of that, because China has difficulty getting its energy and food into its country?
Minh: There are different analyses on that. You know, the conflicts - the cause of conflicts may come from different reasons. So on a specific case.
Woodruff: What about importing oil, for example, through the sea in Malacca?
Minh: In what?
Woodruff: To go through - over the sea towards China, largely from the Middle East.
Minh: I don't have the figure for the oil reserves in South China Sea. So I don't know how the resources of oil in South China Sea could lead to the conflict, not like in the Middle East. Middle East is absolutely sure that the course of conflict in that may come from oil.
Woodruff: I know we're going to open this up for questions in a minute, but what about human rights in Vietnam? How do you see that changing since it was 10 years ago, 20 years ago, and certainly particularly about religious rights?
Minh: You mentioned that you haven't been to Vietnam, right?
Woodruff: Not yet. And I'm still waiting for your. I'm waiting for your invitation.
MINH: Yes. And I know that some of you in this room have been to Vietnam and you have seen a lot of changes in Vietnam, especially since 1975 until now. And one thing may not be changed: that is our commitment to the protection of human rights in Vietnam. If you look at the policies of Vietnam, we - our policies always focusing on the betterment of the living standard of the people, and also along with that is the rights of the people. So that is our commitment to that.
Of course, there is a different approach to the human rights. That's why every year we have conducted many dialogues with different countries, including the United States, on the issue of human rights.
Woodruff: Well, how does - how about diplomacy overseas? You know, with the
Minh: As I mentioned, that is a different kind of approach to human rights agenda. Nowadays, many Vietnamese, what you would call the "overseas Vietnamese," return to Vietnam for visiting their friends, their families and for doing business. And of course, one part of the community still not yet return to Vietnam, because they know that we had a war in Vietnam. And there still exists the - you know, the misunderstanding of this, even the hatred. So that can give the reasons why some of them have not come home yet. But we are -- we welcome all of them to come back -- (inaudible). We are open.
Woodruff: And then the last. Given what we're talking about, certainly about the growth of the economy especially and what you're doing to raise that, do you still consider Vietnam to be a communist country, a capitalist country, a balance between the two, significantly different than it was before?
Minh: (Laughter.) We have - we have the party, the Communist Party. As I mentioned in my paper, we have just held the 11th National Party Congress. And we adopted the - what you call the market economy, because it's suitable for the development of Vietnam. But we're still continuing to be a communist country. As the name of Vietnam - Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Woodruff: So certainly in name. Thank you very much. If obviously open up for questions.
Larry Pressler: Vietnam seems to be caught in between being a state-run economy and free enterprise. And for example, in free trade agreements and investment - by way of disclosure, I serve on a board at the Vietnam Fund, and we find it much more difficult to make investments or to deal with the stock market or transparency. And I'm certainly not criticizing, but are you going to be a state-run economy or are you going to invite more foreign investment?
Minh: Thank you for that question. And you know that now in Vietnam we have the stock exchange market, and also we have the private companies, and of course we also have the state-run companies. And also - and now the government has the policy to what you call the equitization of the state-run companies. So you look at that, we have - still have the state-run companies, the private - 100-percent owned by foreign - foreign-owned companies, joint ventures. So you can see the mixture of the investment in Vietnam.
And of course, we welcome all kind of investment in Vietnam. And we treat investment from outside as well as domestic investments at the same treatment. We have the same treatment, the same favorable conditions for all foreign investor, also domestic investors. We had the law on that.
Ken Roth from Human Rights Watch: I want to follow up on the human rights question because I heard you answer by referring to economic development, which is, of course, you know, one important part, you know. But I didn't hear anything about the other parts.
Minh: You know that Vietnam is a party to nearly all conventions on human rights. And like the United States, we also are members of the - what do you call - the Universal Declarations of Human Rights.
And we respect the particularities and universality of human rights. Both economic, political rights - those are in the constitution of Vietnam. As you mentioned, some individuals - yes, like any countries - if anyone violates the constitution, the law, they must be put in jail; they must be dealt with, you know, legally.
