VietNamNet Bridge - Nguyen Anh Tuan, 54, is an engineer and a journalist. He is best known as the first Editor in Chief of VietNamNet, the first online newspaper in Vietnam. And he was one of the first people who had the honor of receiving the Vietnam’s Outstanding Young Face Award granted by the Ho Chi Minh Youth Union’s Central Committee. Tien Phong Newspaper's "Outstanding Faces of Vietnam" column talked with Tuan.



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Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan.


What did you think when you were honored as one of the 10 Vietnam’s Outstanding Young Faces in 1996?

I was the director of Teltic, an informatics center belonging to the Khanh Hoa Post Office at that time.  I managed to lead the center to development despite lack of resources, materials and equipment.

I built the information highway VietNet, a public computer network that provided services throughout the country in accordance with TCP/IP standard, the first of its kind in Vietnam.

VietNet was officially available for Vietnamese to use with email, E-News and web services in January 1996, or two years before Vietnam officially connected to the internet and began providing internet services.

I felt proud and thrilled when I was honored because this showed that the big efforts made by me and co-workers were recognized. I have kept the memorabilia, from the symbolized disc, certificate of the Youth Union’s Central Committee, the certificate of merit, the radio cassette and the gift from Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet.

How has the prize affected your career?

It has been great motivation for me and helped me to be more self-confident in continuing my works later, when I came to Hanoi to develop VASC, a software and media firm, VietNamNet online newspaper, and now, when I work together with the world’s leading scholars to build the Boston Global Forum and the Global Citizenship Education Program.

I am now the Chief Editor of the Boston Global Forum, Chair of the International Advisory Council for UCLA’s and UNESCO’s (University of California, Los Angeles) Global Citizenship Education Program, and a member of the Global Advisory Council of the Business School of Harvard University.

The flame of the award has been burning in me throughout my thorny and challenging path to fulfill my tasks. I have always been working as a ‘Vietnam’s outstanding young face’ and trying my best to deserve the credit and win respect from the world to Vietnam.

This is the creative motivation for the Global Cybersecurity Day, the Ethics Code of Conduct for Cyber Peace and Security, the fundamental principles for Peace and Security in the Pacific.

What do you think about other Vietnamese young people? What would you say about the opinion that many young people don’t have desire and ambition?



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Nguyen Anh Tuan (first left) at the opening ceremony of the Global Citizenship Education Program on February 8, 2016.



The young faces honored in the subsequent years all had great contributions to the country’s development and they deserve the credit. I hope that young people today continue to build Vietnam into a rich, powerful and civilized country

In 1990-1997, we were very young and we were inspired by the country’s leaders. Despite difficulties, the whole society remained optimistic and desired to become a new dragon and tiger of the world.

The Party Secretary General Do Muoi’s wishes for Tet “I wish you prosperity", President Le Duc Anh's confidence with his speech on the 1995 National Day and the smiles of Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet during his visits to many countries in the world left a strong impression on us.

I think if the country’s high-ranking leaders can continue to arouse the Vietnamese people’s desire and enthusiasm to build a rich and civilized country, Vietnam will be able to write a world success story about its magic development.

 

Llewellyn King, host and executive producer of White House Chronicle:

Tuan Nguyen has climbed to a unique position in the world of opinion formulation in U.S. policy and academic circles in the few years he has lived Boston. He has replicated his triumphs in mass communications in Vietnam in concentrating thinking in the United States on critical issues.

He is respected in Washington think tanks and the nation's great universities, especially Harvard. He also is well regarded at the Massachusetts of Technology and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA ).

Tuan's great achievement in the United States has been the creation and guidance of the Boston Global Forum (BGF), a unique public policy institute that directs policymakers and decision-implementers to one critical subject which is studied  for a year. During the course of the year, scholars from around the globe are video-linked to sessions in the Harvard Faculty Club in Cambridge, MA.

This year the BGF is concentrating on the thorny issue of cybersecurity and establishing international standards and norms of conduct. This is a work in progress with input from the United States and around the world.

Tuan is a thought-leader. His impact in America, in a very short time, has been astounding," said veteran Washington journalist Linda Gasparello.

Tuan has been able to recruit some of the best minds in media, academia and politics to advance the subjects under consideration at the BGF. These have included David Sanger of The New York Times; Thomas Patterson of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, John Quench, Harvard Business School, and John Savage of the Brown University; and Barry Nolan, adviser to Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY).

Tuan successfully recruited Michael Dukakis, the former Massachusetts governor and Democratic presidential candidate, for BGF chairman. For himself, Tuan has chosen the title of Editor in Chief, which reflects his founding of VietNamNet.

Professor Carlos Torres, Associate Dean for Global Programs:

Mr Tuan Anh Nguyen has made manifold contributions since he created VietnamNet, and continues to expand his contribution with his commitment to Global Citizenship Education, one of the few political and pedagogical perspectives that will help improve social cohesion in our societies, new methods of conflict resolution, and the possibility to achieve a sustainable culture of peace worldwide.

Thomas Patterson, Professor of Government and the Press of Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, John Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University:

Nguyen Anh Tuan is one of the finest individuals I have met.

In 2011, we had an opportunity to bring Tuan back to the Shorenstein Center for an extended period as Associate. Tuan was on that position for three years, which is the maximum number of years allowed under Kennedy School rules.

During this time, Tuan and I developed the idea that would become The Boston Global Forum (BGF). BGF has been a great success, which owes mainly to Tuan. He is BGF’s Editor-in-Chief and functions as its executive director. He originated many of the initiatives undertaken by BGF. All of us on the BGF director board know that BGF would not have achieved its considerable success except for Tuan’s leadership.

The BGF has been great success, which owes mainly to Tuan. He originated many of initiatives undertaken by the BGF.

Tuan proposed the Ethics Code of Conduct for Cyber Peace and Security (ECCC). Tuan also proposed Global Cybersecurity Day ,which we honored for the first time last December at a conference which featured remarks by Prime Minister Abe of Japan.

Tuan also proposed our most recent initiative, which involves developing a policy proposal on global cybersecurity to be submitted to the Government of Japan for possible submission at G7 Summit to be held in Japan this May.

I've never met a more committed patriot than Tuan. His main interest is advancing Vietnam's interest.

If I have had to pick one word to describe Tuan, that word would be "leader". He leads through ideas, and he leads through action. I am honored that he is my friend.



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Tien Phong/VietNamNet