VietNamNet Bridge – A mini survey has found that 56 percent of online newspapers’ readers believe there is no need to change Vietnam’s time zone to GMT+8, while only 29 percent vote for the change.

Will Vietnam change time zone to GMT+8?

Economists believe that the change of the time zone would have no considerable impacts on the economic development. They only change to be seen is that people would have to adjust the biological clock.

Professor Dang Hung Vo, former Deputy Minister of the Natural Resources and the Environment, noted that if the time zone change could help foster the economic development, the other economies would adjust their time in accordance with New York’s time, the world’s finance center.

Nowadays, the big economic and trade centers are located on all continents, while the high technologies have made the world become flat. Therefore, it is unreasonable to say that the centers can affect the other economies just because of the differences in the time zones.

Vo emphasized that while other countries in the world have been obeying the laws of the nature, there is no reason for Vietnam not to do the same.

Dr. Nguyen Minh Phong, a well-known economist, also said the economic development depends on many factors, including the natural resources, the capability, human resources and management policies, while it does not depend on what time zone the economy is located.

Phong also said he does not think the GMT+8 would help save trillions of dong in the electricity use. Whether Vietnamese can save the energy only depends on their awareness of the importance of the electricity saving and the technology development.

Agreeing with the arguments, scientists also don’t think Vietnam should change the time zone to GMT+8. Nguyen Duc Phuong, Secretary General of the Vietnam Universe and Astronomy Association, said Vietnam should not change the time zone for three reasons.

First, Vietnamese have got used to the GMT+7 time zone, which has generated their habits in the activities in the economic, political and cultural lives. Since everything has been going smoothly, it is no need to change the “orbit.”

Second, Vietnam is geographically located on the GMT+7 time zone, and it should obey the laws of the nature.

Third, there has been no scientific research work which can point out the advantages Vietnam may have if it changes into GMT+8.

Vu The Binh, a calendar expert, affirmed that while the time zone change would not bring positive impacts, it would lead to big and costly changes.

According to Binh, in 2005, an idea was raised that the ASEAN countries should apply the same time zone to facilitate the activities of the countries in the same block. However, the idea then faced the strong opposition from analysts, who affirmed that this would be impossible.

Artists prove to be the ones who showed the strongest oppositions against the idea of the time zone change.

Chi Trung, a senior artist, the manager of the Youth Theatre, has warned that the theatrical arts would “be dead if Vietnam changes time zone.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Dang Ngoc Dinh from the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations (VUSTA), while thinking it’s no need to make a change, has suggested that Vietnam should only change the time according to the seasons like in many European countries.

He affirmed that the time change will in no way affect the monitoring mechanisms of hydropower plants, satellites or other systems, because the systems work in accordance with the real-time mechanism.

Compiled by C. V