I remember a few years ago recently we had dialogues with United Kingdom, for example. And they mentioned that why you control some kind of demonstration. But look at U.K., all right? A few weeks or few months ago they adopt the - I don't know the rule or something - control demonstration after the burning down in London, or something like that. So look, if you had some security concern, you had to adopt some kind of measure. So that is normal. But we respect the human rights in all fields because we are members of all conventions on human rights.
Dinah PoKempner, also of Human Rights Watch: Following on that question, while Vietnam does have a very good record of signing human rights treaties, it has a less admirable record when it comes to transparency in admitting U.N. human rights mechanisms or international groups to visit. Recently there's been a controversy, for example, on the possible export of some products produced by forced labor. And I'm wondering, since Vietnam is taking a more forward and prominent role in international affairs and diplomacy, whether it would also be starting to become more transparent and welcoming of human rights mechanisms.
Minh: There is not the right information on that. So we welcome the visit.
Brett Dakin, a CFR member: I wanted to draw attention for a second to the importance of the Mekong River and the region; and in particular, some rather unusual disputes recently between Vietnam and the Lao PDR about the use of the Mekong River for hydroelectric power. So if you could comment on Vietnam's approach to that issue, and in particular on the project that the Lao PDR would like to pursue with respect to harnessing the power of the Mekong to produce electricity.
Minh: Thank you. I would not describe it a dispute between Vietnam and Lao on that. You know, along the Mekong River there are six countries. We had the commission, the Mekong Commission, which comprised four countries. Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam are members of the commission. And in the commission, we have agreement that if any country develops hydro power, in the mainstream of the Mekong River, must inform other members of the commission of the project, of the utilization and also the details of the project.
Of course, upstream, there are two other countries. They have developed many projects along the mainstream, but they haven't informed us. But they already install the projects upstream.
For Laos, Lao has an intention to develop the projects along the Mekong River. When we know, when Lao informed the Mekong Commission about the project, the members of the Mekong Commission, Vietnam and other countries, asked Laos to give details of the project. And also, we asked for study, a scientific study, to make sure that the project, if affect the - what do you call the change that the mainstream on the – the water flow, which affect the lower Mekong country like Vietnam and Cambodia - because it will affect the production of rice area in Vietnam.
And now the process is that we ask Laos to give us the detail in a scientific manner, the project. And Lao (sic) already hire a company, a Swiss company, a Swiss - what do you call the –
The Questioner: Consulting company?
Minh: Consulting company, to make study on the utilization - on the dam in Xayaburi. And they will inform us with the help of the study.
Elizabeth Bramwell, Bramwell Capital: Your 7 percent to 8 percent growth rate is very impressive. And I was wondering if that's sustainable, given the fact that Europe and the U.S. are slowing down to something like 2 percent, maybe less; and where Vietnam is in terms of moving from more of an export market, export-driven economy, to one that is more domestically driven, or maybe ASEAN driven.
Minh: Thank you for that question. As I mentioned, that we have maintained the economic grow rate for - you know, for 10 years at the rate of 7 percent to 8 percent. And right now, the grow rate registers at 5.5 percent. And that - our economy is very much - we very much depends on export, that's sure. And that's why we depend on the market outside. If the demand going down, like in the United States if you don't spend your money on consumption, so that's hard for us. And now the government is considering the restructuring of the economy, how to restructure it. That is a problem. We still continue to restructure the economy.
QUESTIONER: (Name inaudible): I work at the United Nations Foundation, and I'm a term member of the council. Thank you for being here.
I think some people were very encouraged to see Vietnam playing a greater role in the world, particularly with your membership on the Security Council. And I think many people see that as bringing along with it a greater responsibility as well in the world. And I know that some were also disappointed at the same time - just following up on Ken Roth's question - crackdowns on practice of religion there.
Is there any possibility of adjusting the laws so that people can practice their religion freely there, and in line with Vietnam's sort of greater responsibility in the world?
Minh: Please come to visit Vietnam and see the church on Sunday. Even I myself cannot get into the church on Sunday or even in the Christmas Eve. It's very crowded. So I don't see any, you know, kind of discriminations against the practice of religious practice in Vietnam. So please come to visit us.
