Vietnam economist tells party to open
HO CHI MINH CITY - A veteran
Vietnamese economist said on Tuesday that the ruling Communist
Party must open top positions to non-party members and urgently
introduce new reforms.
Nguyen Xuan Oanh, a former government adviser who helped draft
Vietnam's landmark Doi Moi, or economic restructuring, reform
package in the mid-1980s and the country's law on foreign
investment, said existing reforms had stalled.
``It is very important to let non-party members participate in
decision making,'' the Harvard-educated Oanh told Reuters in an
interview.
``It's a highly-forced choice making, so that only a minority of
people can work for Vietnam. The best and the brightest are not in
(government),'' he added. ``I can say that because I'm out of the
race now.''
The Communist Party monopolises power in Vietnam and in the past
year has taken an increasing hardline towards dissenters.
Northern Vietnam-born Oanh, 80, has seen the country from both
sides of the political fence. After many years abroad in Japan and
the United States he returned in the mid-1960s to become the
former South Vietnam's central bank governor.
He also served as deputy prime minister and for six months was
acting prime minister in the U.S.-backed Saigon regime. He says he
was held under house arrest for nine months after the communist
victory that ended the Vietnam War in 1975.
Oanh said the time for a new Doi Moi II had come.
``Doi Moi is good but it's not enough. Management still leaves so
much to be desired and the banking system is very soft,'' he said.
After achieving stellar growth for much of the last decade, Vietnam
has seen its economic prospects dim as investors lost faith in the
country and fallout from the Asian financial crisis hit.
Prime Minister Phan Van Khai on Monday was reported as saying
that economic growth in the first quarter of this year had failed to
reach set targets.
New foreign investment approvals have slowed to a trickle, export
growth is now negative and imports have shrunk.
``There are indications that things are not going as well as expected,''
Oanh said.
The local dong currency, which has been devalued by around 20
percent since late 1997, was still too strong and needed to
depreciate by another 20 percent if export competitiveness was to
be rekindled, he added.
``The politicians think that if there is a devaluation it is very bad, they
think they are losing out, but to us (economists) it is nothing but a
corrective measure,'' Oanh said.
While praising current Premier Khai as motivated, he said that
management and implementation of state polices was weak and that
measures including tax reductions and a freeing of the nascent
private sector were needed.
Oanh also said pressure from multilateral bodies such as the World
Bank and International Monetary Fund for the government to speed
reform had been counter-productive.
``The trouble is the more hard pressed they are by the international
agencies the more obstinate they become,'' he said.
``They are stubborn but they are inching towards what international
agencies are saying.''
Oanh said that while political stability was a big advantage, the
Communist Party refused to relax its grip.
``If you can find a better word for socialism, you know what it is?,''
he said. ``Control. It takes time to learn how to control and be in a
minority.''
Reuters - March 30, 1999.
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