Good Morning Vietnam

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Normally I find one article to either write a brief commentary on or it inspires me to write a full article. In the case of news coming out of Vietnam today, there are a few articles of interests.

Vietnam looks to online future with e-government

"Accordingly, the government approved a request by the Ministry of Post and Telematics (MPT), the General Statistics Office (GSO) and the municipal People’s Committees of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Danang to borrow $93.7 million from the World Bank to launch the e-government project. Of the total, Hanoi will have the largest loan package of $35 million, which it will use to push the project in 12 districts.

Three local state offices comprising the Departments of Information Technology, and Planning and Investment, and the People’s Committee Office, will use the loan package to promote information technology and design the municipal e-government process and basic exchange portals.

Hanoi authorities aim to offer at least three-to-five G2B (government-to-business) services including a geographic information system (GIS) and online services to at least 15 per cent of its residents, as well as encouraging 35 per cent of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to use ICT.

Under the plan, website and exchange portals will be updated at least once a week. Eighty per cent of the content will be updated automatically while around 30 per cent of administrative procedures will be addressed online..."

Who knew the city of the future would be Hanoi of all places? Considering what happened to that country 30-40 years ago, this is a remarkable story. It also lends credence to the idea that in this Information Age, the world not only becomes exceptionally smaller but also, many Third World countries are given ample opportunity to climb the development ladder as information technology spans the globe at a rate on par with light itself. I know it's not a sexy sexy story but I find this fascinating. I hope more countries will be moving to a Vietnam-style e-government. Hell I'd be happy if I could just re-order my Social Security over the Internet rather than actually have to go to the office in person.

Vietnam sets plans to boost private funding into social sectors

"Vietnam would work out comprehensive policies to boost investment from private sources into the social development of the country’s southern region, a government leader announced Aug. 23.
The most crucial way to increase private investment to develop education, healthcare, culture, and sports in South Vietnam was to establish a proper legal framework, said Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem.

It would include a law governing the issue and further incentive policies to boost funding from private sources to the social sectors, he said.

Deputy PM Khiem said in the time to come, incentive policies needed to be more appropriate to ensure transparency and efficiency.

“Recently, investors have vied with each other to set up private clinics, while very few built hospitals, which are a higher priority for the south,” he said, “as our policies were insufficient.”

Mr. Khiem also said it was necessary to raise awareness to the issue, and ordered the ministries of health, culture, education, and sports to draw up plans to attract private investment into their sectors."

As a social worker, I'm all over this idea. Government, for lack of a better word, sucks! If it could be done with a minimal amount of graft, I would submit that all social institutions should be privatized. I have worked for state owned agencies and private agencies that bill Medicaid and I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that the private agencies run much more efficiently than any government run program. This sounds great for Vietnam. I'm a huge cheerleader for any country, even a Communist one, to liberalize its economy and allow private investment. Like my uncle says, you want America to rule the world? Give everyone rock-roll and blue jeans.

and lastly:

Vietnam enters final stage of WTO talks next month

"The mid-September round of multilateral talks on Vietnam's admission to the World Trade Organization is very important and decisive for Vietnam, a deputy trade minister said Monday in Hanoi.
Vietnam is now entering the final stage of the process for joining the WTO, said Deputy Minister Luong Van Tu, who is Head of the Vietnamese Government delegation to the WTO negotiations.

The country went through ten multilateral rounds and concluded bilateral talks with 20 partners, Tu said at the opening session of a two-day seminar on the challenges facing Vietnam in its regional integration strategy.

Vietnam would not face any major obstacles in its talks with the remaining partners, Tu said, adding that the talks with the US and Australia were “going smoothly.”

The early conclusion of talks with the European Union, a major trading partner with 25 member countries, had a positive impact on Vietnam's negotiations process, he stressed.

Vietnam’s achievements in the WTO negotiations were creating momentum for Vietnam in other areas of international economic and commercial cooperation, especially the Southeast Asian free trade area.

Experts asserted that joining the WTO would give Vietnam an equal position in negotiating with other nations on trade liberalization in each region – a strongly developing trend in the world now..."

The last time I reported on this I got a bunch of hate mail regarding American POW's alleged to still be in Vietnam. Here's my thing, if they are there then a pre-requisite for joining the WTO or any trade organization that does business with the West, especially the US, should be the safe return of those soldiers with reparations. Obviously if that's not true and there are no longer any POW's in 'Nam, then let's all stop fixating on the bloody Cold War and get with the times. The world is rapidly changing due to technology that makes South East Asia our friendly neighbor to the East. There has to be investment overseas, there has to be developmental lending, there has to be job relocation to cheaper worker environments and there has to be an acceptance of new competitive markets. Vietnam is one of those places that must be accepted and it appears that the process has already begun. I applaud them for joining us in the 21st Century.

For those that don't like what I'm saying and are already preparing some labor-respective retort to counter my "Corporatist" philosophy, I suggest that before you do, read up on the Basic Income Guarantee.

In the meantime, go Vietnam!