Jeff Laurenti with the Century Foundation: This is somewhat of a mirror to Ken Roth's question, and it deals with the economic rights. Chinese business is concerned about Vietnam being an even lower-wage economy and draining business and investment to Vietnam. The producers of apparel and such look to Vietnam and idealize it as a place that you aren't bothered with unions and have low wages and a docile workforce.
What are the protections that Vietnam actually enforces for the rights of workers to be able to organize in unions, or are they entirely under pretty firm government control? What kind of static do you have from the International Labor Organization on compliance with the international conventions on labor rights?
Minh: Yes, thank you. And yes, in Vietnam, we have union. And you could call it the state union or union. That is a union. And the workers are members of the unions. And I think that also in foreign-invested firms, there's still union in that.
We encourage, you know, the labor can receive high salary, high income. So I don't see any restrictions on the labor costs in Vietnam.
George Weiksner from Credit Suisse: I want to congratulate you on normalizing relations with the U.S. We're sometimes a difficult political entity to deal with. I'd be interested in what advice you might give Cuba, who's trying to normalize relationship, in emulating your success.
Minh: It's a tough question, because each country has its own characteristics and different background of history. So maybe our advice is patience. (Laughter) We had 20 years after 1975 until 1995, 20 years of discussions for the normalization. And that is long enough for patience; and also, you know, both sides have interest in normalizing the relationship.
Richard Haass: You said something very interesting in your remarks. You said in your meeting with the secretary of state, you were discussing the possibility of a strategic partnership between the United States and your country. So I would be curious what would be the content of that partnership. What would you like to see in our relationship in the future that you don't see now? And to what extent would it be oriented towards the rise of China or something in addition to that?
Minh: Me also, very curious on the content - (laughter) - of the strategic partnership, because we are now still discussing what would be the coverage of the strategic partnership. Yes, of course, we focus on all aspects, because to be a strategic partnership, we believe that it would cover all political relations, economic ties, education, defense, security, technology, that all areas would be covered in the strategic partnership, like the strategic partnership we have established with other countries. And of course we have - at present time we have six or seven strategic partnerships, and none of these will be against any country. So it's absolutely that strategic partnership, we promote the relations between the two countries and also contribute to the peace and stability in the region. This I believe.
Jim Harmon: Eleven, 12 years ago, I was chairman of the Ex-Im Bank, and we reopened in Vietnam. At the time, we thought a lot about further normalization of relationships between the United States and Vietnam, and we expected then that state-owned enterprises as a percentage of that which consumes capital or produces would be reduced significantly in Vietnam.
Today I run a fund which invests in the developing and frontier world, including Vietnam, and we're a little bit discouraged by the fact that state-owned enterprises still consume 50 percent of the capital in the country but produce 25 percent, or represent 25 percent of the production. So as you think about restructuring the economy -- and I know that you can do this -- you would focus in on further privatization and maybe even the limitations that you place on foreign investors not exceeding more than 50 percent of the number of publicly owned companies.
So there are things that you could do which would significantly encourage investment in Vietnam from not only the United States but all over the world. And also, I think it would help relative to the inflation problem, of course, that you have.
Minh: Yes, as I mentioned, that now the government is trying to restructure the economy, in that of course, the state-owned enterprises. We have the plan for reduce the state-owned enterprises, especially those ineffective enterprises. With the state-owned enterprises which stay - which are - which stay effective, we continue to keep it and maintain it because they can - they make contributions to the growth of the economy of Vietnam.
And as I mentioned, that we welcome all kind of investment in Vietnam. There is no distinction between the state-owned enterprises or the foreign-owned companies. There is the same playing level for all enterprises in Vietnam, for all kind of foreign investment. I don't know whether I - my answer will be appropriate to your question or not.
Woodruff: Well, thank you very much. Take me over to your country very soon with my little children, who want to go. (Laughter)
Minh: Thank you, Bob.
Thank you very much.
Source: CFR
.svg){kind=icon}
